darthbator

Return of the Steam Box!

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I ordered the controller and link because my brain is broken and the urge to not "miss out" overwhelms any semblance of sense I might have. I've got a medium beefy PC so I think this could prove useful and in the darkest, most shameful depths something clicked and said "maybe you'll get a badge for this?" 

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The game to game controller layouts seem pretty neat. Does anyone know if Valve have talked about the battery? It doesn't seem to be removable and they haven't said upfront what kind of battery life is to be expected.

 

Hm. I thought I'd heard or read somewhere that it uses AA batteries.

 

Edit: It says it on the store page.

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Says around 80 hours with a disclaimer on "DEPENDS ON WHAT BATTERIES AND THE STATE OF YOUR BATTERIES, etc." Still a looooot.

 

 

Hm. I thought I'd heard or read somewhere that it uses AA batteries.

 

Edit: It says it on the store page.

 

Thanks, I managed to completely miss all the vital information I wanted on the product page! D'oh!

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I pre-ordered the Steam Controller a while ago and now I've been getting emails that it's getting ready to ship.  Hopefully I'll have it soon.  I'm really curious to try it out.

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I got the controller this morning!

 

S0qzH1j.jpg

 

Nice packaging. First impressions: Feels very nice to hold. Every controller needs buttons on the back. The trigger pull is a bit lighter compared to a 360 controller, the travel is about the same. The full pull click ont the trigger is a feature I really like.

 

So far there is a lack of customizing what the controller does when it's just simulating a mouse/keyboard in windows. There's also a lack of customizing the types of haptic feedback on different touchpad inputs. For example, I want better feedback on where the finger is located when simulating a D-pad on the left touch pad, but options so far are a bit lacking.

 

Other than that, the customizability of mapping buttons to various things is pretty impressive and flexible. So far, a really good first impression. Will fiddle around with it a bunch more, for sure.

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Very Early Cool Guy BigJKO's Impressions!

 

Steam Link:

 

It's almost useless through Wi-Fi. At least.. my Wi-Fi. I'm in a house, so I'm forced to use a wi-fi extender. So Steam Link works fine, then every 10 minutes it'll just not stream anything (with a stuttering sound) for almost half a minute. I can maybe play something relaxed like Grim Fandango, though it's annoying, but I tried playing Super Time Force and it was impossible.

 

So yeah, I'm going to be getting a Powerline ethnernet thingy so I can hopefully get it hooked up stably.

 

It looks pretty and is small, though!

 

Steam Controller:

 

Everything Lu said, although I haven't tried it extensively because of the Steam Link stuff. Will play some more directly on the PC tonight!

 

The trackpad thingy's feedback is super loud, at least at first. I don't know if it got quieter or if I just got used to it, but it got better.

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Badfinger, there's a wall between them (no door though) and the extender might be a tiny bit too far from the router itself. I'm trying a new location for the extender later tonight and will then report back!

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My stuff should get here today! Did the link come with an Ethernet cable? How long is it? Trying to see if I'll need to pick up a long one on my way home from work.

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The full pull click ont the trigger is a feature I really like.

Do you mean it's sort of like the triggers on the GameCube controller?

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Wish I had pre-ordered sooner. Can't wait to get the link and move the PC out of the living room. Does the link work for just doing Desktop stuff or only for the Steam app?

 

[edit] Also, I'll probably need a 1080p monitor for the computer to get that same rez on the link, right?

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My controller arrived today.  I didn't have time to try it out, but it feel pretty good in my hands.  I love the rear paddles, having buttons on the back of a controller is something I've wanted since before the N64 controller.  The placement of the face buttons feels a little strange since they're in the spot normally reserved for the right analog stick, but I'm sure I'll get used to that.  One thing I really like is the feel of the shoulder buttons.  On both the Xbox and Playstation controllers it felt very awkward to me to use both my index and middle fingers so I'd mainly stick to using my index finger and moving it back and forth.  On the Steam controller it feel very natural since the rear triggers are lower and more recessed.  I suspect using 4 fingers instead of 2 might lead to some accidental button presses at first but it's another thing I expect to get used to fairly quickly.  I'm anxious to try out the face pads.  I'll probably fire up Spelunky this weekend and give it a go.

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I've been using mine for the past hour or so. Figured I'd test it on Game of Thrones, since that's about to wrap up and I've been wanting to play it.

 

I dunno if my controller is busted, or what, but man using the right pad as a simulated gamepad is fucked. You have to start from the center and then slide in the direction you desire, which is fine, I got used to that (even if the "center" feels a little off to me, somehow), but what I DON'T like is how if I slide to the bottom right, the controller goes fucking haywire and, at least in Game of Thrones, the cursor will jump from the bottom right corner all the way to the top right corner. If I run my thumb around the edge of the pad, it keeps track of it in all directions EXCEPT the bottom right. It also seems to move slower in the bottom right direction than it does other directions.

 

Basically bottom right is really wonky and it made one of the early QTEs in Game of Thrones INCREDIBLY awkward, as I died like ten times on something that I never would've failed with a normal controller (and CERTAINLY with a mouse)... I've acclimated to the issue, but that doesn't mean it's not an issue.

 

---

 

The Link, however, is incredible. Been playing it on my TV. I've got it plugged in with ethernet, and there are no perceptible lag issues (though that's part of why I picked Game of Thrones, because I figured it wouldn't be an issue), except for when the game loads a new scene, but that's... common to the way many game engines load, so it's not a problem. Just produces a minor skip in the audio playing across scenes.

 

Actually now that I bring it up, I wonder if there IS a lag issue... No, that doesn't seem right. It's incredibly consistently bottom right, and no other direction has had this problem. CONTROLLER SUCKS!!!

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I'm for sure buying a Link so I can sit on my couch and play adventure games with my trackball. I'm still split on the controller though.

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I'm for sure buying a Link so I can sit on my couch and play adventure games with my trackball. I'm still split on the controller though.

 

What trackball do you have? I've been looking for a wireless trackball for couch-based Adventure gaming for ages.

(I'm clearly not getting into the spirit of this thread :P )

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So I did get a chance to try the controller out for a little bit.  My initial impression is... rather disappointing.  The first thing I tried was Spelunky.  As a d-pad it's terrible.  It's far too wide for quick movement or to make specific directions accurate.  Using the analog stick means it's basically an Xbox controller.  The paddles on the rear are a little too easy to hit accidentally.  I also tried it with an FPS.  While I vastly prefer the mouse and keyboard for shooters I'm able to use a controller.  The right pad acted more like a giant analog stick rather than a touch pad like I was hoping.  I hear this varies from game to game and maybe there's some adjustment I need to do on my end (although I'm not yet sure how to do that).  I'm gonna keep trying it with some other stuff but so far it's not what I was hoping for.

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Oh boy, you guys are using it wrong. You have to set the right touchpad to act as a mouse if the game doesn't have it enabled by default (a lot of devs are slacking off setting up their configs). The controller is amazing when it's set up right - I played through Liberty Island in Deus Ex using it. Deus Ex 1! All tranqing dudes almost as well as on a mouse. It's the best controller I've ever used.

 

To set it up, you have to launch games in Big Picture mode and press the Steam button while ingame, and go "configure controller". Most games you can just pick the "gamepad with mouse" template (might be called "gamepad with high precision aiming" or something now). 


The analog-stick-emulation mode for the right touchpad is definitely pretty shit. I really hope games defaulting to it doesn't sour people on the controller generally.

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Oh boy, you guys are using it wrong. You have to set the right touchpad to act as a mouse if the game doesn't have it enabled by default (a lot of devs are slacking off setting up their configs). The controller is amazing when it's set up right - I played through Liberty Island in Deus Ex using it. Deus Ex 1! All tranqing dudes almost as well as on a mouse. It's the best controller I've ever used.

 

To set it up, you have to launch games in Big Picture mode and press the Steam button while ingame, and go "configure controller". Most games you can just pick the "gamepad with mouse" template (might be called "gamepad with high precision aiming" or something now). 

The analog-stick-emulation mode for the right touchpad is definitely pretty shit. I really hope games defaulting to it doesn't sour people on the controller generally.

 

That sounds like what I'm looking for.  I'll have to try it out.

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