Valve launched the Steam Controller a decade in the past. It was designed to make conventional PC video games playable on TVs in tandem with the unique Steam Machine, which by no means took off. Now, Valve has introduced a second-generation Steam Controller alongside the newly revived Steam Machine living room console-mini-PC-system.
I purchased the unique Steam Controller at launch and by no means appreciated it that a lot. But later I bought a Steam Deck and fell in love with it. Now I’m wanting ahead to the brand new Steam Controller.
In the meantime, I grabbed my outdated Steam Controller that’s been amassing mud, fired up Half-Life 2, and gave it a second probability. How does the unique evaluate to the second-generation controller? Turns out, Valve has realized rather a lot through the years.
Valve understands the Steam Controller’s largest mistake
Microsoft’s Xbox controller is the de facto normal for PC gaming, though you can technically use a Sony DualShock controller or perhaps a Nintendo Switch Pro controller. (Learn extra about all this in our no-BS guide to game controllers for PC gaming.)
What’s the one factor all these controllers have in frequent? They all have two joysticks and a directional pad. Meanwhile, the unique Steam Controller didn’t—it had a single joystick and two haptic trackpads.
Valve
While these trackpads really feel good to make use of and their haptic suggestions is good, there’s an enormous drawback: it’s a nasty expertise for video games designed with normal controllers in thoughts. You’re caught utilizing the left pad as a directional pad and the suitable pad rather than the suitable joystick.
In Valve’s quest to make keyboard-and-mouse PC video games work with controllers, the Steam Controller delivered a worse expertise for these exact same video games. Shortly after shopping for the unique Steam Controller all these years in the past, I discovered myself reaching for an Xbox controller as a substitute. The inputs and design simply made extra sense.
Valve realized from all this after they ultimately designed the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck nonetheless has haptic trackpads on all sides, but it additionally has two actual joysticks and a directional pad. It doesn’t abandon the basic controller expertise, however as a substitute builds on it. The new Steam Controller retains it going with its Steam Deck-style format of two joysticks, a directional pad, and two haptic trackpads.
Input layouts weren’t prepared for the lots
The unique Steam Controller was overwhelming. It mixed components of a controller with these of mouse and keyboard, requiring video games to map configurations to the Steam Controller’s inputs. Thankfully, you didn’t need to do it your self—Steam was stuffed with community-made layouts for particular person video games. But they different wildly in high quality.
In brief, the Steam Controller had an enormous studying curve with advanced controller layouts and multi-functional buttons that modified what they did relying on what different buttons had been being held. It didn’t simply fluctuate from recreation to recreation—it even different inside video games. I had a tough time increase muscle reminiscence and I spent method an excessive amount of time peeking at enter guides. It was simply simpler to make use of an Xbox controller.
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
When the Steam Deck arrived, the general expertise was way more polished. Games designed with controllers in thoughts “just worked” with the Steam Deck’s controls, not like with the unique Steam Controller. That excites me as a result of video games that “just work” on the Steam Deck also needs to “just work” on Valve’s new Steam Controller!
The rebirth of the Steam Machine and the Steam Controller together with it
Valve is launching the brand new Steam Controller alongside the revived Steam Machine: a Linux-powered gaming PC that runs SteamOS in a tiny console-like field that’s meant to be performed on TVs. The Steam Controller, then, ought to make it simple to play PC video games in your lounge with none fuss or interference wanted from builders or gamers.
Valve
This wasn’t true of the unique Steam Machine. The ecosystem was nonetheless far too younger and SteamOS couldn’t play many video games in any respect. Today, it could run an entire universe of Windows PC video games because of the Proton compatibility layer, fixing that vast drawback as soon as and for all. But again then? Very few Steam video games supported Linux at launch.
That’s one large cause why I wasn’t motivated to speculate severe time in my Steam Controller. If I couldn’t play most PC video games in my lounge, what was the purpose? I would as properly stick to standard keyboard-and-mouse and use an Xbox controller for controller-focused video games—and that’s just about what I did.
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
Valve has come a great distance since then, and the reborn Steam Machine lounge gaming PC console system incorporates an ecosystem that’s able to do what it all the time wished to do. And this time, as with the Steam Deck, Valve is making their very own {hardware}.
The future is vivid for Steam units
Picking up the unique Steam Controller as soon as extra and utilizing it alongside a contemporary Xbox controller, I’m struck by how significantly better Microsoft’s controller feels in my arms. The Steam Controller feels extra awkward and fewer strong, just a little too “hollow” and “plasticky” for me.
When I activate the Steam Controller and listen to the beep performed over the speaker—and really feel the hole, easy plastic shell in my arms—I can’t assist however suppose: “This feels like an engineering prototype.”
The Steam Deck isn’t like that. I just like the Steam Deck’s design! In reality, it feels extra ergonomic than the bigger, heavier Windows-powered handheld gaming PCs I’ve used. Valve realized their classes, and it appears to be like like they’ve utilized them to the second-generation controller.
I’m excited for Valve’s new {hardware}. The Steam Controller and Steam Machine deserved a reboot. Bring ’em on!