If that was coming from anyone other than Valve I would say it looked like a cheap piece of rubbish. Need read up on it to see if it is so. Can't imagine them releasing something which wasn't tested to hell, so am intruiged.
Looks interesting, they say there is haptics in the touch pad to give various levels of feedback. Not sure how the hell that is going to work, but if they can emulate a stick with a touch pad, that might be what makes me enjoy first person shooters with a gamepad... the accuracy of a mouse, with the ease of use and accessibility of a console controller.
If anyone can make this work, it'll be Valve.
I think it's funny what everyone's reaction to this is. A lot of people were complaining that Microsoft isn't doing anything to innovate controls, then Valve comes out and makes something crazy and people complain that it's too different. Make up your mind, people!
It seems like they spent a week announcing solutions to problems nobody has. Hopefully the haptic feedback makes those touchpads work better than virtual joysticks on a touchscreen, but this thing seems like the kind of thing you'd absolutely have to hold in your hands before committing to. Also, that shape had me confused for a bit whether or not that was the front or the back.
The touch screen that acts as a button sounds like a nice addition to avoid inevitable touch screen miss-clicks. I kinda dig the design of the controller, would love to get my hands on one.
It seems like they spent a week announcing solutions to problems nobody has. Hopefully the haptic feedback makes those touchpads work better than virtual joysticks on a touchscreen, but this thing seems like the kind of thing you'd absolutely have to hold in your hands before committing to. Also, that shape had me confused for a bit whether or not that was the front or the back.
playing pc centric games (rts) on a controller is very much a problem
Man, that thing is really, really stupid looking. The placement of the face buttons seems poor, too. As long as the tech actually works, I guess it should be fine, but damn is it ugly.
It seems like they spent a week announcing solutions to problems nobody has. Hopefully the haptic feedback makes those touchpads work better than virtual joysticks on a touchscreen, but this thing seems like the kind of thing you'd absolutely have to hold in your hands before committing to. Also, that shape had me confused for a bit whether or not that was the front or the back.
playing pc centric games (rts) on a controller is very much a problem
How do you see a controller with two faux-sticks and a completely nonsensical placement of face buttons fixing that?
I gotta go with penfold here. None of these announcements aside from Steam OS have been particularly interesting, and none of them are anything that anyone needed.
I like the way the buttons are arranged. Anyone who's played a game on a traditional controller that requires you to aim with the right stick, but need to push a button as well knows how frustrating this can be.
If I'm stationary, and need to push a button (such as reload), why not have more buttons on the left that aren't necessarily a D-pad?
It seems like they spent a week announcing solutions to problems nobody has. Hopefully the haptic feedback makes those touchpads work better than virtual joysticks on a touchscreen, but this thing seems like the kind of thing you'd absolutely have to hold in your hands before committing to. Also, that shape had me confused for a bit whether or not that was the front or the back.
playing pc centric games (rts) on a controller is very much a problem
How do you see a controller with two faux-sticks and a completely nonsensical placement of face buttons fixing that?
ask valve, i didnt make the claim, the fact remains that this controller exists partly to solve that problem. I dont claim to have any idea how (well) this thing functions
It seems like they spent a week announcing solutions to problems nobody has. Hopefully the haptic feedback makes those touchpads work better than virtual joysticks on a touchscreen, but this thing seems like the kind of thing you'd absolutely have to hold in your hands before committing to. Also, that shape had me confused for a bit whether or not that was the front or the back.
I'm wondering if the haptic feedback can have any positive impact as well since to me it does look like they built a controller out of the virtual thumbsticks that no one likes.
There are still unanswered questions, like, "what the hell do those three long-ass buttons under the touch screen do?" and i'd like to know if the "triggers" are analog or not.
But yeah, it's so batshit crazy that you'd have to use it before anyone could judge it. Still disappointed there wasn't more to the announcement.
A lot of modern games are designed for you to have you're thumb on the left analog stick at all times, but with the way the buttons are laid out it looks like you are going to have to take it off quite a bit. It will probably work fine for first person shooters, but I'm skeptical on how well it will work for nearly every other genre. I'd like to give it a try though. If I'm missing something and it ends up being amazing I'd be happy to be wrong.
Unless i really don't understand what the controller is capable of, I think this looks really promising. If the two track pads have mouse accuracy, could you pinch and zoom? Could you select areas on the screen? Could you use the touch screen to quickly select locations on a map? Seems like a great way of making RTS and MOBA's controller friendly.
I also like the two additional buttons on the back. They look like they'll create a richer tactile sensation when your gripping something ingame. Imagine holding a weapon like that.
It seems like they spent a week announcing solutions to problems nobody has. Hopefully the haptic feedback makes those touchpads work better than virtual joysticks on a touchscreen, but this thing seems like the kind of thing you'd absolutely have to hold in your hands before committing to. Also, that shape had me confused for a bit whether or not that was the front or the back.
playing pc centric games (rts) on a controller is very much a problem
How do you see a controller with two faux-sticks and a completely nonsensical placement of face buttons fixing that?
ask valve, i didnt make the claim, the fact remains that this controller exists partly to solve that problem. I dont claim to have any idea how (well) this thing functions
All but two games (Alien Swarm, and DOTA 2) that Valve has made have been first person shooters. I think they would know better than anyone how to design a controller with this type of game in mind.
It seems like they spent a week announcing solutions to problems nobody has. Hopefully the haptic feedback makes those touchpads work better than virtual joysticks on a touchscreen, but this thing seems like the kind of thing you'd absolutely have to hold in your hands before committing to. Also, that shape had me confused for a bit whether or not that was the front or the back.
playing pc centric games (rts) on a controller is very much a problem
How do you see a controller with two faux-sticks and a completely nonsensical placement of face buttons fixing that?
ask valve, i didnt make the claim, the fact remains that this controller exists partly to solve that problem. I dont claim to have any idea how (well) this thing functions
All but two games (Alien Swarm, and DOTA 2) that Valve has made have been first person shooters. I think they would know better than anyone how to design a controller with this type of game in mind.
I hope you're right! Because this currently just looks like a niche concept control scheme.
It seems like they spent a week announcing solutions to problems nobody has. Hopefully the haptic feedback makes those touchpads work better than virtual joysticks on a touchscreen, but this thing seems like the kind of thing you'd absolutely have to hold in your hands before committing to. Also, that shape had me confused for a bit whether or not that was the front or the back.
playing pc centric games (rts) on a controller is very much a problem
How do you see a controller with two faux-sticks and a completely nonsensical placement of face buttons fixing that?
ask valve, i didnt make the claim, the fact remains that this controller exists partly to solve that problem. I dont claim to have any idea how (well) this thing functions
All but two games (Alien Swarm, and DOTA 2) that Valve has made have been first person shooters. I think they would know better than anyone how to design a controller with this type of game in mind.
That has nothing to do with using the controller for RTS games, which is what we were talking about. [EDIT: Okay maybe this is an unfair complaint in retrospect.] But since you brought it up:
There's literally two face buttons next to the left stick. I already have to take my thumb off the right stick whenever I need to hit the face buttons on your average controller, which is a problem none of these controllers have figured out yet - how is asking me to take stop my movement for a second to hit one of those buttons going to help, especially for games like Call of Duty that use all those buttons in some way? Hell, how am I supposed to play many 2D games like that? Unless you're going to put all your eggs in the completely unproven rear touch basket.
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