i own one steam deck It’s been about a month. As a device that costs about the same as an OLED Switch, it’s absolutely incredible—sometimes pretty magical, something only the right high-end tech can do. I love being able to play most PC games from the comfort of my home, even if the battery takes a little hit in more demanding games, and my decision to go cheap on SD card storage actually pisses me off every day.
What I don’t like is how long I spend tinkering with the menu to try and improve my little numbers in the top left corner of the screen. The FPS counter on Steam Deck is taking over my gaming life. I hate myself for letting those evil numbers into my house forever, but there seems to be no going back now.
Let me paint a picture of why the Steam deck that lets me display stats in-game is a problem for someone like me. Step into my time machine as we steer clear of Morlocks and end in the mid-90s. As a kid, I was fascinated by PCs. First, I want one. This was achieved through the great sacrifice of my parents. Having a computer at home (connected to a slow and noisy dot matrix printer, FYI – watch a YouTube video about a computer if you’re not smart), the world of PC gaming opened up to me.
A few years later, I started buying, reading, and “tagging” products like the Computer Shopper and PC Plus for the latest hardware news and deals. These phonebook-sized magazines (roughly the equivalent of a big fudge in Modern Money) are half buyer’s guide, half advertisement, and I like both sides equally. I’ll read about new processors, graphics cards, sound cards, etc. in one month, then figure out how much I’ll need to spend on them the next month. Sure, somehow my purchasing power is worse than I am in the UK Conservatives right now, but with some careful buying and selling, I’ve been able to make considerable progress in PC builds and upgrades.
Once you get into that world, you obviously get into tuning and benchmarking too, and that’s where my love of PC gaming starts to fall apart. My free time dwindles as I get older, so any tinkering takes up all my actual gaming time. Soldering processors for better overclocking is basically Iron Man or something. These tasks give way to just playing games on a console, and I don’t (can’t) worry about those things at all.
Fast forward to now. I have Steam Deck. When I bought a computer, I kind of knew what I was doing, but surprisingly, I quickly returned to the hobby-destroying habits that forced me away from the PC platform years ago. Here’s a tip: don’t turn on the performance overlay on the Steam deck.
At its basic level, you just get a frame rate counter in the corner of the screen. You can think naively to yourself and it’s harmless enough. I was there a few weeks ago and enjoyed the number. Don’t believe your own lies. Open it up and you will start down the path of pain. Toggle through the more advanced performance display options and you won’t be able to take your eyes off the stats – as you drive forward, a car accident catches your eye, inevitably rear-ending the car in front. It’s just that it’s not a car, it’s your own happiness.
“You bought a computer” I can hear people shouting, yes you are right. I did it. I just thought the whole thing would be more consumer friendly and not a notch or two above the Raspberry Pi. This is obviously something I’ve said to cause a reaction (in terms of user-friendliness, the Deck is at least three levels higher than the Pi), but if you’re coming to the Deck from a console gaming background, be prepared.
You can keep doing things and accept what comes your way. Download, play, finish. Damn frame rates, power consumption and battery life…but it’s hard to do that. Graphics menu options have been changed here, refresh rate limits have been set here, power consumption tweaks have been made to extend battery life for the same amount of time it takes to make the tweaks. It’s all about keeping that horrible number in the corner doing nothing. Just sit there, motionless.
The Steam Deck is a vulnerable device. Some games simply don’t work, some claim to work but don’t work well, but some work so well you won’t believe your eyes. My first month using it was a journey. I have no regrets buying the Steam Deck. However, I do regret spending time tinkering and not playing, and the fact that I know I can never stop.
