For me, gaming has been one of the most consistent past times for the vast majority of my life. Starting out with a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in the US) moving onto a Nintendo Gameboy, Nintendo 64 to PS2 and Xbox 360. After this I switched away from Console gaming to PC gaming for a large number of years. Being a part of the Games Industry also provided me the luxury to have access to the latest consoles as an “occupational hazard”

But when I switched from Windows to Mac, the gamer in me died down to use Mobile Phone games for some years. I have always preferred PC gaming to Console gaming but the effort to keep the software and hardware updated was something I didn’t really get enjoyment out of. This is when Stadia got announced and the promise of cloud gaming was again becoming more a reality, backed by one of the biggest tech companies on the planet. What could go wrong? Long story short, for me personally Stadia was laggy at home 30% of the time, usually when I wanted to play the most, and the games were rather expensive.

Then a colleague recommended to me a service called “Shadow” (https://shadow.tech) which their friend was using the service to do VR gaming. This sounded really promising, a high-end gaming PC which I can access anywhere with an internet connection, I can utilize my Steam library and I have access to more reasonable priced games! Since my main computing device has been an iPad Pro for some years (and recently an iPad Mini) this eas a dream!!

After about over one year of really great service, the new pricing model was then giving me the feeling that I should find a more sustainable approach to the topic. At around 30€ a month, it’s not just a small chunk of change and if I were to be honest, there were some months I didn’t even game! This led me to look into the Steam Deck from Valve (https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck) the early launch pains had all been in someway or another rectified.

The device was looking more and more appealing, it would also be the best device to enable me to game a little more without sitting up in the office away from my better half! In the end, I decided to take the plunge and purchase the device and I can say my hours of gaming has increased, without sacrificing being around my loved ones and I’ve been amazed at what this little device can do.

Now the above components travel with me daily in its own bag. I carry a gaming PC with me which can be connected to a screen via the dock anywhere, wether it’s a monitor at work or a TV at a friends house. 

I’m really happy with the purchase and I can say it was worth every penny! Now I just need to keep away from the steam sales 🙈😅