Pro
-Precise
-Novel and fun to use
Cons
-Can it keep up with mouse and keyboard players?
Valve has several hurdles to hop before it can turn PC
gaming into a living room experience. Besides getting the Steam Box to market
with its 13 hardware partners and pushing the SteamOS, it needs to get PC die
hards to give a controller a chance.
That's the task the Valve Steam Box controller has before
it, and it's no easy one. It needs to offer the versatility and precision that
approximates the mouse and keyboard setup.
While Valve has opted to license its SteamOS to hardware
partners, it will be manufacturing its own controller. During an offsite event
at CES 2014 I had the chance to take Valve's Steam Box controller for a test
drive across multiple genres of games.
Now Valve won't be the only one making a Steam controller,
those third-party hardware partners will be entering the fray as well. It also
won't be forcing anyone to give up the mouse and keyboard. That classic gaming
setup may not be couch optimized, but it will be an option for those who value
the old ways of fragging a foe.
Valve staff on site at the event told us that the controller
we were trying out is not a final build. The Washington-based gaming empire is
a bunch of perfectionists, if nothing else. They told us they already had
tweaks in mind for the button layout, the form factor and overall feel of the
controller.
With that in mind here are our impressions of Valve's Steam
Box controller, after diving into a little single player gaming on an internal
Valve Steam Box.
Light, nimble and precise
Holding the Steam Controller for the first time I was
shocked by its weight, or lack thereof. It's light, to the point where I
thought it might be hollow.
That's likely because Valve's final Steam Box controller
will be wireless, and the demo versions I used were wired by microUSB. Having a
battery in there will definitely add some heft.
The build is plastic, of course, but feels like quality
work. The matte finish shrugs off fingerprints and felt as comfortable and
natural as an Xbox One controller.
The most unique aspect of Valve's controller has to be the
touchpads. Instead of the analog sticks of a standard console controller you've
got two touchpads for
moving and aiming.
The touchpads will be a big change for console players. The
second you stop sliding your thumb, you stop aiming. There's no stick to let go
of, and you can start sliding it right from where you stopped to start moving
again.
The touchpads have haptic feedback, which gives a clicking
sensation like you'd find on a Galaxy S4 smartphone.
At first, playing a shooter like Metro: Last Light felt
almost too precise, jumpy even. For the first minute or two my reticle was
flying all over the screen, like a mouse with the sensitivity cranked too high.
This was by design; the controller had been configured for
the kind of quick aiming speed you need in a first-person shooter. The
sensitivity was adjustable, and other demo units playing different genres of
game had different control configurations.
I trusted the Valve engineers and didn't fool with the
sensitivity. My faith was well placed, I was quickly sighting up targets and
taking them out with speed and precision that felt somewhere between an Xbox
controller and my preferred method of destruction: the mouse.
Will Valve's Steam Controller be competitive?
After twenty minutes or so I felt confident taking down AI
enemies, but multiplayer seemed like different story. Based on my brief time
with Valve's Steam Box Controller, I had the feeling that mouse and keyboard
players would still have a distinct advantage over me.
A Valve engineer on hand said that making their controller
on par with a mouse and keyboard is the goal, but an admittedly lofty one.
While gamers take to shooters and platformers with the controller naturally,
native PC strategy games are the greatest challenge. He named Valve's own
fast-paced online game DOTA 2 as a particular challenge.
Release date and price still MIA
Valve wouldn't say anything besides "this year"
regarding a release date for its Steam Controller. Beta testers in the wild
already have them, but consumers will still have to wait, and remember, we
haven't seen the final version yet.
Valve also didn't shed any light on what its accessory will
cost. If we had to guess, we'd peg it above an Xbox One or PlayStation 4
controller. Those fancy touchpads can't be cheap.
Early verdict
Valve's Steam Box controller is impressively precise and
uniquely creative. Playing with one for just a short while reminded me of the
first time I used the single analog stick on the Nintendo 64. Tangling up an
AT-AT with my tow cable in Shadows of the Empire was difficult, frustrating at
times, but I could sense miles of gaming depth just below the surface. If it
catches on it could be a sea change for all gaming, not just on PCs.
However, if it can't compete with the mouse and keyboard,
there's no way it'll become the standard for head-to-head online games like
StarCraft II and Counter-Strike. If that's the case, PC gaming might remain at
the desk, or the mouse might find a new home on the couch.
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