This is true, but there's also a real lack of small pickups on the market. The fuckers just seem to be getting bigger and bigger. I used to have a Proton Jumbuck and it was really useful. Used it a lot for hauling wood and soil, it was small enough to get around and park easily in the city. I got rid of it eventually because it was so hard to find parts, shame, it was a handy little machine.

Yeah, me too. But I find not getting really hammered achieves a similar thing. I'm working on that.

Yeah, I live in a small space so the steam deck is my only gaming device. Never tried VR but was considering the steam frame just for the big screen experience.

The timing here really fucked valve. They announced these products around the same moment that component prices went through the fuckin roof. Hopefully the price will drop in a year or so

Valve seem to have been pretty good so far about keeping scalpers from becoming part of their distribution network. Compared to the shit we saw with the PS5, for example.

Yeah, wish I'd thought of it. There are always fools with too much money.

Yeah, I've built PCs before, could do it again, but I'm busy and I can't be arsed. Also, it would probably cost about the same as this machine, just with me doing the labour. Plus, this device looks nice and valve have so far got a good record of making quality hardware, at least IMO.

Yeah, I'm on a similar salary. The only reason I could afford my steam deck is because I live in a van. Housing is most people's biggest expense. Reducing that means I have a bit of disposable income, even a small savings account. But it's not an ideal situation, and not feasible at all for some people.

Yeah, but my 386 had a turbo button!

My first computer was a ZX81 with a mighty 1k RAM. Didn't do much with it. Then I got a Sinclair spectrum with 48k, you could do a lot with that. That's when gaming got good for me.

I always seem to take at least twice the stated play time to finish a game. Yeah, I think I'm just a bit slow. But if I'm enjoying myself, no stress. I'm playing baldur's gate at the mo, 140 hours in and I've only just started act 2.

Seen the one where the guy hears a car alarm chirp and it triggers his gambling impulse? Like, he hadn't been thinking about it but every day sounds can bring on the urge. That is absolutely advertising an addiction, crazy that this shit is legal, especially given that they get upset with me for using small doses of opiates to get through my day.

Yeah just recently. Never played this type of game before but I'm really enjoying it.

It's very unlikely to be playable on the steam deck, so I won't be playing it. That's my only gaming device. Looking forward to seeing others enjoying it tho.

A turd in a brown paper bag makes a good shit grenade.

Fair. Thing is, Microsoft are changing windows anyway, what with all the unwanted features they're integrating.

The IT dept at my work uses exclusively Microsoft shit. Like, google products are banned on my work phone, as is pretty much everything else. They said this is for security and to help them remain GDPR compliant. As you might imagine, it's shit.

Lol yeah that could be true. I'd definitely be first in line for a steam deck 2, the first one is a great little machine.

Not entirely. It's an android so it does have the play store, but only about a dozen apps are allowed to be installed. I can't even install what 3 words, which my work uses constantly. Also I'd like to install the Google swipe keyboard, cos the Microsoft one is shit.

Basically, the combination of a device that's locked down hard and it only allowing MS products makes my work slower and harder than it needs to be.

Yeah I tried 5 recently, it held up okay for a fairly old game.

That's a blast from the past! I used to play it on the Amiga in like 1990. Loved it too.

I prefer Firefox, so I was using that as default browser. Windows asked me every fucking time I started my laptop if I wanted to use edge as default. Sometimes it just went ahead and made the change anyway. Windows was consuming loads of my download data, fuck knows what for. Then the copilot stuff. Finally installed mint and feel like I got my laptop back.