Hardware Review: Steam Controller

 I do not have a logo for today's article. . .hold on a sec. . .

There we go; now down to business!

I have had the Steam Controller now for just over a month (rec'd in mid July) so I have had some time to play around with a number of the features of the controller both in-game and out.

I initially picked up the Steam Controller because my Xbox 360 wired controller is serving just fine, but I thought a second controller would not be a bad option to alleviate the wear and tear on the primary controller, and in case I have a co-op game that requires two controllers so Conklederp and I can play together.  Also the controller was on sale through Gamestop during Steam's Summer Sale and since I had a couple of Gamestop gift cards, I figured it would be a great time to try this conroller out.

Then there was the sentence that I read (either Reddit, Steam forums, or elsewhere) that has forever changed the way that I look at and approach the Steam controller.  This person said something along the lines of, "The Steam controller isn't so much a typical video game controller as it is a keyboard emulator."  A controller that emulates a keyboard?  One of the selling points about the Steam controller, is that it is supposed to emulate using a mouse and keyboard while offering tactile feedback with both the directional touch pad (left circular pad) and the right touch pad which functions like a mouse.

Instead of listing all of the descriptions like an instruction manual for what each of the 16 buttons does depending on your personal customization (is that redundant?), I will just get down to how I have used the controller over the past month.

Not as much as I would have liked/thought.  

So now that you know that I like the controller very much, let us do some simple pros and cons in no particular order. The controller is a bit bulkier than the 360 controller, especially in hand-palmal region, but it is still very comfortable to hold.  The right touch pad (mouse) operates a lot more like a track ball than using a mouse on a mouse pad.  The directional touch pad I have really only used as a scroll wheel (like the scroll wheel on a mouse), although  I did briefly try to use it in-game like a traditional directional pad, but I found the joystick to be more intuitive (for some reason).  The joystick, while on par with the 360, I still do not like to use (regardless of the controller) for older and retro style games, but I chalk that up to growing up with the NES and SNES controllers when playing.

When I say that I do not use the Steam controller as much as I would have thought, I mean that I found that I primarily use it when I have my computer HDMI'd up to the TV and do not want to have to constantly lean over my keyboard and mouse, which are usually on the coffee table or on a nearby chair.  And it is not always when playing games either, but just simply using my computer and browsing the Internets.  I did give the controller a semi-serious go while playing Doom 3, Skyrim, and Oblivion, but I felt that I still preferred the mouse and keyboard set up.  I will say though that I liked the feel of the right/mouse touch pad on the Steam controller to look around more than the 360 controller joystick, but in the end it is not ideal for my personal taste.  I have also found that "clicking and dragging" takes a bit more coordination that I would have thought, especially when compared with the easiness of using a mouse.

I do really like using the Steam controller though for simpler Internet browsing, again when my computer is HDMI'd to the TV, or if I already happen to have the controller plugged in and I do not want to lean forward an extra foot to reach the mouse.  There is one major issue that I have experienced with the controller's functioning.  In Steam's Big Picture Mode, when you press the joystick (and it clicks), it will bring up a keyboard that you can use to type with using both directional pads to select the letters and the right and left triggers to "click" the letters.

The keyboard would appear as above; the Doom games came up because I was specifically in BPM and using the search function to use as an example.  The problem comes up however, when I try to use the keyboard outside of BPM.  Upon clicking the joystick, an empty white box pops up.

When this happens, I can still move around the virtual keyboard and click the triggers to blindly type, to the functionality of the keyboard is working, but something is not working visually. I have done a number of searches for fixes (considering that the Steam controller has been out since November 2015) and the problem still persists.  There are even posts up on Steam's community pages that claim the problem is [SOLVED], although the same white box comes up.  I even browsed the SteamController subreddit and was unable to find a more coherent fix there.  The most common "fix" I have read is to change the graphics driver over from the Nvidia driver to whichever is set as the integrated driver, the keyboard will appear outside of BPM.  However, when this is done, the Steam interface (non-BPM) is no longer visible.  Only in one instance did I have the problem [SOLVED] and that was by having BPM minimized in the background, but that was only once and that "fix" has not happened since.

The only other function of the Steam controller that I am able to comment on is the wireless function.  The controller comes with a wireless adapter to be plugged into whatever USB device is being used to run your game.  While in wireless mode, the controller runs off of four AA batteries (which were nicely included in the shipped box).  If I was one who preferred a wireless controller, I am sure that I would be irritated by having to replace the batteries, but since I only use the controller as a wired one, this is something that I do not have to worry about.  Which  then brings me to the USB cord that connects to the controller.  I feel that there is nothing special about his USB to micro-USB cord.  The thickness is about the same as all the other micro-USB cords that I have, and to me, the cord feels a bit on the thin side when I think of a controller cord.  The cord for the 360 controller is much thicker and just feels more substantial.  Also the cord is only 59 inches long while the 360 cord is 120 inches.  Granted a console is typically where the TV is located while a computer screen is no more than a few feet away from the tower (in the case of a desktop), which I will assume is why the computer can also be used wirelessly (not a word).  If the cord were even just an extra 12 inches longer, I would be a lot happier, but that is what Amazon is for after all. 

So let us finally break down this pro/con list:

Pro
Comfortable grip.
Mouse touch pad is easier to use than 360 joystick for mouse-type functions.
Great for browsing when you are a distance from the keyboard.
There are a lot of buttons that are not in confusing.
The tactile response on the touch pads is pretty damn cool.
Overall use is pretty intuitive.
Able to customize the mapping of the buttons to keyboard keys and can vary layout for each game.

Cons
Keyboard functionality out of BPM is still not "functioning" as I feel it should be.
The micro-USB cable is shorter than I would have liked.
The directional touch pad "clickiness" is not ideal for a directional pad.

In the end, and after a month of use, I would say that I am happy with the Steam controller, even though I do not really use it as a controller the same way I use the 360 controller, but it is pretty great as a keyboard emulator, that is, unless you want to type something out and are not in Big Picture Mode.  I do not know if I would recommend it for the MSRP of $49.99, but perhaps at a lower $39.99 or even $34.99 would perhaps make the controller a lot more attractive.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
When Things Were Not So Complex

P.S.  It is a pretty damn schnazzy piece of hardware though.