A triple-A game I’ve been eyeing is finally down to a reasonable price on a third party website.

But after seeing how much better Diablo IV performs on my friend’s Xbox, I am really disappointed in myself for buying the PC version to play on my Steam Deck. I play mostly docked and connected to a TV, so the visual experience is something I value.

Diablo IV isn’t the first game I’ve regret purchasing on PC instead of Xbox. For older games, the Steam Deck is great; but it seems like modern games I really need to be wary of. You know what they say, fool me once, strike one, fool me twice… strike… three.

Has anyone else had a similar experience, wishing they’d spent the money on another platform? Is there a rule of thumb you follow on what to purchase, where?

Would it be okay to list the specific games I’m wondering about for input? I love my Steam Deck; but I’d rather not feel platform envy again.

  • morgan423
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    251 year ago

    Yeah, “AAA games on high / beautiful graphics settings” isn’t really the Deck’s forte. FSR upscaling covers up a lot of the worst of docked ugliness, but it has its limits.

    If visual fidelity is a huge deal for someone, and they are going to play docked 90%+ of the time, then they’d probably have been better served by a gaming laptop instead of a Steam Deck. And if one picked up the Deck because it was the best overall value for what they could afford, then they should probably be happy with the capabilities it has, and adjust their expectations a bit.

      • morgan423
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        21 year ago

        If you have good local internet, absolutely. I don’t have a separate pc to stream from personally, but I’ve heard nothing but good things. I’m sure you can find some guides online to get the details.