Steam Deck review: the best portable games console ever- Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A reader is overflowing with praise for Valve’s Steam Deck, as he details all the many games and features he now has access to on the move.

I’ve harboured a love of portable game consoles for almost 20 years. Having begun my gaming life with the Commodore 64 in the 80s, I was late to the party with handhelds because of my taste in games. As much as I love shiny new gadgets, I was never interested in the stripped down experiences that the Game Boy and their ilk seemed to offer and, when I finally took the plunge with a PSP, it was with the assumption that I would be disappointed.

Nope, I was hooked. The ability to play games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and Star Wars: Battlefront anywhere I pleased was a revelation.

However, I’ve never fully unravelled the core reasons why handheld consoles have held such a dear spot in my heart. Like many gamers, I shoot for the latest and greatest: 4K on huge screens, 60fps, Dolby Atmos surround sound, SSDs, the best graphics possible. Why? Because I tell myself this is the route to immersion. But playing on a handheld belies all of this. The immersion when focused on a small screen, hunched in the darkness, is different but just as intense.

I had a few Nintendo DS consoles (but didn’t make as much use of them, as Nintendo games aren’t my bag), the PS Vita (which was a painful well of unfulfilled promise), and then the Switch. And it was the Switch that gave me that first glimpse of ‘real’ console gaming on the go. Not interested in the first party line-up (other than Zelda: Breath Of The Wild), I was sold on the promise that I would be able to play Skyrim, The Witcher 3, and L.A. Noire; and the Switch delivered on that promise, albeit in a