[LinuxPlaying] Steam Controller - Unboxing and First Thought
14My first Impression of the Steam Controller after 1 day of use.
Quick Description :
The steam controller isn't a regular gamepad, yeah it got a lot of buttons, trackpads and this "haptic feedback" but this is not the big deal. What makes it different is its purpose, think of it like this :a highly configurable and bindable device.
Valve's main goal was to be able to map any button and any function of a keyboard and mice, and thus the controller feels like a special bindable device on top of a keyboard and mice (which makes it compatible with any pc game). But configuring the controller through the steam interface will probably repel many people out there.
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Long story short :
- Unsurprisingly good for platformer and arcade game ( But these games are designed for gamepads )
- When it comes to speed; Better than regular analog stick and a bit better than the everyday trackpad found on any laptop for fps. ( About accuracy, I don't know atmo, I still need more testing )
- Will probably need a long time to get used to ( Actually using a trackpad with thumbs is something new )
- Still (unsurprisingly) inferrior to optical and mechanical mice
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In details :
- Mercenary Kings 02:43
The controller is at home here, platformer has always been designed for gamepads.
The four buttons seems a bit low but it's not a big deal.
The 2 undergrip buttons are hard to use at first, but can be a viable option for some buttons
Game is playable with the steam controllers : 5 Stars
- Distance : 03:26
An arcade racer. Usually played with 2 analog stick (one to stear, accel and brake; The second one for rotating the car) + 3 buttons (jump, turbo and reset car)
The game is higly playable with the steam controler, but mapping the keys to the gamepad took me a little while : probably 4~5 Stars
- Dirt Showdown : 04:11
A typical racing game.
I tried to replace the analog stick with a trackpad (configured as a D-pad) it doesn't felt playable, maybe it needs a little more tinkering here, but to be fair, the analog stick felt far more superior.
So usually you would use one analog stick for stearing and the second one to accelerate and brake, but here, there's only one analog stick : 4 Stars
(Consider it 5 Stars if you're comfortable with accelerating and braking with the 2 triggers on the shoulder)
- Syder Arcade : 04:52
Nothing special here, I just wanted to try the analog stick on a shoot'm up to see if it's good enough to avoid bullets.
5/5 Stars (would shoot again)
- Borderlands 2 : 05:45
Now it's the big deal. This controller has been advertise as a better choice over regular gamepads.
To stress it, I've tried it against fast moving ennemies, and this is here that the controller is doing his job. The trackpad feels OK for turning around fast and stopping immediatelly during movement; something I usually found hard to do with an analog stick.
So, you can follow moving targets and turn around pretty fast, but I wasn't able to precisely aim for the ennemies weak spot.
Maybe it's about getting used to it or maybe I should tune down sensitivity but at first, it doesn't feel accurate enough to shoot down a precise spot on ennemies.
And thus 3 Stars, the game is "playable" but harder to land accurate critical shot.
- Trine 2 : 06:38
Now, for the final part, let's try a game which needs platforming + pointing device.
And to me here lies the greatest way to understand why is it hard to get used to it first :
Moving the character AND moving the pointer at the same time is something easy with a keyboard+mice; 2 different purpose, 2 controllers. But here with the steam controller, 2 purpose but only one controller. For me it's hard to do two different things when both hands are holding the same object.
The controllers is 100% compatible with this kind of game, but it will take time and practice to get comfortable with : 4 Stars
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And this will be my conclusion on this first try : The Steam Controller will need time and practice
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OS : Archlinux rolling release ( http://www.archlinux.org )
Capture : OBS Studio -git 0.12.0.r3 ( https://obsproject.com )
Edition 1 : Shotcut 15.10.06 ( http://www.shotcut.org )
Edition 2 : Kdenlive -git 15.09 ( https://kdenlive.org )