News Valve demos Steam Controller

PS, Wii and Xbox controllers are unintuitive and unresponsive, giving sweeping motion in FPS games. Valve are trying to make controllers more intuitive and responsive.

From the demo of movement offered in FPS games, I believe Valve have created the console Controller 2.0 and resigned the old style of controllers to the history books.

I would also put money on you not being able to compete in an FPS against someone using Valve's controller and you using one of your dusty old fashioned PS3 controllers.

 

Last time i checked my thumbs are positioned where they have always been, on my hands
Not sure why you would need to be constantly scrolling or even want automatic centering. Do you have to constantly move your mouse or center it ?

Good job Valve is making any Steam box's (outside of the beta) then isn't it

 

Gosh you people. Controllers will never be able to compete with mouse+keyboard. Look at the PS3 which has native USB mouse+keyboard support and the games that enable it like Dust514. We mouse+keyboard-users totally smoke those with controllers and this controller from Valve won't change that.

FPS-games are simply not ment to be played with a controller, and games like Fifa don't profit from this Valve-controller at all.

 

@jrs77, Then how would you propose to enable people to play PC games on the TV in the living room, sitting on the sofa ? SteamOS, machine, and controller isn't meant to replace the K+M, its meant to give people the option of playing PC games without being tied to a desk.

 

As Gareth was kind enough to confirm in another thread, Steam Boxes will have KB/M support as well for those who are comfortable using them in their setup.

 

It depends om the type of game you want to play, and there's tons of games that play perfectly fine with the current controllers.

FPS-titles though are simply not ment to be played with a controller imho. Controllers have a fixed turningspeed, which is the reason why a mouse is allways better.
The issue lies within the hardware as a controller can't measure turningspeed based on distance/time moved, like with a mouse. Therefore you can be very accurate and fast as hell at the same time with a mouse, while a controller is limited to a preset speed.

So to answer your question: If you want to play a FPS, then get the hell on a PC and play with a mouse and keyboard.

 

@jrs77 - I think you made the mistake of suggesting Valve are wasting their time reinventing the wheel. However they have innovated the wheel into modern times. It may not be perfect, it may trigger gasps of "BLASPHEMY!" - but it is very clear to see how this device is trying to provide everyone with a better controller with a greater freedom of movement within games.

Anyone who remembers trying to move a cursor around the screen in console games without overshooting the target, will massively benefit. (I assume! Clearly I am a fanboi )

Hehe I am the same. I have been spoilt by keyboard and mouse for far too long to contemplate using controllers for FPS games. But this new Valve thing makes me think that the playing field is a little more even now, and watching the demonstration proves that a much more fluid and natural movement matching keyboard and mouse is now achieveable.

 

And for those who don't want to spend £1000+ for a half decent gaming PC, or spend another £1000 for a decent HTPC so they can play games in the living room, or don't want to be tied to a desk, or how about Want to play PC on TV, room with PC and TV far apart.

Have you even watched the video posted in this article ?

In other words not like a joystick, but like a mouse.

 

I can't be the only one who's wondering how this controller will hold up when stuff gets on it? It's a fact of life that things get messy, so how would that affect the controller's trackpads? I'm not thinking about sensitivity, it's 2013, I doubt that would be an issue any longer. But what if, say, you get something sticky on the pad? Surely that would make fluid movement much harder?

It's not an outlandish hypothetical either. Think about the lazy moments when say you've got some friends over, there are some snacks, drinks etc. and there's naturally stuff on your fingers. With a standard analogue input this isn't much of an issue, but with trackpads and touchscreens it's a nightmare. I've had it happen with laptops and phones before, a teeny bit of grease makes it much harder to do anything with any degree of accuracy.

Then even if you're very cleanly, what about simple sweat? I don't have sweaty hands (poor finger circulation and large hands helps with that) but after an intense match, things can get a little clammy still. That would simply be annoying on a trackpad, as it would cause your thumbs to stick a tiny bit.

I can imagine they've seen to this, but it does make me wonder how.