So...after reading plenty of reviews - both positive and negative - I've decided to just go ahead and get my own steam controller. I figured there simply wouldn't be any way to actually know without trying it myself.
This review is currently after some hours of playing with it. Keep in mind that I've had it since November 24th (depending on pre-orders, others had it for over a month at this point). That's three days, and I'm not a too avid gamer.
Preface:
Let's start by saying I'm mostly an Indie PC gamer. I have a midclass PC, but while I have some AAA-titles, I mostly play original games by smaller companies (just finished roundabout, to name one).
A year-and-a-half ago, I bought a PS4-controller to play PC games, but while (the currently named) imputmapper does a good job of convincing my PC I'm using a 360-pad, it only really does it well over USB. Bluetooth...it works, but that's about it. Setting it up requires jumping through hoops every time, and though my couch is only 3 meters away, I often get lag at random intervals.
Speaking of which: I have my television set up directly next to my PC, so switching is a piece of cake. Though since the previously mentioned controller isn't too stable, I haven't played much PC-games from my couch right now.
Perhaps more importantly about me is that I don't care that much about shooters. My keyboard and mouse work perfectly fine for them. I'm looking for a more comfy way to play the myriad of other games I have in my steam library. So...will it deliver for me?
First days:
As like many others, my first impressions weren't that great. While it was plug and play, before I could start my first game, it prompted me to update the firmware. While the screen said not to deconnect and that it may took just about a minute, it actually hung on me for at least half an hour. Ouch.
So after a disconnect and trying again (it prompted again, but this time it worked. I'm now on the firmware of November 6th), I was ready for my first game. Well...sort of...
I have to admit I'm not a fan of big picture mode. The regular mode has all the options, and on a monitor it's easy to see everything. But I can understand their requirement for it: visibility just isn't the same on a television. And navigating the menus with the controller is very easy. So that said: the first game...
Hero siege: I figured a twin stick shooter game would be the best way to test those fancy gamepads. Well...no. What I feared suddenly got close: what if that trackball simply isn't close to being a replacement for a regular D-pad?
Sidenote: I've never been big on thumbsticks. On the PS4 controller, I always use those 'arrow keys' to move around. As you can guess, I'd rather have bought that second iteration (the one with 8 diamond buttons rather than the current 4 ABXY-ones), but I can't complain.
In any way, using the two pads absolutely didn't work well for me. Admittedly, in hindsight, this was more because the game wasn't designed to play far away from your screen (read: enemies and overlays were too small to really make out). There were some customer-configurations, but they didn't change much.
Still, I gotta say this was a quick and convenient way of doing things: one button to bring an overlay that has you switching controller setups fast and easy. And it's not the controller's fault I had to relearn button configurations (besides: the game had changed since I last played it as well).
Super hexagon: I got this gamepad after a long work day and a karate session (which I wouldn't miss). It was late and the abovementioned issues (firmware and hero siege) were about to spoil my impressions. So I went with this: an insanely hard game that nonetheless used two buttons (left and right). Or three, if you count 'restart' as a button (yes, that's an important one
).
This worked flawlessly. More so: since left and right were bound to multiple inputs, I could switch along as I went. I quickly found the two buttons on the back to be my weapons of choice. I nearly got my highest score on it as well.
From this, I learned two things. For one, that there was absolutely no lag, input delay or any other of that jazz. Direct input from my PC to controller. And from my fingers seemingly direct to my television. It was good.
And for two...I quite like the controller. I've heard others say it wasn't that easy to use or too clunky...I was starting to disagree with them. Yes, I have large hands. Yes, it handles differently than other controllers. But I don't expect you to take my word. Try it yourself if you can. And do it with this kind of game rather than something that
The second day:
Before I delve into games, I noticed how easy it was to turn the controller on and off. It may sound stupid, but I never felt I had a simple indication on the PS4 controller whether it was on or off (remember: I have no PS4, and closing input mapper doesn't shut down this controller). Here, it's simple: one click on...hold the button 5 seconds to shut down. And it clearly doesn't use close to batteries when not using it: I'm still at nearly 100%!
One finger death punch: this is, again, a two button game. Would it perform equally well? Simple answer: yes. Still, there is one quirk. For some odd reason, this game relies on mouse in the menus (especially the first, where you can't use controllers to select to play in full mode). A small but annoying thing that nonetheless fully diminished my enthousiasm to ever even try it with PS4. The mouse-emulation is far better on the controller, though.
Roundabout: as mentioned, I've completed this one with (wired) PS4-controller earlier. Provided I'd play without the 'trackballs', this was equally good. I noticed the buttons were smaller than on PS4, though. But it was only by going back and forth between the two that I noticed that. So if you want to be nitpicking: the PS4 wins by a very, very small margin (compare the two with more than a few minutes apart and I'd be unable to tell the difference).
Robot roller derby discoball: I knew there would be no way around at least trying an FPS. At least this would be a good first try. Thus far, frustration got the better of me. To reviewers citing "it's because years of muscle memory you have to overcome", I have to say bullshit. My first keyboard+mouse attempts (doom 1 or DN3D...can't really remember) were far from this sort of performance. I couldn't hit anything and simply couldn't get used to it in the slightest bit. I've checked the settings from others, but aside from switching look up/down around, I couldn't find any true improvement. This is one to get back to, as I've yet to figure out how to properly use motions.
Not the robots: this is one I really liked. It's a game using WASD for movement and the mouse to rotate the camera. Here, the right trackball absolutely shined. This was far more elegant than I could ever hope to achieve with a joystick. Speaking of: using the joystick or the left trackpad were roughly at the same level of responsiveness.
I admit I had a certain issue at the start with movement. But to be honest, I was actually surprised this was the first time this had happened thus far. You see, I don't ever use WASD for movement. Nobody in Belgium (or France, for that matter) does. The reason is that we don't use QWERTY-keyboards but AZERTY-ones (W and A are switched, Q and Z, ; and M and a whole lot of symbols are swapped). As such, it's nearly common that the first thing we do is check the settings. Either the game first switches our keyboards to qwerty and has us use wasd that way (which is good), or notices our keyboard layouts and sets ZQSD as layout. Not the robots has the worst of the two: it has WASD as default but leaves the keyboard (or controller) as is. Result: the uploaded configs didn't work for me. But valve has anticipated this sort of thing well: I simply took a decent config, made the changes myself, added a few other tweaks and published it with the notion this was for AZERTY-users. I may sound stupid, but I liked doing this almost better than playing the game itself. At the very least, this whole sharing of configs-thing ensures that developers shouldn't worry about this sort of regional keyboard nonsense: games will make sure the best configs for exotic keyboards make it everywhere.
Pac-man DX: another game I was playing somewhat before this controller came around. And this time I've got bad news for the controller: the PS4 is much better at this.
You see, pac-man may only require four movement buttons (okay: five: it uses boms as well now) but it requires them to switch between them FAST (perhaps not initially, but as the speed ramps up, you really need decent gear for this). In the end, I wound up making a config that mapped the movements to ABXY. It made navigating the menu's pretty hard, but my actual GAME was certainly better.
For measurement, I also tried this with the PS4. This was better in every regards (again: the D-pad on that thing is just awesome).
Third day:
for fun, I sometimes turn on the controller to use it as a mouse in windows. While it certainly won't replace it - as some probably-joke-reviewer on steam claims - it's probably better than a laptop trackpad. Also: yesterday evening, my girlfriend was browsing the web when I sneakily turned on the controller and started disrupting her mouse movement. At first, she had no idea what was going on. And while this certainly wasn't intended by valve, it's this sort of thing that makes it also worth it for me. Ahem...more games:
Cook, serve, delicious: more of a joke, really. Though I've only started playing it this year, CSD is one of my all time favorites. It also requires you to use the entire keyboard and lots of memory training (you want your pizza with Pepperoni, Anchovise and Cheese? Press P-A-C, then enter to serve). The developer made an update to support steam controllers. While I can say that it works, I certainly won't be using it. The reason: memorization is MUCH easier if it's close to the origin. On the controller, the hypothetical P of Pepperoni is switched by one of the buttons. In other words: I would have to relearn the entire game on a much, much harder level. And that's not going to happen. I'd rather take a wireless keyboard and put it in my lap.
Kickbeat steam edition: a rhythm game that requires A, B, X and Y. Sort of like guitar hero. Works fine and easy. It's noticeable that the buttons are smaller than on PS4, though (and unlike roundabout, it actually does matter in this sort of game...you sometimes have to press and/or hold two adjacent buttons at the same time).
Faerie solitaire: a card game originally designed for touchpads (it's noticeable). It's simple and relaxing, and more suited for a television than a PC monitor. A great way to get used to the trackballs (there is no timer involved). It's in this game more than any other that I noticed how smooth these things work. And how good that added haptic feedback really is (fuck...I want haptic feedback on my work laptop ).
plants vs zombies: another mouse game. will also get back at this. While simple levels absolutely work fine, I really don't have the muscle memory yet to truly fling from one side to the other with pixel precision.
(EDIT 1):
Rest of the week:
Race the sun: an interesting one. This is a simple but VERY elegant racer. While the only real options are left and right (with jump and toggle camera playing minor roles), you'll truly need to master them. One of the community members added gyro controls on this. My guess is this works somewhere between well and extremely well, but it's hard to tell: RtS is a HARD game, so I crashed easily a dozen times trying. As with super hexagon, the back grips worked best for me, but the gyro really adds value. I'm curious how well this would play mario kart.
Trackmania stadium and Street fighter IV: why is it that the non-Indie games often have you jumping through hopes to play? The former wouldn't load because of server issues (though I just wanted to play offline), the latter never really worked for me. Or rather: I couldn't be arsed to properly see why player 1 and player 2 seemingly have the same buttons. Or why it throws windows for live in my face, for that matter. I could get SF4 to start, but by that time I was too fed up to give it a fair chance. May try again later (I'll probably go with skullgirls instead).
Waveform: another mouse only game. One with bad controls at that. This sounded like a good excuse to mess with more advanced options, because I always end up playing with the left mouse button clicked (the game has you manipulating a wave altitude and period to parkour through a space setting...it works best if you continuously hold down left mouse). After about 15 minutes I accidentally found a setting in the game to not have to hold the mouse 1 button to actually PLAY the game. I switched that setting and suddenly the game was almost a breeze. Considering the nature of this particular game, I'd say the trackpads are actually BETTER than a mouse in every way. They certainly are better than the joystick. After some fiddling, I got that to a setting where it's not impossible to play it with, but the trackpad is absolutely the way to go.
Audiosurf: this has official settings by the maker. Still...I'm not really convinced that they're the best settings, but I may be missing something (there is one method of playing where you collect blocks with left mouse click and release them with right. However, on the official settings, I can't find a bind for right mouse button). May get back to this one.
Binding of Isaac (original): Christ on a bike, this game's a mess. During my testings, I noticed some things were in beta (assigning left to left bumper got displayed as 'move right' after saving in race the sun, for instance), but here I'm not sure if it's big picture mode, the controller or the game. Though I'm fairly sure the last is involved. I think I'll really have to recheck this game entirely before even attempting the controller, as this...is just not good.
EDIT 2:
Extra days on steam:
Thanks to the tip by MrGrev, I've swapped out inputmapper for DS4windows. Connection is equally stable on my DS4 controller and the steam controller and tests between them can take place on a more even ground. With that said, I still prefer the steam controller in most cases. But I'll get to that...
Isaac's revenge (original): still no success to get this to work. The overlay refuses to come up, and it never starts in fullscreen. This has a lot to do with how the game is set up, obviously. But almost to my surprise, DS4windows does work instantly. Meaning: this is a clear win for the traditional controllers.
Zuma's revenge: thus far, the only other game I've discovered where the steam controller overlay doesn't work. No matter how often I switch the profile I want to use, as soon as I start the game, it resets the steam controller in a basic controller with mouse support. It's not a BAD setup, mind you. Okay, the game would be better if you could use the joystick to turn rather than having to aim with the mouse, but that's just the way the game is set up. As to playing it, this is probably the best example of mouse > steam pad > normal controllers. This is a simple but pretty hard game (going close to brutal and insane at higher levels) where both speed and accuracy are key. Mouse is absolutely better, but the steam controller isn't that far behind. I couldn't get mouse movement to work on a joystick, but I predict it'll be MUCH worse.
Element4l: a beautiful indie parkour/racing/other game. You basically navigate levels by changing between air (a floating bubble), ice (a slippery cube), rock (a heavy boulder) and fire (a fireball that propels to the right) in a methodiculous pace. Unfortunately, it doesn't support a traditional controller and the buttons are hardcoded. While it's playable with both the pad and the joystick, I ended up setting it up so changing elements is set to ABXY. It's the same reason as pac-man: you'll need pixel-precision, or rather: split second timing, to get into a decent flow. Though more than playable on steam controller (I uploaded my end config), I have to give points to the DS4 for its D-pad.
Eldritch: obviously, I can't avoid trying FPS'es forever. Eldritch is clearly a better starting point than Robot roller derby disco was, as it revolves far more around sneaking around than fast paced shooting. It's also a very low texture game (wolfenstein 3D-like graphics). Combine that with the high sensitivity needed for sharp turn and my inexperience with the 'pad, and you'll understand why I got motion sickness.
I also tried this on a DS4. Though I've never really played FPS's this way, the learning curve is much lower. Hard to say how this'll evolve...
EDIT 3:
Yet another day later:
Sleeping dogs enchanced edition: yes I DO own AAA-titles. I played this before with keyboard and mouse. It's a heavy adaption to play this with a keyboard, and to be honest, it's not much of a positive one. It took me a while to understand why 100+ people were using the top custom config: it's a setting where you need to put your right thumb on the pad in order to keep turning the camera (before that, I scrolled repeatedly, as a mouse wheel). It's really something to learn.
In contrast, when I played it with DS4 (which is equally new a control to me), this instantly felt natural: the D-pad (for navigating your ingame cell phone) was easier, the action buttons felt much smoother and above else: the right joystick for camera movement felt much better.
On top of that, I got DS4Windows to do something convenient I took for a default annoyance. You see, to switch between my PC and television, I needed to do three things:
1) turn on the television
2) set it to the correct HDMI channel (it's usually already that. Also, my television 'monitor' mirrors my PC monitor)
3) change the audio channel from my PC speakers to my television.
To facilitate the last one, I've spent some time tinkering on it. In the end, I ended up with two shortcuts to nircommands:
SettelevisionDefault: shortcut to "E:\Program Files (x86)\nircmd-x64\nircmd.exe" setdefaultsounddevice "LG TV-4"; key combination Alt+F6
Setspeakersdefault: shortcut to ""E:\Program Files (x86)\nircmd-x64\nircmd.exe" setdefaultsounddevice "Speakers""; key combination Alt+F5
What this does is make sure that whenever I press alt+F6, the default sound device becomes my television (LG TV-4-channel). Pressing alt+F5 sets it to the speakers. Convenient...but with one issue: the shortcut doesn't work when in fullscreen. DS4windows, however, allows you to launch programs on certain (combinations of) button presses. After putting the above in batch files and setting them on PSP+<left> and PSP+<right>, I can do the above using nothing but the DS4. Even in fullscreen!
I didn't thoroughly look, but AFAIK the steam controller's shortcuts aren't as advanced (yet). A pity...as this controller is much easier to navigate windows.
Contraption maker: this one got me a bit by surprise: even after playing faerie solitaire, I was amazed at how easy it is to navigate the mouse (or mice, as I set both trackpads to emulate the mouse). This time, the problems arose on a field I sort of anticipated yet haven't quite experienced before: having to squint to see what's going on on-screen. More than once, I lost track of my mouse cursor as it's small and doesn't stand out against the background. But if you ignore that (I'll try the game again on a lower resolution), then it's absolutely worth playing with pads.
EDIT 4:
Jamestown: hadn't played this in ages. It's pretty much a by-the-numbers bullet hell shooter (okay, the plot is pretty unique). The most popular setup had an interesting twist I hadn't used before. you see, the back triggers have two settings that can act as different buttons. And it does in this case: holding it down loosely fires. Holding it with tight grip alt-fires (or special fire; however you want to call it). It was getting used to, but I can see the reasoning. As far as bullet hell shooters go, you should never not fire. This setup allows literally the fastest button switching possible. Incidentally, it also requires you to remain calm, as having a firm grip on the controls "locks" the firing to alt fire. I didn't play it long enough to fully get used to it, but I really appreciate this sort of thing.
Olliolli: got this one on a humble bundle. Trust me when I say you don't want to play this on a keyboard and/or mouse. It's made for xbox360. Haven't tried it with DS4, but I assume it's roughly the same.
Transistor: nothing interesting in this one: it's made for xbox controls, it works as such. Screen visibility isn't that great but doable. And while it's a beautiful game, I never really grasped the whole concept behind it.
Stealth inc 2 a game of clones: another xbox-revolving game, but I tested this one for a specific reason: I bought this at GoG. I somewhat feared having to set up lots of stuff manually, but this really is as easy as it can get: you can add just about any .exe to steam's library in a matter of seconds. A bit of a pity that you can't easily import settings from other games (yet), but in this case not much of a hassle. I searched around a bit and noticed that valve apparently blocks http://steamcontrollerdb.com/. Not sure why (perhaps if an update changes the configuration, they can't be blamed that the configs on that site are all outdated?). Perhaps because it offers...dolphin layouts? (now THAT is interesting ).
EDIT 5:
The bugs are becoming more apparent now. Valve wants to push big picture mode because it allows us in their ecosystem, but the problem they're facing is that this same ecosystem is also just a PC. So catering to easy display is all they can really go for. And I'm starting to suspect the lack of configurability outside of big picture mode. Most apparent: I can't just pull up a keyboard replacement at will...and that's a pity because the way the steam controller's on-screen keyboard works is the best keyboard replacement I've ever used (far more natural and easy than any other game controller replacement or even smartphone or tablet keyboard).
Retroarch/emulationstation: I quit trying to set it up. emulationstation's the easy part: it recognizes my gamepad instantly and offers to let me bind it as I want. Unfortunately, it's nothing but a graphical front-end to retroarch. Retroarch itself just refuses to budge no matter what settings I want to use. Only if I add it to my steam account and let the steam controller emulate keyboard presses does it confirm. But I feel this'll take way more configuring than is needed on each individual emulator (and since neither are on steam for obvious reasons, I can't use controls from someone else either). I'll do this another time.
Another perspective: sharing steam controls may be pretty new, it's not like many people actually care. The top two configs have nearly 200 users and they're near blatant copypasta's of the default WASD-profile. Granted, it's not like the game has complex movements (left, right, jump, shift perspective), but is it too much to ask to label the buttons used in the game or provide multiple options for those who like to try out either the D-pad or the joystick? I ended up sharing my own profile again (after tweaking it so everyone could instantly see what was what).
Solsuite: a card game. One of the few things I keep playing despite it never arriving on steam. Adding it to steam was simple. Getting proper controls for it just failed. The reason most likely has to do with it not being full-screen (which is probably why I can't change the controls for the game either, as SBPM isn't running for some reason).
World of goo: I've tried/played this game on multiple platforms: wii, PC (mouse), touchscreen...and now the gamepad. Again, the pads prove how precise they can be if you practice a bit. In any case, it's easier to use than a wiimote.
The latter game is also to test a theory of mine. Thus far, games that were designed for gamepads play out better with trackballs. I'm not sure how things work out if you tweak and practice enough to prefer trackballs over a second joystick, but without either, it can be a frustrating thing (I got in a scene in stealth inc 2 where I had to move 2 players at the same time. The one I controlled with the pad was drunk as hell).
However, I don't see the steam controller as a replacement for it rather than an addition. Hardcore gamers may not like it, but as far as casual mouse-driven games go, this pad takes the crown. What's more: if I had to truly name a replacement for keyboard and mouse, this would be it. No, not for complex FPS'es or RTS'es. But for daily browsing, there is A LOT of potential. The only thing that's hindering me from browsing my PC from my couch is more the buggy interface outside big picture mode than anything else. And I don't see valve giving up on this whole thing so fast...
So...that's mostly it for games. I'll come back to this review later, and add some more links to other interesting reviews. Until then, here's the one from our very gbatemp:
http://gbatemp.net/review/steam-controller.390/
This review is currently after some hours of playing with it. Keep in mind that I've had it since November 24th (depending on pre-orders, others had it for over a month at this point). That's three days, and I'm not a too avid gamer.
Preface:
Let's start by saying I'm mostly an Indie PC gamer. I have a midclass PC, but while I have some AAA-titles, I mostly play original games by smaller companies (just finished roundabout, to name one).
A year-and-a-half ago, I bought a PS4-controller to play PC games, but while (the currently named) imputmapper does a good job of convincing my PC I'm using a 360-pad, it only really does it well over USB. Bluetooth...it works, but that's about it. Setting it up requires jumping through hoops every time, and though my couch is only 3 meters away, I often get lag at random intervals.
Speaking of which: I have my television set up directly next to my PC, so switching is a piece of cake. Though since the previously mentioned controller isn't too stable, I haven't played much PC-games from my couch right now.
Perhaps more importantly about me is that I don't care that much about shooters. My keyboard and mouse work perfectly fine for them. I'm looking for a more comfy way to play the myriad of other games I have in my steam library. So...will it deliver for me?
First days:
As like many others, my first impressions weren't that great. While it was plug and play, before I could start my first game, it prompted me to update the firmware. While the screen said not to deconnect and that it may took just about a minute, it actually hung on me for at least half an hour. Ouch.
So after a disconnect and trying again (it prompted again, but this time it worked. I'm now on the firmware of November 6th), I was ready for my first game. Well...sort of...
I have to admit I'm not a fan of big picture mode. The regular mode has all the options, and on a monitor it's easy to see everything. But I can understand their requirement for it: visibility just isn't the same on a television. And navigating the menus with the controller is very easy. So that said: the first game...
Hero siege: I figured a twin stick shooter game would be the best way to test those fancy gamepads. Well...no. What I feared suddenly got close: what if that trackball simply isn't close to being a replacement for a regular D-pad?
Sidenote: I've never been big on thumbsticks. On the PS4 controller, I always use those 'arrow keys' to move around. As you can guess, I'd rather have bought that second iteration (the one with 8 diamond buttons rather than the current 4 ABXY-ones), but I can't complain.
In any way, using the two pads absolutely didn't work well for me. Admittedly, in hindsight, this was more because the game wasn't designed to play far away from your screen (read: enemies and overlays were too small to really make out). There were some customer-configurations, but they didn't change much.
Still, I gotta say this was a quick and convenient way of doing things: one button to bring an overlay that has you switching controller setups fast and easy. And it's not the controller's fault I had to relearn button configurations (besides: the game had changed since I last played it as well).
Super hexagon: I got this gamepad after a long work day and a karate session (which I wouldn't miss). It was late and the abovementioned issues (firmware and hero siege) were about to spoil my impressions. So I went with this: an insanely hard game that nonetheless used two buttons (left and right). Or three, if you count 'restart' as a button (yes, that's an important one
).This worked flawlessly. More so: since left and right were bound to multiple inputs, I could switch along as I went. I quickly found the two buttons on the back to be my weapons of choice. I nearly got my highest score on it as well.
From this, I learned two things. For one, that there was absolutely no lag, input delay or any other of that jazz. Direct input from my PC to controller. And from my fingers seemingly direct to my television. It was good.
And for two...I quite like the controller. I've heard others say it wasn't that easy to use or too clunky...I was starting to disagree with them. Yes, I have large hands. Yes, it handles differently than other controllers. But I don't expect you to take my word. Try it yourself if you can. And do it with this kind of game rather than something that
The second day:
Before I delve into games, I noticed how easy it was to turn the controller on and off. It may sound stupid, but I never felt I had a simple indication on the PS4 controller whether it was on or off (remember: I have no PS4, and closing input mapper doesn't shut down this controller). Here, it's simple: one click on...hold the button 5 seconds to shut down. And it clearly doesn't use close to batteries when not using it: I'm still at nearly 100%!
One finger death punch: this is, again, a two button game. Would it perform equally well? Simple answer: yes. Still, there is one quirk. For some odd reason, this game relies on mouse in the menus (especially the first, where you can't use controllers to select to play in full mode). A small but annoying thing that nonetheless fully diminished my enthousiasm to ever even try it with PS4. The mouse-emulation is far better on the controller, though.
Roundabout: as mentioned, I've completed this one with (wired) PS4-controller earlier. Provided I'd play without the 'trackballs', this was equally good. I noticed the buttons were smaller than on PS4, though. But it was only by going back and forth between the two that I noticed that. So if you want to be nitpicking: the PS4 wins by a very, very small margin (compare the two with more than a few minutes apart and I'd be unable to tell the difference).
Robot roller derby discoball: I knew there would be no way around at least trying an FPS. At least this would be a good first try. Thus far, frustration got the better of me. To reviewers citing "it's because years of muscle memory you have to overcome", I have to say bullshit. My first keyboard+mouse attempts (doom 1 or DN3D...can't really remember) were far from this sort of performance. I couldn't hit anything and simply couldn't get used to it in the slightest bit. I've checked the settings from others, but aside from switching look up/down around, I couldn't find any true improvement. This is one to get back to, as I've yet to figure out how to properly use motions.
Not the robots: this is one I really liked. It's a game using WASD for movement and the mouse to rotate the camera. Here, the right trackball absolutely shined. This was far more elegant than I could ever hope to achieve with a joystick. Speaking of: using the joystick or the left trackpad were roughly at the same level of responsiveness.
I admit I had a certain issue at the start with movement. But to be honest, I was actually surprised this was the first time this had happened thus far. You see, I don't ever use WASD for movement. Nobody in Belgium (or France, for that matter) does. The reason is that we don't use QWERTY-keyboards but AZERTY-ones (W and A are switched, Q and Z, ; and M and a whole lot of symbols are swapped). As such, it's nearly common that the first thing we do is check the settings. Either the game first switches our keyboards to qwerty and has us use wasd that way (which is good), or notices our keyboard layouts and sets ZQSD as layout. Not the robots has the worst of the two: it has WASD as default but leaves the keyboard (or controller) as is. Result: the uploaded configs didn't work for me. But valve has anticipated this sort of thing well: I simply took a decent config, made the changes myself, added a few other tweaks and published it with the notion this was for AZERTY-users. I may sound stupid, but I liked doing this almost better than playing the game itself. At the very least, this whole sharing of configs-thing ensures that developers shouldn't worry about this sort of regional keyboard nonsense: games will make sure the best configs for exotic keyboards make it everywhere.
Pac-man DX: another game I was playing somewhat before this controller came around. And this time I've got bad news for the controller: the PS4 is much better at this.
You see, pac-man may only require four movement buttons (okay: five: it uses boms as well now) but it requires them to switch between them FAST (perhaps not initially, but as the speed ramps up, you really need decent gear for this). In the end, I wound up making a config that mapped the movements to ABXY. It made navigating the menu's pretty hard, but my actual GAME was certainly better.
For measurement, I also tried this with the PS4. This was better in every regards (again: the D-pad on that thing is just awesome).
Third day:
for fun, I sometimes turn on the controller to use it as a mouse in windows. While it certainly won't replace it - as some probably-joke-reviewer on steam claims - it's probably better than a laptop trackpad. Also: yesterday evening, my girlfriend was browsing the web when I sneakily turned on the controller and started disrupting her mouse movement. At first, she had no idea what was going on. And while this certainly wasn't intended by valve, it's this sort of thing that makes it also worth it for me.
Ahem...more games:Cook, serve, delicious: more of a joke, really. Though I've only started playing it this year, CSD is one of my all time favorites. It also requires you to use the entire keyboard and lots of memory training (you want your pizza with Pepperoni, Anchovise and Cheese? Press P-A-C, then enter to serve). The developer made an update to support steam controllers. While I can say that it works, I certainly won't be using it. The reason: memorization is MUCH easier if it's close to the origin. On the controller, the hypothetical P of Pepperoni is switched by one of the buttons. In other words: I would have to relearn the entire game on a much, much harder level. And that's not going to happen. I'd rather take a wireless keyboard and put it in my lap.
Kickbeat steam edition: a rhythm game that requires A, B, X and Y. Sort of like guitar hero. Works fine and easy. It's noticeable that the buttons are smaller than on PS4, though (and unlike roundabout, it actually does matter in this sort of game...you sometimes have to press and/or hold two adjacent buttons at the same time).
Faerie solitaire: a card game originally designed for touchpads (it's noticeable). It's simple and relaxing, and more suited for a television than a PC monitor. A great way to get used to the trackballs (there is no timer involved). It's in this game more than any other that I noticed how smooth these things work. And how good that added haptic feedback really is (fuck...I want haptic feedback on my work laptop
).plants vs zombies: another mouse game. will also get back at this. While simple levels absolutely work fine, I really don't have the muscle memory yet to truly fling from one side to the other with pixel precision.
(EDIT 1):
Rest of the week:
Race the sun: an interesting one. This is a simple but VERY elegant racer. While the only real options are left and right (with jump and toggle camera playing minor roles), you'll truly need to master them. One of the community members added gyro controls on this. My guess is this works somewhere between well and extremely well, but it's hard to tell: RtS is a HARD game, so I crashed easily a dozen times trying. As with super hexagon, the back grips worked best for me, but the gyro really adds value. I'm curious how well this would play mario kart.
Trackmania stadium and Street fighter IV: why is it that the non-Indie games often have you jumping through hopes to play? The former wouldn't load because of server issues (though I just wanted to play offline), the latter never really worked for me. Or rather: I couldn't be arsed to properly see why player 1 and player 2 seemingly have the same buttons. Or why it throws windows for live in my face, for that matter. I could get SF4 to start, but by that time I was too fed up to give it a fair chance. May try again later (I'll probably go with skullgirls instead).
Waveform: another mouse only game. One with bad controls at that. This sounded like a good excuse to mess with more advanced options, because I always end up playing with the left mouse button clicked (the game has you manipulating a wave altitude and period to parkour through a space setting...it works best if you continuously hold down left mouse). After about 15 minutes I accidentally found a setting in the game to not have to hold the mouse 1 button to actually PLAY the game. I switched that setting and suddenly the game was almost a breeze. Considering the nature of this particular game, I'd say the trackpads are actually BETTER than a mouse in every way. They certainly are better than the joystick. After some fiddling, I got that to a setting where it's not impossible to play it with, but the trackpad is absolutely the way to go.
Audiosurf: this has official settings by the maker. Still...I'm not really convinced that they're the best settings, but I may be missing something (there is one method of playing where you collect blocks with left mouse click and release them with right. However, on the official settings, I can't find a bind for right mouse button). May get back to this one.
Binding of Isaac (original): Christ on a bike, this game's a mess. During my testings, I noticed some things were in beta (assigning left to left bumper got displayed as 'move right' after saving in race the sun, for instance), but here I'm not sure if it's big picture mode, the controller or the game. Though I'm fairly sure the last is involved. I think I'll really have to recheck this game entirely before even attempting the controller, as this...is just not good.
EDIT 2:
Extra days on steam:
Thanks to the tip by MrGrev, I've swapped out inputmapper for DS4windows. Connection is equally stable on my DS4 controller and the steam controller and tests between them can take place on a more even ground. With that said, I still prefer the steam controller in most cases. But I'll get to that...
Isaac's revenge (original): still no success to get this to work. The overlay refuses to come up, and it never starts in fullscreen. This has a lot to do with how the game is set up, obviously. But almost to my surprise, DS4windows does work instantly. Meaning: this is a clear win for the traditional controllers.
Zuma's revenge: thus far, the only other game I've discovered where the steam controller overlay doesn't work. No matter how often I switch the profile I want to use, as soon as I start the game, it resets the steam controller in a basic controller with mouse support. It's not a BAD setup, mind you. Okay, the game would be better if you could use the joystick to turn rather than having to aim with the mouse, but that's just the way the game is set up. As to playing it, this is probably the best example of mouse > steam pad > normal controllers. This is a simple but pretty hard game (going close to brutal and insane at higher levels) where both speed and accuracy are key. Mouse is absolutely better, but the steam controller isn't that far behind. I couldn't get mouse movement to work on a joystick, but I predict it'll be MUCH worse.
Element4l: a beautiful indie parkour/racing/other game. You basically navigate levels by changing between air (a floating bubble), ice (a slippery cube), rock (a heavy boulder) and fire (a fireball that propels to the right) in a methodiculous pace. Unfortunately, it doesn't support a traditional controller and the buttons are hardcoded. While it's playable with both the pad and the joystick, I ended up setting it up so changing elements is set to ABXY. It's the same reason as pac-man: you'll need pixel-precision, or rather: split second timing, to get into a decent flow. Though more than playable on steam controller (I uploaded my end config), I have to give points to the DS4 for its D-pad.
Eldritch: obviously, I can't avoid trying FPS'es forever. Eldritch is clearly a better starting point than Robot roller derby disco was, as it revolves far more around sneaking around than fast paced shooting. It's also a very low texture game (wolfenstein 3D-like graphics). Combine that with the high sensitivity needed for sharp turn and my inexperience with the 'pad, and you'll understand why I got motion sickness.
I also tried this on a DS4. Though I've never really played FPS's this way, the learning curve is much lower. Hard to say how this'll evolve...
EDIT 3:
Yet another day later:
Sleeping dogs enchanced edition: yes I DO own AAA-titles. I played this before with keyboard and mouse. It's a heavy adaption to play this with a keyboard, and to be honest, it's not much of a positive one. It took me a while to understand why 100+ people were using the top custom config: it's a setting where you need to put your right thumb on the pad in order to keep turning the camera (before that, I scrolled repeatedly, as a mouse wheel). It's really something to learn.
In contrast, when I played it with DS4 (which is equally new a control to me), this instantly felt natural: the D-pad (for navigating your ingame cell phone) was easier, the action buttons felt much smoother and above else: the right joystick for camera movement felt much better.
On top of that, I got DS4Windows to do something convenient I took for a default annoyance. You see, to switch between my PC and television, I needed to do three things:
1) turn on the television
2) set it to the correct HDMI channel (it's usually already that. Also, my television 'monitor' mirrors my PC monitor)
3) change the audio channel from my PC speakers to my television.
To facilitate the last one, I've spent some time tinkering on it. In the end, I ended up with two shortcuts to nircommands:
SettelevisionDefault: shortcut to "E:\Program Files (x86)\nircmd-x64\nircmd.exe" setdefaultsounddevice "LG TV-4"; key combination Alt+F6
Setspeakersdefault: shortcut to ""E:\Program Files (x86)\nircmd-x64\nircmd.exe" setdefaultsounddevice "Speakers""; key combination Alt+F5
What this does is make sure that whenever I press alt+F6, the default sound device becomes my television (LG TV-4-channel). Pressing alt+F5 sets it to the speakers. Convenient...but with one issue: the shortcut doesn't work when in fullscreen. DS4windows, however, allows you to launch programs on certain (combinations of) button presses. After putting the above in batch files and setting them on PSP+<left> and PSP+<right>, I can do the above using nothing but the DS4. Even in fullscreen!
I didn't thoroughly look, but AFAIK the steam controller's shortcuts aren't as advanced (yet). A pity...as this controller is much easier to navigate windows.
Contraption maker: this one got me a bit by surprise: even after playing faerie solitaire, I was amazed at how easy it is to navigate the mouse (or mice, as I set both trackpads to emulate the mouse). This time, the problems arose on a field I sort of anticipated yet haven't quite experienced before: having to squint to see what's going on on-screen. More than once, I lost track of my mouse cursor as it's small and doesn't stand out against the background. But if you ignore that (I'll try the game again on a lower resolution), then it's absolutely worth playing with pads.
EDIT 4:
Jamestown: hadn't played this in ages. It's pretty much a by-the-numbers bullet hell shooter (okay, the plot is pretty unique). The most popular setup had an interesting twist I hadn't used before. you see, the back triggers have two settings that can act as different buttons. And it does in this case: holding it down loosely fires. Holding it with tight grip alt-fires (or special fire; however you want to call it). It was getting used to, but I can see the reasoning. As far as bullet hell shooters go, you should never not fire. This setup allows literally the fastest button switching possible. Incidentally, it also requires you to remain calm, as having a firm grip on the controls "locks" the firing to alt fire. I didn't play it long enough to fully get used to it, but I really appreciate this sort of thing.
Olliolli: got this one on a humble bundle. Trust me when I say you don't want to play this on a keyboard and/or mouse. It's made for xbox360. Haven't tried it with DS4, but I assume it's roughly the same.
Transistor: nothing interesting in this one: it's made for xbox controls, it works as such. Screen visibility isn't that great but doable. And while it's a beautiful game, I never really grasped the whole concept behind it.
Stealth inc 2 a game of clones: another xbox-revolving game, but I tested this one for a specific reason: I bought this at GoG. I somewhat feared having to set up lots of stuff manually, but this really is as easy as it can get: you can add just about any .exe to steam's library in a matter of seconds. A bit of a pity that you can't easily import settings from other games (yet), but in this case not much of a hassle. I searched around a bit and noticed that valve apparently blocks http://steamcontrollerdb.com/. Not sure why (perhaps if an update changes the configuration, they can't be blamed that the configs on that site are all outdated?). Perhaps because it offers...dolphin layouts? (now THAT is interesting
).EDIT 5:
The bugs are becoming more apparent now. Valve wants to push big picture mode because it allows us in their ecosystem, but the problem they're facing is that this same ecosystem is also just a PC. So catering to easy display is all they can really go for. And I'm starting to suspect the lack of configurability outside of big picture mode. Most apparent: I can't just pull up a keyboard replacement at will...and that's a pity because the way the steam controller's on-screen keyboard works is the best keyboard replacement I've ever used (far more natural and easy than any other game controller replacement or even smartphone or tablet keyboard).
Retroarch/emulationstation: I quit trying to set it up. emulationstation's the easy part: it recognizes my gamepad instantly and offers to let me bind it as I want. Unfortunately, it's nothing but a graphical front-end to retroarch. Retroarch itself just refuses to budge no matter what settings I want to use. Only if I add it to my steam account and let the steam controller emulate keyboard presses does it confirm. But I feel this'll take way more configuring than is needed on each individual emulator (and since neither are on steam for obvious reasons, I can't use controls from someone else either). I'll do this another time.
Another perspective: sharing steam controls may be pretty new, it's not like many people actually care. The top two configs have nearly 200 users and they're near blatant copypasta's of the default WASD-profile. Granted, it's not like the game has complex movements (left, right, jump, shift perspective), but is it too much to ask to label the buttons used in the game or provide multiple options for those who like to try out either the D-pad or the joystick? I ended up sharing my own profile again (after tweaking it so everyone could instantly see what was what).
Solsuite: a card game. One of the few things I keep playing despite it never arriving on steam. Adding it to steam was simple. Getting proper controls for it just failed. The reason most likely has to do with it not being full-screen (which is probably why I can't change the controls for the game either, as SBPM isn't running for some reason).
World of goo: I've tried/played this game on multiple platforms: wii, PC (mouse), touchscreen...and now the gamepad. Again, the pads prove how precise they can be if you practice a bit. In any case, it's easier to use than a wiimote.
The latter game is also to test a theory of mine. Thus far, games that were designed for gamepads play out better with trackballs. I'm not sure how things work out if you tweak and practice enough to prefer trackballs over a second joystick, but without either, it can be a frustrating thing (I got in a scene in stealth inc 2 where I had to move 2 players at the same time. The one I controlled with the pad was drunk as hell).
However, I don't see the steam controller as a replacement for it rather than an addition. Hardcore gamers may not like it, but as far as casual mouse-driven games go, this pad takes the crown. What's more: if I had to truly name a replacement for keyboard and mouse, this would be it. No, not for complex FPS'es or RTS'es. But for daily browsing, there is A LOT of potential. The only thing that's hindering me from browsing my PC from my couch is more the buggy interface outside big picture mode than anything else. And I don't see valve giving up on this whole thing so fast...
So...that's mostly it for games. I'll come back to this review later, and add some more links to other interesting reviews. Until then, here's the one from our very gbatemp:
http://gbatemp.net/review/steam-controller.390/
