My fellow gamers, rejoice! For we have
been gifted from on high, the perfect device for PC gaming.
Well, on paper at least. Since my hands-on a
few months ago, >> [music] >> I have gotten some more intimate time
with the Steam Controller, with all of its features, a launch date when [music]
you can finally get your hands on one, and I've gotten a price.
And I've got a lot of thoughts, especially on that last one. Some of you
won't care about them. The die-hard fans of the original Steam Controller who
have desperately waited over 10 years for Valve to follow it up, you guys
might as well open your wallets now, because the new Steam Controller, it's
the original, but much, much better. For everyone else though, it's something of
an enigma. >> [music] >> It's a controller. It's a trackpad. It's
It's a bridge between your traditional gaming battle station and your living
room, and it's It's unlike anything else on the market. Up top is a standard
symmetrical style layout with all of the buttons and sticks that you'd expect
from a modern controller, plus a few extras that you might recognize from the
Steam Deck that are going to help you navigate SteamOS and Steam Big Picture.
Below that are the stars of the show, the multi-purpose trackpads. More on
those later. First, I feel it's important to remind you guys how much of
a controller review is preference. What's true for me and for David
>> Woah. might not be true for you. With that said then,
the feel of the Steam Controller is >> [sighs] >> it's just okay.
The plastic of the body feels a little cheap compared to first-party offerings
from, if I'm being honest, all of the big three. And I think a lot of fingers
are going to land on top of some of these screw holes here on the bottom,
which is kind of a surprising oversight for a
company that is normally so thoughtful in their hardware designs. Or maybe it
was thoughtful. Maybe it was an intentional nod to repairability. Valve
has confirmed that they will continue their partnership with iFixit for
replacement parts, so kudos to both of them. Even if I do like our precision
screwdriver set just a little bit more. >> [music] >> lttstore.com. What I can't make the same
excuse for is the ergonomics. While Valve did go to the effort to change the
angle of the handle pieces here compared to the Steam [music] Deck, which is
obviously meant to be held in a in a wider stance,
I found that for my preferences, they didn't go quite far enough, and it feels
more like holding an 8-bit D-pad controller compared to an Xbox
controller. I also found that the thumbsticks were a bit of a far reach
for those of us with smaller paws, and if you like to flat thumb them, their
positioning increases the chance of thumb kissing. With all of that said,
all of my complaints so far are pretty minor. And in terms of the thumbstick
feel, the Steam Controller is both good
and well-featured. I'd say the closest non-Valve analog, pun intended, would be
the Xbox controller with its similar raised textured edges and flat smooth
middle that makes it easy to both landmark your position and maintain
traction as you're moving around. And the Steam Controller has an extra party
trick with capacitive sensors in both tops that can activate or deactivate
six-axis motion controls. The best thing about the joysticks though, is actually
under the surface. But we'll talk about that a little bit later. First, the face
buttons feel pretty close to what we've come to expect from an Xbox controller
with a soft, and hey, if you game late at night, you might like this, quiet
rubber membrane, but the way less clicky bumper might
actually appeal more to PlayStation gamers. >> [music] >> I'm personally not a big fan. Moving on
to the triggers, the spring gives them adequate resistance, but they have
neither the rumble from the Xbox side nor the adaptive resistance of the
DualSense. On top of that, they don't have a toggle between short and long
travel, and they don't even have the two-stage activation of the original
Steam Controller, which is going to be a real disappointment for its dozens of
users. What won't be though, is the tactility of the four paddle buttons on
the back. These are great.
Now, to be truthful, I'm too old school to use them in most games, but when I do
need them, boy do I ever need them, and I'm stoked that Valve is pushing this
feature to be the norm for mainstream controllers. They sit at just the right
spot for easy access, which does mean you'll get the occasional accidental
press while you get used to them, but they're just stiff enough that with a
bit of practice, you'll be able to press them intentionally without it
interfering with your ability to hold onto the grip. Ooh, speaking of the grip, sensors
inside it are actually another way to activate the six-axis gyroscope [music]
inside. Valve has traditionally taken a very
open approach to how you can use their hardware. And with the Steam Controller
and Steam Input, you can configure pretty much any control scheme that
you'd like, even in games that don't natively support remapping.
>> [music] >> And if you don't feel like doing all that work, you can even use community
configurations. Guys, [music] gyro aiming is such a game-changer for
old-school keyboard mouse guys like me, and the flexibility to activate it
either like this or like this is just incredible. Uh since we're back here
though, this would be a perfect time to talk about the charging pins that
connect to the included wireless 2.4 GHz puck. This is a major highlight for me
of the Steam Controller. This is exactly
the kind of thoughtfulness that I love to see from Valve. Why not make your
wireless dongle also the charging dock? No more unplugging and plugging in a
Type-C cable constantly, which should help save on wear and tear on the
controller's port. And setting it up is simple. You just plug in the included
Type-A to Type-C cable, actually a pretty nice feeling quality. It's a
really similar sleeve to what we have on our True [music] Spec cables. Then, you attach it using a magnet,
press the Steam button on your controller, and away you go. Up to four
Steam Controllers paired to a single puck, meaning that you can use the extra
ones that come with all of your other controllers to connect to additional PCs
or to set up charging in convenient multiple locations. Like this convenient
segue to dbrand who sent over >> [snorts and sighs]
>> Oh my god. This is amazing! It's like a skin for
your Steam Machine. Stick around at the end of the video for more info, or you
can check it out at the link down below. There's so many great products on
lttstore.com, but shipping is so expensive. That's why we're bringing
back Ship Storm. From April 24th to May 7th, you can get free shipping site-wide
on lttstore.com on any order over $150
in the US and Canada or $225 worldwide.
No code required. Just load up your cart and get free shipping. Link down below.
Now, there was a major claim that we made before that has since gone
completely unaddressed, that the Steam Controller would bridge controller and
desktop gaming. All right. That's where the haptic trackpads come in. These are
Valve's best haptic trackpads yet. Gone
is the weird [music] concave, trying to be sort of a joystick, alien eye design
from the original Steam Controller, and enlarged is the flatter, squarer design
from the Steam Deck. If you've ever used one of those, you're going to know
already what a lifesaver these things can be for navigating experiences that
are not optimized for a controller, and in some cases, even playing games that
outright don't support controllers. And then there's everything else that they
can do. Check out this footage of an old-school Steam Controller fan playing
Skate. [music] Tommy B loves his trackpad input so much
that he went and created his own controller, and he's got gestures bound
to his trackpads, and demonstrated how insanely natural this type of input
scheme can be once you've set it up. Now, I'm not going to pretend that I'm
the right person to show off that functionality, but what I'm absolutely
the right person to test out is playing a traditionally non-controller-friendly
game like [music] Anno. Hey!
Okay, this is very intuitive. It's very WASD and camera for these two. I can
zoom in, I can zoom out. >> And don't forget you could use a community profile as a starting point,
and then customize it to however you like. Dude!
I am playing an RTS on the couch right now. Come on! Ooh,
all right. Do you think you could play the whole game without a mouse and keyboard?
I could. Do you want to play the whole game without a mouse and keyboard?
>> This particular game with its like very fussy, kind of finicky controls, maybe
not. But I could see myself actually enjoying the genre with a controller
where I otherwise completely wouldn't be able to. And in that way, the Steam
Controller is a unique and maybe even solid value proposition at almost any
price. But what if you prefer genres where the trackpads matter less than
precise button presses and timing? The platformer. I can definitely see why
people would like the ABXYs. I can also see some people not liking them. I think
both are completely valid opinions. I
wouldn't describe them as mushy, but because of the softness, they're not
quite as responsive as some can be.
Yeah, I've come around on clicky button controllers, and so these felt a little
too soft for me, but they're definitely fine. They're fine. Yep. They're not
bad. They're fine. One thing I can say with absolute certainty though, is no one's
going to be bothered by the latency. And these joysticks are a pleasure to use.
That makes a lot of sense. The Steam Controller 2 did really, really well in
our Labs testing for input latency. I mean, you you got to imagine a company
like Valve, gamers through and through, they're going to have that kind of attention to detail. Yeah, the only
controllers that did better were ones that are kind of competitively geared.
Ooh, I'm trying a D-pad now. You know what?
It's one of those D-pads that doesn't feel good to me.
No. But it >> for me. Yeah, when I talked to Valve,
they said they put a lot of work into getting the diagonals down, but I
actually think in just terms of feel, I think I like the Steam Deck D-pad
better. Interesting. That being said, all modern D-pads are
my [music] enemy. >> [laughter]
>> That's a fair and valid take, quite frankly. This is not really testing some
of the other faculties of this controller. Why don't we try Forza Horizon 5 to get a sense of the triggers
and the haptics? To Valve's credit, while they may be missing haptic
triggers, the actual tightness of the
haptic feel of the controller itself is a really strong point.
Definitely better than the Deck, and miles ahead of the original Steam
Controller. As for the triggers, I remain
uninspired. I don't feel like they contribute to a
loss of control. That's just my crappy driving.
But they are very unexciting. What I find with the rumble triggers and the
haptic triggers is I don't really
care that much when they're not there, but when they're there, they really do
elevate the immersion and the experience. And so it is a little bit of
a a missed opportunity here. I think that's enough racing. Why don't we try
something where you get to use the gyro? Oh, yeah. Gyro aiming is such a freaking
hack. Uh we don't have the toggle on right now, though. So, in this game it's
built in by default, so you actually can't easily turn it on and off with the
handles. That's more in the case where you're assigning mouse look to a gyro
thing, cust- like customized via the Steam input. Right. I hadn't tried this
game before, but that makes sense because Sony has support for that natively.
>> Yeah. Which is nice. All shooters should include it.
Dude, it's like it's it's sick being able to like make your your macro
adjustments here, and then your fine adjustments here.
Especially in a game like this where each shot matters so much. >> So much. You'll have like three arrows
left, and you'll have like three absolute [music] ridiculous monsters
charging at you. I'm still in awe that the customization in Steam input allows
you to just assign gyro aiming into any game that has mouse [music] support.
Like how flexible is that? How wonderful is that? Thank you, Valve. Yeah, and you
don't [music] need a Steam Controller to take advantage of that. You could have
like an old PS4 controller and do the exact same thing.
So cool. I am not
an FPS controller player, not by any
stretch of the imagination. I suck.
I got to make that really clear. So, while nothing I'm doing is
particularly impressive, this is not my usual level of suck.
Not even not even close. That gives me a great opportunity to talk about what is
probably the best hidden feature of the Steam [music] Controller 2. It's TMR
joysticks. Hall effect joysticks have been getting a lot of good press over the last few
years because they offer better durability compared to potentiometer
joysticks that use contact pads that measure the movement of the sticks.
Contact pads that will inevitably wear out, causing [music] drift. By
comparison, Hall effect uses magnets that don't make physical contact.
[music] No wear, no drift. But power draw is a
big downside. That's where TMR comes in.
Tunnel magnetoresistance joysticks give us the advantages of both.
Outstanding precision, so I can really get those dead zones down, so every
little movement matters. Great reliability, and low power draw.
While the Steam Controller does hold up pretty well against the most popular
controllers on the market, there's kind of an elephant in the room.
You're going to make the noise? >> [laughter] >> That's an elephant, right? As we
discussed recently in our 16-way controller shootout, the popular
controllers not necessarily the best [music] controllers anymore. So, let's pull out
one of David's favorites, the Cyclone 2 from Gamester.
>> [music] >> It's worth pointing out that the pairing process of the Steam Deck and the
Cyclone seems like it would be similar cuz I have a dock for the Cyclone, but
the dock doesn't actually pair it to the dongle. You still need like a manual
Xbox pairing process, so that's definitely a win for the Steam Deck or
Steam Controller. I love that we've both accidentally called it Steam Controller
2 at least once. They should call it the Steam Controller
2. You know the reason they gave me was because
>> [music] >> they wanted it to not be confusing. Bologna. That's why they called it the
same name as the old one. To avoid confused. That is like that's
insane. I got to give up.
I got to give full credit to Valve. It's a good joystick.
According to our circularity test from the lab, it performs very similarly to
the Gamester in terms of the accuracy of
its circularity, but it does have a bit of a different response curve, so you
might find that going from one to the other might feel a little bit different.
That's all going to be down to personal preference, so that's not like better or worse.
If anyone was looking for the proof of what I said earlier that I am not an FPS
uh controller player. I will say it does look like you're having a little more
trouble with this controller than the Steam Controller. This is an accurate
controller by every metric, but it does go to show that the Steam Controller is
a very good controller. And one of the ways that it's excellent is battery
life. The lab used Forza Donuts in order to simulate regular use with the haptics
going off, and found that the new Steam Controller put up a really impressive
result, over 37 hours of continuous
gaming. That is outstanding news for die-hard fans of the original Steam
Controller who have so much to love about its successor. It may be a little
less committed to the original touchpad vision, but it's in a way that offers
reasonable compromises and refinement in pretty much every way. It's also a solid
solution for folks who just want to throw away that Logitech K400 on their
coffee table. However,
if your plan was to use this thing as a traditional controller,
I got to say I'm a little less enthusiastic about it. Not because it's
bad. It's a good controller. It's just a
$100 US dollar controller. And I'm not
going to pretend like I can't afford one, but I'm also not going to pretend
that I would buy one of these when I could get just about two of these
or two Flydigis for the same price.
How about you? >> [sighs] >> If it was $60, I would buy day one. If
it was $80, it would be like two weeks later. At $100,
I think I'm out. And I'm willing to bet that's not really going to be a hot take,
uh but I also feel for Valve here. Can you imagine releasing hardware in this
current market condition? >> [laughter]
>> When I chatted with Valve, they felt like the retail price for the controller
represented the hardware and engineering that went into creating that, and I
can't argue with that fact. But a controller's also about the feeling. And
compared to the DualSense, uh that I would argue has a pretty
equivalent amount of value wrapped up in its features, I would say that the
DualSense feels better.
Yeah. Okay. Crazy theory.
What if they made it $100 at launch to help make the Steam Machine look like a
better value? Whether it's $800, $900, $1,000, $1,200.
I mean, who knows with the RAM-pocalypse wreaking havoc on the market.
If Valve could say with a straight face, "Yeah, but it includes a Steam
Controller with a $100 value."
Maybe that's part of their thinking. I could see that. There's no way that that's the whole
picture, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was part of the consideration.
It also wouldn't surprise me if you segued to our sponsor. Oh, Dbrand. Oh, we're
going to look at the thing. Surprise, surprise, Dbrand is already
hard at work making overpriced tape for the new Steam Controller. We'll have to
put a photo of it on the screen for you, though, because while I'd love nothing
more than to show it off on camera, there's um
just one small problem. They only sent
over these two little squares. Apparently, and these are Dbrand's
words, not mine, the full controller skin isn't ready yet, and you'd probably
up the install regardless. So, there you have it. Steam Controller
trackpad skins. Get yours included with a full controller skin that apparently
they couldn't trust me with. Speaking of things they shouldn't have trusted me with,
from my understanding, this is the only
prototype of this thing in the freaking world. This is a super early look at
their Steam Machine companion cube case
that they've been working on. And as And as much as I love to say anything mean
about Dbrand, I can't think of anything [music]
that I don't like about this. Obviously,
I don't have a real Steam Machine to put into it yet, thanks to
>> [clears throat] >> RAM prices, but this is going to be a
must-have accessory when Valve does eventually release the Steam Machine.
They went deep on the details on this thing, too. I mean, look at this footage
of the packaging. The outer carton has a ton of Easter eggs and feels like it
came straight out of Aperture Science. It even opens up to feel like you're in
a test chamber, right down to the signage. It might actually be the
coolest thing Dbrand has ever made. If
you're planning to pick up a Steam Machine when it launches, you should definitely head over to dbrand.com/valve
to register your interest for free. And by the way, Gabe, if you're watching,
please don't sue these guys over it. You totally could,
but just don't. If you guys enjoyed this video and you
want to check out some more controller content, why don't you check out that
epic 16-way controller showdown that we made last year? Not only was it an
efficient way to get impressions on over 16 controllers, it was also really fun.
Are we doing another one soon? I want to. Let's do it. >> I'd be down.
There's been so much more advancements, man. The controller space is moving so
fast right now. >> So fast.