I played 150 hours of Elden Ring on Steam Deck and loved it
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I know the Steam Deck is fantastic because it enabled me to do something I otherwise never would have had time for: I beat Elden Ring. After 155 hours — 150 of which were on the Steam Deck — I’ve become the Elden Lord. And I mean it when I say that Valve’s handheld computer is what empowered me to actually get through one of the best games in years.
As much as I love games, I don’t love anchoring myself to a couch or computer chair. Even within my home, I prefer to move around so I can stay involved in what is going on. Usually that means being near my kids or sitting with my wife while she watches a show. This is why the Switch is so great for me. But the Switch is limited in both support and power when it comes to its library. Steam Deck, meanwhile, is an improvement in both regards.
I covered much of this in my review and previous coverage of the Steam Deck. But I feel more certain now that the system succeeds at what Valve set out to accomplish with it. The device frees PC gaming to exist in the nooks and crannies of your life instead of forcing you to make your life fit PC gaming. And it does that through its powerful-yet-efficient hardware, but it also does it through smart user-experience features as well.
The powerful AMD system-on-a-chip and the powerful Proton translation layer are major reasons why the Steam Deck is so successful. But Valve also got the little things right as well.
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