Why the Steam Deck is My Favorite Way to Play
When the Steam Deck shipped back in late February 2022, it honestly wasn’t quite up to the task of delivering on the promise it showed when first revealed back in July 2021. Seth Macy gave it a 7 when he reviewed it for us at launch, but it was clear there were some issues despite seeming so full of potential. It was an Early Access approach to a system launch, and that meant it was buggy, unstable, and game compatibility was a crapshoot. I signed up for a pre-order twice during the first six supply-constrained months, and both times I chickened-out when I finally got the notification to flip my $5 deposit into a full purchase. Despite somehow successfully rationalizing that the $649 512GB version was the only one worth considering, it would always seem like a completely unnecessary indulgence for an unfinished doodad when my finger was hovering over the buy button.
I finally caved and picked one up at the end of last year. I’m not sure what finally pushed me over, I think maybe I’m just weak when it comes to handhelds. It could have been that we gave it our Best Gaming Hardware of 2022 award. Or maybe it was the Steam sale, and the accompanying realization that I had literally hundreds of games in my library that I’ve never played. A pile of shame that big eventually becomes too big to ignore. Regardless, it has since completely changed how I play games.
I’ve always loved handhelds – from all the different flavors of Game Boy, the Game Gear, or the Atari Lynx (both the silly wide one and the fat one). I loved the PSP dearly, and there’s a huge box in a closet somewhere full of those cute little UMD discs with everything from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker to Lumines, Patapon, and Syphon Filter Dark Mirror rattling around
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