Quote from a HN thread
My main game console right now is one of those little gaming boxes you can buy on Amazon for about $400, where I have installed NixOS + Jovian to get the “SteamOS” interface.
I really like it. It really does feel like a “game console”; usually when I’ve made my own console using Linux, it always feels kind of janky. For example, RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi is pretty cool, but it doesn’t feel like a proper commercial product, it feels like a developer made a GUI to launch games.
I have like 750 games on Steam that I have hoarded over the years, in addition to the Epic Games Store and GOG, which can be installed with Heroic, and the fact that I can play them on a “console” instead of a computer makes it much easier to play in my living room or bedroom. It even works fine with the Xbox One controllers; I use the official Microsoft USB dongle to minimize latency, it works great.
I think there actually is a chance that Valve could really be a real competitor, if not a winner.
I have one of the higher-end beelinks. Super small, quiet, doesn’t get hot and I can play modern AAA titles on it, driving my huge screen TV in my living room.
Can you quantify this? Which Beelink? Are you powering a 4K TV? When you talk about playing modern AAA games, which ones, and what settings do you run at?
Fortnite, Cyberpunk, Starfield, probably others I’m forgetting I believe the TV is 4K, yeah. It’s the Beelink SER9 AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 12core/24thread AI PC Turbo Freq 5.1GHz
The online multiplayer for the original version of Modern Warfare and other older games still works fine on Linux and even has community modded maps and modes.
You can already get a decent generic brand mini gaming PC for like $380 with a Ryzen 7 7840HS, which has a 780M that is twice as powerful as the Steam Deck’s GPU and a significantly faster CPU. I have my doubts that Valve can pull off making a mini PC 2x as powerful as that for like $500. I’m guessing it’ll probably be more like $700-$800.
I like the idea of the Steam Machine, but it won’t be worth it to me at that price for a HTPC and PC games I’d be playing on the couch. A cheaper mini PC sounds like a better fit.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ they’re cutting themselves out of a potential market, while I still have ton of other games to play.
You couldn’t pay me to play cod or fortnite.
Like 80% of the games I already play are random indie stuff. I buy maybe 1-2 new big studio games a year, and even those aren’t exactly AAA. Right now, feels like big studios aren’t trying hard to produce actually interesting games, just more franchise slop.
Steam machine got a solid “Oooooooo! Can’t afford one right now but I’m sure keeping an eye on this one!” out of me.
Honestly the whole “modern tech style” thing is making me feel feel off.
The controller looks nice tho. Supports linux and would go well with retroarch to emulate old games on thinkpad.
Hell maybe a raspberry pi connected to the TV monitor.
Did you want it to come in a Beige Box?
I personally like wood exterior or utilitarian sheet metal with no lights.
https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/hands-on-with-steam-machine-valves-new-pcconsole-hybrid
The front panel comes off, you can have a steam machine with a wood exterior if you really want
Honestly I expect someone to make custom cases for it. If valve don’t release a model there will at least be someone doing a 3d printed model that fits the board.
I would absolutely fuck with a beige/Earth tone box.
It’s mostly heat sink and fan out the back, cube shape is no frills and works great for what it is.
I think the faceplates will be swappable so I can get that custom gabecube look.
In my case I just can’t see the appeal. If you want a small desktop computer, just build an itx machine that can be fixed and upgraded.
If the price point is around 500$/€ I think it would be challenging to build a good pc for less than that
It’s likely the steam machine will be repairable, what makes you think otherwise?
Not everyone loves to build a computer, look for compatible parts, compare 100 prices, choose a distro, spend 2 or 3 days troubleshooting unexpected things anyhow… The appeal of this box for people who want a “decent” hardware with steam/Linux on an open machine (free to install whatever you want afterwards) plug and play ready out of the box looks pretty damn big too me, if the price will be low enough. Not everyone is a tinkerer to the same degree or has enough time for it. This will for sure open Linux to a broader audience, that are interested but scared or short on skill/knowledge/time. Plus you get support, the real kind, not only random people on forums. Maybe it’s not for you, but to me the appeal is enormous. If it’s priced sharp enough I’ll probably get one and make it my “smart” TV device.
Feels like a solid replacement for my Apple TV.
Technically there is Call of Duty, just the older ones, which do still have people playing, and you can get bots for them, etc.
One has to be careful when going online on “old” CoDs, because most of them have an RCE exploit and won’t get (at least officially) patched
Oh how I would love to boot up the original MW2 and feel that old rush again but alas, without sandboxing (and even with) the experience is probably not worth my time or money.
just use Alterware and you don’t have to worry about that
Also no Roblox, if you were still on the fence.
Stop, I can only get so erect!
Actually you can play Roblox on Linux. There’s Sober.
I know it’s probably named in reference to wine, but I like the idea of a Linux Roblox program (emulator? I don’t know Linux or video games) as someone’s manic sobriety project*.
/* I don’t know if this is an identified thing, but most of the large number of recovering addicts I know sort of displace that manic type of love for the substance or behavior into one or more hobbies of some sort at first (examples include: repairing an old boat or classic car, building a house or cabin, making furniture or art, a bunch of types of exercise, joining a club, building furniture or bikes, or cooking) and gradually learn moderation afterwards.
I thought so too but I was able to get it running when my friends partner really wanted to play bingo in roblox with me. Worked fine after some setup
Lucky for me, my kids are past it.
Ok but those Call of Duty games for the DS were always so interesting to me. The attempt to take such a bombastic console experience and squeeze it onto a handheld often produced janky results, but it was a charming kind of jank
I was on a forum, back in the day, focused on weird, or otherwise niche DS ports, and those games were easily the most popular.
They even had tournaments with the Developers, which was neat
No League as well.
Hmm… I’m getting the urge to play league again. It’s annoying that linux doesn’t run it because of their ridiculous anticheat.
It is quite fun if you don’t take it too seriously.
No League, no Valorant, no GTA Online, no Battlefield 6, no Rainbow Six Siege
So not much of value is lost
I once tried Valorant, recommended by a friend. I liked it but the community didn’t like me (since I suck), so I didn’t play more.
Trying to uninstall it was such a mess that I think the kernel level anti cheat was in my windows install until I got rid of said windows install
I’m already buying it, you don’t have to sell it to me.
Stop, I can only get so hard.
I’ve never understood these memes. If you don’t want to play whatever game, don’t play it. How do you somehow convince yourself that you’re superior to others due to your inability to run certain programs?
The thing is that with W10 going EOL, everyone is going to be forced to learn a new OS, regardless if they want to or not (W11has been out for years, if you havent jumped, there is likely a reason). Lemmy users being the socially concious crusaders that they are, are encouraging people to make a better choice than defaulting to Windows again (given all its very real issues of useability and data harcesting).
Not having access to preditory games due to self-imposed tech limitations isnt high on the list of reasons to choose linux, but its good shitpost material.
Linux users are a different breed.
G*mers are a different breed.
Linux G*mers. Holy jesus.
joke is that not being able to play things you don’t like are a bonus. it’s a joke about how much you dislike that. now if you excuse me, I have a frog to dissect
Issa joke. Making fun at the expense of AAA games :)
I understand that it’s a joke, but the humor isn’t making sense to me, and I especially don’t see how it’s at the expense of AAA games
I guess it comes from a point where Linux gamers have been neglected by major studios for so long and now that there are enough other options they don’t have any power on them.
it’s associative, the negative associations with Call of Duty players cannot be transferred to a console that doesn’t support that game, so for people who want to avoid those associations it’s a plus
There’s definitely something to this. Like I’m often scared to be part of any group because inevitably someone in that group will be an asshole. I have played video games for a long time but I refuse to refer to myself as a “gamer” because of the associations.
I also notice I hate when something I love becomes too popular, precisely because it loses its initial associations with the group I was happy to associate with, and becomes associated with a larger group that I don’t feel connection with (or worse, becomes associated with a toxic fan base I actively don’t want to be associated with - e.g. Rick and Morty, I love the show but developed shame for enjoying it, once it became popular and its biggest fans created negative associations with liking the show; you can tell yourself to ignore the shame, but I admittedly no longer identify as a fan of Rick and Morty because of what it will communicate to people about me).
You can install Windows on it if you really want to.
Regrettably this stops me from forcing my archaic belief system on my children.
I mean you can always do it anyway and take away their ability to play those games. They will hate you for now, but later when they grow up, they will probably still hate you but a little less.
You might not play them, but others might. Exclusivity is always fucking bad, you’re not only normalising it, you’re celebrating it.
But hopefully this is the push they need. I got no horse in this race. Not games I’m playing and I’m not buying gabecube.
Then tell Epic and Infinity Ward/Treyarch (or whoever cranks those out like Madden games now) about it. It’s their fault these games are not supported on linux by requiring kernel level anti-cheat instead of server side anti-cheat.
Take Destiny for another example, runs perfectly fine on linux, until Bungie permabans your acct for playing on linux.
It’s not linux’s fault, it’s the shitass companies refusing to be good at things.
Jesus, I wasnt going to buy it… But this just sold me on it lol Day one purchase for me now!
Is anybody playing Fortnite these days though?
Look, it’s not my thing either, but let’s not act like a game that just a few days ago peaked at 50 million players is some dying fad.
Real? I simply didn’t know that.
Eh, I still play it from time to time. It’s a good fast paced shooter I can play with the entire fam on a large number of devices. We don’t play it religiously or anything, but a week or so every battlepass. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Many people I would assume it’s just not so mainstream anymore
It just recently peaked at 50 million players lol. I hate the thing but it’s still very mainstream. Majority of my “normie” friends play it
I meant mainstream as in it’s not being talked about as much.
