I've been playing for years with my Xbox 360 controllers. First on my console and for the last 2 or 3 years on Linux. I really like its design and it just feels natural. The only bad thing I have to say is that with some games I had to use xboxdrv and others just works.
When Steam announced their new controller, I was really intrigued and, with time and marketing, I decided that I wanted one. As soon as I learned about the pre-order, I jumped on the occasion.
Design
It is with a lot of joy that I unpacked the controller, put the batteries in and launched it. Just having it in my hands it feels different. It seems bulkier and the controls feel quite a bit further away than my Xbox controller. The controller has 2 trackpads, one analog stick, the ABXY buttons, 4 "bumpers" and 2 buttons under it. So a lot of buttons that can be mapped.
Fist Launch
Okay, launching Steam in Big Picture Mode, I controlled the menu with the controller. I decided my first game would be Defense Grid 2. Lucky for me that game had a recommended mapping and few community ones. I chose one, launched the game and it did not work. The game was not responding to anything. Tried other mapping, tried another game: same result. Did the workaround that Liam posted, rebooted to the same result and then I realised that my game adapter for my wireless Xbox controller was still plugged in. It seems that the adapter was taking control of the first controller. So, if yours is acting weirdly, be aware of other controllers like that.
Second First Launch
Second official launch of DG2. It worked. I felt a bit clumsy with the disposition of the controls compared to the Xbox controller, but a game designed for a controller just works no matter the controller you're using. Did the same test with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, but this time I'm using one of the track pads; it is a bit too responsive for me and I still feel I need to adapt to the new controller but it works fine.
Second launch with a mouse and keyboard mapping
The real challenge was trying a game designed for mouse and keyboard. So I picked Kingdom Rush. A quick look in the configuration made me realize that there is no mapping, recommended or from the community, for this game and the templates did not really help. So double-challenge, mapping the buttons and making it work. Where Steam did a real good job is that anytime during the game you can pause and re-map the buttons. So I created my mapping and saved it. You can keep mappings private or you can make them public. After 2 or 3 tries I had a mapping that I like and decided to make it public and now the game has a community mapping. Yes... mine. :)
I'm really impressed with the way it worked with Kingdom Rush. I never used my keyboard, when a new feature was added, I just went in the mapping and associated it to buttons that felt natural for me.
I tried Gunpoint with the WASD template and it just worked... Up to now.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I really like the controller and I understand the reviews saying that it takes 2 or 3 days of adapting. It is not a bad experience at all, I'm just not used to the new design yet. This is the perfect controller for people looking for something new and eventually playing in front of their television. Valve did a really good job. Congratulations to them.
With this experience, I have now ordered a Steam Link too!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Never had another controller before, but when I visited my friends,
I was able to play with theirs (ps3, ps4). The controls - especially the sticks - were
kinda hard to get used to. The touchpad is a lot nicer.
The community thing is also really nice, playing rust is fine (aiming with the
touchpad is still harder than with the mouse), but having the crouch and sprint
keys mapped to the back, while being able to aim and finally shoot with the same
button feels just right.
There are some issues with the Steam Link that need to be fixed. First of all, getting the whole monitor
setup streamed to the TV on BigPicture mode is awful (3 monitor setup -> 5760x1080
gets downscaled to 1920x1080). And also no controls for Portal 2 work at all (its said that
they are really good for their controller). Hopefully that gets ironed out in the next days :)
All in all, I am really happy with them, and I am also looking forward to get more 'native'
controller support (looking at you, Banner Saga - altough it plays quite well with the mouse
emulation) and the community mappings.
EDIT: fixed missing Steam Link mention
Last edited by kellerkindt on 17 October 2015 at 7:37 pm UTC
I tried some platformer games - but the right touchpad is really strange for playing platfomers.
Maybe I need to try harder and give it some days - but the first impression is that platformers feel strange with the steam controller.
Big Picture Mode also seems to be quite buggy (friends list won't close after inviting someone in Borderlands, after closing a game it often becomes really unresponsive, initiating/accepting a voice chat request doesn't seem to work half the time), so I think that there needs to be a bit more work there.
So all in all, I'm quite happy with my controller, but Valve have a lot of niggles to iron out before the launch proper.
This thing has it all :D
Edit: Oh, and both analogue bumpers have an extra digital trigger when pressed fully in (you feel the click in hardware) - perfect for the boost in Distance ;)
Last edited by Cybolic on 17 October 2015 at 11:38 pm UTC
Surprisingly, the Left Grip button feels really natural for iron sights in FPS games.
That's something that has been bugging me for a while: how Steam (never tested Steam OS) tends to be finicky with gamepads when you have more than one plugged in. The first one tends to get picked up at once, but the second needs to be reconfigured everytime, with the first one disconnected.
Last edited by someone on 18 October 2015 at 10:47 am UTC
The controller comes with his USB dongle. I used it in wireless and the controller comes with 2 AA batteries. I cannot say for the draining of the batteries. Since I did not play a lot of hours, I had no problem yet but I will probably by rechargeable batteries.
There is a connector for a micro USB cable but I did not try it yet. So I cannot comment.
UPDATE: You can setup the controller for any game launched from Steam, including non-Steam games, when running in Big Picture mode; so yes, you can use it as a joystick in Tux Racer ;)
Last edited by Cybolic on 18 October 2015 at 11:56 pm UTC
Unfortunately, yes.
I can confirm that the Link works with a Linux host. Problem I have with it is that it tries to stream all three of my monitors (so two 1920x1080+2560x1080 squished onto a 1920x1080 screen is just odd...) but while in-game, it does go full screen and work relatively well. Played Mark of the Ninja this way.
Unfortunately the big picture mode in general is buggy with three screens, and some games can't handle it correctly (Ark won't let you choose menu options, Mark of the Ninja continuously is confused and tries to do resolution changes, Superfrog HD stretches across all three screens, and makes me ill watching it...
slaapliedje
The M+KB mode feels really natural to me.
I'll buy a second one for Christmas. :)