TheSapphireKnight said:
jlchavis0844 said:
TheSapphireKnight said:
It may be that the pads are better than traditional analog sticks, but it doesn't really matter to me since the rest of the buttons are placed in such a stupid position. I don't like taking my thumb off the aiming or moving inputs in order to use the face buttons. Nintendo did the same thing with the Wii-U tablet.
I know not everyone claws, but if you are going to make someone take their thumb off the 'stick' you might as well put the buttons somewhere at least some people can use it.
But who knows, perhaps someone can tell me why they might prefer the button placement below the 'sticks', because I can't think of a reason.
You really think that they would design a controller around the tiny fraction or people who hold their controller in a weird way?
Well, I could not say for certain how many people use their index finger to press the face buttons to keep their thumbs on the sticks, but surely it would not have hurt. It just seems sensible to me. You still haven't given me a reason why having buttons below the 'sticks' may be better for some people.
Really? you do that? Seems incredibly uncomfortable.
Then again the real truth of the matter is often familiarity rather than exact functionality.
I find the Wii U layout comfortable. And in terms of what you're saying about being able to push the buttons without taking your thumb off the stick, if you hold it in a regular fashion, you can still do that (to put your thumb on the right stick it naturally reaches across the four face buttons)
But to get back to familiarity for a moment, I recently got an xbox one controller, (for use with PC games, ironically), and I find that thing uncomfortable and counter-intuitive.
Not because it is, per-se, but because it doesn't match up with anything I'm used to using.
By far the worst thing (by a huge margin) is something you'd be intimately familiar with if you are a long-time Nintendo fan, but might seem strange otherwise.
Nintendo's face button layout has been cloned by... Well, everyone. (look back and you'll see it's the snes that formed the core of the modern 'standard' layout), but...
If you get a Nintendo controller (that uses that kind of layout) and an Xbox controller, you notice, rather irritatingly, that the Nintendo layout is:
top row: Y, X
Bottom Row: B, A
while the Xbox layout is:
top row: X, Y
Bottom Row: A, B
Compared to an snes controller (the european/japanese variety, anyway), you get the added frustration that:
Snes:
A = red
B = yellow
X = Blue
Y - Green
While on xbox you find the same exact 4 colours, but they are:
A = green
B = red
x = blue
y = yellow
You have no idea how much the swapped colours and letters mess with my head.
Especially because it seems the standard functions are often mapped in terms of the letter used, not the position on the controller.
(eg, A is accept, and B is cancel in most cases, but those two buttons are in opposite locations on the two controllers. Because of what I'm used to, I get it wrong nearly every time using the xbox controller)
Familiarity and muscle memory can do really annoying things to you if you're forced to use something that's different to what you're familiar with.
(I can count myself lucky that Nintendo has had a habit of changing their layout every generation, because it makes the problem of 20 years of muscle memory slightly less severe, because I had to keep adapting to new things, but still... Irritating)
-------------------------
Anyway... Tangent aside...
Steam controller huh. Well, it looks OK. Though as someone who has used a laptop for gaming, and quickly decided a trackpad was useless, and got a mouse instead, I'm not especially convinced by this design.
Besides, as I said above, I got an xbox one controller for PC stuff I might be inclined to play with a controller (super meat boy comes to mind)
It annoys me, but I doubt the steam controller will be any better in terms of being annoying.
I mean, I'm not exactly short of options for PC input. Aside from the standard mouse & keyboard, I have a joystick (you know the old-fashioned kind, for flight sims and such), rudder pedals (yeah, I take my flying seriously. XD), a razer hydra controller - the most awesome motion controllers ever made. - When anyone can be bothered to actually code a game to work with them, anyway. -sigh-.
They make a decent standard dual-stick controller too though, when not active in motion mode.
Unfortunately, they only support directInput...
I also have software that lets me use the many Wii controllers and peripherals with PC games... (wii classic controller included)
But again, directInput only, and it's a lot of hassle to configure.
So... I got an xbox one controller simply because it's... Microsoft, it supports xinput, and, it has the exact layout that PC games designed to work with a controller expect.
Unlike everything else I have, it just... works.
I mean, the layout drives me nuts, (because of subtleties, not the overall layout), but it's nice to have a controller you can simply plug in, and be fairly confident it will just work, without any real effort on my part.
As for the steam controller...
I guess the only way to be sure would be to get one.
But... My pile of PC input peripherals is getting absurd as it is.
I really can't think of a justifiable reason to add yet another controller to that pile.
Besides which, it's built on the premise that you sit on a couch in your living room, the way you do with console games.
(apparently. I have my console on my desk, attached to my PC monitor)
And that's something I am unlikely to do, so...
Whatever.
Can't come up with a reason to get one besides curiosity.
