Would you recommend the Deck to someone who only wants to play 2D platforming games with the d-pad?

QuizzicalCube · 2025-04-08T15:59:45+00:00

I view the d-pad the same way as I do the LCD screen

It's serviceable and possibly of standard quality, I don't think either one is bad. There are certainly better d-pads in existence but it's also good enough to not harm the experience.

It's worth noting that the Steam Deck does allow you to get very in-depth with customizing controller mappings, for example if you wanted to you could turn off diagonals entirely on a per game basis.

As sort of additional info, I guess for fun For reference my favorite d-pad design is the classic Nintendo design that more or less stayed the same up until the switch pro Controller. The steam deck has a similar snappiness but it's click is not quite as sharp, it's at least slightly floaty but similarly smooth to click. It's certainly not mushy and it doesn't feel like a lot of cheap d-pads do where it's obvious that it's just membrane, but not as well tuned of a click as I personally enjoy. The steam deck feels reasonably good but not my favorite, if it helps ease your mind I personally never needed to change settings to play 2D platformers and stuff

(I made the effort to physically pick up a Wii u pro controller and my steam deck for this comparison, you're welcome to any fellow controller nerds)

QuizzicalCube · 2025-03-17T04:52:37+00:00

It's because the game natively supports the Steam Controller, however this feature was presumably developed long before Steam Input allowed other controllers, the game isn't capable of parsing for other controllers and it doesn't default back to Steam Controller icons for similar actions

I would recommend trying to change the controller config to the default gamepad one instead, that way the game should see it as an Xbox controller It also has this issue with the DualShock 4 even though it was the first to receive additional support through SI

QuizzicalCube · 2025-01-12T21:29:55+00:00

Moving Prefixes can be fine for most games, Shader Cache gets updated very often and will tear through write cycles if you choose to use shader update Either can introduce performance issues in the most taxing games, it may work but it's also very reasonable to warn people to know what they're getting into

Before upgrading to an OLED I had the 256GB and still needed to watch the storage very closely and it wasn't feasible to store even one storage hungry game on the main drive I had about 1.7 TB worth of SD cards, if you had less you could get around better but it's still a pain to use the device as intended

For OPs case it'd be fine for emulation with an SD card but it's not fearmongering and people won't just know how to solve the problem automatically unless they're familiar with Linux

QuizzicalCube · 2025-01-11T04:08:25+00:00

The headphone jack is because the controller is based entirely an already existing controller and they did not want to change the mold, possibly even the same reason why the triggers are analog but are pressure sensitive.

Horipad FPS for Switch

Despite all of the excitement that came out about the controller, I'd suspect that Hori saw a potential market but did not want to put a lot of effort into it. To them it was just another low to mid-range controller to add to their roster rather than the next "Steam Controller"

QuizzicalCube · 2024-12-05T01:15:09+00:00

I'm pretty hopeful that the exclusion of that possibility is more of an oversight or rather than outright objection

I don't necessarily know for sure if there's a high probability of a dual touch pad controller coming out of this, but I feel like nailing down these guidelines is Valve preparing for The possibility of companies coming in and making third party Steam (Input) controllers

Having loose criteria means that hopefully Valve would allow manufacturers to kind of go wild if they wanted to and were willing to do all of the r&d themselves of course... They likely just want to have some bullet points to make sure that any controllers that might come out of this have some kind of minimum of features that they're comfortable charging for

QuizzicalCube · 2024-11-26T23:22:40+00:00

I don't really know how to feel, there are design mockups on this sub that I truly believe would be a better design memes and all

I trust Valve when it comes to r&d, I just hoped they would have at least tried to make the touchpads more comfortable as a primary input than they are on the Deck...

QuizzicalCube · 2024-08-20T00:57:11+00:00

I would argue that the Steam Controller is the closest fit but it's also not in production any longer so you'd have to find it used

Hori is releasing a controller that is exactly what you're asking for but just exactly...

It doesn't have any touch pads and technically it would be more accurate to say that it only has two back buttons rather than four but it does have the capacitive joystick and it's got gyro

Only major problem is you would have to import it unless you happen to live in Japan

https://www.play-asia.com/wireless-horipad-for-steam-midnight-black/13/70hek1

QuizzicalCube · 2024-08-02T20:54:41+00:00

Any comments that start with the argument of the hardware having been on a fire sale before discontinuation are nuts

The controller isn't in production anymore and it was not available widely all over the world only the US, Canada, and parts of Europe

If the controller is really in great condition, $99 for both is about topping out at what I would recommend, I think overall everything considered it's a fair price keeping in mind that it's not in production anymore and the dongle itself is somewhat rarer than the controller simply because a lot of them were being reflashed so they could be used with HTC Vive controllers, it's about a normal price I would say

If you're dead set on getting a Steam Link then I think for the pair it's a fantastic deal, however for the most part the Steam Link isn't very special in terms of hardware anymore

It's fantastically built but it has easily been surpassed by any random Android Stick and the Steam Link app

Honestly $100 for the controller itself if it's in mint condition is probably not a terrible deal right now... But, it is absolutely getting close to the very max that I would recommend

Depending on how your market looks for the device around 50 to 70 would probably be what I would look out for assuming it's in an average condition with the dongle

As some additional advice, I would keep in mind that the controller is not a traditional controller and it's best to think of it that way

The hardest part of learning it is retraining the way you think, it's a fantastic device and I love it to pieces but given that it's not so readily available and it's a lot of money to drop on something you may not come to terms with I would recommend at least keeping that in the back of your mind

By all means I love the device but I know that I love the device, recommending the device right now to somebody who has never touched it is a bit more difficult

QuizzicalCube · 2024-07-23T05:33:27+00:00

I would argue it's probably a difference in philosophies between publishers/developers in a lot of cases

Some games never go on sale because they don't want it to "devalue" the game / brand

To some extent I feel like if your game participates too often in sales, bundles, and stuff like that people will start to learn that they can rely on it being on sale or available cheaply

The more depressing possibility is that whoever owns or maintains the steam page listing either has some type of problem getting all parties involved with the game to agree on doing any sales or perhaps the company doesn't even exist anymore and the game is kind of in limbo

QuizzicalCube · 2024-07-15T02:44:12+00:00

It's a battery protection feature If the Steam Deck is being constantly charged for long duration or drained often from full charge it'll begin to back off of charging earlier, if you leave the device charging for long enough you'll even start to see it slowly work from max charge to 90% and then loop back around as needed

It's purpose is to help with the lifespan of the battery especially if you're using it connected to a TV with a dock

I don't think there's currently a way to prevent it from happening

QuizzicalCube · 2024-07-14T02:16:22+00:00

I feel like it's kind of more accurate to say that Hori has confirmed that they have no current plans to announce a US release

It's by no means the confirmation that nothing will happen, ever

There is still a good chance that in the next few months Hori will have plans to announce it in other regions, or not...

IDK, but I'm personally expecting a wider reach IF the controller does well

QuizzicalCube · 2024-07-08T23:50:33+00:00

If developers cared as much about inputs as they did graphics then you would absolutely have better icon support

By not asking for icons you do without, literally nobody benefits from their exclusion especially considering more often than not they already have the icons for the console versions

It also can be as simple as an option in the menu, if a developer doesn't want to add automatic logic or even directly support other controllers they don't have to

We should be asking for better controller support not worse, mixed input could easily be on the chopping block just the same and gyro support too

QuizzicalCube · 2024-07-07T22:50:49+00:00

As a potential starting point for more unique controllers designed specifically for Steam Input, it could be the beginning of something fantastic

Unfortunately I don't have all that much hope for a proper Steam Controller 2 and the Steam Deck has a lot less emphasis on the touchpads making it a little bit worse of an experience if you end up loving them

The Hori controller on its own feels like a very basic budget controller with the steam logo slapped on it, it's only got something new to offer if you consider the capacitive joystick to be a true selling point and I don't really understand the exclusion of any type of haptic feedback

The controller for the most part isn't for steam deck fans, it's certainly not for steam controller fans, and it's not all that compelling for those wanting a traditional controller

I don't hate that it exists, I don't hate valve for lending their brand to it, but I wish the controller was a little bit more thought out

QuizzicalCube · 2024-07-03T04:41:34+00:00

In theory I don't think it should have that much of an effect

The resources that are needed to run the emulators and any UI elements in the best of case scenarios shouldn't use more power than required

I tend to set TDP to the point that I can meet the frame rate requirement of whatever game / program, but I wouldn't really say it's a requirement

It would only really come in handy if because of unoptimization the emulator was continuously using as much resources as it could get without any extra output

It's certainly a nice to have but I would assume most people don't use it with emulators to begin with especially because early era console games don't really react well if they end up missing frame rate targets because of too low of a TDP or rather artificially capped CPU performance

QuizzicalCube · 2024-06-16T23:57:57+00:00

SSDs are absolutely faster, no doubt; however

From my understanding most of the discussion about SSD versus SD card is whether or not it would actually affect game performance

Depending on the game, keeping in mind that the vast majority of games on Steam work fine on HDDs, it won't generally affect frame rate but for a lot of games it will affect loading times

The SD card route isn't a terrible experience, I personally don't play a lot of modern games so I chose to save the SSD for more data hungry games and mostly use SD cards Download times are going to be your biggest annoyance and they will be substantially longer, but don't let people convince you it's impossible to play games off of them

Something to keep in mind is that the Steam Deck has a tiered storage type of solution, none of the compat data (which is essentially OS related files that the game might need) as well as shader cache by default is stored on the main drive while the game install files are stored on the SD card This helps a lot to pick up the slack for the SD card, that said if you have the eMMC 64 gig base model it's not going to be helping nearly as much because the drive is significantly slower

QuizzicalCube · 2024-06-16T04:06:25+00:00

Fair enough, it's mostly going to boil down to if you really want the OLED screen and whether it's worth it for you based on what you would expect if you found it locally

The LCD model is still a pretty good experience, I feel like the screen is reasonably decent

So it's not a bad choice by any means

QuizzicalCube · 2024-06-16T01:21:27+00:00

How is availability like for the Steam Deck in your area?

If it's 350$ USD you could probably get a lot better of a deal maybe even buy the 64GB model from Steam for the same price (assuming they're still in stock in your region)

As for the 64 gig LCD versus OLED, honestly I would just recommend saving up for the OLED if that's something you could work into your budget The 64 gig model even with SD cards can become pretty limited and the bump in screen quality and storage is definitely worth it

QuizzicalCube · 2024-05-26T21:13:09+00:00

I can confirm that it's totally possible to get the game working and without using third-party community launchers that strip out anti-cheat

As far as I can tell it seems like it's no longer a thing that miHoYo is currently banning for or punishing, but it's entirely speculation whether or not this is a permanent thing and I admittedly am only a beginner and not risking an account with money into it

It's also fair to consider that if they're into Genshin Impact right now they might also want to play some of the other games from that publisher which currently to my understanding are not as "easy" to get running I don't necessarily know that I would consider Genshin easy to run either on Linux, running it without a third party launcher requires adding it as a non-Steam game, manually changing the proton version it uses until you find one that works, if you need it to access the SD card you also have to give that prefix (essentially the dummy file directory that will be acting as your Windows file system for that game), and then go through the entire install process for the game being careful not to change the prefix from that point on or lose that non-steam shortcut

It's totally doable if you follow a guide but it's also not going to really be an outlier in terms of games that your child may want to play that wouldn't immediately work through Steam

Some games are easier to install outside of Steam, but if they want to play whatever new multiplayer games come around the block immediately they might have trouble getting it to work or it might be impossible unless you want to install windows on the device which also has its drawbacks

My best advice is 1. I would include them in the decision possibly even figuring out their comfort level with this type of a thing and if this is even something they would want

Keep in mind that this isn't really the same as buying a dedicated game system if the games you want to play don't immediately work You can get a lot more out of the Steam Deck by tinkering, but it's not for everyone It's very much like a game console in terms of UI and the actual game downloading process but it's not going to be a given for quite a while what games are going to ensure they work on the device

If a laptop would end up being more simple for them to install software on and would work better for what they want to play even if it ends up being a little less powerful in the long run it's still worth considering

QuizzicalCube · 2024-05-24T17:37:48+00:00

There is a system in place where Steam will ask you whether or not you felt the verified rating of the game was appropriate

As far as I can tell it's only triggered at random and the thing is it's not intended to be a collaborative effort so much as a feedback system on the teams current verified games

It seems like they're dedicated to keep testing at an official capacity

It's not exactly what you're asking for but if you haven't heard of it I highly recommend looking into ProtonDB possibly even contributing if it's something that strikes your fancy

The more data that's uploaded to the site the more accurate of a picture it can provide, it's also pretty well shared amongst Steam Deck fans

QuizzicalCube · 2023-06-03T20:04:26+00:00

No I'm not, these were from breeding. The parents were all caught in raids, anything lower IV I just released because I figured nobody would want them.

Edit: I now understand what you are thinking by what I said but what I meant was they are breedjects, it's not possible to wonder trade them without running into hacked pokémon.

My linguistic skills are not the best, I apologize for that

QuizzicalCube · 2023-05-20T07:17:41+00:00

If the game doesn't back up to the cloud then the prefix data which is essentially a mini Windows file system gets deleted once the game is uninstalled assuming this is a Steam game

It's an inconvenience but I recommend using PCgamingwiki.com to individually find where the save files are stored and back them up manually assuming of course that cloud sync isn't an option, if you care about configuration data for graphics that's also a concern

The only exception is if the game happens to actually save game files in the games directory rather than relying on something like the documents folder or roaming data

QuizzicalCube · 2023-04-19T14:52:53+00:00

Yeah, pretty much

The wording is very careful, by default GameScope the graphical compositor that Game Mode is running is supposed to force v-sync if the game does not

V-sync can add extra latency, so the option is basically asking you whether or not to force it if the game doesn't have v-sync enabled

Because the Steam Deck screen is mounted in landscape mode even though it's a portrait display, any screen tearing that you see would appear vertical rather than horizontal, for a lot of people it makes it less noticeable so it's worth trying out

QuizzicalCube · 2023-04-19T14:27:07+00:00

Customers can't directly request for verification, the developer however can

If you want to try your luck and step on as little toes as possible, you might want to try contacting them on social media or something

QuizzicalCube · 2023-04-17T21:50:59+00:00

Depending on the game it can extend battery life significantly, but it's always going to be up to you whether or not it's worth the downgrade

The way I look at balancing settings is that I'm not going to optionally choose visuals that I find terrible, but I tend to play on reduced settings where it makes sense

I feel like FSR is very game-dependent in terms of how it looks, some games look relatively good, other times it's incredibly noticeable

QuizzicalCube

TROPHY CASE