Been going back and forth between a steam deck and a rog ally. I really want to support Valve due to their commitment to the SD among other reasons.
One consideration is that I have several PC games across different platforms, GOG, Epic, Ubi-soft, EA etc, which may be harder to play on a SD. I understand Heroic? might be a solution to that issue but I’m not entirely convinced. I have some experience with Linux so that’s not much of a deterring factor.
The main thing I want is a handheld device that will allow me to play older AAA and AA games that I have backlogged such as The Witcher 3, evil within 1 and 2, Batman Arkham, GTA V, and many others. I also want to be able to buy and play Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion, Hogwarts Legacy, Jedi survivor, and Starfield. I did recently buy BG3 through GOG and would want to play that on a handheld device. I would also like to use gamepass.
I know it seems that rog ally is the device I should choose since it’s a windows device and allows for access to all PC gaming platforms with minimal barriers. But I don’t believe I desire high quality graphics for recently released games. I’ve been playing on a Xbox one for the last nine years so not sure I would notice 60-90 fps on a game. Also the oled SD may be on par with the rog ally given all the issues that device has for some.
Really just want to play to enjoy the story/gameplay of said games. I have a gaming laptop with a 6850m xt. I want a handheld device to play while my significant other plays on the laptop.
Know SD is great for emulation and I would love to emulate old console games but I don’t have older roms which makes that option less likely.
Would really appreciate advice and guidance from this community on which to move forward with. Thank you in advance!
Ngl one of my selling points of staying with the steam deck is actually…the community lol like knowing I can come here and talk with my brother and sisters about gaming issues and things like that and we’re all on the same page (I don’t know how big the other communities are btw) but that is huge. And that’s really due to Valves price point/attention to detail and customer retention/satisfaction which allowed for it to grow to this size. You know what…honestly because you have a capable gaming machine, I would actually get the deck first and see how you like it see how it fits into your gaming style and deal with its performance etc. If it feels like too much of a step back then send it back in 14 days and then go for the Ally.
While Ally community is not that big you can join Discord channel, where there is tons of discussions and help. You have multiple YouTube channels focused on Ally as well such as Filterless
Another thing is you don’t need much community support or work around as it’s windows and games just work most windows troubleshooting work for ally, and of course windows pc gamers are many so you can simply find your fixes from general windows discussions rather than Ally specific