41–50 of 98 posts
Looking at this, I'm starting to wonder why trackballs on console controllers never became popular.
With as few moving parts as they typically have, console controllers already experience durability issues for less... hygienic, players. With trackballs that issue is compounded, even if you make them easily removable so you can clean them (just having to clean them at all would be more of a hassle than people are use to).
Valve released this video on their Youtube channel. I don't think it was necessary to link to a blog post about the video.
Then when people visit their blog articles, they see watermarked videos and think they're exclusives.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree the Civ5 demo didn't look good, but did you watch all the way through to the Papers, Please demo? I think using both pads to control the mouse cursor could end up being really good. In fact, it could be even better than a real mouse in some ways, since you sometimes have to lift a real mouse but you shouldn't ever have to lift both thumbs at once.
> I think using both pads to control the mouse cursor could end up being really good. I don't know. I've tried using two hands on a big trackpad once and it just gets confusing. Maybe with more practice but I felt like it was more a brain confused problem than a material one.
I was really skeptical about this and I'm getting more and more skeptical. 1. See how he always lift his right hand thumb to reproduce the same movement, sometimes three times, just to go through the screen (in Civ5). 2. Also the fact that buttons get mapped like a "pie chart" on the trackpads could have been a good idea, but we need buttons. We forget the luxury of having buttons with all those new tactile screens b…
What exactly are you skeptical of? The skepticism previously was that this controller would be unusable. This video shows a person playing PC games with the controller rapidly and with skill. I still want to see a platformer and a fighting game since the best mapping is a little unclear. (Though these a) won't be showstoppers and b) are likely to be workable.) Humans are adaptable and if this controller is reasonably…
It's better than any other couch-options, but the controls in Civ still looked frustrating instead of fun.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly are you skeptical of? The skepticism previously was that this controller would be unusable. This video shows a person playing PC games with the controller rapidly and with skill. I still want to see a platformer and a fighting game since the best mapping is a little unclear. (Though these a) won't be showstoppers and b) are likely to be workable.) Humans are adaptable and if this controller is reasonably…
> The skepticism previously was that this controller would be unusable. Who really thought Valve making a controller would make an unusable one? This was never a concern. The concern here is that it might work well with FPS, RTS etc... (or good enough)... but might not work as good as button based controllers for other genres.
The demonstrated FPS aim-and-shoot was very slow, it's not clear if it's because they couldn't do it better because of the controller, or didn't do it faster because they did everything slowly to be clearly visible how it happens. A full speed try-to-do-the-best-you-can FPS aiming demo would be welcome.
They're not trying to emulate mouse + keyboard precision neither. I don't think you could have played like that with a Xbox/PS controller (I know I couldn't have, it would have looked more smooth but not as precise for headshots). For me it seems like FPS with this controller will be somewhere between Xbox/PS3 controller and mouse+keyboard.
I was really skeptical about this and I'm getting more and more skeptical. 1. See how he always lift his right hand thumb to reproduce the same movement, sometimes three times, just to go through the screen (in Civ5). 2. Also the fact that buttons get mapped like a "pie chart" on the trackpads could have been a good idea, but we need buttons. We forget the luxury of having buttons with all those new tactile screens b…
1. It's like having your mouse on a tiny mousemat. As someone who once had a tiny mousemat, it works great for turn based games but anything real time is no fun at all. You can simulate this feeling right now by using a round beermat. 2. Something as simple as putting one tiny raised dot at each of the 4 main positions would make a huge difference.
Hmmm. You could do that yourself at home with a little Sugru...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The skepticism previously was that this controller would be unusable. Who really thought Valve making a controller would make an unusable one? This was never a concern. The concern here is that it might work well with FPS, RTS etc... (or good enough)... but might not work as good as button based controllers for other genres.
In other words, it solves the problem that they are trying to solve well, and does not solve problems that they are not trying to solve?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly are you skeptical of? The skepticism previously was that this controller would be unusable. This video shows a person playing PC games with the controller rapidly and with skill. I still want to see a platformer and a fighting game since the best mapping is a little unclear. (Though these a) won't be showstoppers and b) are likely to be workable.) Humans are adaptable and if this controller is reasonably…
It doesn't show a person playing PC games rapidly - it shows, for example, a common Civ5 action (moving cursor to a position in menu and clicking) being slow and awkward, requiring multiple separate finger movements just to push the cursor from middle of screen to side. It's better than any other couch-options, but the controls in Civ still looked frustrating instead of fun.