My Steam Controller Review, It's great! But there is a learning curve!

[retrowire]

Here's my preliminary review of the controller, since we can't put reviews up yet.

So! This is BRAND NEW controller technology, it's never been done before!! It's a controller that's meant to bridge the gap between traditional controllers and mouse and keyboard combos!

Taking that into mind, and understanding that this type of input device is the first of it's kind, you need to make your purchase knowing that no one is a master at using this input (yet) and that it has a learning curve. No one, I repeat NO ONE will open the box, set it up on Steam, open a game and feel just like they're playing with their old controllers. You will NOT be a pro right out of the box.

Now that that disclaimer has been said, and you're thoroughly frightened, let me reassure you. You can adjust ANYTHING on this device. ANYTHING. Deadzones, sensitivity, haptic feedback levels, control types. Do you want the pad to simulate a mouse? A trackball mouse? A joystick? Do you want mouse acceleration? Do you want smoothing? So on and so on.

So at first, I came in with the impression that WOW, this is going to be exciting and work great! And so I thought, what better way to test and celebrate Valve's first foray into hardware than to fire up Half Life 2 and kill some Ant Lions?

Welp, it was difficult. I felt that it was too slow at times and when I wanted to make diagonal movements while aiming, it wanted to choose the absolute of either UP or DOWN. I did my best, I tried adjusting the configurations (which as of now can only be adjusted in BPM FML.) but just couldn't get it right.

Frustrated with my purchase, I decided to truly put the controllers feet to the fire by taking it into one of my favorite, frenetic, high energy, twitchy first person shooters, Robot Roller Derby Disco Dodgeball.

I went to make a configuration, and noticed that the developer himself had made a binding for the game (Erik you rock!) and so I chose that, and went into my game.

Huh... I was actually doing pretty well for once! So I kept playing round after round in arcade mode, and eventually beat one of the bosses. I was aiming well, and twitching around corners and landing hits like it was nothing! I finally felt vindicated in my purchase.

I realized, maybe Eriks configuration is my preferred style. So, I set up my Half Life 2 game to have the same config as RRDDD and voila... It was great. Well, not PERFECT yet, but I made more adjustments and was doing quite well.

In the end, this controller is about practice. If you purchase it, don't throw a fit because you're suddenly crappy in games you're normally great in. With adjustments (you WILL make adjustments, don't get this controller if you prefer a plug and play kind of experience) you'll get comfortable in no time.

Also, as of now, 10/17/2015, before the official release, there are some software bugs. For instance, if you set the left circle pad to be a left joystick while the right circle pad is the same, you'll have some ghost movements that are especially noticeable when navigating menus.

One more thing, firmware updates will be coming for this controller, and we've got an amazing PC modding community that is actively being encouraged to play with this thing, and it's so versatile, I can't wait to see what they come up with. I mean, right now, while I have Steam open, I'm able to use the controller as a mouse to left click, right click and use my computer from my bed! I'm browsing the web right now with it. (Not typing with it though, I can't bring up the keyboard interface outside of Steam... YET, wait for those mods!)

Okay finally, I recommend this controller. But only for those of you who like tweaking things, and want a comfortable way to play all your PC games from your bed/couch/bathroom.