Thanks for the write up. Lots of good info there and it seems like a decent piece of kit. Only held back by its software. Hearing that the handheld is comfortable to hold despite it weight and size is reassuring and another confirmation on the onboard sound being pretty great is nice to have.

I know its early days for SteamOS and the Deck which still has ways to go in offering a more complete experience in terms of compatibility. Its just a bit of a shame that even with all that that SteamOS and Linux and Proton still has big hurdles ahead of it. Like even with games being listed as Steam Deck verified, there can still be legitimate issues in actually running and playing them. Like random stutters, which could be due to games not agreeing with Proton.

Talking about emulation.. quick question have you tried Yuzu? I've seen some Youtubers try it and it looks like it runs very well with a lot of games running at full speed. Though a lot of it has been taken down because Nintendo is going to do Nintendo things.

Now, I have my gripes with Windows as a closed source OS and some might say somewhat bordering on spyware/malware. Though for gaming it works and offers the most games available on all platforms on PC, with less quirks than trying to run on Linux. I still have my preorder for Q2 but kinda deliberating whether to keep it or not. Wait for a gen 2, or another handheld thats better tuned and optimised for Windows. Or keep my preorder. That said, nothing will come close to bang for buck in terms of what you're getting and would still make a good secondary productivity device and an emulation machine - that can also play a load of Steam games. Ahh decisions lol.

No prob, it is certainly a mix of good ideas and things that "needs work." The biggest issue is that it's not really good at being a PC or console at it's current state. PC experience isn't about spending a ton of time figuring how to get things working, the PC experience is about having options. But at best, you do get the PC experience but at worst, you are in this situation where the only thing you can do is play something else. And it's not really good at being a console either because even if the only thing you do is play Verified games, even that is a mine field. Some games work flawlessly while others simply perform terribly.

I haven't tried Yuzu because it's much more of hassle to get emulators running. While once you get it working, it might be fine, I think I will probably be sending the Steam Deck back.

As for your pre-order, I would say to keep it cause it's only $5 and you can always cancel it when the time comes if you don't want it. I am sure reviewers will be doing follow ups and what not. Personally, I'll be sending it back and going for a wait and see approach. One thing I will say is that once you start using it, you can see the potential of what it can one day be and if Valve makes a Steam Deck 2 or fixes the issues with a revision, I'll buy it.

Yeah its a rock and a hard place. Its a PC, yet it doesn't quite have the polish to run as a full PC and for games it sounds quite finicky because at the end of the day its still running Linux and there's only so much Valve and its partners can do to make games work on it. Idk, will try and keep up with updates. And yeah that's true.. I'll give it more thought nearer mid Q2 which is probably when the next batch will come.

The Wednesday news, all in one post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Elden Ring has sold 12M copies in just 3 weeks
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/elden-ring-has-sold-12m-copies-in-just-3-weeks/
Elden Ring is absolutely dominating gaming right now—my Twitter timeline is flooded with it, the PC Gamer office ends up talking about bosses and strategies at least once a day, and damn near all of my MMO pals have buggered off to the Lands Between. It's been doing incredibly well, and FromSoftware has just announced that the game has sold 12 million copies in the three weeks since its release.
>> For a sales split, check Yuri's post from yesterday.

GOG has two new deals:

• The new flash deal is Thimbleweed Park, 65% off during the next 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/thimbleweed_park
• And the new Midweek Sale is full of relaxing adventurese up to 90% off until Sunday: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220316_midweek_sale

Steam has two new daily deals:

• The Last Spell, still in Early Access, gets a 20% discount for another 25 hours: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1105670/The_Last_Spell/
• And the daily deal is City of Gangsters, 40% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1386780/City_of_Gangsters/

Fanatical has two new flash deals and a new bundle:

• The first flash deal is UnMetal, 50% off during the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/un-metal
• The second flash deal is Evil Genius 2: World Domination Deluxe Edition, 64% off during the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/evil-genius-2-world-domination-deluxe-edition
• And there's also the new Mystery Bounty Bundle, with 10 unknown games to get: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/mystery-bounty-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This Chrono Trigger Mod brings it closer to the classic SNES version
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-chrono-trigger-mod-brings-it-closer-to-the-classic-snes-version/
Modder ‘Shiryu’ has released a brand new mod for the PC version of Chrono Trigger that brings it closer to the original/classic SNES version. This will be ideal for all PC futurists fans of Chrono Trigger, so be sure to download it.
(...)
In similar news, Square Enix released a brand new update for the PC version of Chrono Trigger. This new patch adds a fullscreen mode, as well as support for ultra-wide monitors. Moreover, it increases Battle Speed for Auto Battles by x1.5. Not only that, but it improves overall controls.
>> No video nor screenshots provided.

Resident Evil 2 Remake feels better than ever in first-person mode
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/resident-evil-2-remake-feels-better-than-ever-in-first-person-mode/
Modder ‘Ashok’ has released a new mod for Resident Evil 2 Remake that stabilizes the root bone in all walking animations for proper FPS-style movement. As such, Resident Evil 2 Remake now feels better than ever in its unofficial FPS mode.
By using this mod, you can now walk, run, and strafe at a constant speed without any headbob or subtle swaying to the left and right when moving around. Moreover, the mod supports all playable characters for both first and third person.
Going into more details, Leon, Claire, Sherry, Hunk, Tofu, Robert, Ghost, and Daniel all use their vanilla animations with a modified “root bone” to stabilize walking. On the other hand, Ada and Katherine use Claire’s modified animations.
>> There's a video of it.

Mods transform Sifu into the best Matrix game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/mods-transform-sifu-into-the-best-matrix-game/
Have you ever thought to yourself that yeah, Sifu is cool, but it would be even cooler if it was The Matrix? First, congratulations on having such a firm grip on the specifics of your particular pop-culture fandom. And second, allow me to introduce you to the Matrix Mods Pack for Sifu, available on Nexusmods from creator Halfmillz.
The Matrix Mods Pack is actually four individual mods, each one adding a particular element of the hit action film series to the hit kung fu brawler.

First The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Unofficial PC Port available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/first-the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-unofficial-pc-port-available-for-download/
A few days ago, we informed you about an unofficial PC port of The Legend of Zelda that will release on PC on April 1st. That project is titled Ship of Harkinian. However, this isn’t the only PC port of Ocarina of Time that is under development. In fact, the first unofficial PC port of this classic Zelda game, called Open Ocarina, is now available for download.
(...)
It’s still not a perfect port though as there are some issues. For instance, there is some audio static in the intro, and some audio errors with the ocarina. Nevertheless, PC gamers can play and finish the game, from start to finish.

GAMING NEWS

Here are the PC requirements for Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/here-are-the-pc-requirements-for-tiny-tinas-wonderlands/
Gearbox has revealed the official PC system requirements for its upcoming FPS, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. According to the specs, the game will be using both the DX11 and DX12 APIs, and PC gamers will need 75GB of free hard-disk space.

CS:GO meets Wordle in this gun skin guessing game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/csgo-meets-wordle-in-this-gun-skin-guessing-game/
The phenomenal popularity of Wordle is such that 'Wordle but it's X' is now its own mini-genre: Wordle but maths, Wordle but with countries, Wordle but it's a dungeon crawler. Now in some sort of gaming ouroboros, it's Wordle but with Steam's most popular game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Kinda.

Monster Hunter Rise's first expansion is arriving this summer
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/monster-hunter-rises-first-expansion-is-arriving-this-summer/
Capcom has finally unveiled full details for Sunbreak, the upcoming "massive expansion" for Monster Hunter Rise.
A livestream presentation dug into all the juicy details for new monsters, a new hub to hang your hat and new story to delve into. Sunbreak will take place off the back of the Rampage questline from the base game, so you'll need to have completed the 7-star hub quest Serpent Goddess of Thunder first.

Hideo Kojima awarded Japan's highest cultural prize
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hideo-kojima-awarded-japans-highest-cultural-prize/
Hideo Kojima was today awarded the annual Japanese Minister's Award for Fine Arts, in the Media Arts category: one of the country's most prestigious cultural gongs. The prize goes to individuals across various categories who have "made outstanding achievements in each field of art or who have opened up a new frontier."

Moonlight in Garland is basically Stardew Valley in a big city
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/moonlight-in-garland-is-basically-stardew-valley-in-a-big-city/
Slice of life pixel art games are just so calming right? Stardew Valley cultivated a huge following for a reason, as a cute adventure about finding yourself, making friends and falling in love in a small town away from a crap old office job. But perhaps, despiting liking the idea of getting away from it all, you're a city person at heart. If that's the case, Moonlight in Garland might be for you.

EA isn't doing an E3-style show this year
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ea-isnt-doing-an-e3-style-show-this-year/
The summer season of videogame conferences is slowly approaching, and some of the big ones, including GDC and PAX East, are returning to in-person events in what we all hope will prove to be a post-Covid world. (For wealthy Western nations, at least.) But one big show will not be coming back as usual.
"We love EA Play Live as it's our way of connecting with our players and sharing what’s new with all of you," an Electronic Arts rep told IGN. "However, this year things aren't lining up to show you everything on one date. We have exciting things happening at our world-class studios and this year we’ll reveal much more about these projects when the time is right for each of them. We look forward to spending time with you throughout the year!"

Betrayal at Club Low is another mini immersive sim from The Norwood Suite's Cosmo D
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/betrayal-at-club-low-is-another-mini-immersive-sim-from-the-norwood-suites-cosmo-d/
Off-Peak and The Norwood Suite developer Cosmo D has announced their next project, which will be released this summer: Betrayal at Club Low. The indie dev and professional musician makes the kind of games that are weird, memorable and inspire a lot of chin-stroking. Using the word 'surreal' seems mandatory. If I had to sum up The Norwood Suite, it would be as an immersive sim in a bottle.

The Sims 4 is giving NPC households the ability to make major decisions
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-sims-4-is-giving-npc-households-the-ability-to-make-major-decisions/
The Sims 4 has updated the Neighborhood Stories system to give your neighbours and other inactive sims more autonomy to make world-changing decisions.

Todd Howard says Starfield is channelling 'older hardcore RPGs'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/todd-howard-says-starfield-is-channelling-older-hardcore-rpgs/
A new Starfield developer diary discusses some of the game's main factions and describes elements of the experience—then, in a moment destined to be memed forever, Todd Howard says "why are we all here?" We're here to watch another video of talking heads illustrated with concept art and clips of old games for a product that's apparently launching in eight months, Todd.

Yeah, that could delay its implementation. Let's hope that MSoft adds this function "soon".

That's a great find, even if some of the dates are wrong or outdated. Thanks.

And Yuri, I'm sorry that the Deck hasn't lived up to your hopes. Personally, I would give it a bit more time before returning it, but that's just me.

ASUS (and others) to support AMD’s newest Ryzen 5000/4000 CPUs with its 500, 400 and 300-series motherboards

https://videocardz.com/press-release/asus-to-support-amds-newest-ryzen-5000-4000-cpus-with-its-500-400-and-300-series-motherboards

It's about damn time!

AMD teases tomorrow’s Adrenalin graphics driver with Radeon Super Resolution launch

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-teases-tomorrows-adrenalin-graphics-driver-with-radeon-super-resolution-launch

Exclusive: NVIDIA Quietly Informs AICs Of A 8-12% Drop In Cost For Its GPUs

https://wccftech.com/exclusive-nvidia-quietly-informs-aics-of-a-8-12-drop-in-cost-for-its-gpus/

It's happening!

Intel Core i9-12900KS 5.5 GHz CPU Smiles For The Camera As It’s Shipped To First Customer Ahead of Launch

https://wccftech.com/intel-core-i9-12900ks-5-5-ghz-cpu-smiles-for-camera-shipped-to-customers-ahead-of-launch/

GTA 5 PS5 Comparison - PS5 / PC / PS4 / PS3

When GTA V first came out on PS3, it looked really good. Then when they released the PS4/PC version, the upgrades were pretty impressive visually speaking. Now Rockstar has released GTA V once again for the new generation of consoles and the results are.... Quite meh! The main added effect seems to be Ray Traced shadows and various settings turned up to Ultra but I expected more because it still falls behind PC in various areas despite the PC version not having been updated for a long time as far as visuals go.

QD-OLED Hype is real!!!

Anyone looking to buy a monitor at that price range should not be looking at anything except Alienware's QD-OLED monitor. And this should mean Mini-LED and all that jazz that PC gamers kept getting exploited for should come down to reasonable prices! Hype!!!

Thanks for the video, Yuri.

It looks great and with detail despite how bright was that room (I assume that was the point of doing it there).

Maybe one day, if I win a big lotto price, I'll be able to get something like that.