Steam Controller, SteamVR, Steam Machines: Valve’s hardware push in photos

SAN FRANCISCO—Enough press releases, enough GDC teases. On Wednesday, Valve Software finally unveiled a full range of Steam Machines, along with the “final” Steam Controller, the Steam Link streaming box, and even the SteamVR hardware. We’ll soon talk at length about our half-hour demo with SteamVR, composed of six distinct, interactive demos, but for now, we’ll recap our impressions of the rest of Valve’s hardware spread.

Valve Software confirmed that we tested the “final” version of the Steam Controller, which received a November 2015 release window in an announcement yesterday. That final design includes two touchpads (with the left one having a d-pad shape etched onto it), a back panel that can be clicked down with middle fingers on both sides, a single joystick—finally—and an Xbox-style spread of face buttons and shoulder buttons. The above gallery has captions with some thoughts on the controller’s features, including the new GameCube-like triggers.

We demoed three games, all of which launched with WASD-and-mouse control schemes on PC: The Talos Principle, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and the new, in-development version of Unreal Tournament. In all three, Kyle and I still struggled to feel competent with the right-hand touchpad as a mouse replacement. We played against easiest-difficulty bots in the latter two games and could barely line up solid gunshots most of the time. It’s one thing to say we’ll “get used to it” after more time with the controller—the increased speed and “momentum roll” of swiping the touchpad seem like features that will really pay off for people who get used to the Steam Controller—but the bots we faced practically stood still most of the time, and we’re not that bad at first-person shooters.

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