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[WillyFive]

The return of the superior Gamecube-style triggers is phenomenal news.

 

[aeolist]

It doesn't seem like it really adds any useful functionality you don't already have in, say, a 360 controller.

position-based pointing controls?

the 360 controller is terrible for lots of PC games

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

position-based pointing controls?

the 360 controller is terrible for lots of PC games

Thus, the keyboard and mouse for those games that don't work with the 360 controller. It's cumbersome, but the Steam controller hardly seems like a valid substitute.

 

[aeolist]

Thus, the keyboard and mouse for those games that don't work with the 360 controller. It's cumbersome, but the Steam controller hardly seems like a valid substitute.

the whole point of this is enabling controller support for pc games in the living room

and most people using it seem to think it works fine, so i'm pretty skeptical of your claims here

 

[rommie]

Valve is gonna need an intervention regarding the whole trackpad nonsense.its like they just wont admit it a ridiculous idea. At some point in time during the wii u developement someone must of thought this is a stupid idea and just kept quiet.in my opinion the same thing has gotta be happening here.gabe had a wild but stupid idea and all of his yes men kept feeding his bloated ego to the point where he thinks its gonna revolutionize gaming.gabe its stupid.abort now.

 

[Exuro]

I tried it today with a few different games. Honestly, it's the worst controller I've ever used.

First game I tried playing was Strider, which didn't let you use the d-pad. The touchpad is not suited to this sort of game at all. The game registers an input every time you do much as graze the touchpad, so if your thumb isn't completely precise, you'll end up running and jumping all over the place.

Seems like a really crappy way to control movement. Wonder why it wasn't trackpad button press + drag, or just button press in whichever direction to mimick a dpad.

I dunno. All I know is that I found it really unintuitive and that I don't see any benefit to this over a normal gamepad. It doesn't seem like it really adds any useful functionality you don't already have in, say, a 360 controller.

Edit: honestly, the best comparison is that it felt like using iPad controls, but without any sort of virtual d-pad in front of you. I don't bother with any iOS games, which may have contributed to my inability to figure this thing out.

So the haptic feedback didn't really do anything for you?

 

[Orayn]

Sounds like there really needs to be a deadzone for d-pad style usage.

Valve is gonna need an intervention regarding the whole trackpad nonsense.its like they just wont admit it a ridiculous idea. At some point in time during the wii u developement someone must of thought this is a stupid idea and just kept quiet.in my opinion the same thing has gotta be happening here.gabe had a wild but stupid idea and all of his yes men kept feeding his bloated ego to the point where he thinks its gonna revolutionize gaming.gabe its stupid.abort now.

I see you've got it all figured out and Valve and just the big dummies.

 

[MrCunningham]

internal concept design:

prototype sent out to users:

current prototype:

That's quite a change in button layout. Though in the video that Valve employee did mention that the touch screen in the middle felt redundant by having the haptic pads there. Having the double diamond buttons there does make more sense.


Also they kept the Xbox 360 button colour scheme. Probably because so many current Steam games use that layout.

 

[rommie]

Sounds like there really needs to be a deadzone for d-pad style usage.



I see you've got it all figured out and Valve and just the big dummies.

Yep.its gabes bloated ego and his yes men.secretly they are laughing at that hippo behind his back.

 

[NotMyRealName]

Yep.its gabes bloated ego and his yes men.secretly they are laughing at that hippo behind his back.

you're not gonna be here long.

on topic: Why on Earth do the handles flare out like that? It looks hideous. Are the rumble motors just gigantic or what?

 

[Teknoman]

I know it took time for people to adapt (pad wise) from the joystick to the d-pad, then to the analog stick...but man if the controller still looks too weird to wrap my mind around.

 

[Grief.exe]

I dunno. All I know is that I found it really unintuitive and that I don't see any benefit to this over a normal gamepad. It doesn't seem like it really adds any useful functionality you don't already have in, say, a 360 controller.

Edit: honestly, the best comparison is that it felt like using iPad controls, but without any sort of virtual d-pad in front of you. I don't bother with any iOS games, which may have contributed to my inability to figure this thing out.

Valve is gonna need an intervention regarding the whole trackpad nonsense.its like they just wont admit it a ridiculous idea. At some point in time during the wii u developement someone must of thought this is a stupid idea and just kept quiet.in my opinion the same thing has gotta be happening here.gabe had a wild but stupid idea and all of his yes men kept feeding his bloated ego to the point where he thinks its gonna revolutionize gaming.gabe its stupid.abort now.

Its mainly for the thousands of PC games that are not compatible with existing controller schemes.

I already have a DS4 for playing Dark Souls, I need something for Civilization, Planescape Torment, System Shock 2, etc.

 

[charlequin]

If they're going to label the buttons over there with directions anyway I kind of don't know why Valve wouldn't just put a D-pad there. New prototype looks neat though.

 

[Mrbob]

If they're going to label the buttons over there with directions anyway I kind of don't know why Valve wouldn't just put a D-pad there. New prototype looks neat though.

Yeah I don't understand the move either. Unless valve is only doing the double 4 button sets to make the controller symmetrical. Why change the button labels then. Isn't this just unnecessary extra work for in game on screen UI prompts.

 

[Branduil]

If they're going to label the buttons over there with directions anyway I kind of don't know why Valve wouldn't just put a D-pad there. New prototype looks neat though.

It's really just there for backwards compatibility with games that use the D-pad as a menu. For games where you move with the D-Pad you'll be better off using the left touchpad.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I tried it today with a few different games. Honestly, it's the worst controller I've ever used.

First game I tried playing was Strider, which didn't let you use the d-pad. The touchpad is not suited to this sort of game at all. The game registers an input every time you do much as graze the touchpad, so if your thumb isn't completely precise, you'll end up running and jumping all over the place. I couldn't get a feel for how far I needed to drag my thumb on the pad to get Strider to run, either, which only made things feel more clumsy. I eventually got to a place where I needed to do some slightly precise platforming, and I found it nearly impossible. I have genuinely never used a controller less suited to precision 2D gameplay than this.

The d-pad is pretty bad, too, but it's a little more usable than it looks in some of the pictures. The buttons are close together and don't take much pressure to activate, so it's almost kinda okay-ish... But still not good enough. Hitting diagonals is iffy, and that's really the biggest problem.

I also tried Dirt 3 and Portal, and while those performed a little better than Strider, I still could never do anything with precision. There's just no tactile feedback for anything you do, so it's really tough to get a sense of how far you need to move your thumbs back and forth to get the input you want. I eventually just started using the left thumbpad like a d-pad, and just pressed it on on the edges... But that's not how analog controls work.

The only positive thing I can say is that the build quality was very good. It felt like a solid piece of equipment, and I'm sure it'd stand up to even my redoubtable controller-throwing antics. But based on my time using the thing to actually play games... The solution Valve came up with appears to be a controller that could work with just about every game under the sun, but it's the least ideal way to play any of them.

I tried it out too and my feelings mirror yours. It was very underwhelming. That's even after a Valve employee showing and explaining it.

Its mainly for the thousands of PC games that are not compatible with existing controller schemes.

I already have a DS4 for playing Dark Souls, I need something for Civilization, Planescape Torment, System Shock 2, etc.

See that's great and all, but it's Valve's fault for setting up the controller with Strider and Dirt 3. It doesn't put the controller in a good light when it feels terrible on these games. Nobody forced Valve to put those up on display but they did and it gives a bad impression of the controller.

 

[ashecitism]

What was the full game lineup? I saw some pics of Broken Age.

Also what about the triggers, bumpers and paddles? Did they at least feel good?

Its mainly for the thousands of PC games that are not compatible with existing controller schemes.

I already have a DS4 for playing Dark Souls, I need something for Civilization, Planescape Torment, System Shock 2, etc.

Except this is not the case. Valve totally wants this to be a viable controller for everything on Steam right now and going forward. They see legacy mode as a stopgap until more devs implement it natively. Of course legacy and mouse-driven games would seem to be the best use for this, but looking at Valve's CES and GDC lineup they certainly don't try to give that impression. As Marty said they could have picked those games, but they didn't.

 

[ashecitism]

vg247: http://www.vg247.com/2014/03/21/hands-on-with-valves-latest-steam-controller/

So while the old controller may have been more difficult to deal with – that’s still hard to tell without using them in the wild one after the other – that it looked like a totally insane thing meant you had some idea of what you were getting into when you picked it up. And so when it’s immediately awkward to use most people probably will be more forgiving of the learning curve for a bit. But when you pick up this controller with familiar elements like face buttons that are a struggle to use for the first time in your life, I wouldn’t expect much forgiveness at all.

Techradar: http://www.techradar.com/reviews/ga...rollers/valve-steam-controller-1212868/review

Our early verdict

"A solid, inventive controller, but not what you want for competitive gaming"

For
Precise
Highly customizable
Find the best control schemes on Steam

Against
For some genres, not on par with mouse and keyboard

 

[Candescence]

... So I'm seeing a few naysayers being outnumbered by the positive reception. Yeah, I think the controller looks like it's gonna be great. Besides, there's still a ways to go, it's still in beta, and legacy mode is likely going to be pants compared to native. The controller won't be for everyone, but that's the good thing about PC gaming, you have options!

Valve is gonna need an intervention regarding the whole trackpad nonsense.its like they just wont admit it a ridiculous idea. At some point in time during the wii u developement someone must of thought this is a stupid idea and just kept quiet.in my opinion the same thing has gotta be happening here.gabe had a wild but stupid idea and all of his yes men kept feeding his bloated ego to the point where he thinks its gonna revolutionize gaming.gabe its stupid.abort now.

Wow, so much concentrated stupid. I'm actually impressed.

 

[ashecitism]

... So I'm seeing a few naysayers being outnumbered by the positive reception. Yeah, I think the controller looks like it's gonna be great. Besides, there's still a ways to go, it's still in beta, and legacy mode is likely going to be pants compared to native. The controller won't be for everyone, but that's the good thing about PC gaming, you have options!

I don't think so, at least when it comes to the OP I keep seeing some good impressions (and bad ones too of course) on twitter, but they're just oneliners, so I don't post them as they don't add much to the discussion.

Btw did you see this post in the other thread?

Ah, TheSonicRetard, yes. Would be great to have him around. Ask him what email he used for registration. Seems to be a common problem with new potential users. Shalarn/Trial by Game also had that problem. Basically he needs to use school/workplace/ISP email.

B. Registration must be performed with an Internet Service Provider, education, or workplace email address. No other types of email addresses will be accepted, including all free email addresses (@gmail), addresses tied to personal domains (@myrandomblog), addresses part of standalone paid accounts (@me), or any of a limited number of domains that have been blacklisted for abuse despite otherwise falling within the bounds of ISP/education/workplace (@aol). The approval process is manual and subject to a significant waiting period.

 

[Dolor]

Basically my criteria for this is:

Does it let me play a game like Rome 2 in rooms of my house that don't have desktops/monitors? I'd love to be able to play that game on a couch with my son (when he's older) even if it's just hotseating it.

No other controller even comes close to that, so if it does that, it is a benefit to me and worth the cost.

 

[ashecitism]

Google dev: https://plus.google.com/+BrandonJonesToji/posts/7HLoXa19QiH

I see a lot of potential here, though I don't think this will replace the standard console pad anytime soon. I actually feel like if I could replace the left pad with a joystick, though, it would be the perfect FPS controller. It will be very interesting to see what kind of bindings the gaming community standardizes for this controller.

hmm, why didn't he try and make his own bindings? Was it disabled or he just didn't know about it?

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I tried it out too and my feelings mirror yours. It was very underwhelming. That's even after a Valve employee showing and explaining it.



See that's great and all, but it's Valve's fault for setting up the controller with Strider and Dirt 3. It doesn't put the controller in a good light when it feels terrible on these games. Nobody forced Valve to put those up on display but they did and it gives a bad impression of the controller.

Lol, yeah, even the Valve guy I talked to was saying it took him a long time to adjust. Sounds like even people within Valve still have some major concerns about the thing... And the other people I watched use the controller also seemed to struggle with it.

Again, I understand that the point is to enable people to play games that don't work with normal gamepads, but this is clearly not the solution. It's telling that they had it set up with 4 different types of games and none of them worked particularly well.

 

[MikeDip]

I honestly still can't wait to try it for myself.

 

[Haunted]

The talk was super interesting, but the reactions seem mixed.

I guess the only way to gauge this is to test it myself.

#fuckdpads

 

[Tobor]

I honestly still can't wait to try it for myself.

Me either. I wish I could just buy one already. I know it's going to work great for what I need based on the Portal/Civ video Valve put out.

 

[ashecitism]

PCGamer: http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/steam-controller-hands-on-at-gdc-2014/

It’s evident that the Steam Controller is still at an early stage. At this prototype stage, Valve is actually still 3D printing the body of the controller itself, and the rigid, low-quality plastic doesn’t quite feel comfortable. From a gameplay perspective, though, I’m completely unsold on the Steam Controller as a viable way of playing PC games at this time. The games Valve had on display weren’t flattering uses of the controller, and it’s disappointing to know that I would’ve played better with an Xbox 360 pad in every case.

 

[Orayn]

Are they still using legacy mode for most of these demos? Native mode seems more likely to impress.

 

[ashecitism]

They used native mode for Portal 2 and it didn't impress people. Well, at least not everyone.

Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/03/steam-controller-prototype-version-2-impressions-buttoned-up/

As always, it will take much more than ten minutes of show floor testing to measure the full worth of a controller. As it stands, though, we're glad that Valve has decided to move toward the basic button layout that has served handheld controllers well for years.

 

[GoaThief]

I want one of these now, I think this is my most anticipated product at the moment and has been for some time.

My PC has been hooked up to the TV for years now with no traditional monitor and I've become pretty much pad exclusive even for games I'd previously considered unsuitable such as CounterStrike.

There is only one particular style of game I've shied away from for now, arena shooters such as Quake Live. The Steam Controller could be a way in before I consider chopping up a 360 pad and fitting a trackball somehow. Problem is getting hold of one and there is no release date in sight. Come on Valve...

 

[MutonCommander]

The reactions don't seem favorable so far. I understand that Valve is looking for feedback but maybe they should present the controller a bit later, when things like sensitivity and analog emulation have been fully implemented.

 

[Marty Chinn]

The reactions don't seem favorable so far. I understand that Valve is looking for feedback but maybe they should present the controller a bit later, when things like sensitivity and analog emulation have been fully implemented.

Or at least control the experience better. They picked games that didn't work well with it.

 

[ashecitism]

The sentiment I get is that they're sabotaging themselves. It's still pretty much WIP and the bad game selection adds to that. Plus people at the booth probably have like 10 minutes with it. Not ideal to say the least and it just skews the public opinion in a bad way.

 

[ashecitism]

GameRevolution: http://www.gamerevolution.com/featu...ler?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

My main concern with the touchpads, though, is that they might be too cumbersome for any game that requires precision like fighting games. Now, most hardcore fighter fans own a joystick anyway so that's not much of a problem, but any high-action title that requires complex and immediate directional movement may not perform well with the Steam Controller. However, it just may take longer than the ten minutes I had with the controller to get accustomed to its original design.

not sure there's going to be more coming. Maybe by some smaller outlets like this.

 

[Saikyo]

I think its best if they did a solo event just to let people test the controllers for more than 10 minutes with more games and let people configurate and discuss what they dont like or liked about.

 

[ashecitism]

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Also if they're so eager to let the press write impressions maybe they should just send them a couple of kits. Then they would have all the time they need and try it with whatever games they want. I mean a lot of the 300 testers felt like the press and other poeple. They hated it or felt lukewarm about it. Some of them still might feel that way, but some of them got used to it and started liking it.

Also as I said in the Steam thread, back then Valve said they're going to make a video series about the controller, with either them or other devs playing games with it, but didn't follow up the initial vid. They should re-think that.

Here's a quick look at some games being played with the prototype version of the Steam Controller -- the same version that we'll be shipping to 300 Steam users later this year. We'll post more demonstrations like this soon, including footage of some other game developers using the controller to play their own games.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#announcements/detail/2091086367898728503

 

[Hypron]

It's really just there for backwards compatibility with games that use the D-pad as a menu. For games where you move with the D-Pad you'll be better off using the left touchpad.

Yeah. I never play with the dpad, even in platformers so I like that the buttons are split. That'll allow me to swap weapon/equipment without hitting unwanted diagonals.

 

[PandaPedinte]

Also as I said in the Steam thread, back then Valve said they're going to make a video series about the controller, with either them or other devs playing games with it, but didn't follow up the initial vid. They should re-think that.



http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#announcements/detail/2091086367898728503

Valve really droped the ball about the videos.

 

[arhra]

I think its best if they did a solo event just to let people test the controllers for more than 10 minutes with more games and let people configurate and discuss what they dont like or liked about.

To be fair, they apparently only have 10 hand-built prototypes of the latest iteration of the pad.

If this design is indeed final (or at least close to it), I'm sure they'll have some proper mass-produced versions to send out to people soon enough.

 

[ashecitism]

This is defo not final. They're going to start analizing the GDC feedback, plus before they went to the show they sent out a survey to the testers and devs, so they're going to factor those results in too. What's the next big show? PAX? They might demo these kits there too and then make changes or bring an already redesinged controller there.

 

[FiggyCal]

It's so strangely designed. There's a reason why a controller like it does not exist.

 

[Jarmel]

Wow those impressions aren't reassuring. Hopefully the later iterations work better.

 

[Saikyo]

It's so strangely designed. There's a reason why a controller like it does not exist.

The PlayStation controller still exists, so...

 

[FiggyCal]

The PlayStation controller still exists, so...

Is it strangely designed though? There's only one difference between the Dualshock and Xbox controller. This is really different. The older prototype is even more so. Maybe they'll keep changing it until it looks like a normal controller.

 

[Rizsparky]

The Dpad in the current design looks like its main purpose is for menu navigation, which is pretty underwhelming.

 

[Game Guru]

I think the big thing the Steam Controller will have to prove is why it should be used instead of a PC Gamepad, a PC Arcade Stick, and a mouse & keyboard. It needs to prove itself intuitive enough to replace all three.

 

[Fourth Storm]

The more this starts to resemble a traditional controller, the less interested I become. Seems like we are slowly inching towards a 360 pad with the haptic circle on the right side. Ah well, at least there are still those grip buttons, correct? Seems Valve is slowly learning that the evolution of the current control standard was no accident.

I miss the space bar button. That shit was cool.

 

[ebullientprism]

Going by the impressions, I think this will be a controller that compliments my primary 360 controller rather than replace it. Which is fine by me for gaming on the TV. For the PC, I will stick to the 360 and the K&M.

 

[wildfire]

I wish some comparisons were being made to analog sticks instead of only mouse and keyboard.

 

[Senor Kami]

I'm interested in the D-Pad if it really is four separate buttons. I must have the most unlucky fingers in the world but on DS3 and basically every d-pad that's just one big stick, I always magically find that one part where your finger can be only touching the left or right yet somehow that registers as a diagonal. Every time my character magic jumps to their death in a Street Fighter match I stare at my hands like, "what the hell, I'm not even touching up." Or the opposite where hands touching down and back somehow doesn't count as down back and I get opened up.

A controller that only registers diagonal if you combine two button presses sounds like a godsend to me.