Steam+ Deals Mega Thread (All PC Gaming Deals)

[Neuro5i5]

This thread will attempt to provide a place to discuss past/present/future PC gaming deals. While mainly focusing on Steam games, any standout sales may also be presented. I will not be updating every Daily/Weekly/etc. sale. The tools to help individuals become a smarter shopper will be provided below.

See this POST for links to store sale pages, threads of interest and other tools to help you become a more informed PC game shopper.

 

[d8onausa]

$499 is MSRP for that card and given we're at the end of a generation, it should be going for $350-400 tops. Being happy its at MSRP is just shock left over from the past two years of nonsense.

Keep in mind that 499 2020 dollars is not 499 Bidenflation dollars. If you account for economic denial, it may be pretty close to $350-400.

 

[MysterD]

Epic Store Stuff:

Notes:

- Epic Summer Sale in effect for those wanting to spend $.

- Free Weekly Games are up over here.

This Week's Freebies:

- Wonder Boys: The Dragon's Trap

- Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms

Next Week's Freebies:

- Shop Titans

- WW1: Tannenberg

 

[Tibor]

Keep in mind that 499 2020 dollars is not 499 Bidenflation dollars. If you account for economic denial, it may be pretty close to $350-400.

Eh, technically but the MSRP's for most cards have been wildly inflated from the norm ignoring currency inflation. The MSRP's were from demand/supply inflation of coin mining mostly with a little bit production lows and shipping delays/costs. The GPU makers, especially Nvidia this round make a lot on selling to miners, they can take the hit to profit margin to help out gamers this time. Gamers being who brought them to the dance anyway 25 years ago.

 

[Syntax Error]

GPU MSRPs are set low by companies who make the majority of their money selling chips to AIBs, not retail video cards.  They benefit from the early buzz about "the QTX 5080 will be $500!" and avoid most of the blowback when Asus actually sells it for $799.

 

[Nothing-]

Eh, technically but the MSRP's for most cards have been wildly inflated from the norm ignoring currency inflation. The MSRP's were from demand/supply inflation of coin mining mostly with a little bit production lows and shipping delays/costs. The GPU makers, especially Nvidia this round make a lot on selling to miners, they can take the hit to profit margin to help out gamers this time. Gamers being who brought them to the dance anyway 25 years ago.

The RTX 3070 was never available 99.99% unavailable as a $499 card in 2020. AiB manufacturers started them at ~$640+ and those were all OOS and continuously unavailable.

They have been $700+ GPUs for two years. The price of what was supposed to be a 3080. The prices announced at Nvidia conferences have meant absolutely nothing unless you were an insanely lucky robot in scoring a Founder's Edition. Or signed up for the EVGA queue the hour the listing went live, and those started around ~$579.

To behave like these were $499 cards two years ago is disingenuous. It's why Nvidia has lost all trust and good faith with their customer base. Price announcements don't mean anything, and sometimes Jensen makes them up right before he takes the stage. The common fallacy that people keep making is believing in and adhering to Nvidia price announcements during August pressers. Then you get upcharged at the point-of-sale; just like calling a plumber or having auto repair. Nvidia has shown us who they are.

 

[Kyle1022]

My Steam Deck order is in, anything I should know before it gets here? Is it worth installing Windows on it or is it fine without it? I got the 512gb model, mostly planning to use it for lighter games and emulation

Bad news is that I got the email literally hours after the Prime Day sale ended. So now I gotta pay $30+ more for a 1tb micro sd

 

[Nephilim_BC]

My Steam Deck order is in, anything I should know before it gets here? Is it worth installing Windows on it or is it fine without it? I got the 512gb model, mostly planning to use it for lighter games and emulation

Bad news is that I got the email literally hours after the Prime Day sale ended. So now I gotta pay $30+ more for a 1tb micro sd

if that's all you plan on doing don't install windows. Emulation is super easy btw. I just used emudeck personally.

 

[Neuro5i5]

Intel will save us, sooner or later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN8ZAf15DrM

Honestly, I'm glad Intel is entering the market. AMD and Nvidia need a more competitive environment.

 

[joeblowv1]

My Steam Deck order is in, anything I should know before it gets here? Is it worth installing Windows on it or is it fine without it? I got the 512gb model, mostly planning to use it for lighter games and emulation

Bad news is that I got the email literally hours after the Prime Day sale ended. So now I gotta pay $30+ more for a 1tb micro sd

Basically my first impressions were.

As simple or as complicated as you want to make it.

If you just want to run steam games from the steam store its a super simple device.

However if you want to crack into emulation, run games from other storefronts like Epic/EA/GOG/Prime Gaming, you'll need to do some extra steps and fiddling for sure. You can go nuts and do all kinds of linuxy stuff to make it your own.

Your call. I'd say that I'm in the middle. I just want to play steam games and free games from Prime gaming or Epic game store.

I haven't found a need to want to install windows yet, but I've mostly just been playing portal 2 on it, and setup ps5 streaming which I've only had time to use once.

 

[Kyle1022]

Would Windows be necessary if I wanted to connect a headset for discord to talk with friends while playing games? What about web browsing and watching youtube or twitch?

 

[gospelman]

Would Windows be necessary if I wanted to connect a headset for discord to talk with friends while playing games? What about web browsing and watching youtube or twitch?

All of that can be done via the browser that is available out of the box in desktop mode. Unless you mean the discord application and not through a browser - unsure about that specifically.

 

[GizmoGC]

if that's all you plan on doing don't install windows. Emulation is super easy btw. I just used emudeck personally.

I just can't get 3DS to work at all.

 

[Nephilim_BC]

I just can't get 3DS to work at all.

I personally haven't tried that one yet. Only tried ps2,gba(RetroArch) and yuzu

 

[samnite]

My Steam Deck order is in, anything I should know before it gets here? Is it worth installing Windows on it or is it fine without it? I got the 512gb model, mostly planning to use it for lighter games and emulation

Bad news is that I got the email literally hours after the Prime Day sale ended. So now I gotta pay $30+ more for a 1tb micro sd

Don't bother with Windows. Just run the games in SteamOS and let it use the WINE prefixes and Proton to get the games to work (basically like a translation layer to get Windows software to run in Linux). By the time you get the Deck in your hands, things will probably be even further along in terms of updates and game testing. You will probably have a smoother experience than those of us who got ours earlier.

https://www.sdeck.wiki/

 

[shrinerr]

I have so little desire to go back to AMD any time soon.

i know i'm late to the party, but i was lucky enough to get a radeon rx 6800 at launch, and have had very few problems with it. i've had a handful of driver crashes, but none of them during actual gameplay. i'm not much of an overclocker/tinkerer, so i can't speak to that. although i have used the adrenalin software to undervolt, and that has worked out fine so far. anyways, i know one case isn't definitive, just wanted to throw my two cents in, and i'm probably an amd fanboy now

 

[joeblowv1]

Would Windows be necessary if I wanted to connect a headset for discord to talk with friends while playing games? What about web browsing and watching youtube or twitch?

Yeah watch some videos. Desktop mode is linux but it runs just like any other desktop computer and you can use the built in firefox browser for everything there.

Don't use discord or Twitch or any of that, so can't really comment on what that experience is like in game mode.

 

[Captain Wrong]

I'm a tinkerer. I've already had to restore my Steam Deck three times, lol. I'm running all sorts of games on it. I've found no need for Windows.

 

[joeblowv1]

I'm a tinkerer. I've already had to restore my Steam Deck three times, lol. I'm running all sorts of games on it. I've found no need for Windows.

Why specifically? Just want to avoid borking something if I can help it. I got a prime gaming game to work pretty easily. But no controller setup for that, so I'll have to monkey with that.

Working on the Mass Effect Trilogy from origin and getting that going.

- Launchers are annoying.

 

[MysterD]

Why specifically? Just want to avoid borking something if I can help it. I got a prime gaming game to work pretty easily. But no controller setup for that, so I'll have to monkey with that.

Working on the Mass Effect Trilogy from origin and getting that going.

- Launchers are annoying.

Wait, has EA even officially ported Origin themselves over to Linux or Steam OS?

 

[etcrane]

Not officially but you can still get Origin and Epic launchers running fairly easily on Steam Deck … Battle.net too. GOG is a bigger pain in the ass for some reason, but there are Linux apps that make it easier.

I’m interested in emulating semi-newer consoles, but the time to get those up and running seems significant. Still, the fact you can potentially emulate a current gen console is impressive.

 

[caldazar]

I too just got to order my Steam Deck, so I appreciate the posts and questions people have put out there. I'm curious to get Ubi working on it, and maybe Origins for ME: Legendary - but honestly my Steam backlog is such that I will have a ton of games I can install and play just from that.

Are there particular SD cards that you all have had better/worse luck with?

 

[Insomniac_34]

although i have used the adrenalin software to undervolt, and that has worked out fine so far.

That was actually one of my main reasons for disliking the software: I use sleep mode constantly and any time I'd awake from sleep, it would remove my undervolt. Also had a number of black-screen issues (which might've been the card more than the software) and issues with high clocks/temps during Youtube playback. The one thing I do miss is using FreeSync on a FreeSync monitor. G-Sync compatibility works alright but it's just not as good in my experience.

So yeah, I'd never say never to AMD in the future, but it would have to be bargain.

 

[Captain Wrong]

Why specifically? Just want to avoid borking something if I can help it. I got a prime gaming game to work pretty easily. But no controller setup for that, so I'll have to monkey with that.

Working on the Mass Effect Trilogy from origin and getting that going.

- Launchers are annoying.

I was doing some fancy stuff with specific emulators and trying to download system components, etc. It was a pretty out there sort of situation that unless you are like me and looking for trouble, you're not going to find it. (FWIW, the recovery process was painless and I lost nothing. If you're worried, it's worth making a drive ahead of time. Steam has the instructions on their site.)

Also, for Origin, try Lutris. https://lutris.net/

 

[joeblowv1]

Wait, has EA even officially ported Origin themselves over to Linux or Steam OS?

Lmao no. EA Sucks I'm just in it for the Free Game I got from prime day. You have to use Lutris or Heroic or something like that. Or bare minimum just use the proton compatibility in steam.

I too just got to order my Steam Deck, so I appreciate the posts and questions people have put out there. I'm curious to get Ubi working on it, and maybe Origins for ME: Legendary - but honestly my Steam backlog is such that I will have a ton of games I can install and play just from that.

Are there particular SD cards that you all have had better/worse luck with?

Pretty sure the bus speed isn't amazing fast, so you don't need a super high end card. I just got a regular SanDisk Ultra 1TB because it was on sale for Prime Day folks with them have said they're more than serviceable. 512GB Samsung Evos (the light blue cards) get rave reviews on the sub reddit.

 

[joeblowv1]

I was doing some fancy stuff with specific emulators and trying to download system components, etc. It was a pretty out there sort of situation that unless you are like me and looking for trouble, you're not going to find it. (FWIW, the recovery process was painless and I lost nothing. If you're worried, it's worth making a drive ahead of time. Steam has the instructions on their site.)

Also, for Origin, try Lutris. https://lutris.net/

I " remembered" something for lutris. Does this help in automapping the controls? If so thats a godsend in itself.

 

[caldazar]

Pretty sure the bus speed isn't amazing fast, so you don't need a super high end card. I just got a regular SanDisk Ultra 1TB because it was on sale for Prime Day folks with them have said they're more than serviceable. 512GB Samsung Evos (the light blue cards) get rave reviews on the sub reddit.

I am wondering if I need 1TB, or if another 512GB would be sufficient...I too got the top-tier deck, and I figure I will probably not go crazy with it. I wonder, can you swap between SD cards if you have a couple with different games loaded, or would that cause potential problems down the road...

 

[PhilThePhilosophile]

It looks like everyone is going to get their Age of Empires IV keys revoked from the GMG price glitch. I guess it doesn't even matter if you redeemed the key on Steam or not, they will still revoke it and give you your money back.

Honestly, probably a good thing. By the time I get around to playing it, it will probably be on sale for $5 anyhow.

Has your or anyone's game been revoked and/or removed from the Steam library yet? Mine has not although it has been refunded... Just curious has to how long these price mistake revocations are.

 

[joeblowv1]

I am wondering if I need 1TB, or if another 512GB would be sufficient...I too got the top-tier deck, and I figure I will probably not go crazy with it. I wonder, can you swap between SD cards if you have a couple with different games loaded, or would that cause potential problems down the road...

I have the 256 and went the route of the 1TB just so I never have to worry about swapping cards. Multiple 512's is cheaper and you'll have access to higher quality cards for better prices. There just aren't that many 1TB cards out there yet that its a "common" size.

From what I've read a lot of people recommend juggling a few 512TB cards.

However it just depends on how much you plan on storing/hoarding on your steam deck. If you use steam for MOST of your gaming, it seems really easy to just uninstall games until you want to play them again.

If you want to use lots of non steam games and emulators, the more storage the better cause once you set that up youre not going to want to delete and re-install later.

 

[MysterD]

Not officially but you can still get Origin and Epic launchers running fairly easily on Steam Deck … Battle.net too. GOG is a bigger pain in the ass for some reason, but there are Linux apps that make it easier.

I’m interested in emulating semi-newer consoles, but the time to get those up and running seems significant. Still, the fact you can potentially emulate a current gen console is impressive.

Thanks for all of the info on that.

Also about GOG - I know it's been a complaint on their forums about that never being officially brought to Linux/Steam OS - but, are there any good ways to install Galaxy onto the Deck? Or any good programs/apps or clients that can emulate/run Galaxy?

Or are there in general any good distros/versions of Linux that can run Galaxy?

 

[etcrane]

If we’re talking emulators that will run through the Linux desktop, don’t discount the fact you can buy a small usb-c thumb drive to store games on that can plug in through the charging port or an external dock. Makes it easier to load off a PC and move to the Deck imo.

 

[psunami]

Not sure if someone posted it, but Bioware has closed their points shop and has made all of the DLC for Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles free to acquire.  

Some of the DLC for Dragon Age Origins seems to be acting a bit odd right now, but I was able to acquire everything for Dragon Age 2 (and Mass Effect 2) via the Origin client.  

 

[caldazar]

I have the 256 and went the route of the 1TB just so I never have to worry about swapping cards. Multiple 512's is cheaper and you'll have access to higher quality cards for better prices. There just aren't that many 1TB cards out there yet that its a "common" size.

From what I've read a lot of people recommend juggling a few 512TB cards.

However it just depends on how much you plan on storing/hoarding on your steam deck. If you use steam for MOST of your gaming, it seems really easy to just uninstall games until you want to play them again.

If you want to use lots of non steam games and emulators, the more storage the better cause once you set that up youre not going to want to delete and re-install later.

Great points - honestly I will be using my PC still mainly for gaming, and the steam deck when I want to chill somewhere other than my home office. I imagine another 512GB will be more than sufficient. As it is I rarely play the nearly 2.5TB of titles I currently have installed

 

[Souffrir]

Not sure if someone posted it, but Bioware has closed their points shop and has made all of the DLC for Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles free to acquire.

Some of the DLC for Dragon Age Origins seems to be acting a bit odd right now, but I was able to acquire everything for Dragon Age 2 (and Mass Effect 2) via the Origin client.

Now the question is, do I play the original ME trilogy with all the DLC now that they’ve done this, Legendary since I just got it for free, or continue to not play either the way I’ve been doing?

 

[MysterD]

Now the question is, do I play the original ME trilogy with all the DLC now that they’ve done this, Legendary since I just got it for free, or continue to not play either the way I’ve been doing?

ME: Legendary, if you can swing it.

Namely b/c ME1's combat and leveling-system is much improved over the OG Trilogy. ME1 from Legendary still ain't say on ME2's or ME3's level of combat, but it's still much better than OG ME1. Mako supposedly runs and plays better too - but I ain't got that far yet either. You also have gamepad support out-the-box w/ Legendary too - in case you wanted to do that for some reason; especially if you just walking around and not in combat & you want to be comfy and all, leaning back in your computer gaming chair, sofa or wherever you sitting.

Just know that if you play Legendary, you're always stuck w/ Origin no matter which game you play on there; you need that junky-client running in the background at all times.

With OG versions ME1+2 - well, you don't really need Origin running to run the game. Though, you'll need Origin running for ME3 as it's pretty much required there.

EDIT - ME1,2,3 Old versions probably take up way less space altogether though and probably has much lower system req's. And you don't have to keep all 3 games installed at once, if you're say starving for space.

ME: Legendary is over 100GB easy - and you have to have the entire thing installed; it can't be broken into pieces. You're also gonna have to consider that stuff too.

 

[elessar123]

Not sure if someone posted it, but Bioware has closed their points shop and has made all of the DLC for Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles free to acquire.

Some of the DLC for Dragon Age Origins seems to be acting a bit odd right now, but I was able to acquire everything for Dragon Age 2 (and Mass Effect 2) via the Origin client.

So does that mean the DLC will still be accessible for the foreseeable future?

 

[lastemp3ror]

Would you believe me if I said there is a great indiegala bundle out right now?

https://www.indiegala.com/store/game/pdx-mini-legacy-bundle/paradox_bundle

I own most of the base games, but I think it is still worth it for the DLC's.

 

[MysterD]

Would you believe me if I said there is a great indiegala bundle out right now?

https://www.indiegala.com/store/game/pdx-mini-legacy-bundle/paradox_bundle

I own most of the base games, but I think it is still worth it for the DLC's.

Oh, I'm missing some of the DLC's for BattleTech here (Heavy Metal and Urban Warfare DLC's)!!!

I am missing everything Knights of Pen & Paper 1 and 2; and also Age of Wonders PF Premium.

I own Pillars already and all of its DLC's.


Looks like a good way to collect some BattleTech DLC's and some Complete Ed's that I'm missing here (Age of Wonders PF and both Knights of Pen 1+2).

 

[psunami]

So does that mean the DLC will still be accessible for the foreseeable future?

That is what I saw. If you claim it on Origin, you get it forever.

From the article I read, they killed the Bioware points store... and since you couldn't buy things anymore, they just made the DLC free to acquire.

 

[Kyle1022]

The Mass Effect Legendary Edition is also missing the Pinnacle Station DLC for ME1, since Bioware apparently lost the source code. But there is a mod on Nexus that adds the DLC back in and even fixes some stuff from the original. Leave it to modders to do what Bioware and EA won't/can't do

 

[MysterD]

The Mass Effect Legendary Edition is also missing the Pinnacle Station DLC for ME1, since Bioware apparently lost the source code. But there is a mod on Nexus that adds the DLC back in and even fixes some stuff from the original. Leave it to modders to do what Bioware and EA won't/can't do

Here's the Pinnacle Station DLC Mod for ME1: Legendary.

 

[samnite]

I am wondering if I need 1TB, or if another 512GB would be sufficient...I too got the top-tier deck, and I figure I will probably not go crazy with it. I wonder, can you swap between SD cards if you have a couple with different games loaded, or would that cause potential problems down the road...

I bought the 512gb Deck and said that I could get by with two 512gb SD Cards (Samsung EVO $55) instead of paying a $20 upcharge for one 1 TB Sandisk card ($130 unless you snagged the $109 Prime day deal) in basic grey.

I ultimately wound up deciding the 1 TB Cards were worth the slight extra cost due to the convenience factor and my need to hoard data in one place. I have an Xfinity data cap so I plan to use up my data allowance at the end of the month to store my games on SD Cards. The 512GB internal drive handles all the shader cache and compat data. I also use it for the Heroic Games Launcher GOG/EPIC games.

Has your or anyone's game been revoked and/or removed from the Steam library yet? Mine has not although it has been refunded... Just curious has to how long these price mistake revocations are.

I installed the game on my Deck yesterday and it required an internet connection on the first boot. I am waiting for the hammer to drop but so far so good as the game still works. Maybe it will still work after the revocation if I play offline only?

Thanks for all of the info on that.

Also about GOG - I know it's been a complaint on their forums about that never being officially brought to Linux/Steam OS - but, are there any good ways to install Galaxy onto the Deck? Or any good programs/apps or clients that can emulate/run Galaxy?

Or are there in general any good distros/versions of Linux that can run Galaxy?

Don't bother installing GOG Galaxy. Use Heroic Games Launcher to install GOG games. From there, you have the DRM-Free versions of the files so you can configure them to work with Dosbox (there is a flatpak for it). The Windows 95/98 games can still be hit or miss (Interstate 76 and original Diablo and Warcraft 2 namely for me) but hopefully compatibility improves with time.

 

[ezelkow1]

I am wondering if I need 1TB, or if another 512GB would be sufficient...I too got the top-tier deck, and I figure I will probably not go crazy with it. I wonder, can you swap between SD cards if you have a couple with different games loaded, or would that cause potential problems down the road...

if you can afford it, and you have a large library, having options is nice . However if your whole steam library is at 2.5TB right now, then I dont know if it would be worth it since probably some of those games you wouldnt want to play on the deck, some you dont care about, etc. So another 512 might work fine for you.

I have the 512 plus a 1tb card and for me its perfect, gives me ~300gb for all the rom collections and can then throw a ton of games that I think Id want to play/try on it over there while saving the main storage for more often played games and ones that need a bit more speed.

Hot swapping cards is supposed to work like a charm. I personally havent done it but saw a video of it and it works exactly how you'd expect. You pop one out, those games stop being shown in your library, pop in a new one and all the games on there then show up. It's the same as having multiple steam libraries on a PC across different drives

 

[DD83]

Back to topic...

Spoilered for heart health.

Spoiler

 

[samnite]

if you can afford it, and you have a large library, having options is nice . However if your whole steam library is at 2.5TB right now, then I dont know if it would be worth it since probably some of those games you wouldnt want to play on the deck, some you dont care about, etc. So another 512 might work fine for you.

I have the 512 plus a 1tb card and for me its perfect, gives me ~300gb for all the rom collections and can then throw a ton of games that I think Id want to play/try on it over there while saving the main storage for more often played games and ones that need a bit more speed.

Hot swapping cards is supposed to work like a charm. I personally havent done it but saw a video of it and it works exactly how you'd expect. You pop one out, those games stop being shown in your library, pop in a new one and all the games on there then show up. It's the same as having multiple steam libraries on a PC across different drives

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/twrrx5/be_very_careful_when_swapping_micro_sd_cards/

I am too afraid to try hot-swapping with my $100+ 1TB cards lol. Maybe it works fine but I just shut off my deck between swapping cards. I guess if you use cheaper lower capacity cards then it makes sense but even then I would go to desktop mode and unmount before ejecting to be safe. I also don't want to put too much stress on the SD Card slot with frequent card swapping. I really wish we had more openings on the deck. A USB-A opening would have been convenient for thumb-drives and external HDs and peripherals. Also would put less stress on the one USB-C opening available for charging.

Maybe they did that to get us to buy the dock eventually...

 

[Alien Spider]

Hi all, another PC gaming convert here courtesy of the Steam Deck. It took me literally a year after preordering to get it, and so far it was totally worth the wait. I love this thing! I’m playing FF7 Remake on it right now, for the most part it’s been buttery smooth. I have a huge collection of Steam games I’ve amassed going all the way back to ‘05 when I got my copy of Half Life 2 for my Birthday. Boy that was fun to get going over dialup. Since then I’ve acquired over 1,000 games, mostly from random cheap bundles over the years. A bunch of them I’ve checked are at least in Playable state with the Steam Deck, so I don’t think I’ll run out of games to play anytime soon. I used to be big into PC gaming, but it just got too expensive to “keep up” and consoles really started offering much more “bang for your buck”, at least in my opinion.

Anyway, I’ll definitely be checking out this thread a lot more! Thanks everyone!

edit\ wow it was actually 2005 not 2007 when I created my Steam account for Half Life 2. Time flies!

 

[MysterD]

Hi all, another PC gaming convert here courtesy of the Steam Deck. It took me literally a year after preordering to get it, and so far it was totally worth the wait. I love this thing! I’m playing FF7 Remake on it right now, for the most part it’s been buttery smooth. I have a huge collection of Steam games I’ve amassed going all the way back to ‘05 when I got my copy of Half Life 2 for my Birthday. Boy that was fun to get going over dialup. Since then I’ve acquired over 1,000 games, mostly from random cheap bundles over the years. A bunch of them I’ve checked are at least in Playable state with the Steam Deck, so I don’t think I’ll run out of games to play anytime soon. I used to be big into PC gaming, but it just got too expensive to “keep up” and consoles really started offering much more “bang for your buck”, at least in my opinion.

Anyway, I’ll definitely be checking out this thread a lot more! Thanks everyone!

edit\ wow it was actually 2005 not 2007 when I created my Steam account for Half Life 2. Time flies!

Welcome back to PC Gaming.

This is where it's at, IMHO - whether you have the right Switch-like portable device like say the Steam Deck, a kick-ass gaming laptop, and/or a bad-ass beast of a PC Desktop - w/ the number of games you can get cheap from Bundle Sites like Fanatical & Humble w/ their Bundles and also their Store Sales; Sales on 3rd party sites (Amazon, Gamersgate, GMG, Fanatical, Humble, etc etc); Free Epic Giveaways weekly; Steam Giveaways when dev's give 'em away once and a full moon; IndieGala giveaways; Digital Stores like GOG, Steam, Origin, etc etc - yeah, always great to be into PC Gaming.

About expensive w/ PC gaming and trying to "keep up" - eh, game prices are cheap here; this ain't console-gaming. We don't blow say $500 per console; don't pay monthly/yearly for say XBL, PSN, etc; and don't buy games normally when expensive at $50-70+ MSRP. Buy smart & buy low on games, if you want to get a ton of games. Watch ITAD, GG Deals, Slickdeals, CAG, etc etc - don't miss a beat; watch 'em all. Provided you got the $ - pounce when the deals happens.

Looks like you've done fine, getting 1000 games or so, while not even doing PC Gaming.

About hardware - buy in sales, don't spend full price. Steam Deck's probably the exception for many on that though. Regardless, hardware ain't cheap normally - but if there's a good hardware deal you see & you got the $, swing it. Often, when new hardware's coming - good time to pounce, if someone's clearance-ing "old" hardware steep, if you can catch a deal like that.

 

[caldazar]

Hi all, another PC gaming convert here courtesy of the Steam Deck. It took me literally a year after preordering to get it, and so far it was totally worth the wait. I love this thing! I’m playing FF7 Remake on it right now, for the most part it’s been buttery smooth. I have a huge collection of Steam games I’ve amassed going all the way back to ‘05 when I got my copy of Half Life 2 for my Birthday. Boy that was fun to get going over dialup. Since then I’ve acquired over 1,000 games, mostly from random cheap bundles over the years. A bunch of them I’ve checked are at least in Playable state with the Steam Deck, so I don’t think I’ll run out of games to play anytime soon. I used to be big into PC gaming, but it just got too expensive to “keep up” and consoles really started offering much more “bang for your buck”, at least in my opinion.

Anyway, I’ll definitely be checking out this thread a lot more! Thanks everyone!

edit\ wow it was actually 2005 not 2007 when I created my Steam account for Half Life 2. Time flies!

Oh, FF7 is on my wish list. Now I'm wishing I snagged it up already to try out! Unless FedEx is lying to me, I'll have my Steam Deck in hand later today.

I ended up biting the bullet and ordered a 1TB micro SD card. That will take a hot minute to get here, but I'll survive until then.

Welcome (back) to PC gaming!

 

[Alien Spider]

Thanks! All good suggestions, right now I primarily use ITAD for alerts on individual games and CAG and Wario64 on Twitter to keep up with deals/bundles. PC parts are very expensive, at least to me, a decent graphics card costing as much as a whole console is hard to stomach when you’re a dad on a budget. I love building systems, but I just don’t have the time or money to invest. Maybe when the cryptocurrency bubbles finally bursts and my sons get older I’ll see things differently. But anyway, the Steamdeck is awesome, and I convinced my wife to let me get her one too. It doesn’t look like she’ll have to wait as long as I did though, she’ll supposedly get hers in Oct.

Yeah, FF7R, I splurged and got it when GMG had it for $40 w/coupon last month. I haven’t spent that much on a PC game in years but I knew I’d be getting my Steamdeck soon and that the game was Verified so I figured, what the heck. I also played a bit of Slay the Spire, another awesome game. I went with a 1TB micro sd card also. A lot of the games I really want to play were PlayStation exclusives, since I have no interest in getting an actual PS. Those games are huge though, FF7R is almost 100GB by itself.

Game on! [emoji41]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MysterD]

Thanks! All good suggestions, right now I primarily use ITAD for alerts on individual games and CAG and Wario64 on Twitter to keep up with deals/bundles. PC parts are very expensive, at least to me, a decent graphics card costing as much as a whole console is hard to stomach when you’re a dad on a budget. I love building systems, but I just don’t have the time or money to invest. Maybe when the cryptocurrency bubbles finally bursts and my sons get older I’ll see things differently. But anyway, the Steamdeck is awesome, and I convinced my wife to let me get her one too. It doesn’t look like she’ll have to wait as long as I did though, she’ll supposedly get hers in Oct.

Yeah, FF7R, I splurged and got it when GMG had it for $40 w/coupon last month. I haven’t spent that much on a PC game in years but I knew I’d be getting my Steamdeck soon and that the game was Verified so I figured, what the heck. I also played a bit of Slay the Spire, another awesome game. I went with a 1TB micro sd card also. A lot of the games I really want to play were PlayStation exclusives, since I have no interest in getting an actual PS. Those games are huge though, FF7R is almost 100GB by itself.

Game on! [emoji41]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think NVidia was doing the video cards around the whole XSX/PS5 release, they probably priced it (3070) at $500 MSRP to make some people decide b/t new consoles or new GPU.

I also wonder w/ SteamDeck, in the $400-500 range - if Valve's trying to make people decide b/t portable Steam Deck, a new GPU, or a console (XSS/XSX or PS5).

IIRC, I think FF15 Windows Edition for PC w/ all of the DLC's is even bigger than 100GB. Maybe when this lighting madness stops, I'll go take a look at the size of that game.

Heck, some games on PC like ARK are over 300GB; and some recent COD's are 200+GB. Crazy.

ME: Legendary is also a little over 100GB here on PC too.

EDIT:

Digital Foundry here is looking at what games they can push to 1080p, 1440p & 4K on the Steam Deck:

https://youtu.be/UZKBSf3aLf4

 

[BobbyTastic]

Yeah, that video is one of the reasons why I'm holding out for Steam Deck 2.0 or 3.0. Neither the hardware nor the software are there (yet) for a fully baked hybrid device. Until then, I'm content with my Switch and a laptop that can play games.
Fortunately, I think the Deck has sold well enough that Valve will actually iterate on tech for once so I'm grateful to the early adopters.