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http://www.edge-online.com/features...c-feedback-motors-make-a-profound-difference/
Valve might control gaming on the desktop, but now its gaze is fixed on another room in the house. The three announcements the company made at the end of September – SteamOS, Steam Machines and Steam Controller – reveal its plans to pry open the traditional console’s grip on the living room. The lines between the two are clearly drawn: the closed console against an open-source operating system built on Linux and optimised for gaming; hardware made from standard PC components that owners will be able to chop, change and upgrade at their leisure; and a controller unlike its console peers.[/IMG]
“I can certainly see that for many people [the controller] will be the silver bullet that tips them into sticking a PC under their TV,” says Rob Bartholomew, brand director of the Total War series at The Creative Assembly, who has used a Steam Controller. It’s a key part of the ‘Steam Box’ concept: the bridge between the mouse-and-keyboard game and sofa-bound players, and it’s the first developmental leap forward for the controller since Wii’s Remote.
Steam Controller certainly has a lot of responsibility resting on its familiar-looking shoulder buttons. It takes the basic form set by Sony’s first DualShock in 1997 of twin grips and thumb-based directional controls, but as well as being recognisable, it needs to offer flexibility and fidelity of control that at least matches a standard 104-key keyboard and 800dpi mouse, while feeling comfortable in the hands. Or, framed in other terms, it needs to allow a Dota 2 player to be competitive against desktop opponents. As Valve’s Greg Coomer told us last year, “That’s one of the cases we’re looking at: how can you deliver an even better play experience than people have sitting at a desk? We want to accomplish it with a traditional gamepad.
Valve’s solution is dual trackpads in the place of thumbsticks, and a configurable touchscreen. The trackpads are evidently sensitive to gaming’s haptic demands. Concentric ridges in the pad help inform you where your thumb is in relation to the centre, while a subtle range of buzzes from dual linear resonant actuators provide a sense of interaction, force and the bounds of control. “Personally, I initially thought it all sounded a bit [like a] novelty and I couldn’t see how it would compare to thumbsticks if you were playing an FPS, for example,” Bartholomew says. “Having used it, though [for Counter-Strike Global Offensive and Total War: Rome II], it really is surprising how much the haptic feedback motors make a profound difference. No, it’s not exactly the same, but it very much won me over.”
Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive, agrees, having played a thirdperson action game with it: “Once you start playing, it’s not that different from console gamepad joysticks; it felt natural after five minutes, so I didn’t think that much about it, to be honest.””