A GEEKOM A7 with Fedora KDE and steam big picture as a separate wayland session vesa mounted to the back of a cheap monitor has become my console of choice.

Some gamescope tweaks here and there and any steam library just shines. I’ve been playing my games in chronological order from oldest to newest. It’s been a blast. FSR looks like absolutely donkey turds sometimes but makes even newer games playable if you sit far away enough. A consistent 30~40 fps on Final Fantasy XV with little to no slowdown. I never dreamed what amounts to a toy mini pc would be capable of as much as it does. Gamescope, gamemode, mangohud, not loading anything other than steam and related services on booting the thing. If I need to get work done, I use my regular session without fear of an auto-update wrecking my shit (that’s my middle finger to Windows). It’s just heaven. I’ve revisited all the Metroid and Castlevania GBA games spruced up with filter and shaders.

It’s insane. The Switch 2 doesn’t appeal to me at all since Nintendo started their witch hunt against emulation. When the console lifecycle ends and they’re no longer manufactured emulation should be the way to go. My DSi died and with it all my eShop games. I know there’s probably ways to emulate them as well as the games but that feels like too much work. Switch games might die off too eventually since people get in trouble for dumping their physical games legally. I’d rather keep gaming on PC where games I bought 12 or 15 years ago are still kicking or modded to hell. 2025 Morrowind is the nastiest lipstick on a pig situation but I’ll still go ahead and make out with that oinky doinky mess.

1. Gameplay
2. Convenience
3. Boob physics

…

2,846. Graphics

In that order

I just bought a steam deck, and bought hogwarts legacy when it was on sale a while back on a friend’s recommendation.

Decided to give it a try - such a great game! I tend to compare opens world’s to Skyrim, and the detail in the quests is so much better. It’s not just ‘clear this dungeon’. Plus they’ve really thought about what sucks about those other games and really tried to avoid them. Plays great on the steam deck too, I’ve got it capped at 45fps and it never skips a beat.

I don’t think I’ve had this much enjoyment from a gaming device ever. I’ve done the console and game pass on the phone mounted controller, and that was not very consistent. The instant pause/resume button is a game changer with young kids waking up in the night.

Not at all bothered by performance - in fact I’ve seeing articles about how ‘this windows handheld beats the steam deck in tflops’ but an constantly thinking - 'yes, but it’s a handheld. Is it good at that? Battery life, pick up and go etc are super relevant, not just performance.

Bit of a tangent there, but I am having a great gaming time.