Return of the Steam Box!

[Flynn]

It has speakers in it. When I used it, the cursor pad made a little mechanical rolling sound as you used it. It was really subtle and effective.

 

If you can talk about it, how would you compare the feel versus virtual trackpads or laptop trackpads?

[melmer]

Soon

[Roderick]

Chris, when you hold the controller does it feel like you're fondling an owl?

[Chris]

If you can talk about it, how would you compare the feel versus virtual trackpads or laptop trackpads?

 

A billion times better. It feels like you're using a device rather than just gliding your finger, I think to a surprisingly large degree thanks to the subtle audio feedback that sounds like a tiny Price is Right wheel spinning or something. It's hard to explain. I suspect you can disable that, either at the dev level or player level, but it grew on me really fast. I don't really like using trackpads in general. But we were playing Broken Age (traditional point and click adventure game) on this thing and it felt great; I don't think we're going to need to do any special control support for it at all, it just worked. 

[Flynn]

I too dislike trackpads generally so I'm glad to hear that.

 

Did you get a chance to try it in a first-person context?  I was surprised to see them push Portal as the main example.

[Frenetic Pony]

Wow, that sounds.... interesting.... but I dunno.

 

Well one probably needs to try it out one way or another. I'm pretty sure something like this hasn't been tried before, so I'm finding it hard to imagine specifics of how it will feel one way or another. Speaking of which thanks Chris! Trying it was really what I was wondering.

 

The other thing I'd have to ask is, versus a mouse how precise is it?

 

I'd been daydreaming about a better control pad scheme lately (what with the PS4 announcement and Google console rumors and whatnot). Combined with actually paying attention to how the PS3 controls work in GTAV, and finding them incredibly frustrating when I realize how much better they could be (failing Trevors Uncharted Riff train mission a dozen times in a row will do that). So, if you had to get a HEADSHOT!!! In whatever how much better (worse?) would this be than say, a 360 controller?

[elmuerte]

Soon

That still looks creepy

[SecretAsianMan]

The part that made me happy was about the buttons, specifically

 

Half of them are accessible to the player without requiring thumbs to be lifted from the trackpads, including two on the back.

 

One thing that drives me nuts with most controller designs is most of the buttons are placed to be pushed with 2 thumbs.  The introduction of triggers helped, but I still have several idle fingers.  And I'm often frustrated when games force me to do things like this

[elmuerte]

idle thumbs...

 

 

get it?

[Twig]

No, I don't, can you explain it.

[Dewar]

Wow, that's a hell of a cross thread joke there. I needed that laugh.

[Justin Leego]

The Steam Controller is against idle thumbs.

[tegan]

Chris, I use an Arc Touch mouse, which has a tiny rumble motor in the touch strip to make it feel and sound just like using a scroll wheel. Does it seem like the same kind of thing as that?

 

[mikemariano]

And I'm often frustrated when games force me to do things like this

 

Even though there's obviously another person in that photo, I choose to believe you're standing with your legs apart and you need to reapply your toenail polish.

[SecretAsianMan]

Even though there's obviously another person in that photo, I choose to believe you're standing with your legs apart and you need to reapply your toenail polish.

 

Actually, I stole that photo from NeoGaf, so I have no idea who it is.  But I do need to reapply my toenail polish.

[eot]

I'm curious if this will actually work well with shooters. The problem with a regular trackpad is the range of motion vs precision of motion, it's like using a mouse on a tiny mousepad so you have to keep lifting it when you hit the edge.

[tegan]

I think what the controller reminds me of most is that PS2 controller with the trackball that never quite came to fruition.

 

[Apelsin]

Trackballs 

Have stations at work where we have to use them. 

 

The Gabepad looks interesting though, while I'm slightly wary about the input methods I really want to try it out!

[darthbator]

I am actually really excited to check this thing out. Of all of the strange "new wave input/output" bullshit this is the thing I think I am most excited about. 

[JonCole]

Chris, I use an Arc Touch mouse, which has a tiny rumble motor in the touch strip to make it feel and sound just like using a scroll wheel. Does it seem like the same kind of thing as that?

 

That actually seems super cool, I don't remember Microsoft really advertising that as a feature with that mouse but it certainly would have gotten my interest if they did. That said, the ergonomics of it seem somewhat poor and I don't really need another mouse sitting around the house (I buy like every somewhat-cool looking one I see on sale every three or four months).

[Latrine]

I have to admit that I was finally planning to cave (mostly for Dark Souls 2) and pick up an Xbox One controller. But now this weird thing is an option. As someone who has never played a game with a gamepad for more than 5 minutes, I'm not sure if I should go for the more traditional controller or this one where at least the marketing material is somewhat targeted at me. 

[Forbin]

I just don't see developers putting in the extra work to support the steam controller as well as they do with the Xbox controller.  When you've got a 360 controller plugged in, most games that have been developed for the XBox will change the button prompts, and have a button layout specifically considered.  They promise the controller will be open to hacking, so I'm sure people will come up with some nice configurations to compensate for direct developer support, but I doubt it'll be as good an experience.

 

Also:

[Zeusthecat]

Soon

 

Is that an umbilical cord attached to an ear drum?

[BigJKO]

The part that made me happy was about the buttons, specifically

 

 

One thing that drives me nuts with most controller designs is most of the buttons are placed to be pushed with 2 thumbs.  The introduction of triggers helped, but I still have several idle fingers.  And I'm often frustrated when games force me to do things like this

The buttons reachable without lifting your thumbs are the triggers and the trackpads themselves, as far as I can see, which isn't any different from a DualShock controller..

[Sno]

^ Yeah, the steam pad doesn't solve any of that, considering all of its various touch surfaces and the way they've arranged the face buttons. There's still a mess of crap on the upside of that thing.

Speaking of which, what they've done with the face buttons is hilariously awful, a lot of platformers and character action games will just be outright unplayable on that thing. (They've made it impossible to press any two of those buttons simultaneously, unless you're taking both thumbs off of both touch discs.)

The ergonomics of that thing seem like a nightmare.

I'm also incredibly, incredibly skeptical when somebody is trying to sell me on the idea that a touch pad can appropriately emulate the tactile feel and responsiveness of an analog stick or d-pad. (I really don't think it's possible, virtual joysticks have always been such phenomenally miserable things.)

I think this looks like a controller made by people who don't have much experience making controllers, it seems like a device that is very narrowly focused on the kind of games they make. (Or, in trying to make a pad that can be used with games that traditionally aren't played with pads, they've made a pad that can't be used with games that do need a pad.)