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Steam Controller (First Impressions so far)

WereCat

So my Steam Controller finaly arrived.

I havent had chance to play with it around for as long as I would like because I have afternoon shift (dang it!) so I only got chance to try only two games with it.

 

DAY 1:

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

I just did dirt quick setup which I though would work good and it did. I set right touch pad for camera controll as a track ball with low acceleration and then I set the same thing for gyro but without acceleration so I can look around with the touch pad fast if I want while I can fine tune aim with the gyro.

Analog stick is set for WASD, LT for reload RT for fire, RB for aim down sights, LB for switching weapons, X for use/buy, A for jump, B for back (from the buy menu), Y for duck.

I had sensitivity for aiming down sights set for too high so I will have to adjust that.

 

I will definitely change some bindings as I think I can find better placements for them but overall for playing FPS games the controller feels solid. Sure, I cant see my self playing competetive FPS with it but for non competetive play or for single players shooters it is far superior to XBOX or PS4 controller. No it will not replace M+KB in FPS games but if you want to play FPS games in your living room then I think this is the best way to do it.

 

There is definitely some learning curve for the controller. I still need to get used to using gyro and touch pad at the same time as I find my self doing unnecessary movements resulting in miss firing when aiming but considering I only played for around one hour with the controller I think I will get used to it fast especialy when I tune the controlls to my liking.

 

Video should be in 1080p.. I think it is still processing. If not then I did something wrong so in that case .. sorry :/

 

 

Age of Empires II HD

AoE II is a RTS so I though it would be prety interesting to try it out on Steam Controller. So I did a quick setup and I used LT as right click, RT as left click (Why? because I like it that way. I dont know why but it feels right.), X,A,B,Y buttons to create groups D-Pad to select groups, analog stick to move around the map and right touch pad as a mouse. I played with it for a while and I had to move my thumb a lot in order to get mouse where I wanted and it was kinda annoying so I changed it to Gyro and it worked like a charm. I had it set to always on but I quickly realized it is not a good idea because you have no return point so if you hit edge of the map and you want return your controller to previous position your mouse cursor will be always on the side of the screen somewhere.

So I set Gyro to only work when I am holding RB which was ideal for me but now when I think about it I should just remove mouse functionality from the right touch pad and set gyro to work only when I am touching that touch pad.

As I said.. I am still geting used to controlls and as you can see in video I did some really weird unnecessary moves with the controller which I could easily avoid if I was accustomed to it.

It actualy felt prety natural to use it like that and I think that after few small changes to the controlls I will actualy prefer Steam Controller in this game rather than M+KB.

 

One thing regarding AoE II there is a big bug that is most annoying when using controller but it is also very annoying when using M+KB. Sometimes after opening chat your arrow keys or stick to move around map will stop working and the only way to fix it is to restart the game. So I dont recommend you to use chat when using controller.

 

 

Quick impression from the hardware side:

Controller feels more comfortable for me than the XBOX 360 wired controller I have. The quality of the plastic is prety much the same. Yes there is gloss plastic on the controller which wont even come into contact with your hands and it looks a lot better on my own eyes than on photos or videos where it looks really cheap. Haptic feedback is OK (I havent played around with it much as I said) and works for every input separately. You can adjust it for every single button. For example triggers can have 2 stages so haptic will let you know when you activate the another stage (you can feel it almost as a click).

 

 

UPDATE:

 

I had the controller for 2 months now. Now I will be doing full written review here on forum in separate topic but I want to ask you if you want video review too? I am a little bit shy in front of mic :D and my english accent is ..meh. 

To quickly summarize. I though I will be updating this topic frequently but I was kinda lazy.

 

Controller is awesome even though what other reviews said. And now I know why they were so negative though they were wrong. I will be talking about this in the review. I am done with my XBOX controller.. I probably wont touch it ever again. This thing totaly demolishes it when set up properly which is done easily. I was using controller wirelessly the entire time and I got 2 months worth of battery life (from the batteries that were included - 2x AA Duracell which is about 120-140 hours of gameplay with haptics enabled half of the time).

 

UPDATE1:

I tried Tomb Raider today. While it works with default settings that are set for the controller they are far from optimal and you are better of using XBOX or PS controller. So I tried to change them but the game has big issue and it cant accept inputs from controller and keyboard and mouse at the same time and can only switch between them and use only one at the time which is a big issue because then I cant bind all controlls to the Steam Controller and I have to use mouse with track ball mode on the right touch pad because the analog stick emulation is quite bad for this game. It works and you can play with it but it is annoying. It is so much better when using it as a mouse with track ball mode that I would rather play with it than with the XBOX controller but once the game detects you are using mouse it will disable all the other controller functions.... which is annoying and it is not controllers fault but game feature that is missing and should be in every game which is unfortunate.

 

Arma 3

I tried flying with helicopter in Arma 3 and it works very well. In video I fly a lot worse than I do now because I had to adjust sensitivity a little bit for the stick as it was too much sensitive however it worked great for me in King of the Hill multiplayer mode.

 

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SNIP

 

Looks fun, I need to pick one up :D its on my christmas list haha

 

 

It defiantly looks harder to aim in an FPS compared to using a traditional analog stick,  but you say its easier? and you pull off kills just fine - looks like something you have to experience than just see

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Looks fun, I need to pick one up :D its on my christmas list haha

 

 

It defiantly looks harder to aim in an FPS compared to using a traditional analog stick,  but you say its easier? and you pull off kills just fine - looks like something you have to experience than just see

It is actualy a lot more easier to aim than with analog stick and also more precise. Or I am just noob with the stick :D

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It is actualy a lot more easier to aim than with analog stick and also more precise. Or I am just noob with the stick :D

 

I will have to try it, I play a lot of games with a 360 pad on my PC

Desktop - Corsair 300r i7 4770k H100i MSI 780ti 16GB Vengeance Pro 2400mhz Crucial MX100 512gb Samsung Evo 250gb 2 TB WD Green, AOC Q2770PQU 1440p 27" monitor Laptop Clevo W110er - 11.6" 768p, i5 3230m, 650m GT 2gb, OCZ vertex 4 256gb,  4gb ram, Server: Fractal Define Mini, MSI Z78-G43, Intel G3220, 8GB Corsair Vengeance, 4x 3tb WD Reds in Raid 10, Phone Oppo Reno 10x 256gb , Camera Sony A7iii

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I might buy one come xmas but I use a xbox 360 pad atm and I like the precision of a analog stick in games like GTA. 

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I might buy one come xmas but I use a xbox 360 pad atm and I like the precision of a analog stick in games like GTA.

I don't have GTA but I will try Steam Controller in Just Cause 2 which should be very similar. Also want to try Witcher 3 and Tomb Raider.
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Pleas post the results - :)

Main: CPU: i5 4570 | Motherboard: Asus B85M-G | RAM: 8GB Corsair PC3-10666 | GPU: AMD HD 7790 


Case: Asgard 382 - Black | Storage: 1x 1TB HDD and 1x 500GB HDD | PSU: Xigmatek Premium Grade 500W | Display: LG 22EA53 and Logik TV | Cooling: Xigmatek Stock Fan | 3D Mark Results


 

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I'm keen to check out the steam link and steam controller but they don't sell locally in NZ >.<

 

Very curious as to how you find the controller in fps, third person and RTS games (endless legend, xcom etc). 

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. 

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I'm keen to check out the steam link and steam controller but they don't sell locally in NZ >.<

 

Very curious as to how you find the controller in fps, third person and RTS games (endless legend, xcom etc). 

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. 

I am uploading my gameplay of Age of Empires II right now (it should be up in about 30 minutes). As I said before I have been playing with the controller just for around 2 hours total so there is still a lot to explore as there is a lot of settings to try and I still need to get used to it.

So far what I tried for quick is solid. I was able to play AoE decently and I can already tell that after practicing it may actualy replace my M+KB .. at least in that particular game. I just need to do some adjustments with the settings. You may notice why in the video.

I dont own Endless Legend or XCOM but I can try Civ V and some action RPG like Divinity Original Sin which should be simmilar in controlls to those games. I plan to do a lot of uploads and updates in this thread as I will explore the Controller capabilities and then make a final review.

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I need a controller that I can jam stick like a pro and not break into having no sensitivity....if valve could make that I'd buy 10.

The Vinyl Decal guy.

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  • 1 month later...

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