My First Hours With A Steam Controller

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.