Even if you're excessively concerned with morality and what people think of you, the only people realistically going to kick up a fuss about "pirating" games one already owns are Nintendo's lawyers.

Settled's Swampletics (OldSchool RuneScape) is wild, and popular among even people who have never played OSRS.

Immersive sims that aren't combat orientated (though tbh I would take just-more-imsims).

Blizzard is desperate here. Am I right in thinking this is the first time they've put anything on Steam?

Enjoyed Overwatch back in the day, i.e. when it was new; but really not a fan of them reducing team sizes to make it a more conventional "fit" with other 'esports'.

Don't have Game Pass, but I believe the options on Deck are currently to either install Windows and use the Xbox app, or following these instructions to access Xbox Cloud Gaming from SteamOS. (Assume that's what you meant?)

MS have also been toyed with the idea of making a Game Pass specific environment for Handheld PCs including the Deck, but no concrete announcements afaik.

Do you only plan on playing games available through Game Pass? I know there's a couple of handheld devices (not really handheld PCs, Switch/Deck-esque with Android and smart phone hardware) that are built specifically for Xbox's cloud gaming. (Maybe you don't even know what you intend to play at this stage, and just expect to play whatever's available without paying more money?)

If you buy a Steam Deck you'd probably eventually end up getting a bunch of things through Steam's big sales (you'd have money spare to do so, if nothing else). If you buy a strong laptop, you'd have access to the same sales, and you might want to buy more games anyway to justify the relative price. Hard to really guess what use case would suit you without knowing what future you would want to play (or how well future Game Pass would correlate).

Also, are there any issues still plaguing the device?

The only real issue I ever had was some WiFi connectivity problems, but I haven't experienced those for months now. I genuinely struggle to understand the experience of the other commenter, simply because it's so far from my own experiences. And if anything I've found Steam's use of Deck-Verified to be pretty conservative at times.

As long as I've had the thing there's been a fairly constant stream of updates and bugfixes.

After all, the Steam Deck is still a first gen product. I can’t wait to see what they will do in their next iteration.

Hah, hard to know when that'll appear. I've been waiting years for a second iteration of the index, and at this point I wish I'd just bought one years ago. Valve aren't exactly the most transparent company with their ongoing projects.

Got a bit carried away, but hopefully this is useful to somebody:

The Steam Deck is surprisingly versatile, especially now Valve have released the dock (enabling portable monitors). The most obvious benefits over a gaming laptop (beyond the price) are the smaller form-factor and relative quiet compared to a strong gaming laptop.

The main thing you should ask yourself is what you want to play.If your answer to that looks like "Crusader Kings III, Dota 2, and the latest competitive shooter", then it might not be the best choice. But in general, you'd be surprised by how many games work great thanks to its extremely versatile input options.

Games that released before controller support on PC was mainstream -- such as Oblivion, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Deus Ex, or Baldur's Gate -- typically play fine thanks to its extensive input customisation (including custom radial menus), its dual trackpads and gyroscope, and the community layout system. There are exceptions where you'd want a keyboard and mouse, but not as necessary as you'd expect.

Beyond info on software compatability, ProtonDB also includes Deck-specific reports at the top of each page detailing others' experiences, such as whether they used a specific community layout or input method, performance under specific conditions (such as limiting power or frames to conserve battery life), and legibility on a smaller display. The wealth of shared controller configs is easily one of the greatest strengths the Deck has.

(And while other, more recent -- albeit more expensive -- options have stronger performance at higher power settings, the Deck has a strange persistence in outperforming its competitors at low power settings (source).)

Again, it's mostly down to what you want to play. If you want to play recent releases with all the bells and whistles enablesd, you'd need to pay for a laptop many times the cost of a Deck (desktops less dramatically). Given you're even considering handheld PCs I'm assuming that's not your priority. Cyberpunk and the ever-demanding Red Dead Redemption 2 have been in the top 20 most-played games on Deck since Valve started publishing that information, so simply playing them isn't an issue. (The top 100 games for 2023 by daily active players can be seen at the bottom here.)

To address some specific games and genres: If you're into MOBAs, League and Dota play fine but you'll want to be using a keyboard and mouse, while grand strategy games would at least warrant an external display.

If you want to play the latest CoD multiplayer, Valorant, or the upcoming Tarkov Arena, you should probably get a laptop. (You can install Windows on the Deck, but I can't speak to that firsthand.) The trackpads themselves are viable for FPS games, though a learning experience, but the main issue here is that most developers haven't enabled the option for their anti-cheat to work on Linux. Hunt: Showdown is a happy exception to this trend.

If you want to play MMOs, it'll depend heavily on the individual game. FFXIV has excellent controller support out of the box (Gabe Newell spent covid playing it on Deck), Path of Exile added strong controller support to improve experiences on Deck, and ESO reportedly runs great. People have made Guild Wars 2 work, as well as WoW via the impressive ConsolePort addon, but it won't be as clean an experience. The more niche, the more trouble it'll be. The problems here are universal to handheld PCs, and with MMOs you also need to consider whether you'd need a keyboard for social reasons. The Deck's on-screen keyboard is pretty decent, but it's not going to be a substitute for a real keyboard.

Almost any singleplayer RPG, FPS, or adventure game can be made to work just fine. Emulation has EmuDeck and can play most older games -- assuming general emulator compatibility -- up to some PS3 titles (like Demon Souls, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix, or the MGS HD Collection) and even a lot of Switch titles. Traditional roguelikes include many among the few 2D/singleplayer titles that don't simply work out of the box. Yet a substantial number play great (e.g. Jupiter Hell, Tangledeep, Shiren the Wanderer, Caves of Qud); and many others have community layouts already so you don't have to take the time to set one up yourself. It was learning that Dwarf Fortress played fine on Deck that opened my eyes to just how flexible the chunky little handheld can be.

I hope that helps in determining whether the Deck suits your personal needs; if there's any angle I didn't cover adequately that you have questions about, please feel free to ask.

Edit: Slight clarification, re: "Almost any singleplayer RPG, FPS, or adventure game" -- this year, many multiplatform games have released on PC in a poorly optimised state, and depending on your personal tolerance the Deck may struggle to provide an adequate experience for them. Though it's hard to give a recommendation in one direction or the other without knowing your budget, as such titles are often found lacking on even the newest consumer desktop hardware (hardware very few laptops can compare directly against, and so many will suffer these issues in a similar manner). A relevant Digital foundry video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oav-pZyA8y4

It’s almost certainly a positive to see Bobby Kotick (boy do I struggle to maintain this site’s cardinal rule as far as he goes ) losing influence in the “AAA” games industry; but it’s not good to see MS buying every studio they can get hold of. Both these things can be true simultaneously.

My biggest concern with MS’s rampant acquisition spree is what happens when there’a an economic downturn (as already seems to be the near future); will those newly acquired studio be subject to the corporate euphemism that is ~dOWnSiZiNg~? How many working on moderately niche titles will be out of a job and their work indefinitely shelved?

I haven’t played the Castlevania one yet (I know, shame on me), but wanted to second how seamlessly the rest are integrated into the game.

It’s a really fun game although very grindy and i’m not even sure which genre it belongs to.

Absurdist sandbox?

It's a game I've never managed to get into, but it can be rather wild to watch others' antics.

Sands of Time was so cool. That series was flawed (Warrior Within was the emo-most game in an era full of emo sequels as the original audience reached adolescence), but I'm sad that it essentially got canceled by warping into AC.

I understand people's attachment to their community, but if even a significant minority of those who went dark mass resigned on the 30th, it would've had so much bigger an impact than any of the ongoing attempts at protest.

Another executive-driven decision by people who clearly don't use their own product (kinda impressive really when it's YT).

I can't help wonder if they saw an uptick in adblocking as a result of their absurd increases in ad-time recently and somehow thought this was a reasonable solution.