Valve's Steam Controller Reviewed

The crew at Tech Report recently spent a little quality time with Valve's Steam controller and came away with mixed feelings about the device.

Valve's Steam Controller is supposed to obviate the mouse and keyboard for PC gaming in the living room. We put our thumbs on the Steam Controller's twin trackpads and took it for a spin to see whether it does the job.

Valve's hardware initiative has been an unmitigated flop. It was clear from the get-go that the Steam Machines, controller, OS and link had no audience. Ignore the revisionist history about the Steam Universe; there was never a stated goal of "moving gaming forward" or "saving" PC gaming. The entire purpose of these devices and software was to create an ecosystem free of Microsoft's influence. That was their only selling point, "Buy this because MS = evil, Valve = good."

As it turned out, PC gamers weren't willing to see their frame rates plummet, their game libraries shrink and have their hardware choices severely limited just to spite MS.

Meh, review isn't very good.

I've got one of these controllers, and I'm very happy with it. It's strength lies in the amount of customization you can do with it, which any self respecting member of the PC master race can appreciate. He talks nothing of any customizing, and in fact laments the lack of an official profile.

For me personally, I've been really enjoying using it with the Witcher 3 lately. I've got it set up just the way I like it..

sboucher said:

I've got one of these controllers, and I'm very happy with it. It's strength lies in the amount of customization you can do with it, which any self respecting member of the PC master race can appreciate.

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We all love customization, sure.

But requiring 30 minutes to an hour of tweaking and Googling as opposed to using a plug 'n play device that has been industry standard since 1999? That's unquestionably a negative.

The steam controller is great; you can customize it if you want, but most games have built in settings made by the community that work like a charm. 30 minutes is a bit of a stress if you change things; even if you have to setup all the controls yourself, it's not going to take more than five minutes of effort. Additionally, the default templates will likely have you covered.

Plus, the fact that I can control my entire machine from the couch using the same controller I play the games with is fantastic.

At the very least, it's far superior to the other controllers on the market. The fact that I can get this to work with any game without the need for an extra program like joy2key is HUGE.

I also own this controller and the link and think they are great. The link has completely replaced my HTPC as my main PC can be used for that now. The review left me feeling like the reviewer didn't really try to like the controller. With its software its infinitely adjustable and should be able to be made to work for just about anyone's preferences

I have heard mixed feeling about it before. And really there is nothing wrong with that. You won't always agree with reviews, and not everyone shares the same opinion. If you are fine with 20 - 30 minutes of configuration instead of just plug and play that is great. If you are fine with a 10+ "getting used to using something" time frame that is fine. But that doesn't mean that everyone else is. And that is fine. I remember last time a post talked about the controller people complained that people didn't use it long enough to get used to it or weren't giving it a fair shot due to being different from what they are used to... but in the end isn't that what people look for? Something they can just pickup and use without any extra work or learning curve. If a new car came out tomorrow that in order to drive you had to tap your foot not used for the gas and break pedal 35 times a second onto a pad to keep the car from turning off would you rush to that one and stick with what is normal for you and buy a normal car.

Everyone's millage will vary with any tech product.

Kuraudo said:

Plus, the fact that I can control my entire machine from the couch using the same controller I play the games with is fantastic.

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Never used one before, but this has a lot of appeal. Play some games with my son, not have to get my half crippled body out of bed at night when Netflix decides to ask me if I want to continue watching.. I like it that idea.

BTW, my HTPC is a full tower beast of a crust old AMD dual core/Nvidia 8800GT with a mouse, keyboard and 360 controllers. lol. Works though.

As it turned out, PC gamers weren't willing to see their frame rates plummet, their game libraries shrink and have their hardware choices severely limited just to spite MS.

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this

So far so good, both the steam link and controller, had a bit of difficulty getting non-steam games to work (have witcher on GOG) but the problems are insurmountable.

As far as plug and play options go, its pretty easy. Tell me one other device that can just plug up to your network and stream your desktop from your PC with a 4 digit pin and no other setup (and I will actually try it if I can buy it, I promise).

most of the people and reviewers who bag on the steam controller always compare it to the xbox controller.

well the steam controller is not a xbox controller it is far superior . unfortunately with that superiority you have to do some custom configuration to get the most out of this device but when you do it pays dividends.

but nope as usual the console idiots of the world must have dumb downed simple devices to go with their dumb downed simple games. might as well have an atari 2600 joystick to sate these people. because any time a game gets more involved or a device empowers the user they get all upset and start wondering why does it has to be so complex ??


so sick of the console influence that plagues the pc gaming industry.

chaos4u said:

most of the people and reviewers who bag on the steam controller always compare it to the xbox controller.

well the steam controller is not a xbox controller it is far superior.

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The thing is, that most modern games capable of being driven by controller likely already have tested setups, for Xbox controllers, if not being outright designed for Xbox controllers from the beginning.

So it is unlikely that the steam controller is going to really be that much better, than just using an Xbox controller that the game was actually designed for.

OTOH games not suitable for controller are almost certainly KB/Mouse games, where again, it is unlikely this steam controller will best KB/Mouse that the game was actually designed for.

My PC is in my living room. I have a desk with monitor and it drives my TV that faces my couch. I have an Xbox 360 controller and wireless KB with trackpad, so I can play controller games from my couch. But I play mouse/KB games at my desk where in their ideal setup.

I really can't see how a touch-pad controller actually bests this setup of actually using exactly the controller that the game was designed for.

I got a Steam controller at launch and I was incredibly excited for it. Initially I was completely underwhelmed. I gave it another go a couple weeks ago, actually sat down with it and learned about it's functions and capabilities. After configuring it to my liking I started to really enjoy it, then after a few good hours of use my muscle memory started to build and now it's slowly becoming almost like second nature. There isn't anything else like it on the market and there's still room for Valve to iterate and add functionality just from the software side of things, in fact they've actually made a considerable amount of changes / features additions already.

I think a lot of people, even reviewers, didn't actually give it a chance/swing. They may of sat down with it for an hour or two and then somehow formed their opinions, most early reviews I read all stated they went back to a PS4/XB1/360 controller probably out of safety in familiarity.

It's a paradigm shift as far input and how it's used/feels in hand compared to anything else we've seen in the past. Naturally there's going to be a learning curve/re-adjustment period and probably a bit of a steeper/longer one than one would initially think. I think one needs to get passed that point and understand the device fully before really forming their opinions.

All of that being said, I absolutely adore the thing now and feel that it's as good if not a better form of input than the PS/XB controllers (which I love) and almost as good / next best thing compared to a true M/KB. The customization it offers is crazy and I admit it's quite intimidating/daunting when you first pull-up the config page but it's all incredibly well thought out and organized in a logical way.

Lastly, now that I've sat down and learned what everything means and does, it's incredibly easy to build new layouts. Now even when starting from scratch it probably only takes me five minutes to build out my desired control scheme. It's flexibility is mind-blowing and enables me to play what I want. I used to be incredibly limited with what games I could play on my Steambox/TV and now that is no longer a problem. I can now enjoy any game I would on my desktop from my bed / couch.

It's nice as hell to be able to kick back on the couch/bed and play some Company of Heroes or Pillars of Eternity and then shoot straight over/into an FPS or 3rd Person title. This, I believe, is what Valve set out to achieve and in my opinion it's a mission accomplished.

crusty_juggler said:

We all love customization, sure.

But requiring 30 minutes to an hour of tweaking and Googling as opposed to using a plug 'n play device that has been industry standard since 1999? That's unquestionably a negative.

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There's a longer explanation in my post above but once you sit down and learn what everything does/means it only takes literally five minutes or less to build a new config from scratch for any title/type of game.

It probably took me about 1-2 hours of combing through the menu and reviewing other configs to learn what all of the settings did and how they may effect one another. This was a one-time process though and once it's done that knowledge is there forever and makes the setup for a new game trivial as hell. I've spent more time dicking with my PS4 controller getting it to work / function the way I'd like then I have with the Steam Controller.

Mouse > Thumbsticks > D pad > touchpads of any type. Some of us called this the second the controller was announced. I'm surprised it took this long for people to realize touchpads are the worst possible input method. I guess the blind fanboism of Valve is a powerful thing. The controller never stood a chance to be anything more than utter junk.


Well being fair, I suppose it is still slightly better than the touch screen input on your cellphone. Unfortunately it wasn't marketed to work with cellphones.

crusty_juggler said:

As it turned out, PC gamers weren't willing to see their frame rates plummet, their game libraries shrink and have their hardware choices severely limited just to spite MS.

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As far as a Steam Machine goes I largely agree. I would LOVE to see wider Linux gaming support, but it's probably never going to happen. However, I've found that both the Steam Controller and the Steam Link were solid buys.

The Steam Link has been great for my living room. Gone are the days of lugging my multi-thousand dollar rig down stairs every-time I wanted to entertain with games. It sucks over wifi for sure, but that's not an issue for me. Interestingly, I just recently learned I can exit Big Picture mode when streaming via the Link and I have a nice remote desktop going, it's been super handy. It supports my existing xbox 360 wireless controllers (via the MS made dongle) and I have access to 95% of the games on my desktop. (Subtracting for some games that are just weird; like this one ported flash game)

The controller I'm not gonna defend so heartily. It's on the high end of okay. I'm not sad that I bought it. It really comes down to this. Did the developers design their game with a controller in mind? No? Well here the Steam controller really shines. I'll talk about why below. It doesn't hold up as well for me in games that are designed with controller support. For those I find myself going immediately back to my 360 controller. They have been steadily releasing firmware updates for the controller. I'll try it out again every once in a while and it's gotten a lot better.. especially for games that don't already have controller support.

crusty_juggler said:

We all love customization, sure.

But requiring 30 minutes to an hour of tweaking and Googling as opposed to using a plug 'n play device that has been industry standard since 1999? That's unquestionably a negative.

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That's 30 minutes if you build one completely from scratch and take the time to give all the bindings friendly names and not use the keyboard to type (which you can just do).

I think I've done that... once? I've had great luck with the community bindings (or one of the generic presets). Turns out, there are tons of people out there with that kind of free time. I'm usually up-and-playing pretty quickly. Often just a few moments of examining the key bindings. Most of the community bindings I have come across have all had friendly names for the bindings. Which is nice because then you can see that the A button is Jump. (And not: Spacebar).

Kuraudo said:

The fact that I can get this to work with any game without the need for an extra program like joy2key is HUGE.

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Yeah, it's everything I ever wanted joy2key to be and I never even have to put down the controller.

I bought the controller and the Link when they first came out. As long as the Link is using a wired connection, it works great.
The controller was not my favorite at first. I had been using an Xbox 360 controller for a few years. So, naturally, it was not easy to get used to something else.
Now that I have been using their joystick, I like it. I can use it for a keyboard (although still don't want to do much typing) and it does handle mouse tasks. If I'm on the couch, it works.
I still prefer a mouse and keyboard combo for a lot of games. However, it's not convenient to mouse/keyboard at the couch. (Yes you can do it, but it is a hack).
As with all things, everyone has an opinion.

I was interested in steam hardware, but lost my interest when I realized valve was still doing the when its done approach, and would not have Half Life 3 as a killer app for this stuff.

Dekoth-E- said:

Mouse > Thumbsticks > D pad > touchpads of any type. Some of us called this the second the controller was announced. I'm surprised it took this long for people to realize touchpads are the worst possible input method. I guess the blind fanboism of Valve is a powerful thing. The controller never stood a chance to be anything more than utter junk.


Well being fair, I suppose it is still slightly better than the touch screen input on your cellphone. Unfortunately it wasn't marketed to work with cellphones.

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Says someone without a clue because they never used one or did amd didnt take the time to get used to it.

I didnt like mine when i first got it. Now that i am used to it it is way more superior than a stupid thumbstick. People that spout shit that have no clue irritate me.

Brokennails said:

Says someone without a clue because they never used one or did amd didnt take the time to get used to it.

I didnt like mine when i first got it. Now that i am used to it it is way more superior than a stupid thumbstick. People that spout shit that have no clue irritate me.

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Those kinds of posts and the people that used one for 15 minutes and got frustrated are why I think this controller gets a bad rep here. Out of all the other other forums I frequent or communities I'm in [H] seems to be where I continually see negative posts about the Steam Controller. Naturally it's almost always people who haven't used it, used it for 15 minutes or those wrote off from day one cause 1. Valve 2. Touchpads

I'm sure it's possible but I've not talked to a single person who invested themselves past the initial learning curve stage and reviewed what everything does/mean and does not love the device or at least have tons of positive things to say.

Brokennails said:

Says someone without a clue because they never used one or did amd didnt take the time to get used to it.

I didnt like mine when i first got it. Now that i am used to it it is way more superior than a stupid thumbstick. People that spout shit that have no clue irritate me.

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I don't have to use one to know how the technology works. The fact is touchpads do not and never can have the same versatility of a thumbstick. Touchpads are had limited to a 1:1 movement ratio because it relies on where your actual finger is. Thumbsticks don't have that same limit. You have way more control of sensitivity on a thumbstick than you can ever have on a touch surface. That isn't a "Feels" thing that is a hard fact and technological limit.The steam controller was an absolutely terrible idea.

Either way the argument is really moot as given the device the controller works on is a PC and the mouse is just grossly superior in every single application. Controllers are garbage for anything outside consoles and that is only because they refuse to wholesale support mouse/kb.

Dekoth-E- said:

I don't have to use one to know how the technology works. The fact is touchpads do not and never can have the same versatility of a thumbstick. Touchpads are had limited to a 1:1 movement ratio because it relies on where your actual finger is. Thumbsticks don't have that same limit. You have way more control of sensitivity on a thumbstick than you can ever have on a touch surface. That isn't a "Feels" thing that is a hard fact and technological limit.The steam controller was an absolutely terrible idea.

Either way the argument is really moot as given the device the controller works on is a PC and the mouse is just grossly superior in every single application. Controllers are garbage for anything outside consoles and that is only because they refuse to wholesale support mouse/kb.

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Again, try one for yourself instead of I know how this works blah blah blah. No, you already "know" how it works. Why make your own opinion? Just parrot shit someone else says as fact. Is this controller for everyone? No. Could it be if people actually tried it and learned what some of the settings do instead of see half assed reviews and listen to some of the shit people say as gospel and fact? yeah. I really think given people actually try and get used to it it really could. I don't even use my gaming keyboard and mouse 95% of the time any more because I took the time to get used to it instead of try it for 15 minutes.

I wish I could use this controller on my PS4.

Brokennails said:

Again, try one for yourself instead of I know how this works blah blah blah. No, you already "know" how it works. Why make your own opinion? Just parrot shit someone else says as fact. Is this controller for everyone? No. Could it be if people actually tried it and learned what some of the settings do instead of see half assed reviews and listen to some of the shit people say as gospel and fact? yeah. I really think given people actually try and get used to it it really could. I don't even use my gaming keyboard and mouse 95% of the time any more because I took the time to get used to it instead of try it for 15 minutes.

I wish I could use this controller on my PS4.

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I didn't need to read reviews to understand the fundamental flaws of touchpads. I was saying the exact same thing long before any review site was bashing on it. If anything they are parroting what I said years ago, not the other way around.

Brokennails said:

Again, try one for yourself instead of I know how this works blah blah blah. No, you already "know" how it works. Why make your own opinion? Just parrot shit someone else says as fact. Is this controller for everyone? No. Could it be if people actually tried it and learned what some of the settings do instead of see half assed reviews and listen to some of the shit people say as gospel and fact? yeah. I really think given people actually try and get used to it it really could. I don't even use my gaming keyboard and mouse 95% of the time any more because I took the time to get used to it instead of try it for 15 minutes.

I wish I could use this controller on my PS4.

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To be fair that could be said about most things that people bitch about not liking, ribbons in Office, start screen in windows 8... For some, it is not something they like and never will, even with hours of use. For others, once they use them they find it to be the best thing ever.

That said the average person wants to pick something up and just have it work. We might be willing to adjust ay times but the average idiot on the street that can't figure out how to setup a console and has to pay to have it connected and setup isn't going to be willing or able to configure a controller and doesn't want a learning curve. And some just have their preference of what they think is best. It is like trying to argue is coke or Pepsi is the best. It is a matter of opinion not of fact.

Exavior said:

If you are fine with 20 - 30 minutes of configuration instead of just plug and play that is great.

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Just harping on this because I don't think people understand how simple it is to get up and running with the Steam Controller.

Changing settings for a given game takes about five minutes tops, but the real thing to point out is that you have access to community created configurations for most games. Additionally, if you ever need to remind yourself what a certain key is bound to, you can bring up the steam overlay and check the controller settings mid-game. Most community configurations have the bindings labelled with the game-specific actions they're set to.

I love the Xbox 360 controller and have used it for a long time for "console" games on pc and I'm sure many of you feel the same; how many times, however, did we find ourselves locked into a certain config with no way to change it because of terrible ports?

No longer.

TheBlueChanell said:

Those kinds of posts and the people that used one for 15 minutes and got frustrated are why I think this controller gets a bad rep here. Out of all the other other forums I frequent or communities I'm in [H] seems to be where I continually see negative posts about the Steam Controller. Naturally it's almost always people who haven't used it, used it for 15 minutes or those wrote off from day one cause 1. Valve 2. Touchpads

I'm sure it's possible but I've not talked to a single person who invested themselves past the initial learning curve stage and reviewed what everything does/mean and does not love the device or at least have tons of positive things to say.

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You can stockholm yourself to liking pretty bad things if you are dedicated. I remember back in the 80's when one my favorite bands released a real stinker of an Album. I called it what it was. My buddy listened to it all day, every day, for a week. Then he proclaimed it was awesome and I just hadn't listened to it enough to appreciate it.

It isn't like people haven't gone above and beyond spending many days trying to like it:
One Month With The Steam Controller


Are competitive Starcraft and other KB/Mouse games switching to Steam Controllers? Why not?

Kuraudo said:

Just harping on this because I don't think people understand how simple it is to get up and running with the Steam Controller.

Changing settings for a given game takes about five minutes tops, but the real thing to point out is that you have access to community created configurations for most games. Additionally, if you ever need to remind yourself what a certain key is bound to, you can bring up the steam overlay and check the controller settings mid-game. Most community configurations have the bindings labelled with the game-specific actions they're set to.

I love the Xbox 360 controller and have used it for a long time for "console" games on pc and I'm sure many of you feel the same; how many times, however, did we find ourselves locked into a certain config with no way to change it because of terrible ports?

No longer.

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Personally? Never once played a game where I found default mapping or mapping choices if selectable to be a problem. So to me personally that feature is worthless. But that is me.

Snowdog said:

You can stockholm yourself to liking pretty bad things if you are dedicated. I remember back in the 80's when one my favorite bands released a real stinker of an Album. I called it what it was. My buddy listened to it all day, every day, for a week. Then he proclaimed it was awesome and I just hadn't listened to it enough to appreciate it.

It isn't like people haven't gone above and beyond spending many days trying to like it:
One Month With The Steam Controller


Are competitive Starcraft and other KB/Mouse games switching to Steam Controllers? Why not?

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The opposite is also true. You can can dislike a great thing if you go into not wanting to like it.

As for the competitive players, i can see them not switching. They are not what i would call this controllers demographic. Is this controller as good as a mouse and keyboard, for some yea but for most i dont think so. Is it more accurate than a 360 controller. Hell yes. Once i have it set up to my liking it is night and day better. But that is my opinion. Everyone is entitled to one. But not trying something and giving your opinion on it as fact is idiotic.

Which has been my point all along.

There is no point in trying to convince somebody like Dekoth-E to try the steam controller; they show an insurmountable level of closed-mindedness that guarantees they will hate the controller no matter what. The steam controller is a bit different from what we're used to, and if you come to it with the attitude that you already know it's terrible because "reasons", you're going to end up hating it.

Snowdog said:

Are competitive Starcraft and other KB/Mouse games switching to Steam Controllers? Why not?

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Who gives a toss what pro Starcraft players are using. The attitude that you can only use one "best" type of input, and everything else is worthless and a waste of time is really frustrating. The great thing about PC is that you're not stuck with the manufacturer sanctioned input, I have a Logitech G502 mouse, a G710 keyboard and a G13 keypad. I addition to those, I also have a HOTAS, wheel and pedals, xbox 360 controller and now have recently added the steam controller.

I'm still getting used to the Steam controller, but I can absolutely see it's potential and usefulness. I will still mostly use my mouse and keypad (or HOTAS/wheel) when gaming at my desk in front of my monitor, but when I'm sitting in my recliner and playing on my TV with a powerful sound system I expect I will be using the Steam controller. I prefer playing my FPS on at my desk and my third person action games from my recliner in front of the TV.

The touch pads took a little getting used to, but work just fine and are highly configurable. I really like the gyroscope input, I've experimented with using it for precision aiming which works pretty well, I've also set it up so that I can flick my controller back to counter in Shadow of Mordor, which is pretty nice and something you can not do with the 360 controller.

Anyway, the point is you're not restricted to only using one form of input, you can use different inputs for different types of games or locations. If all you care about is coming out on top of the scoreboard, then stick with mouse and keyboard I guess. But there's more to gaming than sitting at #1 on a handful of competitive games. If you can't see that, even if it doesn't appeal to you, then that's a problem with on your end.

Brokennails said:

The opposite is also true. You can can dislike a great thing if you go into not wanting to like it.

As for the competitive players, i can see them not switching. They are not what i would call this controllers demographic. Is this controller as good as a mouse and keyboard, for some yea but for most i dont think so. Is it more accurate than a 360 controller. Hell yes. Once i have it set up to my liking it is night and day better. But that is my opinion. Everyone is entitled to one. But not trying something and giving your opinion on it as fact is idiotic.

Which has been my point all along.

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I am pointing out what was said in other reviews. Even the people who are fans pretty much admit it takes a LONG time to get used to it, and I am not seeing where the payoff is. I am just not going to spend a month to get used to a controller unless it is going to cure cancer, or win me the next Powerball.

It really seems that it is more an attempt to be a jack of all trades. It's a better mouse/KB than xbox controller, and a better Xbox Controller than a KB/Mouse.

But I am just going to KB/Mouse in KB/Mouse games, and xbox controller in Controller games and not have to spend a month getting used to it for some questionable benefit.

It also looks like you need Steam installed to run the controller, which takes it off my list right from the get go.

mesasone said:

There is no point in trying to convince somebody like Dekoth-E to try the steam controller; they show an insurmountable level of closed-mindedness that guarantees they will hate the controller no matter what. The steam controller is a bit different from what we're used to, and if you come to it with the attitude that you already know it's terrible because "reasons", you're going to end up hating it.



Who gives a toss what pro Starcraft players are using. The attitude that you can only use one "best" type of input, and everything else is worthless and a waste of time is really frustrating. The great thing about PC is that you're not stuck with the manufacturer sanctioned input, I have a Logitech G502 mouse, a G710 keyboard and a G13 keypad. I addition to those, I also have a HOTAS, wheel and pedals, xbox 360 controller and now have recently added the steam controller.

I'm still getting used to the Steam controller, but I can absolutely see it's potential and usefulness. I will still mostly use my mouse and keypad (or HOTAS/wheel) when gaming at my desk in front of my monitor, but when I'm sitting in my recliner and playing on my TV with a powerful sound system I expect I will be using the Steam controller. I prefer playing my FPS on at my desk and my third person action games from my recliner in front of the TV.

The touch pads took a little getting used to, but work just fine and are highly configurable. I really like the gyroscope input, I've experimented with using it for precision aiming which works pretty well, I've also set it up so that I can flick my controller back to counter in Shadow of Mordor, which is pretty nice and something you can not do with the 360 controller.

Anyway, the point is you're not restricted to only using one form of input, you can use different inputs for different types of games or locations. If all you care about is coming out on top of the scoreboard, then stick with mouse and keyboard I guess. But there's more to gaming than sitting at #1 on a handful of competitive games. If you can't see that, even if it doesn't appeal to you, then that's a problem with on your end.

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Touchpads aren't just "Reasons". They have been the worst possible option when it comes to gaming in the entire history of ever. It is a flat out technological handicap that all touch devices share. The steam controller did nothing to address that issue. A properly configured thumbstick or mouse in a PC environment will always be superior to a touchpad in every possible metric. The argument of "I like" isn't a technical one. It is a personal one. Now if you like it, that is fine. No one here is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to use something. The only thing I take issue with is the claim that it is technologically better when in fact it is not.

Dekoth-E- said:

Touchpads aren't just "Reasons". They have been the worst possible option when it comes to gaming in the entire history of ever. It is a flat out technological handicap that all touch devices share. The steam controller did nothing to address that issue. A properly configured thumbstick or mouse in a PC environment will always be superior to a touchpad in every possible metric. The argument of "I like" isn't a technical one. It is a personal one. Now if you like it, that is fine. No one here is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to use something. The only thing I take issue with is the claim that it is technologically better when in fact it is not.

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Well since you have not used one, let me tell you these feel nothing like a typical touchpad. With setting like drag, trackball settings and the option to have the outside ring configurable to continuous input and speed, when you figure out what these settings do it is a different beast.

When you get used to it it is easily better than a 360 controller for accuracy.

But hey, you know it all.

Dekoth-E- said:

Touchpads aren't just "Reasons". They have been the worst possible option when it comes to gaming in the entire history of ever. It is a flat out technological handicap that all touch devices share. The steam controller did nothing to address that issue. A properly configured thumbstick or mouse in a PC environment will always be superior to a touchpad in every possible metric. The argument of "I like" isn't a technical one. It is a personal one. Now if you like it, that is fine. No one here is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to use something. The only thing I take issue with is the claim that it is technologically better when in fact it is not.

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I don't know man... Touch pads gotten a lot better.. I can see speed and acceleration adjustments helping.. Also if you lift you finger move it another place aiming quickly moves to that relative area of the screen. Then again trackball got pretty great, so I wonder how a d pad and trackball combination might do in a handheld controller.
Thumbsticks are not without limitation, you can't really lift the finger... travel is very small too making harder any progressive acceleration, you kind of end up going going to the center constantly to reset your input, moving around with a thumstick can be too slow.

I have read and watched a lot more reviews, and consistent elements emerged:

0: Steep Learning Curve, both tweaking it, and getting used to it.

1: Button layout of ABXY is poorly done, hard to get used to.

2: Left (D-Pad) touchpad is the worse D-Pad in the world.

3: Despite being able to configure it for other things. the Left touchpad goes almost unused. Everyone uses the analog stick on that side (might be telling you something).

4: Civilization seems to be the go to game to prove it can do Mouse/KB duty. I saw: "I am playing Civilization on the couch" in many reviews.

5: Despite being able to do Mouse/KB emulation with a controller it is clearly not as good. This is mainly for if you are hell bent on playing KB/Mouse game with a controller.

6: The one small edge it has is a slight increase in precision while replacing a right analog stick in some controller games, once you are used to it and it is properly tweaked.

IMO they would have been much better off essentially doing an Xbox controller clone, replacing only the right analog stick with a touch pad. It still wouldn't be for everyone, but it would probably ease the entry for a lot more people. Or maybe just a full Xbox Controller clone (without touchpads) + motion control for aiming adjustment.