Which steam deck - eviltoast

Hey folks, I wanna gift a steam deck to myself. The main games I’ll (infrequently) play on there are CS:Go and age of empires 2 HD, both of which I own and never get a chance to play on a regular PC.

I suppose I want the OLED one. Is it ok to go for the 64 GB version or should I go for the higher storage tier? It has expandable storage yeah? Or is that not reliable or fast enough?

Also, what’s going on with the pricing? It’s just obviously better to buy direct. Why are people trying to sell it on Amazon? I get people trying to sell on eBay and Craigslist but Amazon? What’s the deal there?

  • PotentialProblem@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Just a heads up that CS2 isn’t super enjoyable to play on the steam deck. Unless you’re really good with the gyro aiming, you’re going to get wrecked. I also had some frame drops when playing csgo. It’s possible that that’s gotten better with CS2 though.

    I’d stick with the old mouse and keyboard for those games unless you’re somehow playing with folks who also have steam decks.

    • damnthefilibuster@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      Hmmm. Thanks for that feedback. Playing COD a lot these past few years, I’ve gotten used to gyro aiming with custom settings to make the aim move faster. That said, it’s never as fun as CS with a mouse 😋

      By the way, can we connect Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to the Deck?

      • Contramuffin@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Yes, I’ve tried it and it works fine. I should point out though that if you plan to do that, you might as well buy a USB splitter and then use wired.

        • damnthefilibuster@lemmy.worldOP
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          8 months ago

          Ah, that’s an interesting point! I’ve never thought much about the latency caused by Bluetooth. But maybe it’ll be noticeable on the Deck?

      • PotentialProblem@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        I haven’t extensively tested it but I have been able to get it to work with both. I was also able to use a usb hub with a Logitech dongle for a mouse and a Bluetooth keyboard. On my flights, I’ll normally pair my Sony Bluetooth headphones.

        All of it has worked seamlessly for me.

        The following context is at least a year or two old, so I’m betting things have gotten a lot better since: I had issues when pairing multiple Nintendo pro controllers to the steamdeck. It would work and then suddenly drop one or both of the controllers. When using a mouse and keyboard with the deck, I’ve had issues when using game mode (as opposed to desktop mode). Frequently this resulted in my character looking straight at the ground no matter what I did. When in desktop mode, performance takes a hit and my games would drop frames occasionally. I originally hoped I could seamlessly dock this and play couch coop games. At the time this functionality felt mostly broken, but I’ve been told it’s gotten a lot better in later patches.

        I have the older steam deck, but I still love it. I’ve used it for rocket league, a whole suite of indie games, Sifu, Like A Dragon, and a semi tolerable bg3 experience. Emulation is also pretty fantastic.

        • PainInTheAES@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I use the SD daily and dock it from time to time to play with my family with knockoff pro controllers. I haven’t experienced any drops and I had the straight at the ground issue maybe like a year ago but haven’t had any issues with it in a long time. Can’t speak to any performance issues but I can confirm that the product has been getting refined.

            • PainInTheAES@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Yeah the big issue I’ve had lately is remote play together, but I can’t tell if it’s the Internet connection or buggy software. It just keeps dropping out and the streaming option doesn’t work; which would be nice because discord doesn’t stream well in gamescope mode. Some of the recent updates were targeting it but no luck.