I used mine just a few hours ago while playing Brotato. I’m usually not a controller guy and try to stick to mouse and keyboard but in cases where controllers are just the better choice, I strongly prefer the Steam Controller over any other one.
It’s the first time i’ve heard an AMA as a suggestion, i’m not opposed to it though! I just can’t imagine their is many meaningful questions to ask though since all i really do is play video games lol
I never got fully used to the trackpads, but the Steam controller is still the only controller I’ve ever owned where the back paddles didnt break/become unresponsive after enough use. Big fan.
I got mine as soon as they were being sold and was disappointed. It felt incredibly awkward to use in comparison to both a K&M and a traditional controller. I ended up selling it about 5 years ago and don’t miss it.
Strong disagree. If anything, it was the opposite.
The Steam Controller was AMAZING for playing games that did not have gamepad support. And I still think it is the best way to play Stardew Valley. But it also came out at a time when PC ports to console were more or less expected and even RTSes had gamepad support out of the box.
At which point you have a controller that only makes sense for a very limited subset of games.
That said, a Steam Controller 2 that is basically the deck minus the display would be amazing.
Okay, but I didn’t want to buy a new console. Instead, I wanted to use my PC as a console replacement.
But also, there’s a surprising amount of games that never got a console release. For example, Blood and Septerra Core—never arrived on any console. I own those games, and the Steam controller let me play them on my TV very easily.
“ahead of its time” to let people play a game from 1999 is kind of my point.
The Steam Controller was very much designed with 90s/VERY early 00s gaming in mind where you might have a closet full of controllers for every game you like. A wheel for racing, a HOTAS for flight sims, a different HOTAS for mech sims, a gamepad, a guitar controller, a spinning knob, etc.
But it came out at almost the exact same time that the entire industry standardized on xinput with different face button labels. AND when xinput was making it trivial to just use that xbox controller on your PC.
And yet, when I look at my library, only half of new games released within the past five years support X-input. They are still exclusively keyboard-and-mouse.
Granted, that’s way more than what was available 10 years ago, but it’s still a problem.
Or it would be if the Steam Deck didn’t make it trivially easy to adapt keyboard-and-mouse controls to a controller. Which happened because of the innovation first introduced with the Steam Controller.
It’s now at the point where keyboard-and-mouse is optional—just a preference if you want to use it.
I mean… if you look at what I bought in the past five years you would think everyone was obsessed with spreadsheets and 100 hour CRPGs. That doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of games are made with cross platform in mind and many historically “M+KB only” games have excellent gamepad support. Sometimes, annoyingly, only in the console build but…
Yes. I do think Steam Input is awesome (even if it was basically just a cleaner interface to xpadder/joy2key). That isn’t the Steam Controller. The Steam Controller is what Valve was using to promote The Steam Machines which was their failed attempt at a console.
Again, just to make this clear: I am not saying the Steam Controller was bad. I am not saying Valve is bad. I AM saying it was not “forward thinking” and was very much rooted in a PC gaming era that was ending as orders were being shipped out.
Still got mine and use it. I bought mine very early on, and ran into an issue I’ve long since forgotten. I let Valve know and they comped me their entire Valve library, and the issue got sorted later.
An incredibly cool controller, I love the hell out of it.
I have two original Steam controllers and I absolutely hated them. The track pads, whereas a cool innovative technology, weren’t good for 90% of my games. I needed that D-pad, or at least a joystick. I hardly used my controllers, and now I just hold onto them as a piece of Valve history.
Mine came with the physical Steam Link box. I bought two of those boxes, so I could use Steam from a couple different places in my home away from my gaming desk. Instead of the controller, I just plugged in a keyboard and mouse to the Steam Link box. They did away with the hardware though, and now it’s just an app on Smart TVs and app stores. So I can’t use my keyboard and mouse without some extra steps.
It was a good 5+ hour learning curve, but I now swear by it for all Souls games (except DS remastered, since you can’t use joystick + mouse movement at the same time). In Elden Ring: Jump and dodge on the grips, holding LB engages gyro for aiming with the bow, and touch instead of click left trackpad for dpad input. Being able to swing the camera around instantly, or just being able to maneuver it while sprinting is so nice. Customizing the guide chords is great too: Guide+X = save OBS replay, Guide+Y = turn off controller, Guide+A = toggle MangoHud, etc.
Although, I’d probably trade the left trackpad for an actual dpad, though it is nice for typing if i ever need it. It’s a shame they removed “require clicks” for navigation in the new Big Picture mode. I also wish the LB/RB weren’t so clicky and loud. Maybe there’s a DIY mod for that.
Sadly I didn’t like the steam deck for Souls games. Maybe it’s because the trackpad is too far down and just feels more awkward to use. Steam controller just fits so nice.
EDIT: forgot to mention that I use Guide+right trackpad to simulate right analog stick, since in Elden Ring you need it for zooming the map or adjusting the camera angle during dialogue or character creation.
I personally love the left touchpad for movement. When the game lets you set a sprint hold over a sprint toggle I love to set an outer ring bind for it at the edge to go in and other of sprint without clicking. And I like setting up stuff like dash, crouch, slide on a touchpad click. Frees up buttons for me to be able to bind other stuff to.
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