Still love my original Steam Controller. At least 10 years old now I think. Still works great.
Still bummed about the 100 dollar price tag
I think I’ll try it if there’s a sale, but that’s a hefty price for a controller. I’m fine with just running m&k for now
I’ve had good experiences with the Gamesir Nova 2 for only $30.
There’s no touch controls, but for a PC-first controller it works great, even on Linux.
Beating mouse + KB is hard and people already have good enough Xbox/ps controllers to justify buying another
This is the correct answer. I use a controller on console because I have to. There are very few game genres (imho) where a controller is superior to a mouse.
To add onto your point, a lot of games where mouse+keyboard isn’t the best set of inputs, neither is a controller. Things like flight games or racing games.
Exactly, honestly fighting games are the only genre I can think of where a controller is better than keyboard/mouse… maybe platformers?
Edit: again this is my personal opinion. I knew a guy back when lan parties were still a thing that would play shooters with a trackball and he would annihilate everyone. We all got our preferences :)
Souls like games are pretty much always far superior on controller imo over m+kb. M+kb just feels janky for me in souls likes
Yea I can see that -I suck so bad at souls games I tend not to play them much anymore
I actually bought a Logitech trackball mouse shortly after I got my PC. My grandpa used to use one and I thought it might have been good for some gaming, but it had been too long since I last used it so it didn’t feel right.
Controllers are definitely the best option for racing games.
nah, steering wheel is
I don’t know how playing something like redout 2, screamer or inertial drift would go on a wheel(they all use twin stick driving).
Sim racing is definitely a wheel, but arcade racers are mostly controller for me.
Jimmy Broadbent suddenly sits up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily
I don’t know what that means.
It’s just a personal experience thing for some games. I use controller (8bitdo Pro PS style) for FFXIV, Monster Hunter games, and a few smaller games that use third person overhead (Isometric?) as well as general turn based RPGs, but almost never for anything that feels similar to a shooter. Ark, Warframe, BG3, and a bunch of other survival/builder games, X4 etc are all keyboard and mouse.
There are some that may seem like they’re in the wrong category, like the Horizon games are controller for me despite having a lot of aiming mechanics, but again it’s all personal feeling of comfort. I don’t argue for either one to other people; just use what feels good to you.
I have a third-party Xbox controller that’s my main gamepad, and I bought a PS3 controller a while back for emulating PlayStation games (there was one game I played that I literally needed the controller for a specific mechanic/functionality).
My Xbox controller actually has a couple extra buttons on the back/bottom that you can program to be other buttons; I set them to be alternate bumpers so I don’t have to hold the controller in that weird claw way.
lol I too know the pain of relying on PS3 controllers for games with pressure-sensitive button inputs.
Mine was a motion control mini game that I couldn’t just skip
Lmao, “Valve don’t know”
Valve don’t know, but they
“Valve doesn’t know,” would only be correct if they followed it up with “but it.”
Yes, correct. Valve is a business, it is not a person. It would be the correct way to refer to it.
Businesses can’t know or think, either, so the line is clearly referring to people at Valve. For a pedantically accurate title, prepending the sentence with “The developers at” would clear it up, though personally I think it’s fine as is.
It is correct grammar when using “Valve” as a plurality of its employees, as indicated by the use of “they” after the comma.
lol get rekt nerd /s
I’ve literally only ever seen businesses referred to singularly. You’re not referring to the employees, you’re referring to the business. The business is a singular entity. The employees don’t know. The business doesn’t know.
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“Valve don’t know” makes perfect sense when you say “they” to refer to Valve. You wouldn’t say “They doesn’t know”.
Valve isn’t a they, Valve is an it. Its a business. It doesn’t know.
In American English, yes. Not in British English.
Collective nouns like company names and team names in British English are often conjugated as if the subject is plural. The idea is that Valve is not one person, but many. So Valve are a business, they make a lot of money.
Something like that. I dunno, I’m not British.
I reject the personification of corporations, whether in American English or British English. Valve is not any number of people. It is strictly a legal entity and it should be referred to as such.
I don’t think it’s personification to recognize that Valve is composed of employees, rather than being an object.
The same rules are followed for bands and teams, too. (Iron Maiden are an incredible band. Manchester United are having a great season.)
You can reject it, but that doesn’t mean your “corrections” of British English grammar are accurate. I can correct the pronunciation of “Zee” all I want, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t accurate to Americans to call “Z” that when they’re in the US talking about US things.
It is composed of employees. It isn’t employees.
I didn’t correct anything. I made fun of it. Its dumb. I will continue to make fun of it. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk. Goodbye.
Before the Steam Deck. I had said if Valve splits the back buttons and adds Type C Steam Controller 2 is good enough for me. Then I held a Steam Deck. Then I used a Steam Deck. and I knew then THATS what I needed as a controller. 4 years later here we are. I have money already in my Steam Account and anyone who I talk to has to hear me ask if its Monday yet.
Speaking of which… Is it Monday yet?
Yes it is, go, go, go!
Everyone is busy maximizing profits instead of fucking innovating meanwhile valve is over here hunkered down like a mad scientist
I guess I’m old enough to remember that there were a plethora of joysticks and game pads during the 80’s and 90’s that were designed for PC. So many options for PC back in the day.
That all changed and dried up after Doom came on the scene and M+K and the precision that it gave became the norm and there was no real need for PC gamepads and the market for that dried up plus with console controllers moving to work with PC’s there was really no need for something PC specific since for most games, M+K is still better suited or at least more than serviceable so the PC controller market is niche still at best.
I’m not sure. I use a controller for any game where it makes sense. It’s more ergonomic for me–my fingers get angry at me if I use keyboard and mouse to, say, run around a map for too long. Gamepad doesn’t hurt the same way.
I’m also team “invert the y-axis because my character is a helicopter”.
I remember a time there was plenty.
Even with a “pc first” controller there will still be a significant amount of pc users who just flat out refuse. Their loss though because this looks interesting.
I mean why would most people want it over a “normal” controller you can get for half the price and works with more than just steam games?
I mean you’ll be able to play anything on your pc with it, doesn’t have to be from Steam.
The price thing tho, yeah it’s pricy. I guess it comes down to how much you want touchpads.
Like the OG steam controller you have to use steam to launch for it to work like a normal controller.
According to the GN video the joysticks don’t work as a normal xinput device unless you have steam open the game to translate it. You’re locked into using steam with the controller. This is my biggest qualm with the OG steam controller. (well besides me hating the touch pad)
Because a normal controller sucks to play strategy games with on a PC.
And those 2 inch touch pads are that much better? Assuming they’re exactly the same as the ones on the Deck it’s not gonna be a great experience. It takes it from excruciatingly painful, to just very unpleasant but tolerable if you’re a masochist.
That is kinda my view too. I feel a trackball would have worked better than a touchpad, but maybe I just haven’t used touch pads enough.
That was one of the really cool features of the OG steam controller (and the deck too but I don’t use as much), pads can totally be setup to emulate a trackball and the haptics were weirdly good and giving you feedback. I found it really solid for games like warframe, that and gyro aiming (which I’ve never gelled with on the deck) felt pretty solid to me.
Otherwise, the trackpads can be used for things like rotary menus too which I definitely get a lot more use out of.
I’ve not used the steam deck, but I have used the original steam controller and the trackpads worked extraordinarily well.
If I could have the valve touchpads on a controller made by 8bitdo or gamesir that’d be great. I’ll probably buy it, but I haven’t held a Valve device which had buttons or ergonomics that felt as good as the ones from those other two companies.
I think what people will look back on and say was so successful about this design as it relates to the steam deck joysticks and trackpads is that it cemented a control pattern that I think will become a standard for high quality pc gamepads/handhelds.
The market is ripe for someone to make something very similar but flip the joysticks and touchpads for people that prefer that layout, for one…
I think the market is kind of stagnant, the Steam Controller should help shake that up a bit hopefully. I’m looking forward to getting 2 of them myself.
