So I got a Steam Controller for (early) Christmas

[Paragon Fury]

And I have to say...I feel like it was a valiant effort on Valve's part. I feel like it could be useful in something like playing Civilization or maybe FFXIV/TERA, but I can't see how they expected people to use it with say, Skyrim or The Witcher and certainly not any shooters. It certainly looks cool and the mouse pad control thing is a cool concept but I feel like I'm playing with a sensitivity that is both too high and too low at the same time.

Anyone else had any luck with it?

 

[Saelune]

My intention is to use it for games, mainly old ones, that could use a controller, and perhaps did, but dont have native controller support, like Morrowind, or GTA Vice City.

I hope they keep working on it, but that mouse touchpad does NOT stand in at all for a thumbstick, and that is my only true complaint. It is the only reason I cannot use it for Morrowind. Everything else worked perfect except that.

I refuse to use third party stuff like xpadder, so having a Steam-ready universal controller is a brilliant idea that needs to be worked out, and I hope they are still figuring it out, though I got plenty of ideas if Valve wants to hear them.

 

[DoPo]

I've used one and it seems quite good for some games. I've played first person games with it and it's surprisingly good. Not as good as mouse and keyboard for shooters, but I played SOMA and it was fine. I feel like strategy games are also gong to work well.

I hope they keep working on it, but that mouse touchpad does NOT stand in at all for a thumbstick

It's not actually a touch pad - it emulates a track ball instead and that makes it quite a lot better than a touch pad. I've never really used trackballs much aside from seeing how they work and when I picked up the controller it didn't take much getting used to.

I'm actually getting one for Christmas myself, so I'll see about how it works best but I was decided to do that after using one a friend had. That said, I used it a while ago, so I don't think it's a "must have" but it's definitely a nice controller.

 

[Saelune]

I've used one and it seems quite good for some games. I've played first person games with it and it's surprisingly good. Not as good as mouse and keyboard for shooters, but I played SOMA and it was fine. I feel like strategy games are also gong to work well.

I hope they keep working on it, but that mouse touchpad does NOT stand in at all for a thumbstick

It's not actually a touch pad - it emulates a track ball instead and that makes it quite a lot better than a touch pad. I've never really used trackballs much aside from seeing how they work and when I picked up the controller it didn't take much getting used to.

I'm actually getting one for Christmas myself, so I'll see about how it works best but I was decided to do that after using one a friend had. That said, I used it a while ago, so I don't think it's a "must have" but it's definitely a nice controller.

Well, considering it was a pad I had to touch and not a ball. And regardless, it sucked, because it has no resistance that a physical thumbstick has.

 

[Irwin126]

I bought one for the sake of Shovel Knight and it's god awful Pc controls.
That and Blinding of Issac.

For shooters it's more or less the sensitivity to worry about.

 

[WeepingAngels]

I wasted $50 on one early last year. I just can't see how this controller is useful in any way. Trying to play a game made for mouse and keyboard on a controller is worse than trying to play an action game on a touch screen when it was designed for a controller. It is passable as a controller for turn based RPG's but then again, so is a touch screen.

 

[Irwin126]

I wasted $50 on one early last year. I just can't see how this controller is useful in any way. Trying to play a game made for mouse and keyboard on a controller is worse than trying to play an action game on a touch screen when it was designed for a controller. It is passable as a controller for turn based RPG's but then again, so is a touch screen.

Did you only use it for Fps's? As it works better for platformers and 2d games.
That and the community control sets help out a tun.

 

[WeepingAngels]

I wasted $50 on one early last year. I just can't see how this controller is useful in any way. Trying to play a game made for mouse and keyboard on a controller is worse than trying to play an action game on a touch screen when it was designed for a controller. It is passable as a controller for turn based RPG's but then again, so is a touch screen.

Did you only use it for Fps's? As it works better for platformers and 2d games.
That and the community control sets help out a tun.

I don't play FPS's, I used it for RTS's and RPG's. It was mediocre for turn based RPG's but terrible for RTS's. In the end, it adds nothing.

 

[Qizx]

I wasted $50 on one early last year. I just can't see how this controller is useful in any way. Trying to play a game made for mouse and keyboard on a controller is worse than trying to play an action game on a touch screen when it was designed for a controller. It is passable as a controller for turn based RPG's but then again, so is a touch screen.

Did you only use it for Fps's? As it works better for platformers and 2d games.
That and the community control sets help out a tun.

I don't play FPS's, I used it for RTS's and RPG's. It was mediocre for turn based RPG's but terrible for RTS's. In the end, it adds nothing.

I mean yeah. RTS's are NOT controller friendly at all, and never will be. They require far too much accuracy and quick selection/hotkeys to allow for controller.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

And I have to say...I feel like it was a valiant effort on Valve's part. I feel like it could be useful in something like playing Civilization or maybe FFXIV/TERA, but I can't see how they expected people to use it with say, Skyrim or The Witcher and certainly not any shooters. It certainly looks cool and the mouse pad control thing is a cool concept but I feel like I'm playing with a sensitivity that is both too high and too low at the same time.

Anyone else had any luck with it?

I've used mine, not a lot, but often. In my mind I will either commit to a game using it, or I won't. Many games are fine with KB/M and shooters/FPS in particularly generally are anyway. Where the steam controller shines the most is in games with more controls than a normal joypad or the like can hold. The power of it is that it's a customisable interface that fits into your hands and does whatever you want it too.

I used it f.ex with Dark Souls 3. You have your strafe and look-around camera, but then on the right trackpad I had 9 options for things and on the left pad click, I could change weapons/spells/estus etc. It made looking better than on a joypad, selecting things better and quicker and gave me options without having to lift right thumb off. I also used it with X3:TC. There weren't any community maps so I ended up with my own. That game has both manual space flying controls and weapon banks for combat, as well as menus for trading, commands and so on. In the end I was flying, plotting autopilot courses, trading and issuing commands to AI from the controller with only infrequent trips to the keyboard.

If you are thinking of the Steam Controller as an XBox/Dual-Shock replacement, it's doing it a disservice. You can tailor each part of it to behave how you like. Someone mentioned Skyrim...an example. Skyrim uses 1-8 as hotkeys for favourites...these could be remapped to the right trackpad onclick so the player could select any item they want without lifting their thumb off the pad. Left pad onclick could be used to bring up menus, while touching it could have other commands like autorun, sneak or something.

Consider all of a games functions and how it can be mapped to this great device and you will game better, faster and more intuitively.

 

[Paragon Fury]

My thoughts are summed up in this pic -

 

[Dunc2j]

I've had one for almost a year now and honestly.......I have not used it often.

With that in mind I probably cant give a full critical opinion but I cant help but feel the reason I haven't used it much is because I just don't find it any good for most games.

Although recently I've been making an effort, I've been replaying XCOM 2 and find that it works totally fine for turn based games like that, been really enjoying it. But anytime I've tried an FPS or third person game of any kind I just cant seem to get it down. But I'm gonna try to keep sticking it out, I'm about to start playing Hitman and plan to use the steam controller for it. Will see how it goes.

Its a great idea and as mentioned by a poster above the customization options alone might be enough to make it have purpose for the game genres where it is suitable. I'm still happy I got one, at least to try it out and to support what Valve are trying to do with regards to moving forward from what has become the controller standard. You never know they might just iterate and get it right down the line.