I have a few questions that may have been answered:
1. Is the joystick going to have as much range of movement (ability to move in more than 4/8 directions with the joystick alone) as a console controller joystick in any game, or will it be restricted in some games that don't normally have controller support)
2. Is the left track pad a decent substitute for a D-pad? I can't help but think the controller would have been better off with a D-pad for games that might involve rapidly clicking different directions (maybe 2d games like Terraria).
3. Will I feel like I've lost something by using the Steam controller over an Xbox 360 one?
1. Any game that has controller support and supports analogue movement will also be able to do the same on the Steam Controller. However, if you wanted to use an analogue stick or the left pad for movement in something like System Shock 2, that has no controller support / no support for analogue movement, the best that could be done is that Steam Controller would emulate the keyboard and use WASD and combinations of it to give 8 way movement on either the analogue stick or left pad depending on what you choose - the only thing the game can do since it wasn't programmed to produce analogue movement at all.
2. The creator of Super Meat Boy had no problem playing that (with his typical fast times) or Spelunky, even when doing the heavy twitch type movements, suggesting that the pad behave perfectly well as a dpad. For something like fighting games, I'm not so sure since there isn't much info or people trying it yet.
3. I don't think anyone can answer that for you yet. You obviously lose an analogue stick on the right, but in the end the point of the pads is to be able to offer mouse-like precision / speed / accuracy but also to let you emulate whatever you prefer. You get to choose if you want the controller to emulate an analogue stick, trackball mouse or some other things or even combinations such as edge rotation - and on tap of that you get to customise those at a very fine level to suit your needs / preferences with tons of options, sensitivities etc.
You seemingly gain much more than you lose. Especially when every controller based game will automatically work out of the box with the Steam Controller, and those as well as everything else will be augmented with the ability to crowd-source the best bindings and customise those again should you prefer analogue stick emulation over trackball etc.
This has probably been covered but :
has it been confirmed they are selling the controller themselves on steam as opposed to only through 3rd party outlets i.e ebgames etc?
Thanks
It depends on the country you are in. Steam are selling them both on their store, but also at select retailers depending on your region. Unfortunately though, some of them are doing some odd deals. GAME in the UK force you to get wallet credit at the same time, but if you are ok with that it is cheaper than Steam since postage is free.
They still need to make the controller available in a bunch of countries though, both on Steam and retail. I imagine that will happen over time
