Ins and Outs
While not the most beautiful controller to ever hit the market, the Steam Controller is certainly among the most interesting. (And honestly, how many of us even glance at the controller once while gaming?) The gamepad features dual clickable trackpads that should be able to mimic a computer mouse. Sixteen buttons are neatly spread out over the face, shoulder and back of the pad, half of which Valve says can be reached without your thumbs ever leaving the track pads. Housed beneath the trackpads are weighted electro-magnets supposedly capable of delivering a more encompassing vibration feedback in addition to functioning as speakers.
Most intriguing to me is the touch screen, another clickable button that will recognize where the player is touching the screen when clicked. Since the contents of the screen can be varied, it essentially adds an infinite number of combinations and possibilities to player interaction. Valve's suggestions include a scrolling menu, radial dial, or even secondary use such as map integration. However, Valve knows the player's eyes should never have to leave their big screen, so the contents of the touch screen can be overlayed on the television when being used.
An Entire Keyboard
There are programs that already map keyboard functionality to gamepads, but this appears to be the first controller built specifically with that purpose in mind. Every Steam game, no matter the genre, can be played from the Steam Controller thanks to Bindings. Binding's allow the player to map every keyboard input to a button on the controller. The most important thing about this though is that players can do it themselves, or use a configuration created and shared by another Steam user. Valve says that players will be able to choose from a list of the most popular configurations. I'm curious to see if the controller will auto default to one.
The timing for me personally is a coincidence. I recently attempted to play a Steam game for which I could not get my connected controller to work. My experience setting up Windows Live, effectively creating an Xbox account, was nightmarish enough as I couldn't properly play the game without and account and the process to set one up and tie it to the game took me another half hour once the game was already installed. Finding out that my controller of choice wouldn't work was irritating to say the least. I was ready to go buy one of those Xbox 360 gamepads for Windows until this announcement dropped. Now, well I've waited several months to play the game already, I'll wait a few more until I can get my hands on a Steam Controller.
One, Two, Three Punch
I'm not going to try to hide my excitement for this week's announcements. I only became a sort-of PC gamer in the past year since installing Steam. The reality is I'll probably never abandon consoles completely. But Valve's Living Room Experience definitely has the gears turning in my head. They have introduced what could effectively be an upgrade capable video game console. I'm a living room gamer at heart, no doubt about that. It's what I grew up with and what I'll continue to love. Now, Valve is giving me a way to access their huge, often highly discounted library of games and is providing me everything I need to do it right from my couch.
I'm not saying this is a fatal blow to the big three console makers. The fact is, I'm not totally convinced Valve will be able to sell their Machine to the casual masses. What I am saying is if I have the choice of buying a $60 game on my traditional console, or that same game at a possibly discounted price on Steam Machine...well, they have my attention at least.
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