Right now, I’m playing the early access version of Baldurs Gate 3. I’m getting ready to put it down (frustrated: BG3 has the potential to be good, but without controller support, I’m getting really frustrated with the UI. ) and switch to Yakuza Like a Dragon.
What are you playing now and what are you looking forward to playing next?
I used to, does that count? I’m still an avid linux gamer, but mine was just sitting unused compared to my desktop before I decided to sell. Either way, currently playing Zelda Tears of the Kingdom on Yuzu. Hasn’t been exactly smooth sailing but overall it’s been pretty good. The main issues are the emu being so new (bugs) and not having an idea what mods and settings are best for my particular hardware, and TBH steamdeck is great in this area since they’re all the same platform aside the storage.
My joycons are breaking and they are so expensive to replace that I am considering getting a steamdeck instead. How well does switch emulation work in general on the steamdeck?
I have a modded switch and I am happy to dump my game carts and emulate them, if they work somewhat well enough.
Full disclosure: I didn’t use Yuzu while I had my steam deck, too busy working through my backlog of steam games laying in bed. But from what I’ve read performance seems to be just ok, not good not great not terrible. People are pulling around 20-25fps with I think? dips into the teens occasionally. The rule of thumb IIRC is expect to need 10x the computing power of the thing you’re emulating with a mature emulator and I really have no idea if steam deck is powerful enough or not to emulate the switch smoothly even with fully mature software which Yuzu certainly isn’t right now. So if you’re only going to be playing in handheld it could really could go either way. Alternatively if you’re willing to perform some surgery on your joy-cons there’s a manufacturer called gulikit that makes hall-effect replacements for joy-cons (IDK where they’re sold). I haven’t heard of any reviews for the joy-con model but I’ve heard good things about their equivalent for steam deck’s thumbsticks.
Thanks for the link to the parts. The problem with my right joycon is the shoulder button stopped working and that button is on the main board so you just need to replace the joycon. It was never dropped, but it seems that these buttons were constructed poorly. I am a bit disappointed with the joycons. I will not be replacing them.
Damn that’s sad, I knew of the joy-con drift issue but the shoulder button issue is new to me. Wish there was some alternative I could think of to help besides new joy-cons which IIRC are pretty expensive. Sorry!. Steam deck hardware is awesome for what it’s worth, very repairable, relatively cheap replacement parts, good performance for the price, and you can go very far down the rabbit-hole with software if you are into that sort of thing. Limited exclusively to switch emulation I wouldn’t recommend it right now at least, but if you’re looking for a more general handheld gaming platform it can’t be beat IMO.
The joycons are pretty trash. I’ve never had a controller break on me in my life. I still have my next controllers. But both joy-cons are broken.
Depends on the game but some work without many issues
Thanks for the heads up. I just looked through my games and almost of the the “switch” games are on PC as well. In fact the only switch exclusive games are metroid dread, prime, and tears of the kingdom. I do not really care about any other nintendo games. I know that prime and dread work well on the PC. I am not sure about tears of the kingdom, but I expect compatibility with that game will be part of their focus.
Games are hit or miss, but a lot of them work really well, and they get better all the time. I’ve been completely happy playing TotK on my deck, with the bonus that I can sync my save between my deck and my PC and then play it on my PC as well, then pick up where I left off on the go.
Yeah, I transfered some saves to my switch from my desktop. I was playing metroid prime remake on my desktop due to a broken joycon. After I replaced the left joycon the right joycon broke.
I wish they would have just broken at the same time instead of a week apart. We do not have returns in the county where I live, and the price is like 25% the cost of a steam deck. I would have just purchased that if I needed to spend like $90 on joycons.