I think I have my two around somewhere (as well as my original Steam machine thingy, which was really awesome). I still cherish them and love the idea of them. Nice boxes, too. But I honestly thought the controllers were real turds, especially after so many reviews gurting so much pole slaw over them.
I'm trying Metal Gear Rising one last time and it's just as obnoxious as I remember it. Like, you can do combos, but the game practically pushes you into perfect parries + zandatsu, and I just don't find this fun at all—way too one dimensional and repetitive.
Ima probably give it one more hour and call it quits.
The entire industry has agreed on a de-facto standard for controllers, which is pretty much the PS1 controller:
Two clickable thumbsticks
Four face buttons
D-pad
Four triggers
Two menu buttons
The only thing the PS1 didn’t have (but games can’t use it, so maybe it doesn’t count?) - a button for showing the platform’s menu
You can add things on top of that (trackpads, gyros, making some of these digital buttons analog), but if you don’t have that - your controller won’t work for games that expect these inputs to be available.
If I had to put a date on when this became the established standard, I’d say 2005 or 2006 - the years when the XBox 360 and the PS3 were released, since both consoles had these capabilities (Nintendo kept doing its own thing, and only supported this standard starting with the Wii U). So when the Steam controller was released in 2015 - this standard was already established, controllers for PC made sure to support it - and even PC games stuck to it.
This is why I think the Steam Controller failed - you had to map it. You couldn’t use it like you would a standard controller even if the game was made for standard controllers.
The original PS1 controller didn’t have joysticks, and when it did, the position sucked for larger hands. I have always preferred the XBox layout.
you had to map it
Did you? I thought most games worked fine, though admittedly I only played a couple because I never got used to the trackpads.
I think it wasn’t very post all popular because it was so different. Even if it worked as expected out of the box, a lot of people dismissed it at first glance. It was also only available through steam, so there was less reach.
But even then, I still don’t think it failed on its own merits. I think there wasn’t a compelling reason to get it without a Steam Machine, which flopped because Valve didn’t commit to it.
The original PS1 controller didn’t have joysticks, and when it did, the position sucked for larger hands. I have always preferred the XBox layout.
Right. I meant the second PS1 controller, not the original one. The design changed over the years, but the general specs stayed as the baseline of controllers.
The XBox layout with its six face buttons did not stick, and the XBox 360 conformed with Sony’s design of four face buttons and two triggers. Which makes more sense for shooters (since you have more buttons while keeping your thumb on the right thumbstick)
It’s important to note that the PS1 also borrowed from previous designs, namely the Super Nintendo with 4 face buttons and N64 (the controller with joysticks came out a year after).
Xbox’s main innovation was the offset joysticks, which may have been due to patents more than anything, but I preferred it. I also didn’t mind the two extra buttons, and was a little sad when they went away, because they were largely replaced by the joystick buttons, which I think are hard to use properly.
But yeah, design stagnated a bit after the PS1 controller.
I find I keep accidentally clicking the thumbstick buttons, and I have the same problem with clicking the trackpads on the stream controllers. When the game gets tense I tend to increase my grip causing the clicks.
I also didn’t mind the two extra buttons, and was a little sad when they went away, because they were largely replaced by the joystick buttons, which I think are hard to use properly.
Weren’t the black and white buttons replaced by triggers? The joystick buttons already existed in the first XBox.
Sort of, but the functions changed a bit. For example, in Halo, the black button changed the type of grenade and the white button triggered the flashlight, both of which weren’t really needed frequently. On the XBox 360, it changed to:
throw grenades - B - used to be melee attack (which switched to a bumper button)
flashlight - D-pad - replaced the “lower weapon” action, which was no longer available (was moved to a bumper button in one other game, and removed from others)
Both control schemes are fine, but I honestly thought the black/white buttons were decent. Having some buttons you rarely push but can is nice.
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.
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.
Maybe it says more about me than about game pass, but even at 5€ a month it would be significantly more money than I spend on games every year.
Not that I couldn’t afford it, but I mostly play games that are at least 5 to 10 years old, either on second-hand physical copies or heavily discounted sales/keyshops. The most recent game I’ve bought is Elden Ring, even then only recently because I found a cheap physical copy.
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