I'm not sure "click an area to push a button" is an option. The wording in their description makes it seem like the entire trackpad is just one button and can't be configured to act as multiple.
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Valve announces Steam Controller
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I'm not sure "click an area to push a button" is an option. The wording in their description makes it seem like the entire trackpad is just one button and can't be configured to act as multiple.
Of course it can. The trackpad is one mechanical button, yes, but knowing where your finger is is all it takes to differentiate.
Good enough for Super Meat Boy http://tommyrefenes.tumblr.com/post/62476523677/my-time-with-the-steam-controller
Graphics Horse
Member
The Meat Boy guy played Spelunky using the right trackpad as 4 buttons.
But as he said, it could perhaps do with some little embossed region so your thumb easily finds the traditional button areas.
Kageshinzo
Member
I'm really curious as to how many of the people in this thread are pure console players, pure PC players, and PC/console-hybrid gamers. Far as I know, this controller is never designed with the consoles in mind, but rather with Steam OS which runs purely Steam games which are strictly for PC. Hence why the design doesn't have the "traditional" look. PC games have never considered a traditional controller as its optimal/primary input.
MetaCircular
Member
This thing scarred me for life.
KojiKnight
Member
You can, however, get the two to act together as was mentioned. That is, you can put your finger on the touchpad for "left" but not get it to act until you've put some pressure down on it.
Valve doesn't do those events, they tend to start small and low-key before building up, as opposed to the big three where they start with their guns blazing from the start.
This controller comes from a different place than the others, tons of PC games can't work with 'standard' controllers, and the Steambox is a PC OS.
I guess you won't be trying out VR this gen because the Virtual Boy sucked.
I was thinking joystick style camera control here. I imagine a setup like this to be necessary for games where you are primarily using the face buttons but want occasional camera control. In these situations joystick style camera controls should be adequate. For games where you would want more precision (trackball style camera) I think the existing physical buttons would be preferable.
Osiris
I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
How are people going to try this before they buy?
It's not like a console controller where there will be demo stations or multiple friends owning one to try, My local PC store doesn't even sell joysticks/wheels anymore, let alone niche controllers.
95%+ of the people buying one of these are going to be buying it blind based on 3rd party impressions.
It's interesting because even more than Steam I think one of the things that made PC gaming more viable was the 360 controller standardizing PC interfaces. A bunch of platformers and other console-like games were suddenly playable but had interfaces design for the one controller. Had that not happened we'd probably still be stuck in the FPS/RTS/MMO ghetto.
Came here to say that their biggest mistake was to call the "face" buttons the classic A/B/X/Y.
People will have a hard time becoming accustomed to other buttons being the "main" ones.
But with all these "high resolution" pads and high tech haptics, I'm REALLY curious to know the price...
Coreda
Member
Actually that's something I hadn't considered. Are there plans for the Steambox to be available internationally in stores? If not where will people be able to try these?
Cave Johnson
Member
This thing scarred me for life.
I thought we've already gone over this? This is an entirely different approach to the concept and now the updated feedback from other developers shows that there is promise to the tech.
Haptic feedback people... HAPTIC feedback!
I cannot wait to try this thing. I play PC games exclusively on the TV. While I do have a mouse and a little side table for games with no controller support like Civ 5, it's annoying, and I hate having to use a mouse for games after 8 hours at work using a mouse.
This controller solves every problem I have left with PC gaming input. Before, I thought the answer was requiring controller support for every steam game. Valve went the other direction, designing a controller that just works with every PC game. Fucking brilliant.
This controller solves every problem I have left with PC gaming input. Before, I thought the answer was requiring controller support for every steam game. Valve went the other direction, designing a controller that just works with every PC game. Fucking brilliant.
Then at least wait for that rather than just looking at the picture and scoffing at it/completely writing it off.
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Do you play fighting games with a keyboard and mouse?
It's not even that, the Turbo Touch 360 is literally a d-pad with a plastic sheet pulled over it, it was a shitty stop-gap between the d-pad and the analogue stick, nothing to do with trackpads.
It has as much to do with this tech as the Virtual Boy does with the Oculus Rift.
Osiris
I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
People are allowed to share their thoughts/opinions based upon the information they have at hand, it's a discussion forum, discussions/debate happens, it's the whole point of the medium.
Not all of those opinions are going to be aligned with your own, better to accept that than to complain that others are sharing their opinion.
That's not my point >_>
Way to twist my words.
Big electonic store here at least have everything on dispaly for the customers to try or get at least feel for it. They want to sell that stuff after all if they stock it. I don't really see a problem here. Maybe you just go to the wrong stores?
Yeah, I liked how he tries to turn "lol this sux" into some kind of valid opinion.
Osiris
I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
The "here at least" bit is the sticking point, I live in a large-ish city in the UK (Leicester) and the number of large electronic stores here that would carry this is approximately zero.
Plenty of large electrical stores mind, just none that carry PC gaming hardware anymore.
Even PC World (The biggest in the UK previously for this type of hardware) has gone and reduced all it's PC hardware sections and is morphing into a home entertainment store. (They are all becoming more like Currys every day!)
No Best Buy / GameStop in the UK.
This controller is so exciting. I like the current gamepads but I've always felt that they've lagged the mouse in precision aiming. I always have a hard time in FPS and TPS, like I'm fighting the controls to aim properly. If they can really bring the precision of a mouse to a gamepad with great haptic feedback to make it feel "mechanical", it's an absolute gamechanger and will change the course of gamepad development in the future.
All of Valve's announcements have been amazing. SteamOS, Steam Machines and this. To someone like me who is primarily a console gamer but loves (and hates) many aspects of PC gaming, this is a bridge between the two. If I can get a high-end Steam Machine next year with this controller and SteamOS (with support for stuff like XBMC, Plex, Emulators) I might sell my PS4 and just stick with this. All of the benefits of PC gaming and console gaming in one box.
Fuck, I am excited.
Sentenza
Member
I wouldn't really praise *any* gamepad for fighting games, fight sticks are the way to go.
That said, frankly, after what I've read about developers' feedback, I would guess this could actually work better than most gamepads around these days.
In fact, I can imagine that touch pad working pretty great with Street fighter-style combos.
Of course, maybe I'm terribly wrong.
Ranik Regana
Neo Member
Gamepad looks really awesome. I can't wait to try it myself.
The Cowboy
Member
The nearest for me would be at least a 5 hour round trip on a bus to test it, most places such as PC world here etc would never let you test anything. So unless demo pods are setup in places like Game/HMV (and lets be honest, in the UK these stores don't carry much PC hardware at all) then my only option would be to travel quite some distance to test one.
But traveling for 5 hours in the hope I like a controller?, not a chance.
This thing scarred me for life.
That's like say no thanks to the iPhone and iPad because of these:
Technology has progressed since that controller. The resolution and haptic feedback might make all the difference.
It's amazing how short-sided and pessimistic gamers are. Real innovation should be celebrated. I'm not saying this controller is guaranteed to be great, but people should hold off on rash judgement before actually trying the thing.
Dpads are to fighters what dual analog is to FPS. A hack solution to the problem of home consoles not having inputs on the default controller well suited to the genre. People have been playing Street Fighter with dpads so long they forget that the only reason dpads are used with fighters is that it's not economically feasible to pack an arcade stick in with every SNES/Genesis/PSX.
it's a weird thing that it seems like console gamers are the most hostile to the device, when they're the ones who have the most to gain from it.
I love when people compare old shitty tech to new tech that has clearly advanced in the past decade..
So many people compared OR to Virtual Boy it was comedic gold.
Osiris
I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
I don't think console gamers have the most to gain from it, but PC gamers who want to improve the "comfy couch" aspect of PC gaming without handicapping mouse/keyboard heavy games.
I can see that aspect being quite exciting, if a bit niche.
Good points. I'd add that I believe Valve are taking the approach - known in marketing and used when you know you have something different that's probably going to produce more of a backlash at first - where you just put out the basic facts first, ride the initial shit-storm of grumbling, then slowly reverse the trend with continued, and increasing, marketing/PR and trusted opinions to the point where the market is actually keen to try your new device/service/whatever.
I seem to remember, as an example, James Cameron noting in interviews they deliberately used this approach with Avatar knowing they'd initially get tons of "CGI characters look fake" and "3D doesn't work for fast paced action" complaints (which they did, film forums were pretty similar to this thread around Avatar as I remember). So they released some low key teasers and just put out the facts, then built on positive experiences and strong PR to turn these two weaknesses into the "must see for yourself" elements of the film.
I think the whole OS, hardware & controller reveal tactic used is pretty clever and I'm fully expecting it to pay off as they slowly build the info and no doubt produce more and more positive news about their strategy.
Valve are making a long play here, one they've considered carefully and I'm definitely very interested to watch the reveals increases. As an aside I think the 300 beta testers angle is a stroke of genius - but we'll have to see how that plays out.
BolognaSoup
Member
I'm really excited to try this. AFTER READING THE INFORMATION it sounds like it could be really interesting.
I have literally no experience with fighting games but I'll give this a shot.
The left trackpad can be used as a d-pad i guess, but it would be a "touch-screen" d-pad. The right trackpad could be used as your diamond-shaped "abxy" button layout but they too would be "touch-screen" buttons. Now, say a particular combo was a+a+y+x+b. You would tap the "a" location and then press down and hold the "a" location to do the double "a". Then, while still holding down on the a button, swipe to the "y" location, then swipe to the "x" location then swipe to the "b" location all without lifting your thumb.
You could compare it to certain touch-screen keyboard apps on phones that use swiping instead of pressing each individual key.
edit: I could be wrong, but I don't think many people who are hardcore fighting gamers would want to use this thing anyway. There are definitely better options for this genre.
NoirVisage
Banned
Valve grossly overestimates how many people are willing to buy into this "steambox". Only the PC master race holds them in esteem and the whole concept of a controller over m/k is the antithesis of what the master race heralds..This will not end well.
ReadingRambo
Member
Gotta love knee-jerk gaf. Acting as if Valve would just release a pile of shit. That's an early design at most. They are doing everything right in this industry. Give them the credit and benefit of the doubt that they have earned.
I'm way more interesting in the freedom of steamOS, dropping DirectX, and unlocking the power of our rigs.
What about console gamers that like some aspects of Steam and PC gaming? Honestly, a lot of these moves are to get console gamers to look at PC gaming rather than getting existing PC gamers to move their setups to the TV. Valve has a lot more to gain from getting console gamers into Steam then to move existing Steam users from a desk to the living room.
When looked at from that perspective, I think they've done a great job with their announcements so far. Execution is what matters at the end of the day, so I'm curious to see what the pricing will be on the Steam Machines and how the user experience will be on SteamOS.
Isnt that term bannable?
Anyways I think Steam has been making PC gaming much more attractive to console gamers recently.. this is the next step in continuing that.
Sure it may not be huge right out the door.. but I wont be surprised if 5 years down the line we see many PC gamers and console gamers using Steam OS on their gaming PCs/steam machines.
console gamers have so far been locked out of whole families of genres due to restrictions on input. that could all change if this takes off.
So I've always been a console gamer and I am very curious about this controller and set of systems. There are lots of PC games that I have been interested in but I have not been willing to abandon the big screen and/or play with a mouse and keyboard.
If the machines that have PS4-level visuals are competively priced and the game selection is strong this will be seriously considered.
If the machines that have PS4-level visuals are competively priced and the game selection is strong this will be seriously considered.
No one is claiming that it's better than M+KB, just that it's better than a regular controller. So TPS, fighting, FPS and maaaybe RTSes that aren't Starcraft are a go.
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