Valve Announces Its Open Steam GamePad / Controller

[DDF420]

Proper gamepads have d-pads - real d-pads, not shitty floaty things that wobble all over. The playstation design is the best, it gives the most accurate controls for when you need 8-directional digital controls - but the original nintendo cross is fine as well. Try playing a fighting game where you have to do accurate combos, or a fast-paced platformer, and you'll be very happy for a proper d-pad to play it with.

I can see the left track pad easily replicating a traditional dpad just roll your thumb around like you normally would. The position of the Y/B/X/A buttons on the steam controller look awkward for game play and i am not sure how the track pad would perform if used as a replacement for say the triangle/square/circle/x buttons on say a PS3 controller.

Does anyone know what happened with valves idea of controlling games by eye movement they showed off a couple of yeas ago with portal 2 ?

[AJSB]

Do you guys even use consoles ? Wireless controllers last a considerable amount of time with heavy game play. If you choose to ignore the hour plus long warning that your battery needs recharging, and the controller dies mid game, the game pauses when realising this and asks you to plug the controller in to continue playing.

Plug the controller into the console to recharge and OMG its a "corded" controller.

Play...for a...SINGLE hour ?!? Are you MAD ?!?
When i play, *I* *PLAY* !!!

5 hours in a row is the MINIMUM acceptable !
I use the 1st hour just to warm up !

(True Story)

[AJSB]

My only issue is the wireless....

Besides that , i like the design and surprisingly i was expecting a lot of flak at Gametrailers comments but overall, majority seems that they like or at least want to try it out by themselves till make a judgement. Also big amount of positive comments at IGN and nice Video talk about it in GameSpot.

Congrats Valve !

The trackpads seem to work very well:

https://twitter.com/chrisremo/status/383657630675116032

[moilami]

I never did make it to the fifth level of Ghosts n' Goblins.

And I will be sure to stay off your lawn.

You better do that.

Back in time it was an achievement to load the game to the ram of the machine. C64 and tape drive, misaligned "sensor" on the drive and you took a screwdriver to fix the misalignment.

Modern gaming is shit for idiots.

[efikkan]

I really hope they'll be developing a better protocol than HID, HID wired devices have a typical latency of ~10+ ms and wireless ~30 ms input lag, and considering this lag has to be added to the game engine lag, frame sync lag and screen input lag before a movement is visible, it becomes quite substantial.

And as always, wireless should only be optional.

[dee.]

I can see the left track pad easily replicating a traditional dpad just roll your thumb around like you normally would.

Then I'm sorry but you understand nothing. The d-pad (a proper one, like on nintendo/ps controllers) is great because it allows for quick, accurate movements with minimum finger movement. I realize most games the kids play these days are first-person 3d games where such concerns don't really matter but when you play games where you need accurate controls, like old-school platformers, fighting games, arcade games, 2d shooters, etc. - it's paramount to have a d-pad that is responsive and accurate.

Some gamepads these days have horrible pseudo-d-pads that are just kind of these floaty round plates that are horribly inaccurate - you press it left and you'll never know if it goes left or diagonally up, for example, unless you're really careful the whole time. I have one such gamepad, it's great otherwise but the crappy d-pad means I can only use it for games that don't require quick, accurate controls.

Analog sticks are okay most of the time but they're too slow to move, and if you need quick and accurate movements and don't need the 360? functionality, then a proper d-pad is always better.

Now then there's this idea of a touchpad. In a gamepad. That you control with your thumb. Comparing it to a d-pad would be like comparing an on-screen virtual keyboard to a real desktop keyboard with real spring-loaded keys. Basically it would be like playing on some of those virtual gamepads, there's no proper feedback (haptics aren't the same thing, no matter how "sophisticated" they are, all they do is vibrate on your thumb, possibly causing some kind of disorder) and just try to do any accurate, quick movements by sliding your thumb all over, it's not going to work.

[AJSB]

You better do that.

Back in time it was an achievement to load the game to the ram of the machine. C64 and tape drive, misaligned "sensor" on the drive and you took a screwdriver to fix the misalignment.

Modern gaming is shit for idiots.

True words.

As for tapes, been there done that:

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K

[AJSB]

You can use the buttons for platform games.
Sure their design doesn't mimic a D-pad and will get a bit to gey used to them but you can reprogram those A B X Y to work as a dpad.

[dee.]

but you can reprogram those A B X Y to work as a dpad.

Other than the fact that, you know, they're in a horribly awkward configuration for that purpose, they're too far from each other meaning you'd constantly have to leap your fingers up and down, and it would take both thumbs just to control the movement... yeah sure, why not, if you're into that sort of thing.

[philip550c]

Play...for a...SINGLE hour ?!? Are you MAD ?!?
When i play, *I* *PLAY* !!!

5 hours in a row is the MINIMUM acceptable !
I use the 1st hour just to warm up !

(True Story)

my xbox controller lasts for a month with a few hours a day of use. The battery warning is the part thats an hour long.

Then I'm sorry but you understand nothing. The d-pad (a proper one, like on nintendo/ps controllers) is great because it allows for quick, accurate movements with minimum finger movement. I realize most games the kids play these days are first-person 3d games where such concerns don't really matter but when you play games where you need accurate controls, like old-school platformers, fighting games, arcade games, 2d shooters, etc. - it's paramount to have a d-pad that is responsive and accurate.

Not sure what FPS you play but I only play them on my computer and response time and accuracy are much more important on a FPS than on any platformer or fighting games, try playing quake 3 with a game pad and then with a mouse. There will be a massive difference. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch_gameplay FPS are mentioned over and over.