My job has me staying in office some days and going out other days. Alas, fate had it that I was assigned an outing right as it dropped. I went back to try pressing the button a few times whenever I had a spare moment, but not nearly enough to get through
-buttons are quieter- this alone just about sells me on it, at least when I'm wanting to use my ally on the big screen. Why must all controller buttons, especially the abxy buttons, be so freaking loud??
I think that with "arguably worth it" OP was referring to the fact the he was clicking a few hundred times when ordering it, and that it already came with the mail.
The controller was designed to have almost 1:1 input parity with the Steam Deck specifically so that it would be easy to swap between both using the same control setups. I think the only input differences are the grip sense on the controller and the touch screen on the Deck.
This is like the whole “woman get nasa pc for sims” joke. I can literally play Balatro on my phone and you actively use a device that can run Cyberpunk to play this 😭
I mean, they ported Cyberpunk to the Switch. The thing that makes the game take so many resources is primarily Ray Tracing which is 100% not necessary to enjoy the full experience.
Switch 2, and with forced dynamic resolution scaling. It really is impressive they got it running though. I remember when the wonky Doom 2016 Switch port was considered impressive, and that had nowhere the complexity.
Sometimes I wish I didn't play everything on my 3080 before the steam deck came out it made 30 fps on low seem hard to get int. I love it but since my left bumper died and I can't find a replacement without sending in my deck it has just kind of sat waiting for my love and attention.
Idk if someome told you yet but yeah you can do all that and more with them. You can even set them to change modes with button combos, so that the pad does one thing until you press LT for example to aim in a game and then they can do something else till you go back.
Theres not really a learning curve, but a lot to fiddle with
Yeah I set up the track pads and back buttons for basically every single game. Lots of games accept both PC and controller inputs at the same time as well. I have quicksave/quickload tied to the touchpads, and a back button tied to the "~" key to access console commands on my fallout games
I have spent hundreds of hours on my steamdeck on Civilization and Total War Warhammer because of the trackpad. I love them so much that I would never consider a PC handheld without them.
In helldivers 2, I made it so I can input the stratagems by swiping on the touchpad (joust like in da moovies!) I also made it so if I apply pressure on the same touchpad, it turns back into normal d-pad until I let pressure off again. That way I can navigate the map without having to swipe a billion times to get anywhere. And this is just one of the many things I did in that game.
Apparently, last week I started using someone’s preset controller profile for fallout NV, and I was like oh what the fuck you can use trackpad to walk and as a selection wheel and shit.
It's not just that you can make it a weapon wheel, you can make it an ANYTHING wheel. And the wheel will pop up an OSD above your game that you can map any number of things to any number of quadrants.
Got a game where you can press "m" for the map, "i" for inventory, "j" for journal, etc.? Cool, you can make a menu wheel where pressing the top part of the trackpad opens the map, pressing the right opens your inventory, pressing the bottom opens your journal, etc. And each of the inputs can be customized with its own icon and label.
Yeah the deck has a lot of features that people don't realize. Some features most people wouldn't use even if they did, but its still cool! I like the fact that you can rest your thumb on the joystick and then use the whole deck as a gyro for controls! (You have to enable the feature, its off by default)
The trackpads on the Steam Deck are indispensable for old school games like the original Deus Ex or System Shock not only for aiming but mapping the various functions and abilities in those games as either a radial or quadrant. The games would be almost impossible to play on a standard controller not to mention how tactical they are for navigating desktop mode.
I was looking to pickup one of these controllers for my main rig mainly due to how good the steam deck controls are but it looks like a chunky boy and was waiting on user feedback before pulling the trigger. Watching reviewers praise it is one thing but nothing beats real world user feedback I just wasn't expecting it to sell out as quickly as it did. Just need to sit back and wait for the next batch I guess.
They are copied from the steam deck. They are mostly useful in desktop mode to control your mouse, or in games that require mouse usage.
To be honest, I was super pumped on them when I got my steam deck and now a year later I very rarely ever touch them and wouldn't notice if they were gone or dead.
They are very nice when you don't "need" them too. Each can house infinite amount of keybindings - amazing for PC-centric games with lots of shortcuts.
Played phantasy star online 2 with it. Was able to bind 10 spells to it as a wheel. Then used the other trackpad to swap between 3 sets. So I could bounce between 30 spells with relative ease. I ain't doing tough content with it but it was good enough in a pinch.
To be honest, I was super pumped on them when I got my steam deck and now a year later I very rarely ever touch them and wouldn't notice if they were gone or dead.
That is unsurprising because all the extra features are there for personal customization. Nothing will use them out of the box (unless SteamInput becomes the standard in a way Xinput is haunting us today 20 years later and just doesn't want to fuck off...) - so if you never venture into SteamInput customization settings there is no wonder you don't see practical application beyond moving a mouse cursor every now and then. Trackpads are extremely versatile but like every other feature of the Steam Deck, you need to configure it yourself on per-game basis.
I never used them on the first steam controller, or deck. Just never been a fan of track pads, even on laptops. They're definitely useful in desktop mode though.
Really helpful for stuff like FF14. Started playing Dyson Sphere Program and would make controller much more viable. I just have a toggle on the old steam controller for both
Great for point and click adventure games that don’t have controller support or have terrible controller support, when a mouse and keyboard aren’t an option.
Personally I plan on setting them up as a virtual menu to control a stream deck application so I can control OBS without taking my hand off of my controller
I'll be back home in a few hours. I'm no expert but I have a bunch of controllers at home to compare it to (GameSir Cyclone 2, GameSir G7 8K, GuliKit ES Pro, Mobapad Chitu 2, Switch Pro 1, Xbox Core).
Ah, a fellow controller hoarder. Mine is showing up on Friday to replace my original steam controller. Hopefully the sticks on the new one feel as good as what's on the Gulikit KK pro 2.
My comment was posted 2 minutes into this post. There were like, 3 comments total then.
Either way, OP said they'll be back in the other top comment asking for a review. Personally I wouldn't have posted to Reddit before even trying it out.
You can go to Account Details on your Steam profile, then click View Purchase History, then View Shipment Details, it’ll show you where it’s at in the process
I think the material is fine, but the texture is pretty bland. All of the reviewers I watched who got their hands on it before release all made that comment. Because if the flat texture, one might need to use a tiny bit more strength to hold on to the controller. I think the weight is on the heavier side too. Not like a Playstion or Xbox controller where the underside is textured, giving the controller more grip.
I genuinely dont know why Valve is so sold on this cheap feeling blend of plastic.
It was one of the biggest criticisms of the steam controller, and the steamdeck. And for their nee product.... they go with the same cheap feeling plastic.
Because the materials like this don't really matter that much in terms of functionality, but can be a big driver of costs. Valve tends to make the practical, pragmatic decisions here.
I mean that’s fair, but the reason I use an elite 2 controller is that nothing else comes close to the feeling of it in your hand. It feels so premium compared to any other controller, it’s just a shame it has so many issues.
And I’d argue this controller is closer to an Elite than a normal Xbox controller, so I’m interested to see how the non-premium plastics feel like in-hand.
It's generally because a premium 'feel' can have nothing to do with the actual quality of the materials or product.
Just look at premium headphones that put actual weights in them to give a 'quality' feel in your hands while doing absolutely nothing for the functionality
If something 'feels' cheap but it is functional, durable, and doesn't have any real flaws then it is our perception of cheap that has been warped by marketing
I mean premium headphones absolutely do feel premium in my experience (Focal Clear, LCD2 and HE-500). If those headphones had their wood/metal replaced with cheap but durable plastic… I mean it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would definitely take the premium edge off them imo
Just because something cheap is durable doesn’t mean it is good. Not to mention the steam controller doesn’t even have a textured grip, so it’s probably going to feel even cheaper. I really hope it doesn’t, but it’s really starting to look like it will.
I got berated on another post for saying this controller looks like it has crappy plastic.
This controller has crappy plastic.
You can't tell me in a world where Sony brought out 2 amazing high quality controllers on a row, that anything less than the DS4 over 10 years later is acceptable from such a big company. The xbox and switch pro controllers are barely acceptable in terms of quality comparison, yet Sony is over there with the Dual Sense, and no other big player is anywhere near it except the €200 xbox elite controller, which has a stupid D-Pad
I wish we could just pre-purchase one, get in a queue and have it shipped when ready. I’d love to just forget about the controller until it’s in my mailbox.
So, I may be really dumb, which was always possible, but what exactly is so great about this controller? It just looks like a weirdly shaped xbox controller but for more money.
It is a controller with Gyroscopic control, 4 back paddles, Fully remapabble controls, 2 trackpads and magnetic joysticks, which prevents them from being able to drift. Valve also has a deal with IFixIt making the controller fully repairable unlike most traditional controllers on the market right now.
It is the most feature dense controller anywhere near its price point. People downplay it because they dont see the value in what it adds to a regular controller but if its anything like the og steam controller its gonna be pretty awesome.
Nothing dumb about your question if you don't know the facts dude. This has 4 customizable back buttons, gyro and 2 haptic trackpads that are remappable as well. If you've used a Steam Deck you have a general idea of what it's like, but if not, think of it like 2 laptop touchpads that you can customize the inputs for. Makes it much easier to play KB/M games on controller.
That's underselling it. They're so much better to use than every single laptop touchpad I've tried that I'd probably buy an entire laptop if it had one of those.
Congrats bruh. Mine is still packaged items. Hasn't even shipped and I live on ths other side of fhe country from valve so itll be a couple days anyways😩
What I really wanna know is, when you push the sticks all the way, do they touch the edges?
The Switch 2 Pro sticks have some clearance at full tilt, so they won't wear down and get that gravelly grinding feeling over time. It makes a crazy amount of difference to how smooth they feel to use
My Deck has white rings round each stick, so I'm hoping it's something they fixed
Wish valve sold their hardwares on Brasil, in general people in SA has to buy elsewhere normally from scalpers depending where you look. Taxes here are a absurd.
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u/whiskyrox May 06 '26
Congrats Spacecuntbrainwash. I'm happy for you Spacecuntbrainwash.