I’ve had a PS5. Gave it away. I still have an Xbox. I don’t even know if its plugged in. The steam deck got me back into gaming in a way that I haven’t been in years. I feel like a kid again with the amazement of a piece of technology that can entertain me the way the steam deck can. I even bought a dbrand skin for it just because I love it so much. I’m playing prototype 2 and my fiancee is playing baldurs gate. When we have money we want to buy another one so we don’t have to share lol
It’s a brillant device, I often use it more than my PC.
It gives me the feeling that playing the Gameboy as a kid gave me. The switch would only make my hands cramp because the controls are only made for small hands.
Mine hasn’t gotten much use lately because the steamdeck itself has indirectly usurped it but man I love my steam controller. It’s genuinely the best controller ever made for certain types of games. I find it very difficult to play FPS games without it (or the steamdeck) due to getting so used to gyro aiming with the capacitive touch sensors. My only real gripe with it is the subpar build quality. They’ve learned a lot since then in terms of hardware manufacturing so I can’t wait for them to put out a new steam controller.
My dream steam controller 2 would be the steam controller layout with the large circular concave touchpads in the top most position, better bumpers, two extra bumper buttons like the 8bitdo, 4 back buttons in total, alpakka quality gyro, and nice premium feeling material used for the shell.
But, they’ll go with the Steam Deck layout if there is one, which unfortunately has not been good for using touchpads as primary inputs for my hands. Which has me hording Steam Controllers, since it’ll likely be the only dual touchpad focused controller around. And hoping Alpakka comes out with a standalone gyro module I can stick on the Steam Controller to at least have the gyro component updated.
I loooove my steam controller for first-person games. The right track pad for camera controls just clicks with me. I guess it’s because I’m a PC gamer first and foremost, so I’m used to mouse-like aiming rather than the analog-style stick aiming.
I never really used the left track pad though…
That being said, I was let down by the steam deck trackpads. Maybe I just have big hands, but I could never use the right track pad the same way I do with the steam controller.
Also a general comment: AA/AAA is the best if you get some rechargable batteries. No waiting for charging when something is out of juice! Plus you can just get a new set of batteries if they ever die instead of a whole new controller
Yeah thats kind of the point. It doesnt have 2 joysticks so I just buy an Xbox one instead. So it cant compete with the gold standard of crontrollers.
And you can say it has pursose in non controller games but its still worse than a traditional keyboard and mouse in that repect as well as a keyboard with an integrated trackpack.
So theres maybe a small niche of playing non controller games in situations where you dont have a desk and you dont want to use an integrated keyboard, where it does a bit better than the competition. Any other situation you have better options. Which IMO if its worse in most use cases and only a bit better than the competetion in designed niche, then its not really a good product.
Not everyone’s a big kb/mouse fan. My sister refuses to use one on the HTPC.
Hence I think that was its non-insignificant niche; couch usage. Portable keyboards are really awkward and clunky on laps, and the steam controller is way better and more ergonomic than an integrated trackpad.
Personally I think it was a smart business decision, because of this:
It doesnt have 2 joysticks so I just buy an Xbox one instead.
No one’s going to buy a steam-branded Xbox controller, but making it different does. And I think what killed it is that it wasn’t plug-and-play enough, eg it didn’t work out of the box with many games.
That’s 4 years or 104 fortnights or 1,458+ poop socks.
To put that much time into something and say you don’t like, obviously it capture that person’s attention well beyond it’s intended shelf life. How can anyone improve on something that captured someone’s attention for four fucking years of playtime.
I have one of these, and it’s my least favorite controller I’ve ever owned. The touch sticks feel like the touch controls in my car… They leave me wanting real, tactile controls.
Was the first controller that allowed me to completely drop aim assist for good and not feel slow against PC players and offer keyboard like functionality for input swapping.
The thing about this meme is those people are either review bombing because “reasons”, or they are all masochists, either way I would disregard them as spam and look for better reviews.
If they typed out an explanation like the game was massively changed for the worse after the vast majority of their game time then they are probably legit. Like if there was suddenly an additional 3rd party login added, or the game became unplayable due to a bug introduced and not fixed, or something along those lines.
Most “reasons” for players with thousands of hours tend to be pretty reasonable in my experience.
If a group of people are influenced by whatever, and suddenly write a bunch of negative reviews I would consider that a review bomb if they played 0 hours, or 10k hours. Adding the weird stipulation that it needs to be people that never played it is not a requirement I’ve ever heard. Now is it more likely that the trolls will be people who haven’t played, absolutely, because the low cost (nothing) of doing so while the people that play games are actually gaming.
Review bombing is a coordinated online campaign where a large group of people post a deluge of negative reviews for a product, service, or business, often with the intent to harm its reputation or sales. This tactic is usually employed as a form of protest, coercion, or even just trolling, and is often seen in response to perceived issues with the product or its creators.
Usually games as a service, they’ll release a large patch or expansion that makes significant, unpopular, changes. So lots of long time fans will review bomb it, in a good way, to show their displeasure.
It’s funny—just a little over five years ago, gamers hated it. Not because they ever used one, but because it was a failure. And as we all know about gamers, there’s nothing they hate more than a failure.
Nice try, but that’s not why I hated it.
This smug revisionism triggers me hard. As a hard core steam fan I loved the idea of the SC, I bought it and really tried to use it, but the reality was just too clunky for primary use. It has no dpad, a single crappy convex analog stick, terribly placed ABXY buttons, horrible shoulder buttons, and just a bit too much input lag on the trackpads. On top all that was (actually, still is) a remapping system that’s way too convoluted to use regularly. There’s also the sad fact that alarmingly many games don’t allow simultaneous gamepad and mouse inputs, and simulating the mouse through right stick inputs feels like shit. I really didn’t find any use case where it’s ergonomically superior to a regular gamepad beside the always cited Civ on the Couch, and I’ve tried with sooo many games.
The deck’s control layout fixes most of the issues – the placement is better (except maybe the Salvador Dali inspired B button but I digress), there is a great d pad, two pretty good analog sticks and the input is snappier. Surprise surprise, the deck is a success.
Was the SC innovative, bold and ahead of its time in many ways? Sure. Was it a good controller to play games with? Hell no.
Fully agree. I tried to make the SC work and wrote off a lot of it as “I’m just not used to it”, but it really is asking a lot. In its defence, it was a first run product. The fact that it’s still ass usable and as weird is impressive enough to me. But it’s better as a piece of gaming history than a good product. It was just a good try.
I also agree with the Steam deck controls being actually good. I want the SC2 that’s just a steam deck without the screen or computer.
So I guess the opposite of the steam brick.
I’d gladly pay $100 to have a steam deck like control scheme for my desktop. Rechargeable batteries and a Linux first design would be awesome. I don’t mind just using cables all the time, but I would like better wireless options for Linux gamepads (though to be fair, I haven’t tried connecting a wireless controller to a Linux box in 5 years).
I bought it and really tried to use it, but the reality was just too clunky for primary use. It has no dpad, a single crappy convex analog stick, terribly placed ABXY buttons, horrible shoulder buttons, and just a bit too much input lag on the trackpads.
Hard truths.
Why did they feel the need to replace analog controls with these weird, inconsistently responsive, difficult to map touch controls when every other console platform had already demonstrated why that’s a bad idea?
Was the SC innovative, bold and ahead of its time in many ways?
NO. It was kitsch and poorly engineered and obviously not play tested sufficiently before release. It was a hobbyist’s attempt at reinventing the mousetrap that got shoved into a major distribution pipeline when Playstation and Nintendo and XBox had already demonstrated why you don’t build controllers this way ten years earlier.
Why did they feel the need to replace analog controls with these weird, inconsistently responsive, difficult to map touch controls when every other console platform had already demonstrated why that’s a bad idea?
I have no idea what you’re talking about. The DS4 had a trackpad that was clearly positioned and intended for menu navigation. Nobody used trackpads as a primary game control input before the SC. That’s not because sticks are some god-given pinnacle of technology but because potentiometer-based sticks are cheap and people are used to them. Analog sticks were always, and still are, a crappy way to control a camera. Building a 1:1 thumb based input source into a controller absolutely was innovative and, like it or hate it, I don’t see how you can contest that. The Steam Deck’s pads are actually pretty great to use.
Playstation and Nintendo and XBox had already demonstrated why you don’t build controllers this way ten years earlier.
Again, what are you talking about? The SC was released in 2015.
One thing, and it’s likely just an oversigt, but controls. With Consoles being the computers that everything is designed for, the lack of proper controls for Mouse & Keyboard have become a bit of a nuisance.
Normally, it’s not a big deal. You just configure them yourself.
But it did irk me some when I gave Cyberpunk a go and tried to switch the Interact/select button from (F) to (E) and it didn’t move both functionalities. Now (E) was Interact, but in menus it defaulted back to (F) as if menu select was a different function.
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