Future of the Game Controller? #Helpful Post

Hey guys this is Austin. Is this the future of game controllers? Valve usually does things

differently and the Steam Controller is no exception. Pop open the box and you’ll see

the controller itself and a few accessories like a USB cable, the included wireless dongle

and AA batteries. The Steam Controller has a very different layout that you’re probably

used to, we’ve got a single traditional stick and face buttons but two trackpads up

top. Everything about this controller takes a lot of getting used to, even something as

simple as having the face buttons on the bottom right feels totally backward. The single control

stick works well enough, it has a grippy surface with a convex shape like the PS3. You’ll

see the traditional shoulder buttons and triggers on top and a pair of built in paddles on the

back, this actually works really nicely although you’ll probably have to remap these manually

as most games assume you’re using a 360 controller. One thing I’m not a huge fan

of is the feel in the hand. The plastic feels a little cheap and it doesn’t have the same

reassuring heft that the Xbox controller has. The shape buries itself into your palms which

feels fine but there’s a fair bit of glossy plastic which gets coated in fingerprints

almost immediately. The weirdest thing by far though are the trackpads. That name isn’t

a coincidence, it feels a lot like a laptop touchpad where you would normally find a thumbstick.

The other side is a giant D-pad which works fine although it’s definitely not the most

precise thing I’ve ever tried. On the complete other end of the spectrum we’ve got the

new Xbox One Elite Controller. Open this up and you’re immediately greeted by a hard

shell carrying pouch. While this might be a little unnecessary for a normal controller

it comes in handy for the Elite as it’s modular. The thumbsticks and D-pad are interchangeable

and all of your options fit inside the case. One of the first things that jumped out to

me is just how rock solid it feels, it has a satisfying heft and feels like it’s up

to some serious abuse. Flip the controller over and you’ll find something else that

makes this special, customizable paddles. These can be mapped to any of the normal buttons

on the controller and you can pull them off easily thanks to magnets, it’s a really

dope setup. You’ll also find a pair of bump stops for the triggers, this allows you to

shorten the amount of travel independently which can be helpful for some types of games.

For the thumbsticks you have three options, the standard sticks from the Xbox One controller,

a convex stick and the standard option that’s much taller. Like the paddles these are magnetic

which makes swapping them dead simple and they still feel solid while gaming. You can

mix and match these as much as you like which could lead to some interesting combos depending

on what games you play. The same goes for the D-pad, you can use the normal style or

a faceted version which feels a little mushy but makes a lot of sense for fighting games.

It also has a switch to move between custom profiles along with the same headphone and

headset jacks from the latest Xbox One controller. The cool thing about the Elite controller

is that all of this works not only on the Xbox One but also on Windows. Setting things

up is simple, just download the Xbox Accessories app and you can load premade configurations

or make your own. You can really go in-depth with this by remapping buttons and even adjusting

the sensitivity of the triggers and sticks. It’s not all great news though, the Elite

controller still comes with AA batteries out of the box and while it works wirelessly with

the Xbox you’ll need to use the included cable or buy a wireless adapter to play on

PC. So when you put it all together how do the Steam Controller and Xbox Elite stack

up? The Steam Controller is weird. Very weird. Not only does it have odd button placement

but the touchpads just feel backwards. The best way to use them is less like a laptop

trackpad and more like a typical thumbstick which in theory works but in practice is incredibly

hard to get used to. With enough practice you could probably get good with the pads

and they make sense for some traditional PC games that use a mouse and keyboard but for

the most part it really feels like Valve are trying to fix something that just isn’t

broken. The Xbox Elite on the other hand is the traditional controller taken to the extreme.

As it’s based on the Xbox One controller it feels familiar but they’ve tweaked the

feel of the buttons and sticks and it’s a welcome change. The paddles can be helpful

for when you want to keep both thumbs on the sticks and the bump stops are nice for quick

reactions especially with shooting games. There’s really not much to complain about,

especially once you start customizing things it’s a rock solid controller. The Steam

Controller is a lot cheaper and while it tries some new things it just doesn’t make much

sense when you can spend $10 more to get a normal Xbox One controller. The Elite on the

other hand is about as premium as it gets, Microsoft made what’s one of the best controllers

period but it comes with a steep $150 price tag to match. So what do you guys think about

these controllers? Let me know over on Snapchat and I will catch you in the next one.