Steam Deck Review - Testing Mods, Emulation, and More

[@Nerrel]

I've received a lot of polite (thank you) feedback about what may have caused some issues, which I'll collect here in case anyone wants to try installing the things I showed: -I should have run Modmanager from the same Steam entry as RE2 by relinking the exe (the same way I ran SH2 and its installer from the same entry). When adding Modmanager as its own Steam entry it receives a separate compatdata folder, so the app may not have access to RE2's install location -The Silent Hill 3 script may have hung because of an issue with Reloaded accessing the SD card; it may have worked if installed to the internal storage. The number of issues games and installers have with accessing the SD card in general does make a stronger case for getting a higher capacity model than I made in the video -A program called Flatseal can be used to give flatpacks like bsnes access to the SD card -Citra now supports moving the touchscreen to a separate window, so dual screen setup should be the same as Cemu -Dino Crisis apparently failed to download a dgVoodoo2 ddraw file, which isn't related to the Rebirth mod ddraw file... just in case that helps anyone troubleshoot -A delete file option can be added to the right-click menu in the Dolphin settings (Dolphin the file browser, not the emulator) so that you don't need to use the keyboard combo -Protontricks can apparently be run with commands and is not necessarily meant to be launched from Discovery, so maybe it's not totally busted -People seem to greatly prefer a program called "Bottles" to Lutris. I had never heard of this, even after searching through a lot of Linux installation guides, but it would likely be better to start with it before resorting to Lutris scripts, because holy hell. DAMN. Woof. It couldn't be any worse, bub.

[@XSlimSxadyX]

No way?! you got polite feedback?!?? 😮😮😮😮

[@avid5985]

I was curious on why you didn't opt in and use something like Emudeck for setting up all your emulators? It's pretty simple and really useful for getting everything set up for you. Also, I'm going to start Majoras mask and use your texture pack, amazing work as always!

[@FlameSoulis]

@@avid5985 I second this. Don't get me wrong, the SteamDeck is kind of a portable PC, but it also... isn't. Let's be real: it's a gaming console with the flexibility of a portable PC, a bit like when the PS3 had the OtherOS function, except actually based on it rather than a separate entity. You can set things up manually, but going in with a "Well in Windows..." mentality is like doing the same with an Android phone or iPhone: they aren't Windows, that's the point. Granted, I do have some Linux experience, but even then, I didn't have to use any console guru moves to get things done. So much so, I challenged myself at times to avoid doing it to see how things could be done without it, and the answer is "quite a lot." EmuDeck was made to ease the way of getting things working so people don't need Linux knowledge, and even my Linux server IT nerdy self uses it. It's like saying that you can't run an emulator unless you compiled it yourself, something I have done once for curiosity and don't recommend for the casual goer. Of course, it could be just different choices in games. Most titles I played ran fine, but getting Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon to work was a nightmare. Fire a bullet and the game crashes. I solved it by using GE-Proton, which I wanted to avoid, but then the servers being offline required a hex edit, which also applied to Windows. The latter is technically optional, and something I would do on a normal PC, but some titles do require more work. Elder Scrolls Online is great, except for the part I don't own it on Steam. Installing it manually does require some work, and is doable, but it is going through hoops by comparison to a Windows setup. I'm no stranger to SteamOS acting silly either, but just saying it isn't as often and most games, even some older titles, tend to work fine out of the box.

[@avid5985]

@@FlameSoulis As someone entirely new to linux it's so cool seeing it's capabilities. I'm glad you brought up proton because I've used it here and there on games that didn't seem to budge just without proton tricks. Finding all of these great tools just in the discovery store is also a godsend. The further I get using my steam deck the more impressive it becomes to me.

[@tf2scoutpunch175]

I managed to get MGS2 with Vs Fix on Steam Deck with the lutris installation script, apparently you need to get an updated version of it or something. I'll post the instructions later.

[@chris-cu3kl]

Seeing the dual screen for the wiiu being emulated properly is incredible. I hope the ds/3ds development keeps going along because as much as i love that system it’s trademark dual screen makes it unintuitive to play when emulated.

[@protocetid]

made me realize Nintendo could do the same with the Switch to play Wii U, DS and 3DS ports but that would require them to not be anti consumer about their legacy software

[@skullerclawerbandicoot7966]

The 3ds should not be emulated (and the wii u too) as they're still somewhat relevant. And you do realize the wii u just had to gamepad for the "2 screens" while the ds/3ds was literally built for 2 screens right? It's just not worth it

[@superizillian957]

@@skullerclawerbandicoot7966 now I’m doing it out of spite.

[@chronossage]

@@skullerclawerbandicoot7966 The 3ds and WiiU eshops are both closed now so I don't know how they're considered relevant anymore.

[@jamjon6616]

@@skullerclawerbandicoot7966 the Wii U stopped being relevant the second the Nintendo switch released

[@mijimepiero7628]

As a linux user, Lutris is actually one of the most incomprehensible pieces of software I have ever used. Fully recommend Bottles as a Windows application emulator as it's essentially a virtual machine for each program, however, for GOG games (And Epic Games), there's another launcher (Yes, another one), called Heroic which is extremely well-made and intuitive for installing and running games.

[@CLOYO]

I can second Heroic!

[@EeveeEuphoria]

i am also a linux user, started using it full time last year, and every time i try to use lutris i get a headache and give up after an hour i hate lutris with every fiber in my being, and an alternative called "bottles" is only slightly better in that it *sometimes* works. sometimes!

[@mijimepiero7628]

@@EeveeEuphoria For games I have .exe for, I can't say that I've ever had an issue with Bottles although I have only tried smaller indie games. Actual programs have been a bit of a ballache if I'm using something like Clip Paint or a similar program that needs to open a second window. Are your issues in that ballpark or does it flat out not work 95% of the time?

[@jbleargh]

Not trying to be rude or snobbish, but what is "incomprehensible" about Lutris? I'm from the time of manually configuring (sometimes compiling) wine for each game, so when Lutris and PlayonLinux first appeared they made the whole process much easier. Today, I use Lutris for all non-steam stuff (mainly GoG, Ubisoft and some emulators) and I don't remember the last time I had to do any tweaking... as some marketing people would say "it just works".

[@stereomato]

bottles is so kino

[@Bannaja]

Day improved

[@gragerus]

Fr lol

[@ncrtrooperscout]

I second that.

[@capnbug]

Day ruined

[@gastor4335]

Night improved

[@jlfajsdlfjaslfdj]

This counters the departure of Nibel

[@MatchaCutie14]

22:23 The fact that it can dual screen is incredibly cool. You can now play games as a Wii U, 3DS, and DS. No more having to resize the screen when you have *two* screens!

[@lawfulll5532]

@official_Nerrel2scam

[@Huggbees]

I knew watching since the Majora's Mask 3d review was a good idea. Really helpful guide for my current deck escapades.

[@DanielFerreira-ez8qd]

Wow, look who's here!

[@mcride9773]

Hey Andrew

[@disturbedhalo117]

@@mcride9773 Hello

[@AhmedMalaki]

Imagine your favourite old games with better controls

[@goblintonight8979]

Shame on you, how it's really made guy, for missing out on the perfect opportunity to create a new word- deckscapades

[@hildakoshill7012]

I was stalking your channel for days because I knew you would review this thing, there's not a single reviewer I respect more.

[@WohaoG]

Majorass mask 64HD might need a different person(Yes I intentionally said majorbutt)

[@ronthorn3]

He’s the king isn’t he

[@getpape4126]

He should review more games

[@Puppy_Puppington]

Renns reviews and this dude are the bestest

[@Inkfy]

I've watched quite a few Steam Deck reviews but this is by far one of the most comprehensive ones! You basically went over everything that could be considered a pro or con with the system while still considering WHY someone would be interested in getting one. Excellent breakdown!

[@LinkMorganM]

your art is wonderful!

[@MrLachapell]

I want it to play GBA games

[@absolutespider3532]

Really appreciate how in-depth and organized your hardware reviews tend to be and this is no exception. Primarily want one because I like the idea of having a portable console that can play a large amount of my steam library so I will probably not wait too long to get one.

[@Spo8]

If you're the kind of person who watches videos like this, I feel like the odds are very high that you'll love it. I've really really enjoyed my time with mine. The only thing to watch out for is some of the more in-depth anti-cheat stuff that hasn't been updated (or may never be updated) to support proton. The latest MW2, for example, will likely never work. That said, I still love it.

[@internetguy7319]

I want one as a replacement for my laptop

[@FuzedBox]

@@internetguy7319 I drive a truck for a living, and I bought my Deck solely because breaking out and setting up my gaming laptop is a chore, and I obviously can't bring my home rigs along. It's not replacing the laptop, but it is supplementing it. @Sp08 Exactly, if you're the type of person who doesn't mind tinkering, or actually _enjoy_ it, then the Steam Deck is amazing. The anti-cheat stuff doesn't bother me so much, because those games I'll likely just play on laptop, but if the Deck is going to be a broke college student's main PC, then obviously there'll be roadblocks.

[@Anna_Rae]

I am SO HAPPY that you called them out for the Steam Input UI. I don’t see a lot of people talking about it and it’s frustrating that we may lose the better version of Steam Input.

[@raven75257]

Aaand we did! -You can still use "-oldbigpicture" launch command to use the old UI, but we don't know how long this will last before they remove it- Edit: Impossible as of the last update. New godawful UI is now the only option. RIP

[@aaaaaahhh9537]

Lol

[@AnimatedTerror]

Someone finally got this man a deck. Huzzah.

[@NightsofShadow]

Huzzah!

[@Stryfe52]

Bonus ducks!

[@ramblincapuchin9075]

He wants to pay

[@RustyLoaf]

"My first impression of Lutris is that it's a buggy mess and a waste of time." Don't worry that impression never goes away.

[@Joshinken]

CONGRATS ON FINALLY GETTING YOURS! Im glad i can finally hear your opinions on it after having my own for 7 months

[@zacharynovak2180]

Did you watch the video? He stole Gaben’s personal model of the Steam Deck. Nerrel is a master thief.

[@katzea.a7880]

@@zacharynovak2180 Nerrel: The Deck Project

[@Zonic3451]

I wish I could've responded when you made this, but I suppose you'd just berate me due to your incredibly high standards for comedy.

[@Joshinken]

@@Zonic3451 im gonna fucking get you.

[@jacksonlovesnintendo]

I know this is super random, but this video has a very special place in my heart: It released while I was waiting in a Tokyo Cafe for other outlets to open during my 18-hour layover after visiting my now wife in Korea. I was so exhausted that I actually went to a little corner after ordering some food and drinks and totally crashed while watching this video. But every time I woke back up, I’d start this video again and then crash haha I think it ended up lasting me a solid 2-3 hours, which was exactly what I needed until I could wander to other places. Very fun, and this video will always resonate with me because of that memory

[@origrammar]

I love stories like these ❤

[@Exarian]

I remember when the deck first came out, people figured out about how to install emulators through desktop mode and so many of them just thought valve made that and put it in as a funny secret workaround for emulators on the deck. Really that's just been what desktop linux has been like for a decade now.

[@Snooopy28]

Well, people are finally waking up to how much better Linux gaming is

[@startedtech]

What? Who considered that a workaround in the first place. It's a PC and they made that clear from the announcement, why wouldn't you be able to install anything you want?

[@zorn2017]

its a portable gaming PC, they were clear about that

[@birkk]

It was kind of funny that they showed yuzu in an official promo recently though

[@rubyy.7374]

@@Snooopy28 🤓

[@fluffyquack]

Hello, I'm the creator of the Fluffy Manager mod manager program thing! I think I know why my mod manager failed to work for you. Mods in RAR format are supposed to go into the "mods" folder, and it looks like you had put them those into a sub folder within "mods" making the mod manager fail to detect the mods contained in the RAR archives (instead, it thought you were trying to install one mod that consisted of a ton of RAR files).

[@Nerrel]

That makes sense. Would modmanager still be able to replace the files when the game now has them packed in that DLC format? I had the DX12 version installed on PC, so I couldn't test it there

[@fluffyquack]

@@Nerrel The game (as with all RE Engine titles) always uses PAK files for all its assets, DLC or not, and the mod manager is designed to modify those. However, with RE2 and RE3 specifically, there are a lot of mods that only work with the old non-ray-traced builds. This is because the new RT builds use a newer version of the engine where a lot of asset formats are different, and that build was released 2-3 years into the lifespan of the games, so there's a ton of mods that only work with the old versions.

[@MrLachapell]

Flufflyquaaaaak ! Man I love your videos

[@firestuka8850]

Thank you for making the mod manager. RE2/3 VR works like a charm with costumes and fun models. You're awesome. My friend is coming over with his steam deck. He loves RE games so this was good to know.

[@paigelove2666]

Having had a deck for a while, I just want to say two things: 1. Use emudeck. Unless you're really, really good at setting up emulators, which you can do anyway, emudeck automatically integrates the gyro and establishes a lot of basic settings. It also regularly updates while keeping all of your settings. Aside from some occasional hickups with desktop mode, it's an extremely smooth experience and I think this review undersold how good emudeck is. 2. Get a hub that can function more like a wire extender than an actual deck-holding hub. I found one with an ethernet port, an hdmi port, a handful of usb 3.0 ports, and a port for micro and regular sd cards. Even without using the sd ports (I'm too scared to, I don't know how steam will interpret data coming from a hub-attached port), it was only 25 dollars and works perfectly. When I want to play fully "docked" i use a separate 5 dollar stand, and most of the time I use this set up to stream my games via a video capture card or to play games on a big screen while having discord open on my steam deck, which is a concept that should have any wii u owners absolutely salivating.

[@chronossage]

Why not both? I have a set the deck in a stand dock for my desk and a charger with a HDMI port for my TV. My TV setup is a bit unique since I also have a HDMI cable and a power extension routed under my couch. The power cable was originally put there for having a convenient phone charger by the couch. This way though I can have my deck plugged into the TV while still easily using it as a controller.

[@paigelove2666]

@@chronossage I guess that works too! It's not really a this or that thing, I just feel like the cheapest option is to use a wire-extender hub and use a standalone stand. I just think relegating yourself to only having the steam deck on a desk when it's docked is a bad idea is all. I love using it as my controller for everything.

[@alvareo92]

Nerrel just seems to have something against emulator hubs, not anything harsh about them, but just his preference is to use the normal software and set it up normally

[@paigelove2666]

@@alvareo92 Right, and I respect that for him. I'm mostly warning people viewing this review. I totally agree that stuff like RetroArch is much clunkier than just getting the handful of emulators you want. Emudeck is a different beast, esp since it comes with rom manager to make that "pretty steam icons" issue easier too. Windows has a lot of issues on deck so I totally agree with not using it.

[@Sandact6]

I have to second emudeck. I'm also good with setting up emulators, but Emudeck just took a lot of the busywork out.

[@Gehab]

This was a fantastic video but oh my god I got so much second hand anxiety just listening to you describing the emulation setup process.

[@bitwolfy]

I’d argue it’s still easy without emudeck. Install emulator with a single click in discover. And if you need access to it’s files you can find them all in /home/.var/emulator name, where the folders are the same as on windows. It’s arguably easier than windows.

[@JeremyLeePotocki]

Gaming on Linux was always great for the emulator community, but sucked for AAA gaming, but thanks to Valve AAA gaming is getting better, and at a way faster pace. It's far from perfect, but instead of waiting decades for massive improvements it's only been a year or two (I've been using Linux (both part time, and full time since 1999.) Now every major update these last few months has had a ripple effect for all in the Linux community, and now it's looking more and more acceptable to the general public as a real alternative to Microsoft. In fact the main reason I am not on Linux 100% is my huge steam library which is as of right now 70% playable. Once that hits >95% I will switch over for good.

[@bland9876]

I don't know how to properly say this but I will consider the steam deck to be close enough to perfect if every game can run just as well as they do on Windows which sometimes they don't run very well. One of the things I've noticed is that some games are labeled as unplayable when they work perfectly fine and the only issue is that the multiplayer is f'ed up. Sometimes the game just sucks so that's the same as Windows but other times it's the anti-cheat. I think there should be an extra rating for games that says basically the single player works fine but no multiplayer. Also Pac-Man World Re-Pac doesn't have any multiplayer as far as I'm aware yet it's labeled unplayable so the whole labeling systems is f'ed up.

[@joseaca1010]

70%? Mine is like 90% playable (after some tinkering)

[@JeremyLeePotocki]

@@joseaca1010 Yeah for me it's now at 75%, but the ones with DRM (or are real old) are still giving me grief.

[@joseaca1010]

@@JeremyLeePotocki the only DRM problem i had was when ubisoft updated their godforsaken launcher, it broke every single one of their games on the Deck, i decided to uninstall Child of Light while it got fixed Supposedly it all works now

[@WallaWaller]

Given Microsoft's liking for using AI to spy on you and cutting w10 support in 2025 I don't see myself using w11 or any later versions. I'm just hoping Valve cracks the anticheat problem on Linux by then so I won't have to install Microsoft's Spyware alongside it.

[@galbrightperry4506]

This might be the best video someone's put out for the deck, you managed to neatly explain all the amazing features this thing has with the incredible frustrations that can sometimes come with venturing off of steam, great video!

[@JTPQuinn]

Tons of detail. No ambiguity. Best reviews.

[@SethizFTW]

HELPFUL TIP: If you do not feel like setting up mouse inputs for ANY program you can hold the steam button and control the mouse with right touch pad or thumb stick and left and right clicks are the triggers. Hope I helped a few headaches.

[@hb-robo]

This is amazing, thank you!!

[@donoteatmikezila]

I knew you'd beef with the Steam Input UI. It was a total shock to me how raw the interface was, as someone who loves Steam Input and the Steam Controller on PC. It was a total "it can't be this bad, can it?" moment.

[@joseaca1010]

Same here, the worst thing by far is the "move cursor on screen" mapping On desktop you just click on where you want the cursor to be and done On the deck you have to set X and Y, what unit of measurement do these values use? Good question, it doesnt tell you, might as well be kilograms, they dont represent screen percentage, like the rest of the X and Y fields on the deck, they are not pixels either since their maximum values far exceed the default resolution You basically have to do a lot of trial and error to get it to work

[@Antillles]

It makes you miss Big Picture, which I thought couldn't be possible. BPM runs way better too. It's a shame they abandoned it. If they actually kept Big Picture up to date, they could just had used that on Deck. Even the Steam Dekstop Launcher has become a Frankenstein monster, with old interface bits, the new library design (that hasn't been completely integrated 3 years later), partial Big Picture screens like the Gamepad Chords functions and now the new Steam Deck UI beta...

[@El_Fed]

I love your videos, they are really damn elaborate and informative. Seriously, we need more channels like yours.

[@TheShadowivan]

Finally someone talks about the deck problems with Lutris! I had many problems trying to get scripts to work, but, one thing i like about Lutris is that you can create a wine directory, installing a lot of useful .dll, and use that directory for various .exe. I got most of my non-steam VNs to run using that method. Overral, Linux gaming is not as intuitive or plug and play as Windows, but if you aren't afraid of touching is really satisfying to get stuff running of the blasted thing

[@ElementalTJ]

I've had almost zero issues using Lutris, but I'm using the 'Add locally installed game' option to point to the installer then after installed, point to the game .exe. Tried script a few times, always had issues..

[@icyjiub2228]

The problems with Lutris are mostly due to how its packed as a flatpak. Scripts fail due to how its packaged in the flatpak container. Under a normal linux PC with lutris installed via a normal package manager, you're gonna have a ton less issues.

[@BobTheBob9]

not on a deck, but on desktop linux I've consistently had lots of problems with lutris, absolutely not a fan of it

[@bitwolfy]

Sadly even on my desktop Lutris can be, eh. It does its job if you go manually, but its scripts almost never work, as they often are abandoned and rely on workarounds that are no longer needed nor exist anymore. Edit: Lmao, just tried lutris again to make sure things havent changed, and it does this, cool bit of software isnt it? media.discordapp.net/attachments/290033726518460416/1036890648923603014/Screenshot_20221031_233301.png As much as I hate adwaita, there's no real reason to use lutris over bottles.

[@arthurdurham]

Part of the fun of these things is getting your shit to work, esp when the OS is fighting you.

[@Ray3D]

This is amazing. Great review. you covered a lot of my gripes with the controller settings that most reviewers skip out on.

[@joshthehuman9449]

You're literally the first channel I came to when I got my Deck cuz I knew you had some good emulator guides, thank you moon-man

[@sprayartist8459]

This is my favorite review by far, highlighted most if not every issue I've ever had with the deck, you sir are fantastic.

[@jordiekirk4985]

A steam deck review on KZbin? Never thought I'd see the day!

[@Mcduffinthetalkingmuffin]

I bought my Deck and a dock for TV gaming. My sister wanted to get a new laptop since her current laptop is pretty old. I ended up docking it to a monitor and it became my sister's new gaming PC lol. Overall a very good experience

[@moose7445]

As someone who's been daily driving linux with KDE for almost a year, It's nice to see that it's not a huge leap for people coming from windows to use the plasma desktop on the steam deck. I've heard really good things about Lutris from a lot of different people, so hopefully the experience will improve on deck soon. Also while the flatpacks from Flathub are great for getting a piece of software and can be the only available option in a lot of cases, all flatpacks install and sandbox their own dependencies, so if you have a ton of them, you'll use a lot more space than the native system packages, so it's always worth checking if they can be installed natively to give yourself another option if it's there.

[@SuperTort0ise]

The problem is you kinda have to use flatpaks on deck. I just switched a bunch of stuff to native packages and saved like 5GIB.

[@moose7445]

@Martino Fontana Huh, I didn't know that, but that makes a lot of sense on Valve's part to limit the amount of damage that could happen from all the regular rolling release distro things you have to watch out for on Arch.

[@SuperTort0ise]

@@moose7445 that's why I said you kinda have to use flatpaks :⁠'⁠( but maybe in the future they'll have something like distro box, but I don't think that will happen, really just have to make flatpaks better I guess. They're pretty good but I have a screenshot of the Command line saying rpsc3 not installed when I could launch it from the GUI, so yeah the command line doesn't always work I guess...

[@icyjiub2228]

Also, The problems with Lutris are mostly due to how its packed as a flatpak. Scripts fail due to how its packaged in the flatpak container. Under a normal linux PC with lutris installed via a normal package manager, you're gonna have a ton less issues.

[@hellothere5437]

@Martino Fontana The Steam Deck comes with systemd-nspawn, which allows a crafty developer to install a containerized version of Linux while leaving the main system untouched. I am developing for the Steam Deck using a Fedora 37 container and it works extremely well. The only caveat is that you have to be a huge Linux wizard to begin with to even know that this functionality exists.

[@robertsimpson5669]

Every Nerrel video is an adventure. Gaben bless you.

[@mdvoltz]

You state your arguments so clearly and so bulletproof regarding emulation that it's impossible to disagree with you, and you're videos are always fantastic!

[@pascal7112]

I'm very proud of what Valve does recently, i'm really, really super happy, but ... Gosh ... They should hire someone that can acutally knows how a UI should look like. And i'm not talking about the Deck only.

[@ringoftorment]

All modern UI design is crap.

[@n9ne]

sounds like a you problem xD

[@Your_Local_Milk_Man]

@@n9ne "xD" bro 😐

[@Robstafarian]

The new Steam login screen is bad, and the recent changes to the Steam app are far worse.

[@ahmadmalaki8364]

How many people work at valve?

[@thedigiseviper1330]

The fact that you 1) took the time to do all of the stuff you did with emulation, 2) suffered through the headaches involved to get everything ready, and 3) are even capable of figuring anything out at all on a piece of hardware my tiny mind cannot comprehend enough to even use at all, that boggles my mind. I'm incredibly impressed by the effort you put into this.

[@FGTRTD24]

The most underrated KZbinr returns! Seriously, you have some of the best reviews I’ve ever seen.

[@metalslug97]

Are you an engineer, Nerrel? Your problem-solving abilities are on point and the level of detail you provide on your approaches gives off serious engineering energy.

[@nisnast]

I'm pretty sure he's just really, really, REALLY used to troubleshooting

[@TheWanderer1800]

I don’t really mod or emulate with games. But I always enjoy your notification in my feed. Another stellar video

[@-Knave]

Days since Nerrel has mentioned he's made a HD texture mod ̶1̶ 0. Nice review as always.

[@yggdrasilsaltar]

idk bout you but i’d gladly listen to nerrel talk about a thing i don’t necessarily care about

[@MagnaLynx21]

After Valve announced the deck was out without having to go on a waiting list, I was hoping to see you cover this. I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the deck, though I would be interested to see you come back with an update in a few months, since you mentioned all the new stuff thats being added currently.

[@219SilverChoc]

This is one of the best reviews on Steam Deck I've seen, thank god I've mostly been using desktop mode with mouse and keyboard as it's still bloody hard to use on the Deck itself. Also, I didn't know about the RE6 controller switch mod, Il def have to try it out!

[@Mingodough]

Thank you for saying that old big picture mode has its merits! I love the old big picture mode especially the aesthetic and the ambient music is really haunting

[@SaveSamm]

Thank you for this in-depth post launch review! I was on the edge for awhile, but I think I'll wait a bit longer now. The problems you have are very likely to be things I encounter and I don't want to deal with that stuff.

[@orijimi]

I don't know, man. It's kind of freeing. Running into a problem or inconvenience and being able to hunt down the right levers to pull to make it go away is, bar none, the most satifying thing about this handheld.

[@orijimi]

@NotSoFamousPaul Dude, I haven't really even been using Steam for around 5 years. I'm not praising it for the challenge. On every other handheld if I don't like the way a game plays, I either have to put up with it, or hope the developer deigns to patch it. The way that I can not only iron out stuff like that, but also be able to go as far as effectively changing what's playable on the system, instead of praying for a port, is simply amazing.

[@seraaron]

It's not ideal, but because so many modded games require exes and modloaders to work properly, my go to for playing big modded games like skyrim or w/e is just to do all the modding on windows first, and then either copy the files over to deck with warpinator, or if that fails then I'll just use remote play and stream the game to my deck. That's how I've been playing Fallout 76 and Conan Exiles recent (neither of which work natively on deck) and it's been a pretty much great experience.

[@cooppp]

Probably the most interesting Steam Deck review anyone has made so far.

[@lucasm20]

Something to point out about modding, specifically with injectors, you'll need to set the WINEDLLOVERRIDES environment variable to have Wine (the Windows translation layer for Linux) either load the native DLL (rather than built-in) or load native and then fallback to built-in (the case for injectors). So for things like ASI loaders you may need something like WINEDLLOVERRIDES=dinput8=n,b (there's a nicer UI for it in Lutris) if you find that mods are inexplicably not loading.

[@khrishp]

Is all your knowledge based upon personal experience or is there a forum or repository of info on the steamdeck/portable Linux gaming that I can go to? You seem to have a much deeper understanding of this stuff that I want, lol. Forgive me for going through your comment history on this channel, you know your stuff.

[@squeedles_1943]

Wendell lovers

[@lucasm20]

Also for Steam you can add overrides through environment variables in the launch options with something like "WINEDLLOVERRIDES=dinput8=n,b %command%" (the command keyword will be replaced with the command Steam runs the game with).

[@indiepyx]

@@squeedles_1943 WINED LOVER RIDES

[@colororb4105]

The shader cache seems like it's designed to fill up as much HDD space as possible, then automatically clear the caches for your least used games if it needs more HDD space. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop the "Low Storage" warnings from appearing even though the OS will clear that data if it needs more storage. The OS also has trouble clearing large caches, like A Hat In Time and VRchat (7 and 11 gb respectively)

[@icyjiub2228]

You can also move the shader cache entirely to the SD card and use a symbolic link (fancy shortcut), so that there will only be one folder

[@colororb4105]

@@icyjiub2228 does that work if I use multiple SD cards?

[@existentialselkath1264]

Props for going into so much detail with edge case, or more obscure, yet important issues. I don't have one but the deck looks like a great piece of kit, but videos like this help set expectations. Nothing is perfect.

[@zapptuff5186]

Would love to see you revisit the deck sometime with whats changed or maybe the state of handheld pc/linux hardware (if possible of course)

[@Yngdady]

The first few days I got my deck and loaded it up with classic Win98-Vista games was the biggest roller coaster. Finding what worked and what didn't, finding plugins that made compatibility better, and getting updates that just happened to fix an issue with a game. It gives me hope in that there's so much more coming and owning one basically makes you a beta tester for games that only you'd want to play. It's seriously a great investment, especially now that Lord Gaben has made the deck purchasable directly from his personal warehouses.

[@cannoncontraption]

I heard about Steam when it came to Linux, all the attention the deck has given desktop Linux has taken the whole platform from 0 to virtually first-class support in just under a decade. Really great to see Valve finally made something that's worth it so everyone else can reap the benefits of all that work, Linux otherwise wouldn't be a big enough market to support like that.

[@suico778]

For real! It makes me wonder if in the future SteamOS will be commonplace on gaming desktops lol

[@thebigboyyay]

13:30 absolutely seamless

[@batatino8805]

Thanks for talking about the d-pads, I was actually kinda worried that they would be like the switch ones and that 2D platformers would be clunky

[@alvareo92]

This too is exciting to me! And I liked that the test subject was Super Metroid's infamously convoluted wall jumps!

[@Dean.....]

I've had issues with the D-Pad though, but those issues ultimately depend on what you're playing specifically. It's an actual D-Pad, meaning they aren't separate buttons placed in the cross pattern of a D-Pad, but because of this, I noticed when playing on one specific title that it was really easy for me to input the wrong direction on the D-Pad quite frequently, when attempting to press left & right rapidly, I would frequently unintentionally press down. I don't play 2d fighter games like street fighter so I'm not sure if this would be a problem for those users as well.

[@runekey]

So much more useful than other reviews to actually see the process of getting games to work. Thanks a lot for this!

[@bravebiird]

i love watching this today and seeing just how far it's continued to come since then. steam input menus not being perfect aside, it's all a lot more stable and dependable in my current experience than what's shown here

[@augustday9483]

4:50 Actually the bottom display is still there, but for some reason it's hidden by default. If you tap the area with the touchscreen, the buttons reappear. It's such a weird change that I have to assume it's some kind of bug.

[@RusticRonnie]

Its not a change, on windows it doesn’t pop up till the mouse hovers over the window. The touchscreen is the mouse

[@EddiePReacts]

I'm so glad you showcased the mod manager headaches. I'm so tired of the "my mods work you don't know what you're doing" crowd. Bro I've been a pc gamer for 10 years, been a tech guy my entire life, and graduate with my degree in IT next year. The deck groups are so toxic towards criticism. How will devs know what to fix with a community pretending the device is perfect 😅

[@gardiner_bryant]

0:14 Nice to see my cameo. 😊 I've been a fan of yours for a long time and I've been wondering when you'd be releasing this video!

[@AppleGreenmusic]

The size of the trackpads shouldn't be a problem because you should rotate the input by 45 degrees anyways. your thumb's "left and right" movement is naturally much more diagonal and it's how I've played games on the steam controller anyway. This means the square shape is treated more like a diamond anyway and you also get the same range. If you're using a deck or steam controller, please try it out!

[@MortezaFC]

+1 I thought i was the only one

[@javiercortes814]

Ok, Nerrel just became my favorite KZbinr. So much love put into one video man.

[@ElementalTJ]

One of the best in-depth reviews I've seen so far.

[@QuintessentialWalrus]

Stellar review! As someone who has exclusively used EmuDeck and Steam Workshop mods, I had no idea how lucky I was :P

[@Lucax97]

This begs another look at. Nerrel, please cover the OLED and the improvements to the OS and Proton

[@albinoninja0224]

Great review I appreciate that you were very critical rather then just praising it the whole time your also the first reviewer that I've seen mention the issue with the hidden compatdata folder and as someone with a 64gb deck it can be a big issue. I bought a 512gb micro SD card loaded it up with games and emulators, never payed attention to storage until the internal storage got maxed and I was unable to launch a game.

[@CuhShark]

I can't believe there are people on Twitter that are already decrying this project. A couple of people have said they don't agree with this as it "goes beyond game preservation" which is apparently supposed to be the only purpose of emulation and porting.

[@Nate_B3]

that pumpkin in your outro is SO cool man, well done

[@ceast5273]

One day, I will be able to figure out what Nerrel's accent is... one day...

[@Yesnomu]

I really appreciate this kick-the-tires style of review! It didn't sound negative, just realistic and exploratory. Thanks for the video!

[@bonkmaykr]

I actually have a custom controller setup just for using desktop mode since I don't own a dock. It works well enough, but setting up important hotkeys is a bit of a chore. Also, for future reference, Linux and Mac do this thing where everything on the system is a file. Devices like the C: drive or even your headphones are found in a folder called dev/ and can be accessed from there. The run/ directory isn't technically the correct way to find drives. It's a shame that this isn't more clearly explained somewhere on the Deck, but the Plasma desktop is mostly developed by users and wasn't designed specifically for the Deck, so that might be why.

[@dirrdevil]

Playing the Wutai music whisper quiet in the background made me think I was going crazy. Great video!

[@mdntsyntx]

Tbh I really loved the new way controller configs are handled. When compared to the old way it can be hard to learn, yes. But for someone like me that never learned the old way I was able to pick it up and figure it out pretty quick.

[@Chavelo_00]

Normally, it's always great to see you upload a video but this specific video is the one that I've been looking forward to the most ever since the Steam Deck got announced, going off your previous Valve tech videos. This is probably my favorite channel in this platform. 👍

[@Shriek]

Protontricks/Winetricks doesn't actually launch from Discover, but actually launches just fine when opening it from the Start Menu/Application List. Found this out while trying to mod Sonic Generations (which also works on Deck after some modding with Protontricks)

[@jp5394]

Nerrel probably is one of the best test reviewers on KZbin even if he isn't officially one.

[@Dcyst]

Great vid. I suspect your issue with getting certain mods to load is due to the way Steam handles the game directory, Proton and the rest of the 'fake Windows environment' it creates automatically per-game, known as a 'wine prefix'. These are usually found in /steamapps/compatdata//pfx. One of the tools you couldn't get working, protontricks, is built to allow you to mess with these per-game prefixes (you know, when it works), but you can manually go to them and have a look to see where the extra stuff the game expects from Windows is, such as save file directories, Program Files, etc. Steam stitches this prefix directory, Proton, and the game directory together at runtime to get the game going in an environment that it thinks is Windows. Often you can get a mod to work simply by making a slight change to this. For example, a popular modding tool for RE Engine games, REFramework, which requires a dll drop-in in the game directory: In Linux you additionally need to modify the user.reg in the game-in-question's prefix to use the mod dll, then everything works as intended. I hope your Steam Deck experience continues to get better.

[@graphincer3164]

Fun fact the Wii U emulator (Cemu) is now open source and has native Linux support.

[@BSpitzification]

Great overview! I got my Steam Deck back in August and you summed up the tinkering experience pretty well. There are things you can't do, which you will tend to focus on, but this is still the most freedom I've ever gotten from a handheld system before needing to jailbreak it. It's incredible that the end user CAN take the device to its absolute limit. After I hit that wall and understood what the Deck can and cannot do while learning how to navigate around some of the weirder things I wanted out of it, it's such an enjoyable device.

[@JamJam117]

As a nerrel fan and a steam deck owner I watched this tutorial, then installed emudeck I'm sorry I couldn't handle the pain of setting emulators up on a deck with this power

[@pongopea]

probably the only youtuber who makes content that is well presented, funny and genuinely informative all at once and only steps up the game with each video, never change, Nerrel

[@chickensofdeath490]

You should totally make an updated review again, at least if enough has changed.

[@avfxz]

maybe after a year?

[@sevine4667]

Thanks for the last part mate, had a blast 😂😂

[@seraaron]

Warpinator is the best way to transfer files from your windows machine to the deck, btw! No need to reformat drives or fiddle about with weird path names or anything like that, just connect both devices to the same wifi or physically plug them into the same network switch with ethernet cables and a usb-c hub.

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

This is exactly the kind of video I was looking for. I'm using my deck for emulation, but I'll likely need some workarounds to finish my emulation project. All I needed to know : thumbsup:

[@nisnast]

Nice to know Nerrel has upgraded from his AMD Brick to a 3070

[@sthego3970]

Please never stop making videos

[@ciaranainsley6563]

i doubt anyone will see this comment, but steam input still has all the issues nerrel complained about here in case you're curious

[@ciaranainsley6563]

the phantom data from shader caches is also still a massive issue on the 64GB model

[@vegabound5813]

@@ciaranainsley6563wait on that model? is that issue fixed on the other higher end models?

[@Isaax]

Fantastic, comprehensive review. Love the content

[@ac8911]

I have never used any of your HD texture mods, nor have I ever fully played through a LoZ game. That being said, your reviews have been so well-thought out, organized and funny that I can't help watching your content. Cheers, looking forward to more deck vids + workarounds in the future!

[@kazko2563]

I'm sorry to laugh at your pain but 19:30 had me rolling haha

[@isaiahf6442]

You can use the Normal Click instead of Soft Click to stop that double clicking action from happening For RE2:Remake I got those mods working by installing on my PC and copying the files into the Steam Deck directory

[@masterkutai]

Damn, this is good review that touches a lot what other reviewers didn't even mention.

[@Naldew]

Protonfix cannot be launched in the discovery app, it needs to launch by the app list in the startup menu. I had the same issue and the developer told me this.

[@CosmicRa1ze]

Very comprehensive. It is greatly appreciated.

[@STOPPEDINCOLORADO]

You hit the nail on the head. Linux is extremely capable for gaming, but for certain scenarios you’ll definitely have to do some research. Modding in particular only works when it’s as simple as a drag and drop or .txt adjustment. Mod managers don’t play nice with Linux at the moment. It’s true as well, that you’re better off emulating a game instead of playing the Windows PC port. I would also highly suggest using “Bottles” instead of “Lutris.” Where as Lutris is based on WINE (which isn’t an emulator), Bottles essentially opens up a virtual machine instance of Windows to run a specific program. Waaaaay more reliable in the long run. Also way less annoying.

[@diegoortiz2404]

When the deck got announced my first thought was "sweet, nerrel will be forced to talk about it and suffer through it for us, thats awesome"

[@kolieder7939]

I know this is late, but are you gonna make a video on the Steam Deck’s current state? Especially since valve released an OLED version with a big update alongside it.

[@Mabifield]

Dude I just finished your video, it was an amazing trip, thank you!

[@robinmattheussen2395]

This video is pretty old at this point, but here are a few tips that drastically make the initial setup a lot easier: 1 ) First off, just enable the ssh daemon before you get started. You can even SSH from Windows these days, if that's what you're on, so it's super easy to use. Just SSH into your Deck from your PC and do as much as you can from the command line. It's easier, faster and clearer. Trust me on this one. 2 ) Similarly, do NOT start by swapping out your SD card to and from PC and Deck. Just use SFTP to copy your ROMs, etc instead, since you've enabled SSH now. Much easier, much more hands off. 3 ) When you need to edit config files, do not do this in desktop mode either. Again, edit them in command line over SSH or edit the files and then transfer them to the Deck over SFTP. Much easier, much comfier. 4 ) This is a matter of taste and I know people have strong opinions on this, but if you ask me, RetroArch is perfect for the deck, because it has a controller-centric UI by default. For every emulator that has an equivalent RA core, I tend to use RA. I just added RA to my Steam library (the flatpak, not the one from the Steam store), and it's much easier to use because of it's controller centric frontend. 5 ) When adding emulators such as PCSX2 or Duckstation to your Steam library, make sure to launch them in big picture mode. For both emulators, add them to your Steam library, edit the "launch options" in the entries properties and set them to "-bigpicture -fullscreen". You'll instantly drop into the controller based UI. 6 ) Another contentious one, but I would avoid Emudeck. Setting things up yourself is often much easier IMO.

[@ryebread44]

7:25 Switch to desktop mode and set the screen to turn off after however many minutes you'd like.