cavalcade

And some initial game impressions, I assume it's the additional RAM, but I couldn't get Last of Us 2 to run at all on the Claw and it barely ran on the Ally (crashing frequently). It's smooth, and runs really well on the Legion Go (70fps+). Surprisingly so. Must just be RAM constrained on the other devices.

Sonic Transformed also runs better than the Ally and doesn't have the stuttering issues that plague it on the Claw. It looks great on the screen. Maybe that's a GPU or general RAM issue….

Galactic Racer… runs OK. But I can't get it as smooth or looking as good as it is on the Ally weirdly.

Apex suffers a similar bug to the Claw, where occasionally the screen lurches and you end up looking at your feet. Identical bug that doesn't happen on the Ally. No idea what that is, but I mostly play Apex on mouse/keys so it's not an issue.

Smaller games all run well. Ball X Pit looks a lot better than the Switch 2 version, and the town building is a lot easier being able to swap to a mouse quickly.

Also, the more I use it, it's definitely quieter than the Ally at a similar TDP. Could be the bigger chassis making the fan less whiney, or the enormous case meaning the fans are pushed further away, but I've found it less egregious at more than 15 watts than the Ally is. The Switch 2 still embarrasses them both on that score though…

Megathread, lol.

Anyway. First impressions on the Legion Go 2. I picked up the Z2 model (not the Extreme). The Z2 is essentially a rebadged Z1 Extreme (the chip in the original ROG Ally range). Even though it's a couple of years old now, and being outflanked by the latest Intel portable chips (like the G3), the Z1 Extreme/Z2 is still a very capable CPU. The Z2 Extreme version of the Z2 gets about 10% more frames in tests, and is a little more efficient, but it's not worth the additional 300-400 quid (at least to me) from the benchmarking vids I've seen…

The Legion Go pairs the Z2 with 32Gb of RAM (interestingly a SKU that's only possible to buy from Best Buy in the US, as normally it's just 16Gb), double the original Ally and still more than the 24Gb in the ROG Ally X and the latest Xbox Rog Ally X. The screen is a higher resolution than the Rog Ally (1080p) pushing it up to a 1200p and a 16:10 aspect radio. (The Steam Deck OLED is 800p). It's also, like the latest Steam Deck, OLED.

For some reason the unit arrives configured with 30Gb allocated to general RAM and 2gb to the GPU. Sigh.

First impressions, as with any Windows handheld are a disaster. It requires extensive patching, and once Windows has done its install, the Legion then needs to patch its own BIOS, and then the Lenovo launcher software. It is A FUCKING MYSTERY how, years into portable gaming PCs Microsoft can't just fucking pull their finger out and make this a better experience. How any normie could do this is beyond me. Big props to Steam OS for at least making this less ridiculous. But I need (and prefer Windows) to Linux on these devices (for games with cheat protection) so there you go.

After the pain, what are you left with?

Let's start with the hardware. It's enormous, intimidating and bristling with buttons (the console is too, lolllll). There's loads, and the back triggers (and side triggers?!) are weirdly arranged because of the Legion Go range's party trick where you can remove the controllers like a Switch/use one like a mouse.

The buttons feel good, and there's a little mousepad, which is handy, although I have triggered it by accident a couple of times. The joysticks are Hall Effect, but quite loose with big sweeping movements. I put on some textured controller toppers and they felt a lot better. Triggers are fine, though considering the huge amount of buttons and shit, I'd have liked trigger stops. Overall, it feels premium, but I am deeply unconvinced at the back buttons on the right controller, that basically sit under your palm (x2) and one at the back. It's a sacrifice for the joycon/mouse party trick, but I think I'd just like 4 normal back triggers…. it's impossible to avoid clicking a couple of the buttons, so they'll just remained unmapped in the Legion space software for me…

I quite like the rumble, even though people say it's shit. It's a bit subtle, but I immediately switched it off on the Ally as it was buzzy and weird and I found it fine here.

I have removed the controllers. And I've tried the puck to get a pseudo mouse. It's…. not bad? And the screen is big enough that it doesn't feel ridiculous. I will consider more on it, but it is a gimmick.

The screen is the show stopper and it is very good. Not the brightest OLED of all time, but pinsharp, colourful, deep blacks, and 144hz. It looks amazing. That said, I have put the Ally and Claw side by side with it and… apart from the deeper blacks, it's not 2012 any more. LCDs are good now - and with the additional pixel density on the smaller screens I don't think there's a huge gap between them. It's noticeable when you go back and forth, but less so after about 5 minutes playing on one of the machines.

The device is huge, and weighs almost a kg. It has a massive kickstand, and I was actually enjoying playing leaning on my desk, I could imagine it being arm breaking on a sofa after a while…

The Lenovo software is great. Actually, so far, better than the Ally's own launcher software (which I really like). With all the buttons it's easy to tweak power profiles on the fly, and so far the Quiet profile is indeed that. On Extreme the fan blasts, but it does that on the Ally. Everything pretty much works as it should, which you'd think was a given but believe me the MSI Claw software is an absolute war crime.

Overall, there's a lot to like about the Legion Go 2. The screen is beautiful. it's got buttons and controls coming out of the wazoo. It's quiet when it needs to be, noisy when you want grunt and generally is a nice midway point between a laptop for gaming and a handheld. The battery is also good - a 74 watt hour compared to the awful 40 watt hour job on the original Ally (but not a patch on the longevity of the wildly power efficient Deck and the Xbox Rog Ally's with 80 watt hour cells).

More negatively, I think the Deck has it on ergonomics. And the Rog Ally (either the original or the Ally X) still wins for portability. The Switch 2 is better again. Would I take the Legion Go 2 on a train? Mmm. I don't know. The Switch 2 seems like a far better bet, or even the original Ally, even if they'd run out of power quicker. The Legion Go 2 is an absolute rucksack filler. You're sacrificing spare socks AND pants on the work trip, and that's not good for anyone.

It's interesting, ultimately every handheld does something good. Even the AlM Claw has stuff going for it. I don't think any of the devices really nails everything.

I can't actually find a good Youtube video that shows an MSI handheld, ROG Ally, Lenovo, Steam Deck and Switch 2 side by side, so this might be my route to my second 3 million views+ video… pondering face

Yeah, Gears Tactics. It was pretty good in the mechanics of the tactical play, but lagged behind the deeper stuff in XCom 2.

There's also a similar board game that was really good (though quite expensive now and hard to find). Sort of Gears Space Hulk. I have a copy I painted and it's dragged out from time to time.

I think, to be fair to Gears 1, it absolutely brought us that bleached bloomy look that nearly every military shooter uses, and did revolutionise the snap to cover mechanics that are pretty much ubiquitous across all third person shooters these days. The co-op was quite novel back then. It even had a somewhat interesting plot to begin with, in an overblown sense, with buckets of nonsense (and great memes). It even spawned an entire competitive scene, which is absolutely ridiculous (a lot of rolling) but still quite fun. I have a lot of warm nostalgia for Gears 1. And then…. not so much.

As you say, I went back to Gears 5 recently and there really is a sense that gaming has moved on. I find myself bored within about 20 minutes. I installed EDay, and it wouldn't even launch on the two PCs I tried it on, so I just gave up. As a series I'm not sure it ever had anywhere to go - the stiff movement and mechanics mean it can only ever really be a forward pushing shooting gallery. And The Division 1 and 2 (and about 180 other games) have fleshed out what could be done with those mechanics into something slightly more interesting. So yeah, I think it might be time for everyone to let the franchise quietly head off into the night.

Want so just bought a Legion Go 2
How many PC handhelds is too many…?

Anyone want to buy a Claw A1M? Great price. Don't look in the Handheld gaming thread…