Steam Machines News: Steam Controller Playable at CES 2014

CES 2014 has lead to many different revelations concerning the PlayStation 4, but Valve is also leaving a mark at the tech event. In addition to revealing several different Steam Machines at CES, Valve has the Steam Controllers available to test out. However, as IGN reports, the controller may not be on par with other console controllers or a mouse and keyboard for gaming.

The Steam Controller is very different from traditional video game controllers and caused even familiar games to feel unwieldy, according to Marty Silva from IGN.

"My first moments with the hardware were as strange and alien as any gaming experience I've had in all of my time at IGN, and I say that without an ounce of hyperbole. I started the opening moments of Portal, one of my favorite games of the past decade, and I immediately felt like a toddler trying to drive stick. I stared at the ground, ran around in circles, and couldn't figure out how to interact with a single thing. I honestly can't remember the last time a game's method of control stumped me so singularly," wrote Silva. 

After getting some practice using the haptic trackpads on the controller instead of analog sticks, Silva said the games felt more natural, however, problems still existed with the new controller that detracted from the overall experience.

"I quickly adapted to the right-hand side of the controller - the half primarily used for interaction and looking around the world. Flicking my thumb across the right trackpad delivered just the perfect amount of haptic feedback, and after no time, I was able to observe the world with ease. Sadly, I never quite reached that same level of clarity with the left-hand side of the controller, which meant that wandering around the halls of Aperture Science quickly devolved into a painful experience. I simply couldn't get a handle on the precise amount of thumb movement required to move Chell in any human manner. The feedback I felt here couldn't match the resistance felt from an analog stick, or the ease of WASD."

This could be bad news for many people looking forward to using the upcoming Steam Machines as these controllers do not seem to be suited for more fast paced games. However, there is a glimmer of hope for the controllers as users can map out any control scheme they wish for Steam Controllers, and that could make all the difference in making sure the controllers are able to handle what Steam and Valve put on Steam Machines.