I read Valve's description right when they announced it. It didn't instill me with confidence. It's a marketing page, so they'll talk it up whether it really works as described or not. I will remain skeptical of it and consider haptics to be bullshit until this thing is released and can prove otherwise to me.
I don't consider my assessment based on existing technology to be ignorant when that's all there is to go on at the moment. Especially since I never once said I wasn't willing to try the controller when it's released to see if it really works.
But right now, current haptics = bullshit and physical buttons > touch controls.
It's a major problem in the industry today. So many people seem to (misguidedly) think that "touch is the future" that these crappy touch controls keep getting rammed down our throats at every turn. Why the war on buttons? Why can't they leave well enough alone?
Haptic feedback is used in most mobile phones and is usually nothing more than the phone vibrating when something on the screen is touched. Vibrating when a flat surface is touched does not a tactile target make.
I'm seriously skeptical about this "haptic feedback" because so far every implementation I've seen of it in any other device has been complete bullshit.. And even if it works, it'll never be as good or reliable as a real button or stick.
I also owned an Xperia Play found the touchpads to be awful. I couldn't control anything properly with them. The lack of tactile feedback and no sense of centre made using them a painful experience (the little circular indents didn't help.) I just stuck to the real D-Pad (which was awesome.)
The touchscreen on that phone was awful though... it would start typing for itself and registering touches that weren't there if there was the slightest bit of finger grease or moisture on it (sweaty hands were its bane.)
It's still hard for me to get behind this, but I'm willing to try it (if I can do so without paying up-front.)
Seems to me though that if the right trackpad is supposed to double as A/B/X/Y face button support that they should have made four clickable targets under the trackpad instead of one and they should have found a way to make it FEEL like 4 buttons (perhaps with a piece below the rubber that can raise raise when "buttons" are enabled and lower when the trackpad is being used for mouse/analog.) I don't see a "nub" being a concrete solution...
I'm still very skeptical, but I'm not coming after it with a torch and pitchfork anymore.
Well, Dark Souls would be an easier game to play than something like Super Meat Boy or Rayman Origins (or Legends.) Dark Souls mostly relies on the shoulder buttons for combat and unlike the face buttons (that most games need/use), at least the shoulder buttons on this controller aren't gimped.
I guess the menus would be impossible to navigate without a D-pad though...
The idea of a lack of face buttons and D-Pad annoys me.
Problem is, I get the horrible feeling they're robbing Peter to pay Paul. It'll be better than the 360 pad for FPS and RTS, but significantly worse at everything else :(
I think it's because Yoi is a mashochist, as partially indicated above. He's holding his own accuracy back on purpose because he likes to torture himself... inaccurately...
The idea here is that the PC needs a 'standard' controller for games where kb+m controls don't make sense. Right now that standard is the Xbox 360 pad and most developers support it by default (and in many cases, ONLY it.)
The 360 pad is pretty well-rounded and works well with almost every game.
This Steam controller is not suited well for many genres and looks to be a kb+m replacement. If it becomes the 'standard' and devs stop supporting the Xbox 360 controller (or more likely scenario, MS stops making it and devs don't pick up support for the Xbox One controller), it could have grave effects.
MHzBurglar's comments