A review of the CyberPower Syber Steam Machine has popped up on the Trusted Reviews website, and it seems a little on the positive side for the hardware. They gave it a 7/10 overall, which is pretty good. Their thoughts on SteamOS aren't as good though, which is represented by their final verdict.
It's interesting for me personally to note their issues with Dying Light crashes, nice to know I'm not the only one that has the game quit out on me. Not good that Steam Machine reviewers are also seeing it, as it will leave a bad taste in new users mouths. I'm glad they do note Dying Light's performance issues on Linux are well documented though.
Stuff like this has me worried:
QuoteWe’ll blame early teething troubles, but the system arrived with its wireless LAN card non-functional
That sort of thing just shouldn't happen in a unit like this, you would be buying one to not have to deal with configuring hardware. Bit of a shame really, but no hardware is perfect.
Overall, it sounds like a pretty decent machine (apart from that wifi issue in this particular unit) that performs reasonably well (as well as Linux games do anyway).
Their ending notes aren't too good for us though, they suggest going for the Windows machine due to the games available. I hope that eventually we will see sites look at what we do have, and not what we don't. I've said it before though, we need more AAA games no matter what people in our comments think about them, as they help sell it to the people that the general public will be taking at their word.
Thanks for pointing it out Henrique. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: adolsonQuoting: BillNyeTheBlackGuyI would tell people to get an Alpha instead of a steam machine.
Windows as a gaming console OS is crap. And last I checked, the Alpha ships with the 360 gamepad, not a Steam Controller, which is going to cut down the number of playable games by a ton. Keyboard and mouse in the living room sucks, unless maybe you own one of those virginity-protecting keyboard and mouse tray things.
Windows is not for me but I hate to see completely unqualified and unsubstantiated statements like: Windows as a gaming OS is crap, when any impartial person would tell you Windows is streets ahead in this regard. I mean: They have the games; the drivers the user-base and and the 3D performance. Which part of the gaming experience is Linux winning?
As for Steam boxes...Every use I can think of for these leaves me thinking: well yeah, but, why bother?
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wvstolzing Nov 21, 2015
Quoting: MblackwellHonestly I'm less interested in reviews from PC enthusiasts and more interested in ones from console/couch gamers.
The picture is pretty clear from their viewpoint: Steam Machines, even those at lowest specs, are several times more expensive than the consoles; and the argument that 'games are cheaper on PC, thanks to steam sales', etc., isn't as strong as many would think. New games, especially those that are good sellers, don't really get any discounts; and as to the 'back catalogue', at least on the PlayStation you get frequent sales and price cuts that are not too shabby -- they've indeed picked up a few tricks from Valve's book. Besides, physical copies of console games can always be sold or traded in, or bought cheaper used, in the first place.
Neither is the sheer number of games on SteamOS an advantage -- as though an abundance of survival horror hack jobs and mobile ports have anything whatsoever on GTA Vs, and Witcher 3s.
For the life of me, I HONESTLY can't think why someone, especially if they're 'console/couch gamers' who wouldn't have an interest in PC exclusive strategies (not all of which are available on SteamOS, mind you), would prefer a Steam Machine over a PS4, at *this* point in time. And obviously I'm saying this as a dyed-in-the-wool Linux-head.
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For some reason people didn't quite listen to Gabe Newell when he stated what SteamOS was all about.
Did he claim better driver support? More Games? That DirectX 12 would suck over OpenGL 4?
No! What he claimed he will do is to end walled gardens. A machine and OS you own, meaning you won't get sued if you hack it to build a freaking robot with it. Hotz, anyone?
No, with that you don't make a glorious entrance with fanfare and dancing babes and surely not with exclusives (cursed be their names). You put a foot in the door, being just there, getting better from year to year, version to version. Just waiting for the time to be right, when the likes of Sony or Microsoft screw their customers over yet again.
Your patience is running dry? Think of how you felt when you first had to install Steam to play Half Life or something.
I didn't even get past this point back then.
Look where Steam is now and compare SteamOS entrance to that, then you get the bigger picture.
Last edited by Caldazar on 21 November 2015 at 11:25 am UTC
Did he claim better driver support? More Games? That DirectX 12 would suck over OpenGL 4?
No! What he claimed he will do is to end walled gardens. A machine and OS you own, meaning you won't get sued if you hack it to build a freaking robot with it. Hotz, anyone?
No, with that you don't make a glorious entrance with fanfare and dancing babes and surely not with exclusives (cursed be their names). You put a foot in the door, being just there, getting better from year to year, version to version. Just waiting for the time to be right, when the likes of Sony or Microsoft screw their customers over yet again.
Your patience is running dry? Think of how you felt when you first had to install Steam to play Half Life or something.
I didn't even get past this point back then.
Look where Steam is now and compare SteamOS entrance to that, then you get the bigger picture.
Last edited by Caldazar on 21 November 2015 at 11:25 am UTC
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Mohandevir Nov 21, 2015
Mmm... I would like to see benchmarks of MLL on this console vs others at the same level of details. I don't know if it's still the case, but last time I checked, traditionnal console graphics quality of MLL could not stand agaisnt the PC version.
Has for SteamOS, based on my personnal experience with it and what I read from other platforms, the integration of the Steam Controller and Steam Link seems much less buggy in the SteamOS ecosystem than in any other platforms.
That might not be a game changer but I tought it was worth mentionning.
Has for SteamOS, based on my personnal experience with it and what I read from other platforms, the integration of the Steam Controller and Steam Link seems much less buggy in the SteamOS ecosystem than in any other platforms.
That might not be a game changer but I tought it was worth mentionning.
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Quoting: DuckeenieQuoting: adolsonWindows as a gaming console OS is crap.
Windows is not for me but I hate to see completely unqualified and unsubstantiated statements like: Windows as a gaming OS is crap, when any impartial person would tell you Windows is streets ahead in this regard.
I think 'console' is the operative word in what adolson is saying. Windows is better for PC gaming, with better driver support and more games developed for the OS. But as a console OS for hassle-free comfy couch gaming in the living room, it's less than ideal. A lot of that is due to MS's limitations on how much third-parties are allowed to modify the system (afaik the xb1 runs a Windows kernel, but since it's made by MS, they can modify the OS to suit their needs). That is where Linux has the advantage, Valve can do whatever they want, and all updates running through one central application that Valve controls makes it a lot easier to have a console-like experience.
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Quoting: CaldazarFor some reason people didn't quite listen to Gabe Newell when he stated what SteamOS was all about.
Did he claim better driver support? More Games? That DirectX 12 would suck over OpenGL 4?
No! What he claimed he will do is to end walled gardens. A machine and OS you own, meaning you won't get sued if you hack it to build a freaking robot with it. Hotz, anyone?
No, with that you don't make a glorious entrance with fanfare and dancing babes and surely not with exclusives (cursed be their names). You put a foot in the door, being just there, getting better from year to year, version to version. Just waiting for the time to be right, when the likes of Sony or Microsoft screw their customers over yet again.
Your patience is running dry? Think of how you felt when you first had to install Steam to play Half Life or something.
I didn't even get past this point back then.
Look where Steam is now and compare SteamOS entrance to that, then you get the bigger picture.
Those are a couple of points I'd like to see brought up in reviews, but unfortunately consumers seem to have the attention span and the memory of oysters.
Who else than traditional PC gamers have more to win from a viable alternative in the PC gaming space? How many vistas and win8 does there have to be before people realize competition is the best leverage they can use? Did the xbone get rid of the mandatory online+kinect requirements in an act of kindness from redmond?
Every review of a Steam Machine should be one line: "Get one, then send an e-mail to the devs of your favorite, currently unsupported gaming asking for a native port. Bonus points if you mention that performance should similar across hardware vendors."
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Quoting: mr-eggIm starting to think this steamOS thing was designed to lure devs into just the Linux ecosystem and long term there not actually too bothered about it other than being an additional 'feature' to their software suite.
fine by me. it gets hardware & software houses developing more for Linux, at some point the Linux desktop will probably really take off ( especially in India, Russia / china ) and combined with Microsoft bizarre stop the desktop being a desktop philosophy, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the whole concept was a trojan horse of sorts to move more users over easier.
Valve are essentially providing the chicken..
In case you guys missed it in another thread the whole "Linux initiative" by Valve was in response to the Windows store, that since has blown over so they no longer throw their weight into it but just keep prodding it enough to keep Microsoft from double crossing the largest game distributor.
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wvstolzing Nov 21, 2015
Quoting: PsynoKhi0Every review of a Steam Machine should be one line: "Get one, then send an e-mail to the devs of your favorite, currently unsupported gaming asking for a native port. Bonus points if you mention that performance should similar across hardware vendors."
That wouldn't be a 'review', it would be an 'ad'.
I don't see why reviewers are supposed to mobilize people for some corporation's backup plan -- because that's what SteamOS is. And while Valve's 'ecosystem' (when there's a healthy one in place) is not AS closed-off as that of, say, Sony, it IS its own kind of 'walled garden' nevertheless.
Pretty remarkable how a DRM-empire can 'market itself' as the bastion of software freedom.
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Mohandevir Nov 21, 2015
Quoting: wvstolzingQuoting: PsynoKhi0Every review of a Steam Machine should be one line: "Get one, then send an e-mail to the devs of your favorite, currently unsupported gaming asking for a native port. Bonus points if you mention that performance should similar across hardware vendors."
That wouldn't be a 'review', it would be an 'ad'.
I don't see why reviewers are supposed to mobilize people for some corporation's backup plan -- because that's what SteamOS is. And while Valve's 'ecosystem' (when there's a healthy one in place) is not AS closed-off as that of, say, Sony, it IS its own kind of 'walled garden' nevertheless.
Pretty remarkable how a DRM-empire can 'market itself' as the bastion of software freedom.
You are quite right but there's a major diffrence. The Steam client is a walled garden but you can still use it on Fedora, Ubuntu and derivatives, Arch, SteamOS and many other Linux distributions if you prefer. Can you say the same about Sony or M$ propositions?
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Quoting: wvstolzingPretty remarkable how a DRM-empire can 'market itself' as the bastion of software freedom.
The same way Apple convinced people using a Mac/iPhone makes you stand out of the crowd. Guess some people have no sense of irony :))).
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