Well, in game performance has now been shown for games without native support, and I have to say it's looking good.
I was very tempted by the idea before just for the touchscreen. I've been dying for a programmable touchscreen for quite some time, and was highly tempted by the Razer Death Stalker..but didn't fancy spending (£/â,¬)250 on the device. However, it looks like the controller will be more than just a touchscreen gimmick. It looks like it actually is usable in games.
Unfortunately, just like with the Razer keyboard, a lot depends on the cost of the device. If it comes out at £150, it's a non-starter. Whereas I'd pay £50 without thinking twice. The region inbetween that, all depends on how good it looks nearer launch, and how many games support it natively. It's main competition are a 360 Controller, which is completely unsuitable for FPS games, and a keyboard and mouse. Both of which I already have, so it will have to convince me it's worth picking up.
It looks like a very well designed piece of kit.
I'm expecting the price to be 'premium'.
I'm looking forward to this but it depends on price. I'm totally a living room gamer and mouse and keyboard will just never suit me. Gamepad on PC means I can't play FPS online. So I always end up going back to console. This controller, if it can close the gap between gamepad and M/K for online, would seriously tempt me away from console. For now, I am console, with PC for exclusives but that would change if this contoller turns out to be as good as I hope. I have a beefy PC for working from home so it actually works out as a cheaper option than consoles anyway.
October 16th release.
60Euros (http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/)
â,¬103 with the streaming biz plus â,¬17 delivery. I ordered it. I decided I have hundreds of platform and controller games I could catch up with in my lounge
I also went for a controller and link box :)
Well if you 2 are going for it :)
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Forty quid! Impossible to say no really.
Yup agreed also in with the pack
Added to my christmas list!
According to steam and the email and the tracking site my Link and Controller has been shipped :yahoo:
Mine has also shipped, but it doesn't appear to have reached Europe yet. Doesn't look likely it will be here in time for the LAN...
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Mine has been like that for two weeks - but the tracking page also says 'packet not yet received', so I reckon they are recording them and then will ship them in bulk to the courier. Right now I bet they are sat at the distribution depot for the manufacturer.
Same - mine was shipped on 28th and still in Netherlands Depot
There be movement
Oh my.
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Quote from: Milli;404831Same - mine was shipped on 28th and still in Netherlands Depot
Mine was shipped 2 weeks ago, I'm in the bl00dy Netherlands
My Steam Controller and Steam Link arrived at 07:05 this morning. Woot! :clap:
Lookout for a knock on the door from ParcelForce. I won't get time to connect them up today, but I'll be trying it out asap.
Dispatach for mine is today. Should arrive later today of tomorrow. Side scroller weekend here I come.
Looks like mine is on it way.
So glad I set my rig up last night!
Yup mine just arrived [emoji1]
Mine is here at my desk at work :)
Just setting these up....
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/16/b8fe91df4edec18dd1aebe8480d8af4e.jpg)
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/16/6c21cd0d6770d48fd8e176073ab57514.jpg)
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/16/8ce6025c106c75fd0c42adf001478f26.jpg)
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I am still at work :(
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That was easy, we're in business!
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/16/610c966296a625079fa72f3172c75043.jpg)
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Nice work mate :)
The track pad will take some getting used to, but the streaming is excellent.
Here's Dying Light running nicely:
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/16/af65b4047d7f4efc5a99ae5df4326eec.jpg)
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Got mine running :)
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Early impressions:
1. The Steam Link is a fantastic piece of kit. Plug it in and off you go - everything worked flawlessly at the first attempt.
2. Steam's streaming is good - I didn't have any performance issues on a wired ethernet connection. Wireless is, as you would expect, going to be much more variable. There are some quirks with games that like to open little pop-up dialogues before launching, but the Steam controller emulates a mouse so well it wasn't hard to click through any buttons/menus needed to launch a game. Which leads me to:
3. The controller. First impressions are good, this is a well made piece of hardware and cleverly designed - I especially liked the way the batteries are loaded in.
There are a huge number of buttons/functions compared to something like a basic Xbox pad, and here lies it's biggest strength and ultimately also its biggest weakness. The large number of buttons mean you can use this thing with just about any type of game you can think of, but it's going to need to be configured for each one. There are a handful of 'developer' profiles you can switch on for supported games, these work really well but for most games I tested you will currently have to set up your own profile (essentially binding keyboard/mouse commands to the controller), or use one created & shared by the Steam community (these are a pretty good starting point for making your own profile).
The level of customisation you have over the buttons and in particular the two haptic feedback pads is insane - you really can tweak to the Nth degree until you're happy. Which is nice.
Using the pad to emulate a mouse feels really weird at first, but I got used to it really quickly - within half an hour I was whizzing through Company of Heroes and moving units around with a nice level of precision. Counter Strike was harder to get used to, but it's a quantum leap from using an Xbox pad - this is the best controller I've used for an FPS by miles.
I am very impressed, especially considering this is Valve's first real shot at something like this. I see many happy hours of Civ 5 on the sofa in my future :)
I'm was not getting a controller firmware update no matter how many times I try. It kept saying connect to the host PC via USB which I did and then nothing happened.
Then I removed myself from the Steam Beta Programme and it updated ok with normal Steam. Then back on the Beta. Just a tip.
I just got this controller as a Birthday present (wife knows me!) and hands down this beats any other controller I've used.
My 1st gripe is the button positioning - they follow a standard XBOX layout, but due to having the buttons below the haptic pad (on xbox they are above the stick), the thumb now has more distance to travel to hit the primary buttons and you have a greater chance of idiot slapping the secondary buttons.
My 2nd gripe is that if the Steam Overlay fails to work, the controller won't wholly work with the game. The cynic in me says this is to ensure that the Steam Community cannot be turned off in game.
That being said these gripes are minor. And I'm not really a gamepad kinda guy, so this was real plunge.
Now, I've already logged 50+ hours with Witcher 3 using K&M (not completed it yet - just having fun wandering off and exploring) and after a few hours, I'm much more competent now by using this controller. It's a real joy to use!
So 8+ months in, how's it now.
Just asking because of the current sale on Steam where you can get this and the Link for a few pennies over 50 notes.
It is good I have been using it for witcher 3 over the link. It is much better cause there are so many profiles that people have built.
I use it for witcher 3 as well.
Infact any single player game I use it because I can kick back and relax.
But multi-player like Overwatch, keyboard and mouse still rule.
Would you say that he steam controller is better then say an Xbox one controller ? Or not ?
Yes, much better.
Quote from: Twisted;417850Yes, much better.
Mind if I ask why you think this ? Like how does it make it better ?
It fits my smaller than average hands better, the tactile pads are awesome.
The setup system just works better for me.
It's lighter, the batteries have yet to expire.
The only downside is that the labelled buttons are wrongly placed (see gripe #1 above) compared to what I'm used to on a controller, but the upside far outweighs this.
Quote from: Twisted;417856It fits my smaller than average hands better.
You are Donald Trump and I claim my £5
I dont like it... much prefer the feel of analogue sticks. Track pad doesnt feel right when trying to look about...but that may well just be down to my settings/me
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Quote from: Milli;417859I dont like it... much prefer the feel of analogue sticks. Track pad doesnt feel right when trying to look about...but that may well just be down to my settings/me
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This is what I was mainly thinking of is the touch pads and can they really keep up with how easy to use the analog sticks are on other controllers. I knew thought they would be better, a nice idea for maybe some casual games but I don't think they would be able to stand up to other controllers in more fast based games just incase them touchpad don't work as well or don't register the movement you want to do.
Like right now I am playing forza horizons using my Xbox one controller and Couldney really imagine what it would be like to try to use a steam controller to drive because I think the accuracy of the analog sticks would be a lot better then a motion pad. Thanks for you opinion tho twister and for telling us about your small hands :D ;) haha
Well it's a bit bloomin late to start slagging it off now, I'm £60 down. (£10.10 P&P).
I'm probably in a good situation here as I only use the XB360 controller for Gang Beasts and GTA-V (flying only), therefore I don't have a lot of time on that layout.
The P&P made me think twice as it adds 20% onto the price, GAME were doing them for £28 each as well and free delivery, but by the time I looked again the controllers were OOS and the Link is now also.
Perhaps they might be found in larger stores locally though.
I like it, but it's a very different beast from a regular pad (Xbox etc). To get the best out of it, you really need to spend a bit of time tweaking it for each game.
It's an amazingly versatile device, once you've got it set up to your taste it's lovely to use, but 'out of the box' it's a bit frustrating.