GN is not at all where I would go for controller reviews.
This is a $100 controller and i’m struggling to see how this contends with the various budget ‘premium’ offerings out there like a vader 4 pro or whatever 8bitdo is slinging, or something else. At $100 i’m pretty sure you’ve eclipsed the great majority of premium options for price and the offbrand choices seem to be better than ever.
I’m still convinced that a cheap $25 controller is as good as any of the expensive ones, so long as it isn’t using bluetooth anyway. I don’t need touch options on my controllers and I don’t use fancy macro/keybind/crazy stuff, so low latency, good tactile response and no problems is all I care about. It’s been a long time since the days of the wired xbox 360 controller where competitors sucked.
I don’t need touch options on my controllers and I don’t use fancy macro/keybind/crazy stuff
It’s good that you know what you want in a product, but this product is clearly not marketed at you in this case. It’s kind of silly to compare apples to oranges especially when you’re allergic to citrus in the first place, you know?
Weird that you call out macros/keybind/crazy stuff as why this isn’t for me, which makes a lot of assumptions. I don’t want to macro all kinds of shit, but I do use my controllers for all kinds of games. I do keybind certain things to the extra buttons. This isn’t even what Valve is going for really. They have effectively three unique features, One extra front button for the quick access menu, the touchpads and a “grip enabled gyro”
Every 3rd party controller has extra buttons that you could setup for that quick access menu.
I have a steam deck. I know how the little pads work. They aren’t great. I still fallback to the touch screen or grabbing a real keyboard instead of trying to type with the stuff.
Nobody is going to have “grip enabled gyro” but where is this going to be useful day 1? A valve tech demo title if anything? There’s no screen like the deck has, so even switch “homebrew” won’t quite work as you’d like without a display touchscreen.
So that leaves the rest of the features which are run of the mill.
- Tons of competitors have TMR joysticks at this price.
- Most have excellent rumble.
- Four buttons on the back is standard with everything. My $25 example only has two bonus buttons, but once you start hitting $50-60 everybody has the two extra buttons and closer to $100 you have a pair of levers too and several extra buttons all over.
Once you start looking at competitors then you start seeing the downsides
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No way to adjust stick tension
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No short trigger switches (the clicky on the vader is beyond addicting.)
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No support for consoles (mentioned anyway)
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No color choices
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No RGB, programmable or otherwise
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Somebody’s gonna have issues bumping into that touchpad when they hold their controller a certain way
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A lot of competitors add a 3rd button to the top on each side as R4/L4. This doesn’t.
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Some competitors also add a couple extra buttons below XABY
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TMR on sticks, but not triggers
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Joysticks not offset like a typical controller. They are very centered and favor the dpad over the stick, and they’re squished upwards because of the touch pads
Anywho, obviously I haven’t held this thing… but on paper it’s just another overpriced controller unless you REALLY want that quick access button and touch pads.
straightup if you don’t immediately recognize the touchpads as game-changing, then this is NOT the controller for you.
just be content with knowing that scores of people saw the $100 price tag and said “oh that’s actually fine.” and moreover that offering a dissenting opinion to folks who like it is akin to saying “i get this Mona Lisa is popular, i just don’t think anyone should pay that much for a painting!”
it’s got a unique stank threat no other controller replicates. also valve hardware is pretty faultless up to this point.
Day one buy when it’s available in my region. My original steam controller was amazing until the wireless adapter crapped out (plus its Bluetooth mode was not great, sadly) and the A button membrane broke. I even tuned that fucking thing to play 2d platformers competently, let alone shooters with gyro aim. I missed it.
My Steam Deck has been rock solid and I’ve wanted something with an identical layout for my PC and docked Deck since it released. I can’t wait
My original Steam Controller is still kicking, but the thumb stick pad has eroded away. Really want to replace the stick if I can 😓
You can pop off the joystick after opening up the controller and replace it with either the 8bitdo joystick or steam deck joystick. Whatever is cheapest. This video shows shows the process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8CmCkltzY
Ooh! Thank you, friend! Think I’ll take a crack at this soon then!
Finally got around to doing the replacement and it fit great. I just had to clip the wire that’s intended to be used for the capacitive stick function on the Deck before popping it on.
