DF Direct Weekly
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- A massive, cosmic-sized DF Direct Weekly sees John, Rich and Alex react to the surprise reveal of the Steam Deck OLED, while tackling a bunch of questions about Rockstar's GTA 6 reveal. Meanwhile, media has started to tear down the new PS5 'Slim', answering our final questions about the make-up of the revised console revision. Beyond that, Nintendo denies everything about Switch 2 and Alex shares his experiences with his brand new Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU upgrade.
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0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:50 News 01: Steam Deck OLED revealed and reviewed!
0:26:44 News 02: Rockstar announces GTA 6 announcement trailer
0:41:02 News 03: New PS5 model disassembled
0:49:06 News 04: Alex upgrades to a 7800X3D!
1:10:33 News 05: Nintendo denies Switch 2 briefings
1:14:50 News 06: RTX 40 Series “Super” cards specs leaked
1:25:18 News 07: John’s experiments with in-home VR streaming
1:35:44 Supporter Q1: If the EGS launcher were good, would EGS be profitable?
1:42:10 Supporter Q2: Can we expect a true PS5 Slim console in the future?
1:47:29 Supporter Q3: What’s the difference between ray tracing and path tracing?
1:51:02 Supporter Q4: How long will it take for the retro game market to truly settle down?
1:58:47 Supporter Q5: Why hasn’t Red Dead Redemption 2 been updated for Series X and PS5?
2:03:07 Supporter Q6: Why aren’t there more gaming technology outlets like Digital Foundry? - Hry
Thanks for putting chapters directly in this one again! Much better experience for those of us watching/navigating on smart tv.
Much better experience for everyone.
Yes thank you
Haven't they always had chapters? I always skip around to the parts I'm interested in
@@anonony9081they were, then not on recent videos. Now they’re back.
@@anonony9081 just checked a few from up to 2 months ago and it looks like you’re right 😅 whoops lol
The synchronized sip at 35:33 😄
Alan Wake 2 moment
@@FakeSky50you mean GTA6
john is drinking at work, that's the stage that intervention is needed, rich isn't fooling anyone with that clear liquid either trying to pretend it's water. A full on aa meeting should be the next podcast.
unvesselly
@@CasepbX No. We're talking about psychic phenomena here 🧐
Rich laughing out loud to John saying „Alex, it’s fine on my system“ was genuinely the best
When was this😂?
About 1:37:55
I laughed so hard!!
Alex big mad
Thank you lads, this episode was cromulent.
It really embiggened my noble spirit.
😂
A very tiny gratitude for all you've done and still do here. Love you all. Keep up the great work.
It's funny the 7800X3D was highlighted and recognized even more so in the various Intel 14th Gen reviews & benchmarks because its usually at the top of the charts in most games while consuming far less power.
8 cores vs 24 cores? Should use 1/3 the power I suppose.
Same with the 5800x3d and last gen. A 9 core being compared to a 8 core. That is how good amds cpus are. Intel needs the unfair comparison.
@@exileut13900k & 14900k only have 8 performance cores, thats all most games use, the few games that do also use the crappy e-cores like cyberpunk still lose to 7800x3d, its just an outdated inefficient process.
@@exileutna, that’s not how it works. What about the 7950x3d? It uses a little more power than 7800 but it’s way more efficient than intel and the 8x3d is relevant because it outperforms all intels in gaming while consuming half the power. Intel fanboys are nuts. Unless you have a very specific need for intel it makes no sense otherwise. I wish they were better and more efficient but until they are it makes sense to only a very small % of people. Yet for some dumb reason they’re selling much more than the % of people that could actually use it for intended purposes or apps that could utilize them. AMD is better for 95% or more of people. Yet, I have the opposite (or same common sense wise) view with gpus. Nvidia makes way more sense than AMD because of their better implementation of software and AI. DLSS is far better and raytracing is finally becoming usable and it’s way better optimized with Nvidia hardware. Comes down to if you use it or not. If not? AMD offers a good value. But that’s also changing in the lineup soon…
@@eternalbeing3339they are made specifically for gaming though. As someone who does a decent amount of productivity work intel chips have the better balance between gaming and productivity performance. The 3D chips aren't practical in that scenario.
Funniest moment is when John says, "Alex, it's fine on my system," and Rich busts up, and then John says, "Just kidding, just kidding."
The chapters are back, such an useful feature that have been missing the last few directs
WOW! Awesome synchronized drink swigging from John and Rich at 35:35.
Alan Wake 2 reference, for sure
The simultaneous sip of drink by Richard and John at 35:31 👌🏻
In regards to the section about the retro video game market crashing, Karl Jobst's was actually referring to the retro graded video game market, which has in recent years has been bubbling up with sealed graded copies going for absurd prices and recently the prices have been falling significantly.
Great point, another aspect I would add to the state of this particular market is the rise of social media markets/cash 4 electronics sites and other avenues that allow theses products to enter the market in a more fair price then old school pawnshops flea markets and garage sales (not to mention GameStops meme of being notorious for offering ridiculously low prices for games + consoles) of days passed. Not to mention when talks of a recession arise; the first things to be impacted are luxury + electronics... with individuals liquidating those items for $$$ thats needed for necessities vs luxuries
A big reason why I only use Steam is for big picture mode. Playing my PC games on a couch, with a controller, and a console like UI is pretty nice. None of the other launchers have something like this
I'd love to do this as well but then a window pops up and I have to get up, grab a mouse and click it away. Then the sound comes from the wrong device etc.
There are just to many problems that can occur
Doesn't everyone have a wireless mouse and keyboard these days? I just carry my mouse and kb over to the couch in case I need it
@@anonony9081 I lay on my back on my couch where do I put the kb and mouse?
@@anonony9081 I just use an app on my phone for that(Unified Remote)...EDIT: you can also use your controller as a mouse with Steam open- while holding down the guide button on the controller you can move around the pointer with Right Stick, Left-click with RB/R1. Right-click with LB/L1
For the longest time I tried to navigate my PC, when connected to a big screen, only using a controller. I gave up and bought one of those combined keyboard + trackpad things and I'm probably happier for it.
Having said that I do appreciate all the efforts Valve have made to make things easier for controller users
Alex: They will come!
John: They certainly will.
Oh John, never change sir.
The 7800x3d is also the best chip to run emulators due to a certain instruction set that's not available on the latest intel chips.
Not true. Most emulators don't support AVX-512 and only care about single threaded performance, it is, clock and IPC, where Intel has the lead.
The reason why you are the best is, that you really care about games and the hardware. you love what you do and we feel it. thats why you are so special
I only have EGS for the free games. I might have heard Alex wrong, but you can absolutely choose which drive a game installs to, but he is right that transferring them once they're downloaded is functionally impossible.
Yeah, I'm certain this statement from Alex is wrong. I have 1 game on EGS loaded up and it's definitely on my second drive. I didn't do any weird linux level shit to move it.
He later in the video clarifies what he meant: you can't move an already installed game to another drive.
I thought the same thing. That he must have meant you can't transfer an already installed game to another location (with Epic still being able to locate it). You can for sure pick where you install it though. I never heard him clarify later, though. Either way, Epic is still bad software and 99% of people only use it to play their free games.
Correction: Quest 2 does support 120Hz for a long time.
Yeah, I think after the whole 3DS XL denial debacle, I think it's safe to say that Nintendo denying something doesn't necessarily mean anything.
Thanks for FINALLY talking about RDR2... such a shame that Rockstar has broken it with each patch and left it to rot.
On my fourth playthrough or so and it does thankfully still work great on PC with quite a few mods, if the Online R* Launcher works... they really did the game dirty. Especially given that it may be a one of a generation kind of game honestly. Its the only game where I love just walking around at snails pace taking in all the atmosphere. animal noises and so forth in as it never gets boring. But still no 60FPS patch on consoles either, I will never understand it. Oh wait I do, it doesnt print them money like GTA 5 shark cards.
Pirated the game years ago it runs fine still besides shadows having their issues on certain objects.
I have the game on Steam, but if I wanna play it I have to pirate it because the Steam/Rockstar Games Launcher version simply won't launch on my system. I tried every "fix" under the sun and the Steam/Rockstar Games Launcher version simply won't launch for me.
@@bamster64i have the same problem
@@bamster64 yeah I never got it running on my Deck either. It's bizarre how they always punish those who acquired a legit copy, because people just using a crack have none of these problems with the Launcher. Plus they can play offline anytime...
"They will come"
Alex realizing and laughing uncontrollably 🤣
39:30
@myztik5716 thanks I don't know why he didn't put the timestamp.
@@DeadPiixxelIt's Ma'am
"They certainly will!" 🤣
Edit: Alex has amended his statement. Yes, there is no simple way to move a game to another drive.
1:39:30 I can 100% definitely determine where a game installs on EGS
When you click install a window pops up and in BOLD on top it says "CHOOSE INSTALL LOCATION"
Also worth mentioning that the 'Move Install Folder' option in Steam was added in 2017 (Jan 19, 2017 according to their patch notes), so it took Valve 15 years since its launch to get that feature. So maybe in a decade EGS will get it. (That said, I'm pretty sure Steam has always been pretty robust when it comes to moving folders. I recall back in the 00's I was able to drag and drop my entire Steam install and library folder from a previous Windows install to a new one and all I had to do was launch the copied steam executable and it would repair itself.)
@@hughJ yeah I remember even when I had to manually move steam games all I had to do was remember to move the correspondence app manifest file too and it'd be detected just fine.
@@JerryFlowersIII Yeah, and in that sense both EGS and MS/XBox seem to be the product of over-engineering. I've always chalked it up to Valve being able to get away with a much more stripped-down system of managing DRM. MS has to contend with a lot of tech bureaucracy that was established either by how XBox DRM handles things or their failed UWP initiative. I still from time to time have issues launching FH5 and some other MS Store apps because of some account/DRM weirdness. Steam has never refused to let me launch a program or let me open a folder on my own hard drive.
Would love to see a VR "extravaganza" from John. Digital foundry gives such measured and detailed takes I think it be super useful to have a roundup of what the state of headsets are at this point.
99% of people are better off getting a Quest 3 and not thinking about it further than that. Every other (PC/standalone) headset is either very old with outdated specs and lacking repairability, very overpriced, or both.
Thanks for the presentation and discussion. You guys do excellent work.
Correction: the Quest 2 supports 120hz, I use it in 120hz mode all the time. I mostly use Guy Godin's Virtual Desktop for PCVR. I can appreciate the standalone experience, but 90% of my time in VR im using it essentially as a wireless PC headset. There's actually a usb add on that allows you to stream directly from a PC, bypassing the router entirely.
It should be noted that the Quest never supported actual wired video like the Rift did. When you connect by USB3 youre still just streaming data over the cable, thus its not much better than wireless streaming.
Wired is much better in specific cases - if you live in a an environment with lots of "wireless pollution" (lots of wireless networks) then the wireless connection is wonky, you get lots of stutters, hitches.
The wired connection is much more stable.
And that USB addon is supposedly trash.
@SimplexPL Perhaps if your using an older router on the 2.4ghz spectrum that can get interference from Bluetooth, microwaves etc than wired is a better option but using a wifi 6 or wifi6e router can mitigate alot of those problems. Even if I was using an older router, spending the money to upgrade my network would be well worth it as having to worry about being tethered using a wire totally breaks immersion. Would never want use a wired headset like the PSVR2 after using a wireless headset for pc gaming.
Could you please elaborate on this "usb add on"?
Regarding discussion of wireless streaming for Quest 3 around 1:30:00, the recommended router for Virtual Deskop is now a fairly cheap model (TP-Link AXE5400), not the $500 one they used to recommend for the best experience.
as someone looking to upgrade to 7800x3d, looking forward to it being a regular inclusion in alex's reviews!
Beware of the AMDip
DF the work you do is way too important. We need more of you. But never go away.
The problem Alex spoke of regarding the motherboards requiring a display port instead of a hdmi port, Dawid Does Tech Stuff had the same problem in his 64 core AMD cpu video!
Hey guys! Thank you very much for answering my question regarding RDR2! =D
With "simple/easy patch", I thought maybe just unlocking the framerate with some modified settings would be enough from PS4p/XOX to PS5/XSX =(
Xbox Series S desperately needs a patch to render in a higher resolution. Would be so simple for them to patch...
@@andreynering the fact that it's running One S code is literally the reason I bought a Series X instead of S. Idk if that was deliberate but if it was, I can do nothing but applaud that move
@@lennylenningtonThat irritates me the most about the Series S. For a lot of games that have received One X enhancements, you're forced to play the inferior One S version. Due to this, and the lack of a disc drive, I will be getting a Series X in the future. There is no reason RDR 2 has to run at 900p or less on the Series S(a next gen machine)when it ran at 4k on the One X(a last gen console). Absolutely ridiculous.
@@thisisblainThere is a reason, it's because Series S has a weaker GPU than a One X, much better CPU performance can't fix GPU bottlenecks so they kept games at One S settings.
Yeah, they didn't really answer your question. Simply unlocking the framerate would be relatively straight forward. The cost would come from having to do QA and cert and all that. That said, given that they're inanely greedy, it doesn't make sense that they don't at least do it and then charge for it.
Steam Deck OLED is still a MIPI based panel (vs eDP) so it cannot do VRR, even with future software updates. I don't feel like it's a big deal breaker though given my preference for stable frame rates.
Interesting! Do you know why a MIPI based panel cannot do VRR?
@mjoe7561 eDP is a VESA spec designed primarily for laptops and VESA is the consortium behind the VRR standard (non-Gsync VRR, also known as Freesync). MIPI is an older standard designed primarily for smartphones and tablets prior to the VESA VRR standard being widely adopted. There is a new MIPI spec called MIPI DSI-2 that can support adaptive refresh rates but I am not aware of any devices in production using this newer standard.
@@dcarpenter85 Great info. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the episode. About EGS, you can choose where to install upon instalation :)
Thank you for including timestamps again
I've had my Steamdeck for almost a year now and I just want them to give me an upgrade path. This doesn't feel great.
I love the look of my OG PS5.
Same here
09:22 Accourding to Linus The Steam Deck OLED screen uses a MIPI interface which does NOT support VVR and not an EDP interface which does support VRR
re: last question: anyone else miss Anand Lal Shimpi and the peak era of Anandtech with him at the helm? That guy was a phenom
1:25:30 Regarding Quest 2. It does 120fps (enable in Experimental). Q3 120fps is coming. Also, check out Team Beef stuff for their porting of old games to the headset. Doom 3, Prey etc. And theres also all the VR versions of Half Life on Steam and even a Portal 2 VR mod which is awesome!!
I'd love to see you guys do some videos on explaining some of the tech you always talk about for us laymen: Ray tracing, types of anti-aliasing (FSR2), checkerboarding, etc.
That's a great idea. I've been Googling all the terms and have learned so much already, but a detailed explanation would be great, especially from the best in the business.
The have a plethora of videos explaining all that.. just search “ray tracing digital foundry” or “fsr digital foundry”. Alex has done some great videos going of ray tracing and how it’s used. He also has many videos comparing fsr2 (amd) vs dlss (nvidia).
You can choose the installation folder in EGS wen installing the game, but yeah, you can not move it afterwards without re-downloading.
Love the weeklies - keep it up :D
Hopefull more wireless PCVR coverage. The best way to play VR!
Really curious to see how NS 2 will measure up to Steam deck oled! Exciting
my steam deck use case is almost exclusively in the garden or on the balcony, where I either have a huge power bank or an outlet. but when I only have the power bank, it definitely have to look out for the battery more.
Every 1 in a few df directs, there is a certain coming together of the topics, the humor and disposition of you 3 and it makes the show a particularly good one, really enjoyed it. Go on lads record df direct 138!
Reshade support is coming to the Steam Deck. Actually, the HDR scope that Rich is mentioning is the reason the developer of gamescope integrated reshade, so he could use that shader
The developer of gamescope = Valve
To counter Alex’s comments about why would you be playing Steam Deck plugged in or near a wall port. I almost exclusively only play my steamdeck when at home and has been a godsend now that I’m a father. Little gaming sessions on the couch or in bed here and there have been perfect and primarily how I play the Steamdeck. It’s actually got me back into gaming and dive into my backlog of indie titles I never bothered playing on my PC.
Second that. When I got my SteamDeck last year, I found myself playing Mirrors edge for 15, 20 mins at a time. Next thing I know, In a span of 2 months or so, I finished ME 1and 2, then finished MGS 1 and ended up playing the entire mgs series after that. That's what portable is in my books. I rarely go outside with SteamDeck but hauling it from room to room is how I use it.
The suspended mode is extremely useful when you need to quickly leave but cant save ect
@@Dam0nSingh How did you find Mirror's Edge on controller? I used to play it on PS3 as a teenager, but I can't imagine setting good times without a mouse and keyboard.
Only reason to use a steam deck is if you cant afford to stream from a real gaming PC and a logitech g cloud.
Don't get the "oh no" around the x670e aorus master. I used a x570 aorus master for years and it was great, don't know if something catastrophic changed between gens
I 100% agree charging for the vertical stand is ludicrous, however, I genuinely can’t see how anyone prefers the original stand for horizontal compared to the little clips that pop into the holes
The controller config and customisation options are unmatched on the Steam deck, one of my favourite things about it
Crazy to think GTA6 is the most anticipated game of all time. Rockstar has a lot to live up to.
Last game I recall that had this level of hype was Cyberpunk. We all know how that turned out. But R* isn't CDPR and I'm confident that it won't disappoint.
They only care about living up to the profits of the last game. Get your shark cards and casino chips ready lol.
Rockstar is so much better. The GTA Trilogy turned out flawless. @@EarthIsFlat456
@@Shofixi nahhhh
35:35 - Synchronized drink. You love to see it.
The LENOVO GO really only seems like the handheld that's given the performance and hardware options that's made an actual difference in the handheld market.
I know everybody’s shitting on the go 😂 it’s horrible, soon as valve say oled everybody starts jizzing in their pants. Oled on a 7 inch’s screen it’s like if Nintendo released the gba advance oled it’s just bright light 😂 and inky blacks ! Yeah because Iv often said to myself playing ps5 on oled omg !!! Look how black the black is 😂🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Can’t wait for the OLED SteamDeck. Fantastic episode chaps. Many thanks and much respect as always. ❤
Really tempted by the oled steam deck i gotta say.. i keep telling my self it would be a great way to get through that back log of older games
Same. It's the pick up and play aspect of a handheld as opposed to gaming through a "proper" PC. Even though I could use my PC and play on a couch with a controller it just doesn't feel the same.
The Steam Deck got me back in to actually gaming with my PC. It has great for playing through last gen type pc games
you don't need an OLED screen for this. In fact, the LCD versions are having a decent discount now. But, if money isn't an issue, the by all means, go for the OLED Deck. Whichever Deck it is, it's a great machine for PC gaming, especially older ones which are not super demanding. I'm actually doing the same thing, going through my backlog and am currently at Batman Arkham Origins which runs flawlessly at 60fps. It's great for pick up and play 15-30min here and there, similar to a console minus the requirement of being in front of one.
I'm more about OLED computer monitors. Once you lower the backlight of a phone the blacks are not too perceptible. You can make the phone immersive easily by turning off the room lights and all that glare and perceptible black stuff is virtually imperceptible.
My biggest incentive to get one would be the Sony exclusives that have been ported. I never owned a PS4 or a PS5 and I'm much more into the portable form factor.
That glitch at cyberpunk got me rolling 🤣 🤣 🤣
The last part of the Star Citizen footage at 58:05 and 58:22 is night and day, 12900K just can't cope while the 7800X3D is fine.
Stunning...
Comparing 2 gen old hardware, let’s see it with the 13900KS or 14900k paired with 8000 kit
@@DDD-xx4mg Game Day found them to perform the same. Except the 13900KS / 14900K consumed twice as much power, costs double and needs 8000MHz to reach the same level of performance as the 7800X3D already achieves with 6400MHz and an air cooler.
Lol who plays at 1080p
i find alex's aversion to any sort of console gaming as a gamer very strange lol
It’s strange to me as well. I have always played on PC but I can still enjoy and appreciate highly optimized games running on a 15W TDP handheld. You often see this phenomenon in the photography world where certain people are more focused on the tools rather than engaging in the art form of the medium itself.
I love him but it’s a bad look tbh lol
Prime numbered episodes are always a banger
Got an advert for this episode from Fererro Rocher and they said the thing. "In the here and now".
Well, either they have a quick turnaround, or they added being able to choose install directory through EGS a while ago. Just tried for the heck of it when I heard the mention.
Funny enough the 7800X3D is the cpu I went with in my rig it's a beast in terms of performance been really happy with it
The face DF makes when i say i love motion blur and film grain and i put it to 100% all the time 😂
DF likes all those effects when done well, though.
I just want to say thank you so much for the time stamps!...
20:07 - words to live by!
cant wait to place my order for the deck oled! gonna swap the 2TB SSD from my current deck and pass it down to my younger sis. 90hz for indies, 5 hours battery, and the OLED HDR 1000 nits are all worth it, and you'll be able to mod it just as good as the OG deck (hall effect joystick mod for oled soon!)
Is hall-effect sticks are better longevity wise or are they more precise?
@@un80rnsit's about longevity. Hall effect sticks basically don't degrade from standard use.
The accuracy varies by manufacturer. Some performing better and others worse than standard sticks.
I'm really looking forward to seeing a tech analysis of the new seemingly impossible port of Hogwarts Legacy on the Nintendo Switch.
We also need a Playstation Portal hardware review by Rich!
I give props to them for using actual in-game screenshots for the store page lol. I compared them with Morrowind's texture & lighting quality and MW looked better somehow!
You can absolutely choose the Install directory on EGS - sounds like user error by Alex!
The thumbnail 😂 This is gonna be a good one.
Can I just say DF, these direct weekly's are amazing. They are my favourite thing to watch and listen to on youtube. Also, 2023 is going to be one for the history books in terms of gaming. Two suprises out of knowwhere. Steam Deck OLED and a GTA trailer . This will be such a memorable end of year for many gamers
I like the PS5 design...
John trying VR outside his PS and finally going wireless too.. huge slow elephant steps. One at a time!
Small correction: given that there are 52 weeks in one year, we'll get to episode 1337 in 1200 weeks, or just over 23 years. Not "only" 10, like Richard said.
I use my Steam deck to primarily play ps360 era games. the power and battery life for those types of games is more than adequate in my opinion. by the time valve releases a proper version 2 then I'll move up to more current games.
SteamDeck seems like the perfect way to get though older unfinished games in your library
@@DeepTitanic it’s been a very enjoyable experience for my use case.
Same, I bought the GTA IV trilogy for like €5 a few years back & I got my money's worth now that I have a stean deck
What sort of battery life are you getting?
@@mjoe7561 it’s very dependent on the game but typically 2-4 hours. Yesterday I was playing enslaved odyssey to the west and it was getting about 3.5 hours. I’ll usually limit the fps to 40 to help with the battery.
I would love to see a highly interactive city in GTA, with a deep police system, destructable geometry such as (supermarket)interiors and npc's that seem to have a life of their own.
The NPCs in Red Dead 2 were super nuanced, I'd expect the same in GTA 6
@@BasePuma4007exactly. If they can achieve the same level as Rdr2 but on a large City scale I'll be happy.
I would love to see the correct use of the apostrophe.
@@johnboylan3832 I think you're lost.
@@BasePuma4007 *your.
Local streaming is absolutely incredible.
The vast majority of the latency is not due to the network (network latency is 1-3 ms), the latency is almost all due to the time it takes to encode and decode the video streams.
Regarding the install location in EGS - it does ask me each time I start installing anything from it. Maybe there is some non-cromulent option Alex has set in his install that causes trouble?
A few weeks ago, I saw the side-by-side comparisons of the Nintendo Switch, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite at a demo kiosk in Target. I was floored by how vibrant the colors on the OLED were by comparison to the LCDs. I can’t go back to LCD panels after seeing this in action. I understand why people rave about OLED now. 😂
Of course you can go back. Just don't be a snob. Pretty simple.
Refusing a wildly-inferior product doesn't make anyone a snob.
@@HeavyMetalSonicRM probably the snobbiest way to look at it
It's just a figure of speech.
@@HeavyMetalSonicRM Thanks, dude. 👍🏼 Agreed; it’s just a matter of preference and budget for people. I’m a designer and details like color accuracy matter to me.
I also just recently got into VR with the PICO 4 and compared to stuff I tried in earlier times, it just is a huge difference. The manufacturer streaming software is getting better (PICO is working on their software in general all the time, I get updates pretty much every 1-2 weeks), but Virtual Desktop is just miles ahead and a must for PC VR imho (I also tried other tools, but none come close). I am not using a cable at all anymore because it just works. You need to have a 5GHz router though, which should be standard these days, but not everyone has that.
I think we are in a place where VR could finally take off, we just need more good games now. The quality of the lenses, the possibility of high resolutions, the pretty much non existent lag, this all together -at least for me- makes VR a real thing to consider now.
Same for me. New to VR and have been playing PCVR games via steam. Very impressed with it. I also got Virtual Desktop after doing some research. The Pico 4 is an impressive bit of kit. I have just got a racing cockpit and am awaiting a steering wheel and pedals and will be racing in VR 😁
Regarding the PS5 Disc drive requiring an internet connection: Gene Park says on twitter even the physical-disc-drive-included version of the console requires an internet connection before the disc drive will work, NOT just the digital edition where you need to buy the drive seperately.
Loved Little Nemo on the NES back in the day. Nice pick up John!
I also want to add about the level of coverage from other media you mentioned that PC gamer had that mesh shader article recently. Something I want to say that's really bad about PC gamer is that in the last several reviews of their I've read about PC games they don't mention extremely basic things like frame rate, stutters, vram usage, resolution they ran at, the system they used. All these things are essential imo for a PC review in a age where games launch in the state they do yet they leave it all out.
Yes they should have an Alex Battalgia performance score. ‘The gameplay is 8/10 but it stutters like a mofo so 2/10 on the Alex scale😂 your right though, I always want to now how well a game runs before I buy it as do most PC gamers so it seems an odd thing to leave out of reviews.
I still maintain that one of the things I like most about EGS is that it doesn't have all the community forums and marketplaces and trading cards etc etc. I like it's more streamlined no fuss approach.
As terrible as they can be, Steam forums and guides in particular are quite helpful. Everyone's now posting Alan Wake 2 help threads on the original Alan Wake forum now because EGS doesn't have an equivalent, it's kinda hilarious. Hell, there isn't even an easy way to view patch notes on Epic's launcher.
@@MrSnaztastic even when I was a heavy Steam user the usefulness of the forums was too low and too toxic. I would end up on reddit more often than not, even random CZcams comment sections proved more fruitful at times. More power to the people that love Steam's features, unfortunately I am not one of them.
40:00 John saying Rockstar released three GTA games on the PS2. Arguably one could argue the Stories games makes it five, notwithstanding they're PSP ports reusing much of the LC and VC geometry.
If the Steam Deck had access to Xbox PC and all of the other non-Steam launchers I'd grab it in a heartbeat. But when half of my library is not available on the Deck even with modding, makes it really difficult to chose it...
Maybe one day.
Yeah, I prioritize GOG purchases and that's one of the big reasons I moved on from the Deck, ergonomics being the other. I do really like what they've done with the screen and the power draw, though.
Only xbox store don't work. Others do, and you can even have one launcher for all of them(Lutris or in some instances Heroic Launcher) and then launch anything from Steam overlay like any other game on Steam Deck
@@damianabregba7476 You can try, but the experience is miserable, it negates many of the advantages of the consolized form factor and the success rate is a coin toss, in my experience. Maybe it's improved since I moved on, but at the time it wasn't great.
I would still love to see official support from Valve, or even from GOG at least. In the meantime, having a Windows handheld with a built-in keyboard in the GPD Win4 is so much smoother, and the extra performance doesn't hurt.
Maybe I'll fire up the old Deck to see if any recent improvements make that shiny new screen and battery life more practical, but I'm not holding my breath.
$350 for a steam deck is absolutely killer depending on use case. So many indie titles, great Linux emulation, steamOS itself. Nothing really compares.
@Packin-HeatMore expensive and worse battery. Depends on the person and their use case I think. Also, some people would prefer SteamOS on a handheld.
@Packin-Heat it's double the price, and generally worse 1% lows than steam deck. ergonomics also aren't very good compared to steam deck. I own both, the ally gets more use on certain games that just don't run well on the deck, but the deck is far more comfortable and a far more consistent experience.
@@dan_loeb 1% lows are exactly that, only slower and only happen 1% of the time. I'd sooner have slightly worse performance 1% of the time, with the other 99% of the time it being being far faster, rather than the other way around. It's not as though the 1% lows (fps dips) are through the floor on the Ally, anyway.
The Ally is also not double the price when you compare it "Apples to Apples" to the competing 512GB version of the Steam Deck. Then it costs $50 for the 512GB Z1 Extreme version or $50 less for the 512GB Z1 version.
The quality of the display on the Ally is also far better than it is on the current Steam Deck, which matters hell of a lot on handhelds.
Most other stuff like the OS, controllers ect. are all subjective and are all based entirely on you own personal requirements, preferences and tastes.
TBH, both have thier pros and cons and neither of them is perfect. The Ally currently has a better display, better newer hardware, it puts out more performance and has wider game and app support (due to Windows). While the Steam Deck has a better battery life, touch pad controllers, easily accessable games (due to SteamOS) and better customer support and feedback.
I'm guessing that in the next few months Levono's Legion Go, will also shake things up a bit. As that looks to take some of the better elements from both and combines them together into a single handheld. Plus, it's in the same ballpark on price, unlike the dozen different Aya Neo's or other Chinese PC handhelds.
@Packin-Heat for you, sure, for me, I own and use both regularly. the steam deck has a far better overall experience. on the ally, I often find windows actively gets in the way. if i'm playing a yakuza game and hold down multiple face buttons while fighting for more than a second, windows decides I wanted to open the notification panel despite the game being full screen, despite being in gamepad input mode, etc. there's tons of terrible ui baggage that comes with windows on small devices that aren't kb+m.
the ally is great if you plan to use it on a charger/power outlet all the time, and are going to have your hands placed down on a table. then it feels pretty good to hold and runs way faster than the deck. the moment you try to use it as a portable, that performance improvement starts to evaporate down from 50% faster to just 20-30% faster at best, and those stutters and hitches really begin to be noticable even with vrr, the frame rate drops low enough with enough consistency to break below the freesync minimum range somewhat frequently in many games. I simply don't have the issue of the game stuttering for a few frames every few minutes on steam deck, the worst issues with steam deck are that certain games just aren't enjoyable, while the experience across all games is negatively affected on the rog.
That SteamOS is very good for just playing a game with little to no setup/configuration
"'cause I just wouldn't" "oh jeeeez"
lolololol love these kinda moments :)
the fps performance in star citizen is REALLY tough to measure run to run. the server simulation speed has an immense factor on in-game fps
Now upgrade your Intel CPU to a 13900k or 14900k lol
KS
All the Steam Deck OLED improvements are awesome, but it’s really a shame the display still isn’t color-calibrated 😔
Wot? Who said that?
And no hall effect analog sticks
@@eSKAone- gulikit will have drop in replacements within a few months. there's already hall effect sticks for the ally.
1:37:58 Spilt my coffee over this
The screen can't do vrr. They took an of the shelf unit in order not to massively increase the price.
I love my Steam Deck so much. The screen is fine, I've never really had any complaints about it, though the battery life can be iffy on high end titles. But then again, what do you expect?
This was a cromulent Direct.
very cromulent
It was the deck that got me back into PC gaming and building.
Had a very long break from PC. I don't have the deck anymore but it's such a great machine. OLED version is surely a sweet spot?
Alex, I also grabbed a 7800X3D to go with a 4090. Rog Strix MB. First thing I did after setting up was Baldurs Gate 3, the third act-town. Huge performance improvement over my 11700 I7 and 4080. The town section is now significantly better in terms of less hitching/camera judder.
It's a beast of a CPU. At 4K and 1440p it's not as huge but at 1080p it's sublime for players who like high refresh rates/FPS.
This guy!! Welcome to fold. Enjoy
I just bought the OG PS5 GOW bundle after I heard id have to buy the stand separately. I'm fine with it being huge. Slim not that much smaller. Update storage later
I love my Steam Deck. I use it far more than my Switch, it performs better, the battery and screen are fine. I think these guys are too critical of it. I never notice the fan, ever. I have a ROG Zepherus G14 laptop which is too hot to sit on your lap, annoying loud and the screen is no better than the Steam Deck's. It cost nearly 4 times that of the deck but is nowhere near 4 times as good, not even twice as good, I would say.
The deck is excellent value for money, in my opinion and the OLED makes it even more attractive. I like how John waxes lyrical about the Switch's OLED screen but had not much to say about the Deck's superior one. Plus he moaned about performance when it significantly outperforms the Switch.
According to LTT (IIRC) VRR on the steam deck OLED isn't going to happen. The reason is that they use a weird connector for the display that doesn't support the adaptive sync protocols.
LTT suggested that the reason they used that connector is that otherwise they would've had to invest a lot more to get a custom screen made, which isn't affordable with the expected production numbers.
Also, VRR does apparently work on an external display.
But I too hope, that eventually we will get VRR in a future Steam Deck successor.
That's interesting 🤔
MIPI and it's more of a protocol than a connector, it's the one of the big black/white connectors the RPI has for example (in addition to HDMI). It's designed for embedded stuff and cheaper than eDP, which is probably why the switch screen that the Steamdeck apparently uses has that one (Nintendo is after all famous for saving a buck)
Virtual Desktop is the best way to play PCVR IMO. Just upgraded from Quest 2 and WiFi 6 to Quest 3 and WiFi 6E mesh WiFi. Massive upgrade in stream quality. I’m sure some of the improvement is just the pancake lens upgrade but it has renewed my passion for VR .
1:37:00 Lol Alex getting worked up about epics inconsistent game launcher then John trolling him hard 😂
Well, as a new owner of a regular deck, i am happy its the same performance, that means more support for the current model for more time. I mean, i am playing games like re4r, monster hunter world and ff7 remake on the current model if people want more power or a better screen there are other devices for that.