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Steam Controller hands-on impressions

Nev said:
Wait, fucking BATTERIES in 2015? I'm out. My hype was in outer space and now it's buried. Fuck you Valve.
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After using a wireless 360 controller and ds4, i take the rechargeable battery option any day. Instead of messing with charging wires, bad battery life or using second identical controller, i can just throw in charged batteries every couple weeks.

Also it looks like there could be option for battery pack, charger or similar in steam controller.
 
We could get a great control scheme for soccer (and I am assuming Football and Hockey) games. Use the haptic feedback and trackpad for passing.

But who am I kidding, EA/Konami won't care.
 
One of the articles praises the GameCube's "clicky" triggers? I did not think people liked those. I personally did not and many of my friends didn't as well. I guess we may have been a minority in that department after all.
 
CDV13 said:
One of the articles praises the GameCube's "clicky" triggers? I did not think people liked those. I personally did not and many of my friends didn't as well. I guess we may have been a minority in that department after all.
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You could just not use the click. Apparently you can just set it up like that if you want.
 
The click is great. Like their example where pushing the trigger halfway pulls up sight and pushing the trigger till it clicks fires the weapon. Simple yet clears one trigger for another action.
 
This would be much better:

bgPVAr4.jpg
 
flaxknuckles said:
No, because the haptic trackpad is a much better replacement for the d-pad than an analog stick as has been said fifty million times. Keep using an Xbox 360 controller or whatever
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But for playing with analog stick you have a 360 controller or whatever. If they want to add a
optional control besides the trackpad, i prefer a dpad than a stick. I can live without a analog stick but for some games a dpad will work better than a trackpad imitate a dpad.
 
flaxknuckles said:
No, because the haptic trackpad is a much better replacement for the d-pad than an analog stick as has been said fifty million times. Keep using an Xbox 360 controller or whatever
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Well, until we all use it it's all speculation. Personally, I don't think there's a replacement for a good physical dpad. And very few controllers have good ones. I'll be clutching my Saturn pad until the apocalypse.
 
Sendou said:
I would imagine if you map clicks to ABXY then you wouldn't map another function to a click. Although I'm guessing (and this is just a guess) that you can actually map five different clicks to one trackpad. Four on the sides and one in the middle. Not sure if that would be optimal though. Can't really think why'd you need 5 clicks per trackpad.
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Ah, should have thought of that, that's a pretty obvious solution. I then thought about how it would move you around if you swiped up to the click zone, but obviously you'd take your finger off first, lol.

By the way I could see use for a middle fifth button - use it like the click-in for analog sticks, for things like a quick melee/knife attack up close. Your finger is always around there, so it's super quick to do.

Thinking about it this way, I can see how it would be faster than moving to the dedicated buttons. With a little learning curve, it could save those precious fractions of a second in competitive gaming.

Wish they had a concave top for the analog stick, or even the hybrid approach of DS4.
 
kharak said:
But for playing with analog stick you have a 360 controller or whatever. If they want to add a
optional control besides the trackpad, i prefer a dpad than a stick. I can live without a analog stick but for some games a dpad will work better than a trackpad imitate a dpad.
Click to expand...

SapientWolf said:
Well, until we all use it it's all speculation. Personally, I don't think there's a replacement for a good physical dpad. And very few controllers have good ones. I'll be clutching my Saturn pad until the apocalypse.
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The left is a dpad, it moves around. As long as it feels right when trying to do a half circle then it should be fine.
 
Luke's video says it best. It might require weeks to give this a proper review. However, will most gamers put up with that learning curve?
 
Kotaku article makes me feel confident this will be good for quick mouse movement, which is all I'm really hoping for. I'll pre-order as soon as Valve puts them up.
 
Nev said:
Wait, fucking BATTERIES in 2015?
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Rechargeables take 15 minutes and you get longer life than anything other than the Wii U Pro. Better yet, keep a set in the charger and swap when you need to.

That's better performance than Li-Ion.

Or keep plugging your Li-Ion controllers for hours til they charge up so you can do it again in 3 hours when the battery drains. So convenient.

ashecitism said:
It might require weeks to give this a proper review. However, will most gamers put up with that learning curve?
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Maybe they can play candy crush instead or something. I don't know. Sounds rough.
 
ashecitism said:
Luke from Linus Tech Tips tried it at PAX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTzGy_rUi9w

Destructoid as well:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo-dM6ernRA
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Valve seriously should consider if this is the way they want to show off their products in the future. The configuration especially in the Destructoid video sure is something. I'm not surprised he didn't find the controller good if they had the sensitivity all the way down. Besides that I would have liked to hear how mapping ABXY to the touchpad works. Yet in every video I see journalists using the buttons instead. As for the actual buttons I can understand why it would feel off if you are used to having them the other way around.

Think I'll just bite the bullet that is $50 and try the controller myself. It's been one and half years and there's barely any useful coverage of it.
 
jres80 said:
Just looks like they need to increase the sensitivity in the second video.
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This. If it's like a mouse as the video says you can imagine the same movements with a mouse. The issue however is the other end of the spectrum - will it pick up small movements accurately.
 
Thanks everyone bumping this with new info.

All the videos seem to make the right touch pad 1:1. I'd like to see some with inertia/momentum based controls soon. Seems like throwing it like a trackball and stopping with a quick touch would be ideal for fps.
 
If you increase the sensitivity though there's a chance your aiming becomes less precise.

Sendou said:
Think I'll just bite the bullet that is $50 and try the controller myself. It's been one and half years and there's barely any useful coverage of it.
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Yep, it's pretty sad. And this also goes for Valve, who didn't follow up with their promised videos.
 
There was a youtuber called "trail by game"who got the original controller prototype and made videos about his experience using it for different games. They are old but might provide some info. He has a playlist on his channel dedicated to them. Again they are old in terms of time and I'm terms of the controllers layout.
 
I really think I am just going to buy one on release and try it for myself. I don't think any video or review is going to give you a complete understanding of what is like. I am intrigued by the concept therefore I really want to experience it for myself.
 
EdwardTeach said:
I really think I am just going to buy one on release and try it for myself. I don't think any video or review is going to give you a complete understanding of what is like. I am intrigued by the concept therefore I really want to experience it for myself.
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Same. I just like the comfort of having my hands down by my lap for long play sessions of single player games rather than having the up on a desk controlling a mouse and keyboard, game dependant of course.

If it can do that for me it will be worth the purchase.
 
Does anyone know the pads could be swapped round or there will be a left handed version (sorry searched and couldn't find anything). I know I would prefer to have the 'mouse' pad on the left side for my left hand.
 
JoJo UK said:
Does anyone know the pads could be swapped round or there will be a left handed version (sorry searched and couldn't find anything). I know I would prefer to have the 'mouse' pad on the left side for my left hand.
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Shouldn't be an issue. If you watch videos that have the customize controls screen you will see everything looks configurable.
 
Is the 'd pad' shape on both pads or just the left? Sorry I can't watch videos, stuck in work ATM.
 
Ah, that's a bummer, not a deal breaker mind but would be nice if they were swappable. Thanks!
 
flaxknuckles said:
Destructoid: Dem sensitivity feels bad u hav to keep swiping

Sooooo change the sensitivity options? Duh
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Yeah, and plus they said you have to keep scrolling...Another thing there are settings for. There's the mouse-like keep swiping setting, the trackball like setting that lets you flick it in one direction, and the joystick setting where one direction keeps you moving.
 
I want to try a Steam controller with Quake. I think that's gotta be one of the better games to test when it comes to accuracy.

Now I play the waiting game before I have one in my hands.
 
ashecitism said:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/valve-steam-link-steam-controller,28733.html#xtor=RSS-980
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Another site that doesn't seem to think of the speed settings, or the ballistics settings...


Trying to look around using the right touchpad was a terrible experience. The best way I can describe it is to imagine using an old, heavy, low-DPI ball mouse and playing a game. You need to keep picking up the mouse to try and look around, and the in-game action is happening too fast for it to really work effectively.
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And you still have to lift up the mouse with laser mice...Sounds like he was a primarily console controller gamer. Might be more natural for mouse users.
 
Doesn't sound like he even knows you can configure it? Also, why not just ask someone at at the booth to help out? I'd expect better work from the press. After all their job is to go dig up info, go after things....
 
The controller should snap between two modes for the touch pad (game profiles or a dedicated button on the controller itself)..
- Function as a digital stick for FPS/TPS/Platforming games (By default)
- Function as a touch pad for RTS games (sensitivity to be snapped to 1/4th of the screen size/resolution onto to the largest square inside the circular area on the controller)

Edit: Also when you need more accuracy in FPS games, you should be able to switch between digital stick and touch pad function at the press of that dedicated button on the controller.
 
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