A triple-A game I’ve been eyeing is finally down to a reasonable price on a third party website.
But after seeing how much better Diablo IV performs on my friend’s Xbox, I am really disappointed in myself for buying the PC version to play on my Steam Deck. I play mostly docked and connected to a TV, so the visual experience is something I value.
Diablo IV isn’t the first game I’ve regret purchasing on PC instead of Xbox. For older games, the Steam Deck is great; but it seems like modern games I really need to be wary of. You know what they say, fool me once, strike one, fool me twice… strike… three.
Has anyone else had a similar experience, wishing they’d spent the money on another platform? Is there a rule of thumb you follow on what to purchase, where?
Would it be okay to list the specific games I’m wondering about for input? I love my Steam Deck; but I’d rather not feel platform envy again.
Steam Deck seems to be the wrong device if you are docking it to a TV most of the time… The SoC is optimized for low-to-mid quality on the 800p screen. The situation is similar if not worse than docking a Switch to a large flatscreen TV.
I’ve played games on both Switch and Steam Deck, and older games the Steam Deck blows the Switch out of the water at 1920x1080. Examples include Avicii Invector, Skyrim, and Yooka-Laylee.
It’s games like Diablo and Metal Hellsinger that make me concerned about Hogwarts Legacy and LEGO 2K Drive.
I have tried running Hogwarts Legacy on my Deck. It could achieve a stable ~30fps at all medium settings and FSR 2 Quality at 2/3 full resolution (1280x800) on-device. The frame rate will likely drop a bit if you are going to run it at 1080p or you need to try FSR 2 Balance or Performance. It should run fine with lower settings though.
Some really, really lightweight games can be done at 4k and depending on the graphical style it might be a good result. The two I know of are Rush Rally Origins (60 FPS at 4k maxed out! 14 watts! Only during the gameplay, menus are oddly more intense lmao) and Offroad Mania.
But aside from the odd game here and there you’re not supposed to expect 1080p from the Deck, not with recent/AAA games. I actually managed to trick myself into disappointment when I got it! Not knowing what to expect, and also not wanting to wait for a long download I tried Offroad Mania. Worked like a charm, obviously. Then I installed Hot Wheels Unleashed… and that’s what created disappointment. See, it runs maxed out at 800p same as my desktop with a 3060 runs it at 4k: “it’s the same as my computer but at a lower resolution! Sweet!”
Didn’t last long before reality hit me XD