Hi! I’m relatively new to the gaming community, started my journey about 4ish years ago and became completely hooked! I’ve got the PS5, Xbox series, and Switch. I really want to persue the PC outlet now buuut I know nothing about gaming computers. I’m curious if it’d be worth it to buy the steam deck (if so, older version or newer/ OLED?) instead of trying to go the pre-built route… considering it’s alot cheaper then any decent gaming PC setup (that I’ve seen) and portable. ~Also are there AAA titles that are exclusive to Steam?
The Deck is amazing if you want to play stuff on PC that isn’t on console, or stuff that’s on console that you don’t want limited to console. Elden Ring is a great example of a game that became better when I wasn’t rooted to the PS4. I started a new save and beat the game for the first (and last) time in less than 60 hours, all because I was able to put the console to sleep until I could pull the Deck back out during breaks at work.
I don’t regret getting mine. I snagged the 64GB option, popped a 512GB micro card into it, and have yet to find a flaw with its purchase. Most will recommend getting at least the 128GB option for the increased space needed for the shader cache files for your games. I’ve yet to have a need to screw around with that in the several months I’ve had mine, though.
Keep in mind: While the Deck itself is pretty good at running PC games, it’ll struggle with some titles for various reasons. Sometimes it might be due to graphical options being too high, or maybe the game doesn’t play too nicely with the Linux OS on the Deck. Thankfully, that’s why ProtonDB exists. You could even install an emulator or four and run roms on it if you’re keen on that sort of thing.
As for exclusives: There’s really nothing AAA that’s inherently exclusive to the platform. Most that are tend to be indie games (the good and the bad). You do have PC exclusive games, though, so stuff llike Rimworld, Factorio, and Valheim are available options. You can tinker with in-game setting and system settings to try and get things looking and running well, though.
TL;DR - It’s great. Totally recommend getting one, but do your research.