The machine comes with Linux, but you're free to put whatever OS on it, like Windows, that you want. You can play your games on it, dock it, and do all your desktop stuff.' 'There's plenty of situations where this might be your only PC.

'In theory, you could be playing your games on this, and then you could plug in like this and make your own game,' says Dalton. One of the more unusual features that we got to see was the Steam Deck being used to run the 3D creation software Blender, with the Steam Deck connected to a monitor and Bluetooth PC peripherals. This was the only demo where I experienced a crash, but between that and our terrible performance, it was at least proof that the demo wasn't some super rehearsed setup, just a realistic idea of progress on the prototypes so far. With me and another Valve developer on a Steam Deck, another joining via desktop PC, and absolutely zero The Ascent experience between the three of us, it took us a shameful amount of time to navigate our way to some combat, and all died far too quickly when we managed it. Playing an online game in co-op - The Ascent - was seamless too. Yes, two people sat in front of a handheld's screen to play a game still feels as ridiculous as it did in all those 'Nintendo Switch at a rooftop bar' commercials, but as a proof of concept for using any controller you have lying around, it was a success. To give the Steam Deck more of a challenge I tried some local co-op with a single console, and two PS5 DualSense controllers connected via the handheld's Bluetooth capabilities.

Valve had previously said it can last anything from 2-8 hours depending on what you're playing, and our short hands-on time didn't leave room to test that theory. I couldn't see what it was like to play a big MMO or a casual hidden object game, but between the touchpads that can be used to control a mouse pointer and the processing power, it's hard to imagine a favorite of mine it couldn't handle.īattery life is definitely going to mean that if you want more than a few hours you'll want your charger around. We were limited in what we got to play - Valve had sought permission from a few specific developers to use their games for the demonstration - but I checked out Doom Eternal, Dying Light: The Following, and Prey.

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