I have never been a PC gamer, and I’ve always enjoyed Xbox best out of my console experiences.

However, I sold my 360 during grad school due to lack of time, and I finally want to get back in, and Xbox Series X seems to be the way to go. I’ve been saying for months I wanted to take advantage of black Friday sales for this, and yesterday my husband asked me if I’ve considered the steam deck. I’m so out of the loop, I truly had not heard of it, and I feel lost with limited time to get a discount to decide now.

When I say I’m a casual gamer, I’m a very casual gamer. I like assassin’s Creed, the Sims, and that’s about it (I’ll find the odd action game here and there I enjoy of course). I like versatility for the future though. I know steam has literally thousands of games available, but I don’t think I’d take advantage of that (though maybe my husband would). My husband also indicated that I could use the steam deck attached to the TV with a controller (my preference) as well as while traveling, which would be appealing for flights but that’s about it for me on the portable aspect.

Tldr I’m out of the loop on gaming, planned to get Xbox series x but don’t know if SteamDeck is a better fit for my casual style (and if the Xbox is maybe overkill)

  • benbahdisdonc@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    As someone who similarly fell out of gaming and then got back into it but is a very casual gamer, I think the SteamDeck is a great choice.

    Handheld and suspending a game to be picked up later is great.

    You can tinker with it if you want, it’s a PC after all, or you can treat it as the Valve Steam Console, buy only games that you know will run well, and have a pretty effortless time.

    There will definitely be hiccups. Less than a windows PC, but more than an Xbox. But valve is constantly improving it. Maybe it’ll just decide to restart and need internet access to reboot, leaving it useless for your flight.

    If you want to play newer AAA glitzy and glammy games, this won’t be a good choice for you. But if you’re looking at simpler, less demanding games, then you’ll find more of them and at a lower price on the Deck.