Steam Controller Hands-on 138
Ars Technica has posted their impressions from a hands-on session with Valve's new Steam Controller. The controller notably departs from standard practice of relying on two thumbsticks for precise movement, instead replacing them with concave touchpads. From the article:
"When used as a kind of virtual trackball, as most games did with the right pad, it was a revelation. When used as a virtual d-pad, as it was on the left pad, it was an exercise in frustration. Let's focus on the right pad first. There's definitely a learning curve to using this side of the pad properly; years of muscle memory had me trying to use it like an analog stick (minus the stick) at first. It only really began to click when I started swiping my thumb over the pad, as I've seen in previous videos (there was no one on hand to really explain the controller to me, so I was left figuring it out on my own, just like a new Steam Machine owner). When I say it "started to click," I mean that literally. The subtle clicking in your hands as you swipe along the pad is an incredible tactile experience, as if there was an actual weighted ball inside the controller that's rolling in the direction you swipe. And like a trackball slowly losing its inertia, the clicking slows its pace after you lift your thumb off the pad, giving important contextual information for the momentum imparted by your swipe."
More write-ups are available about the controller from Gamespot, Gizmodo, and Joystiq.
Re:This thing is DOA (Score:4, Informative)
There are barely any games for it, ...
This is fantastically inaccurate. As it will play all the games already available for steam on linux (452 at current count) it in fact already has more games than the sum total of launch titles for ALL OTHER CONSOLES EVER. Troll harder, why don't you?
Re:Coexistence (Score:5, Informative)
To add to this, steam doesnt force its drm on any publisher/game creator that doesnt want it. There are plenty of games for purchase on steam that use absolutely no drm, once downloaded you can go to their install dir and run the game executable without steam running just fine. At that point its just another distribution service
Re:Backward compatible consoles (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A gentle push from Steam (Score:1, Informative)
True DRM is actually a good thing. When DRM is done right, it's practically invisible, and the benefits and ease of use should make it seem like an enticing option over say, piracy.
So what does Steam do that benefits me, the consumer?
- Auto updating games with patches/DLC. No more manually downloading patches, I can pause and resume as I please, I no longer have to start the game to figure out that it's out of date.
- It's free - no subscription/signup fees. Some advertising, but the adverts are all for products already on Steam - No stupid 'Wierd old trick' or 'doctor's hate her!' ads.
- I can install games without having to dig around for the disk
- I (usually) don't have to enter CD keys, although if I do, steam keeps a record of them for me
- Quick links to guides/achievement pages
- standardised chat & friends accessible in any game (in steam overlay)
- game discounts & sales, including true, personalised, reviews and recommendations written BY my friends, (unlike sites like facebook, where "Steve liked this" doesn't mean anything)
I could go on, but suffice it to say my (gaming) life has been a lot easier since I started using Steam.
And what's the downside? DRM? Say it out loud, and focus on the words. Digital. Rights. Management. So some people can't copy a game directory and give it to a friend.
a) it's not like we live in an age where downloading said games from the net is HARD, and
b) the pleb should just buy the game and stop scabbing
Re:Coexistence (Score:4, Informative)
I already do that but MS Windows sucks dog balls with multi-monitor setups, especially if one is in another room and especially with full screen games or full screen movie playing software.
For example it sucks to be watching a movie or playing a game when a reboot notification presumably pops up on another screen you can't see, waits for input that never happens, then the fucking thing decides to reboot without the input kicking you out of the game or movie.
Another is when one of the many things in the MS Windows ecosystem that has it's own update program decided to pop something up in your face to tell you something you do not care about while you are watching a movie or playing a game - bonus points for the ones that minimise your game so you can't get it back without alt-tabbing to it more times than the interface intends (sometimes you get an empty frame but no game graphics).
Turning off updates, antivirus etc would make it less annoying but is utterly stupid with the current malware swamp infesting the platform - if it's on the net to authenticate the game it had better be patched up to avoid the latest exploits.
It's almost as if it's deliberately annoying to drive people towards the Xbox, but I'd say it's just poor planning and a diminished care factor. Either way a console or a linux distro (which never forces reboots - if the user doesn't answer the thing doesn't take that as a yes like MS Windows) is far less annoying. Multi screen X, or even how Matrox did multi-screens on MS Windows since at least 2000, is vastly superior to the adhoc dogs breakfast of MS Win7 doing multiple screens, especially with multiple video cards. If they can't learn from methods from more than a decade ago they are just not trying.