PC Gaming

Nintendo life is just being a bit insecure due to constantly hearing about it being a deck measuring contest.

They can play by play all the they want but at the end of the day. I can play games I brought back in 1997 on my steam deck they can barely handle going back one generation to the switch and have to use emulation and a subscription service for a handful of their older systems.

I went from CD of star fleet academy i had in a storage box to a SD card to the steam deck. Installed and running the longest part was setting the key binds in steam input.

You very politely missed the #1 point... I can already play every single nintendo game I've ever bought on my steamdeck. Right now. With no subscription, just simply uploading from my GBA/DS/3DS/Switch to my Steamdeck... Nintendo for reasons completely lost to me refuses to allow that. Like, wth are they even doing over there to not have solved that issue day 1 on the switch.

When is the video game community going to understand there’s no such thing as “better”. The whole “this vs that” or “us vs them” just needs to stop.

Both systems have pros and cons. This article isn't bashing on the Steam Deck at all, just making the case for what the Switch 2 has going for it.

They say up front that this article is a response to the frankly obnoxious amount of "my gaming platform can beat up your gaming platform" circlejerking that has been going around - which you're kinda perpetuating.

The Deck does not "obliterate" the Switch 2, and a headline like that makes you part of the problem.

I don’t think these systems are comparable. They serve different markets.

The main draw of Switch 2 is Nintendo software. That’s about the end of the discussion for me that makes me need one. Nintendo has always made my favorite games since I started playing in 1988. They still make many of my favorite games today.

I was mad at the pricing at first but then I put it in perspective. I really only buy 3-4 retail games per year on the Switch, and at $10-20 more each, that’s $30-80 more per year at most. Not a happy thing but it is what it is. That’s literally one night out with friends having drinks and food.

Still going to love my Steam Deck and still going to play plenty of games on it too… likely more than Switch 2 because of Steam deals and the fact that I trust Valve more with my digital library than Nintendo honestly. They’ve never let me down whereas Nintendo has.

You know what has been great? Being on a vacation and bringing my steam deck and playing tears of the kingdom off of it with better performance than the original switch had. I paid for it and ripped it myself because I still believed it was the right thing to do, but with Nintendo's increased focus year after year against emulation enthusiasts like we're fucking criminals, I'm gonna give them something to bitch about. I'm never paying another dime to Nintendo for as long as I live, and that is coming from someone who grew up with a super Nintendo and an N64. Fuck yourself Nintendo. Yo ho and a bottle of get fucked.

Hey, hey? Hey.

Two things can be good at the same time.

Stop it.

Unless you're ten and in a backyard and you can't get the other thing because you haven't mowed enough lawns or whatever and your frontal lobe is too squishy to cope with the FOMO.

But if you're "a grown man"? Stop it.

The switch and switch 2 are better than all handheld PCs at present for one simple reason: it's much simpler to obtain and use for the average consumer. That's it. Average consumers don't give a shit about teraflops and fps as long as it's easy to use and still looks good.

I would assume a publication like "Nintendo Life" will promote Nintendo irrespective of what the issue is.

And to my limited understanding, the people who buy/use Nintendo are either children (you are not going to tell them they have shit taste) or hardcore fanboys who on some level will defend any action by Nintendo no matter what.

Switch 2 can't play decades of PC games, all which are accessible on Switch.

I think you meant "which are accessible on Steam Deck"

The bigger trend is that enshitification of consoles have made steam a juggernaut.

$80 a game is a non starter for most people. Switch was a golden goose that revolutionized mobile handheld gaming. It was like a gameboy reboot. I doubt Switch 2 gets even close to half of the success

I feel like all these "Switch 2 is bad" articles are missing the point. I'm not gonna buy Switch 2 for its superior hardware. If I buy it, I'll buy it for the next generation of Mario Kart, Zelda and Pokémon. You won't get that on a Steam deck. I probably won't, dough.

Steam Deck's touchpad so "too awkward"...

The Steam Deck touchpads are literally the ONLY modern touchpads I like. Every other mother touchpad is absolutely atrocious because they don't give you anything like a vibration to tell you your mouse is moving and you actually get some level of confirmation you clicked. It feels like every other touchpad out there now, I swear, requires you to attempt to click on the left/right mouse button (completely integrated into the touchpad) about a billion times before it registers that you clicked once.

Also, if the joycons for switch 2 are anywhere near as uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of time like they are for me with regular switch, I guarantee my hand would start hurting after a couple minutes of the, probably gonna be as responsive as a dead man to a cannonball to the face, mouse mode. The premise of turning what could be one of the worst controller designs I've ever seen into a mouse makes my hands bleed in pain without having to ever hold one.

my steam deck can play switch and nintendo games and steam games checkmate

The Steam Deck is a much better product from a value standpoint, a console will never be able to compare to a PC. So it's kind of pointless to compare them in this regard.

The only reason, personally, to buy a Switch is for the joy-con games, like games to play with friends and family. Like you would with the Wii ( checks notes, almost 19 years ago...). For an actual handheld gaming device, obviously the Deck is the better choice.

i’m blown away that the switch 2 is so beefy. nintendo has been the “lower spec consoles but AMAZING first party games” company for as long as i can remember.

Their words:

Those same Joy-Con can also be used for super-accurate, independent motion control, opening up far more possibilities than the Deck’s simple gyro. And in games like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Civilization VII, plonking them down on a surface (or thigh!) turns each of them into a fully-functioning computer mouse, far less awkward and clunky than the Deck’s integrated touchpad.

The versatility, modularity, and ease-of-use of the Joy-Con is something that we’ve come to take for granted, but it’s really hard to beat. When they're not drifting.

You:

The next thing: Switch 2 is supposedly better because a joy-con can act as a mouse.

If that was your whole takeaway from that paragraph, I don't think you'll ever see the appeal. Different strokes and all that.

I’m holding off is because I think the Switch 2 will be even better.

You meant steam deck I think?

Not need to argue, they have entirety difference audiences and that’s ok.