Has anyone tried the new & improved steam controller?

If so.. what do you think about it?

Yes.. And once you get use to it, its amazing.. I am currently playing MGS5 with it and it is far more accurate than the 360 controller I was using.. That being said I am not a fan of the current iteration settings for it to mimic gamepad on the haptic controls.. It feels sluggish and I really can't get it to work.. So when I can I always have it mimic mouse and keyboard.. It also has motion controls gyro in which you can have it do basically anything..

Also it's battery life is amazing.. I have like 12 hours on it so far, and the batteries still read above 90%.. The biggest thing to understand is it takes time to acclimate your self to the functions, basically every one I have seen that has done that over time has raved about the controller.

I'd be curious to know to what extent people test it, like would it be comfortable for a 5 hour gaming binge? I imagine using those thumb pads would cause quite a bit of pain in thumbs and wrists over extended use and use over long term.

just got it today and i am quite enjoying it.

there is a definite learning curve and there is a fair bit of fiddeling to get it just right (and surprisingly HL2 does not have user profiles :S. if i get mine sorted ill make it public.). these pads are not the same as a stick and treating them as such or comparing them makes no sense. they have more in common with a trackball.

i have been trying various games with it like jotun, HL2 and the long dark and im slowly getting the hang of it.

it is a very different proposition to an xbox/PS controller (the comparison is a bit apple to oranges). when looking at building profiles i have found that keeping the face buttons to just basic stuff (like opening a map, stuff that means you dont need the touch pad) is definately a good idea. its all about the fingers and using the shoulder buttons to perform different actions really..i think the controller works better that way. in terms of aiming im used to using the wrist and, to a lesser extent, the thumb for thumbsticks but learning to get finer control from the thumb is a challenge at the moment. i have seen a combination of the trackpad and motion sensor used which could be worth a look. but i reckon i can still get more accurate just using the trackpad.

the real test is to come though...can i get a decent game of total war out of it?

It also doubles as a mouse on the desktop which is neat (at least on Ubuntu. is it the same on windows?)

it does have a few problems:

1. the face buttons are small and too close to the trackpad which can lead to an accidental press during an intense fight. this is why i think its better to move actions to the shoulder buttons. if possible dont even assign anything to the Y and B buttons.
2. the triggers dont have enough travel. its great to see the gamecube trigger back but for racing games it could be a problem.
3. the dpad is a non runner. im sure i will find other uses for it but for games that require the DPAD to shine its a no go. maybe they should have made that pad a bit smaller.
4. Its integration into steam also needs work (more a steam issue than a steam controller issue). just basic things like highlighting which profile is currently in use would be nice. the explanations of each function in the config could also do with some work. too much waffle...needs a review from an expert in technical writing.
5. It seems to require steam to be running..otherwise it doesnt work (is this the same on windows?). it would be nice to be able to use the controller without steam also. i know its the steam controller and its like asking "i would like to be able to use the PS4 controller on the PS4...with the X1 OS" but still..its a PC.

Also just to bust some myths.

Feels cheap: nope. not my one anyway. maybe earlier versions had issues but i got mine from gamestop today and the build quality is excellent and the surfaces feel nice. i gave it and my 360 controller a bit of a squeez and the steam controller game off less creaking. it also somes with new laptop smell \o/.

Uncomfortable: no issues for me anyway. i played the long dark for a few hours with it with no sense of strain or fatigue. it may look strange but it feels nice in the hand. its a bit of a stretch to reach the top of the sensor pad but thats by design. when your thumb is stretched a bit re-center it...thats the equivalent of running out of mouse pad and re-centering the mouse.

Sounds good.. I really want to try it for myself, but there's no point, since I don't have a PC yet.

What do you mean new and improved? Was there a new version of steam controller made?

Nope, still using a wired 360 controller.

@Postosuchus: I was refering to the final version.

http://www.gamespot.com/gallery/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-steam-contro/2900-338/

using it some more a couple of points above have changed from mild annoyance to quite nasty.

Its dependence on big picture mode needs to be scrapped and scrapped quickly. it should be possible to configure it from the standard UI and in game overlay also. big picture mode comes with a nasty performance penalty and its not doing the controller any favours. at the moment i have to go into big picture mode to select a profile, then exit and then launch the game from the standard UI. i can see why valve did it but it needs to be possible to configure the controller from the standard UI.

big picture mode is also quite unstable (im not in the beta) and every time you enter and exit it there is a memory leak. so the amount of memory steam uses keeps rising until, around the 1GB mark, steam locks up.

ideally i would like to see the configuration of the controller externalised from steam completely if im honest (so it can be used with other non steam games without needing to add those games to steam) but at the very least the BPM dependence needs to go.

osan0 above is relatively spot-on with his impressions. It doesn't feel cheap at all, build is quite good and battery life is superb.

That said, I still am not a fan. My issue is that it's a controller trying to translate K+M controls to a game pad, which doesn't always work. I think you're better off owning K+M and a usb controller rather than Steam's but if you can commit to learning it, you may actually end up preferring it. Me, it's just not working out.

I think it's great. I'll alternate between the Steam controller, XBone controller and KB/M depending on the game.

using the controller more now for the last few days its just getting better and better. im definately getting more accurate. UT3 was good fun and i had another long stint of the long dark with no issues...i wasnt even thinking about controls. i was just enjoying the game. I think i have pretty much found the setting that suite me now for the right pad. its not mouse accurate but i will certainly take it over a stick.

im also now learning to manually change gears in F1....those inner triggers are great. the lack of travel on the triggers is, as i suspected it would be, not ideal though.

i still have to try total war with it though. i think i have an idea on how to make it work well but its going to take some messing.

the issues with the software side still remain though. the configurability is great and overall it's, well done (just the explanations of some of the functions could be better).

but its reliance on big picture mode for configuration is a pain and its reliance on steam is not ideal. It would be great if all the configuration stuff was in an exernal application instead. but at least have it in normal steam mode. it would also be great if there was a way to get a games list of controls without launching the game to see what needs to be mapped. at the moment you nearly need 2 computers (or a computer and a tablet...or a computer and a pen and paper :S) to configure the controller quickly. otherwise you need to keep going into and out of the game. they also need to make it more straight forward to use the controller for other games not in your steam library. i can see why you have to add them at the moment (how would the controller know which profile to use?) but, again, an external application would solve a lot of these problems.

if valve can sort out the software side then its going to be a really excellent controller imho.

so anyone else squeezing more performance out of it?

Still trying to get used to it... I struggle badly trying to scroll the mouse. I will play around with more settings before I make any kind of judgement on it.

I will say that I really enjoy my steamlink. That lil dude rocks.