Valve Releases New Video Showing Steam Controller in Action

[BlameTheWizards]

Valve Releases New Video Showing Steam Controller in Action


The developer demos Portal 2, Civilization V, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Papers, Please using their new trackpad controller.

For those interested in how Valve's newly announced controller will operate, the developer has posted a new YouTub video of the device used to play several PC games. The video starts off with Valve engineer Jeff Bellinghausen using the controller, which sports two trackpads instead of the conventional analog sticks, to navigate through one of Portal 2's puzzle rooms.

He then moved on to Civilization V, a game from a genre traditionally developed to use a keyboard and mouse over a gamepad. Here, the right trackpad was used to move the game's cursor around the screen while the left pad was used to move the camera. Buttons on the bottom of the pad are used to move the camera in and out.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was demonstrated to show how the controller can be used to play an FPS without auto-aim. The video concluded with Papers, Please, where either pad can be used alternately to control the mouse cursor. The controller will "blend" the inputs together which Bellinghausen says "is a very comfortable way to control games that need to move the mouse very precisely and yet over large distances of the screen."

So, that's the Steam controller in action. What do you guys think? Was it worth the big buildup, or are you still unimpressed?

Source: <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeAjkbNq4xI>YouTube via <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/11/4828422/valve-shows-steam-controller-in-action-by-playing-in-portal-2-civ-5>Polygon

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[synobal]

This controller has me very excited. As someone who has never liked joysticks for controlling games I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on this. I hope they demo some action games with it next, and a racing game.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

It seems to work pretty good, though I imagine it will take some getting used to. It definitely looks more comfortable to use than in the initial release pictures which made the controller look a bit bulky to me. Though I'm now a bit worried, if I can play Civ V from the comfort of the couch with a controller I may never leave the house again.

 

[Rad Party God]

This looks VERY interesting indeed, if it works on Civ V and pretty much any shooter with unmapped controller settings, then I think I'll be getting this whenever it gets released, especially to play it with MMOs.

I'm interested in watching how it works on an RTS, an ARPG and a MOBA (just for the lulz).

 

[JamesBr]

Definitely interested. Still going to reserve judgment until it comes out and I can get my hands on it.

 

[Entitled]

I might eventually get myself one for my PC if there will end up being many games designed with it in mind, though playing from the "comfort of the couch" is still not for me, nothing beats a recliner chair and a monitor at my desktop.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

It's certainly not as accurate as a mouse, but it's certainly more accurate than a thumbstick.

You could tell he was having a little trouble headshotting those dummies in CS:GO, and I'm sure there are people that can do it faster with a thumbstick controller, but once people have had a good opportunity to use the trackpad I'm sure it'll be a wonderful controller.

Is it worth it though? In my room I have barely enough space for all my current stuff, let alone a couch, so I wouldn't even need one of these.

 

[Teoes]

I'd probably still stick to mouse & keyboard for precision in FPS games, but it looks like for just about anything else I would happily use that controller. The Civ and Papers, Please demos coloured me impressed.

 

[Vigormortis]

Constant swiping of the thumbs in order to turn around in an FPS? Yep, those are trackpads alright. And given that he said Portal 2 was using 1:1 controls, there seemed a surprising amount of aim acceleration on display.

Not convinced.

[edited due to previous harshness. my apologies jeffers.]

Portal 2 has inbuilt turn acceleration. Both the turn speed and acceleration can be adjusted in either the controls menu or the command console. So seeing a "surprising amount of aim acceleration" isn't....well....that surprising.

In fact, I'm impressed with how well the demonstration actually worked in Portal 2 given they didn't adjust the ingame controls to the controller but rather just mapped the controller to the default keyboard settings.

 

[james.sponge]

Constant swiping of the thumbs in order to turn around in an FPS? Yep, those are trackpads alright. And given that he said Portal 2 was using 1:1 controls, there seemed a surprising amount of aim acceleration on display.

Not convinced.

I have the same problem with this controller. I dread to see how this will perform in strategy games like Company of Heroes 2 or Total War.

 

[laggyteabag]

yeah... uh... no.

It just looks like a laptop track pad to me, which is to say that im not overly convinced in terms of how well it will control, definitely not more accurate than a mouse, and whether or not its better than analogue sticks is still debatable.

Imma' need more convincing.

 

[Agayek]

This looks cool for the Civ 5 thing. Really not liking it in FPS though. The biggest issue I have with trackpads for gaming is having to lift my finger off the pad in order to get decent mouse range, and that's present in full force. If you can't do a 360 turn in an FPS without taking your thumbs off the pads, it's not going to work in FPS games.

Edit: All of that said, no one can really judge controllers until they use them. Controllers are all about the feel. I need to get it in my hands before I render final judgment. This video didn't do much to get me excited about it though.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I was sort of wondering how it would handle keyboard & mouse games, this clears it up nicely. I just hope that there will be plenty of premade configurations available for most games through the legacy mode thing.

 

[Vivi22]

Constant swiping of the thumbs in order to turn around in an FPS? Yep, those are trackpads alright. And given that he said Portal 2 was using 1:1 controls, there seemed a surprising amount of aim acceleration on display.

Not convinced.

Not surprised you aren't convinced. The only thing aside from actually trying it that might sell you before hand would be a Nintendo logo on it. Also, Portal 2 has acceleration built into the game.

As for me, I was interested before and I continue to be interested after seeing this. If nothing else, it's the first attempt at actual useful innovation in the controller we've seen since the analog stick became a thing, and that alone makes it worth following and trying out.

 

[hazabaza1]

"We're gonna play CS:GO to show off how precise this controller is"
Proceeds to stand still for several seconds, crouch, take time lining up a shot and still misses firing semi-auto.

I think I'll stick to traditonal KB+M unless something else comes out and impresses me.

 

[Weaver]

"We're gonna play CS:GO to show off how precise this controller is"
Proceeds to stand still for several seconds, crouch, take time lining up a shot and still misses firing semi-auto.

I think I'll stick to traditonal KB+M unless something else comes out and impresses me.

I lol'd at that too.
He didn't see much quicker at aiming than with a regular controller. Mouse looks like it's still holding the throne in FPS land.