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If you decide you want the SC, I have two suggestions to help with the learning curve issue, use the edge spin setting, and use the gyroscope. Those two options have been useful to me in nearly every game I play. I honestly wish that all platforms had SC compatibility, because it's just that much more user friendly in my case. I'll admit that during the first week I was about to hate the controller. After that things started to click, and I use it for all my PC games. Well, except for Prince of Persia(2008). That game just won't launch with the SC connected. It's one of the very few titles that simply won't work with the SC.
About the game genre, in theory it can be used to any game genre you can think of even the game specifically designed for keyboard and mouse control. Reminder, SC is no ultimate perfect controller and it's up to you which games are suitable to play with SC with right configuration.
If I have to compare with Xbox controller, SC has a huge advantages such as:
- Grip buttons
- Dual-stage triggers
- Gyroscope for precise aiming
- Multi-function trackpads that can do more than emulating mouse or joystick.
- Superb battery life for about 80 hours despite using AA batteries.
TL;DR SC is suitable for people who want more control and power that no ordinary controller could imitate.
Wait a little for Mr EOS alternative opinion income :D
May God have mercy on our souls!
The biggest issue with it (and the main reason I would never, under any circumstances, advise anyone to buy it and would suggest most people stay far far away) is that it doesn't act like a controller when Steam isn't running, and relies on Steam's hackery to provide even basic XInput functionality.
This sounds like a minor thing (just run Steam all the time?) but it's a huge deal that has caused nothing but endless headaches for me the entire time I had the controller. Even today, after years of updates, lots of software (especially emulators) fails to recognize the Steam controller because they screwed up this most basic thing - even if you add it as a non-Steam game, even if you configure its default settings, no matter what you do, there are still a few games out there that the Steam controller flatly doesn't work with (not without extensive tinkering with external programs just to get it to perform its most basic function.)
The only situation where the Steam controller makes sense is if you intend to use a Steam-running machine using only the controller and nothing else. Even then, make absolutely sure you have a "real" XInput controller as a backup for when the Steam controller vomits all over itself, which will be a frequent occurrence if you're doing anything unusual.
If you don't intend to try and run Steam from the couch using just the controller, the Steam controller is a complete waste of money - it was designed around that use case, and sacrifices major chunks of core functionality in favor of it. (Another example: Major aspects of its configuration are only accessible in Big Picture mode . Again, Valve was trying to push "couch gaming on Steam" when they designed it, and deliberately crippled it relative to other controllers because of their fixation on that goal - one that I have no interest in at all.
If you're interested in "Steam from the couch", it's worth a look. Anyone else should stay far, far away.
Do not trust anyone who tells you otherwise. It is the single hardware purchase I regret the most. It's caused me more grief than controllers that cost a fifth of its price. It's a crippled, poorly-designed piece of junk intended more to push Valve's goals in terms of couch-gaming than serve as, well, a controller.
Heed my warning. People will tell you otherwise; they'll tell you I'm wrong, that they have wonderful experiences, that it works with "a bit more tinkering", whatever. Some of them are trapped, mentally, by the sunk costs they wasted on this piece of junk. Some of them are people in the "couch gamer" demographic I mentioned, unwilling to recognize how awful this controller is for anyone else. Some of them are, well, fans of it - as you'd expect to find on a forum dedicated to it. And some are just lucky and haven't tried to do anything with the controller that makes it fail miserably.
But overall, if you're not planning to try and run your computer using just your controller, anything else on the market will be better.
You don't have to trust me. Look at any forum aimed towards the Steam controller and you'll see countless posts by people struggling to get it to work with this or that piece of software.
I'm not an X-Box fan (I've never even owned one myself), but I would recommend an X-Box controller instead - the vast majority of games nowadays are designed for them anyway due to cross-releases and general market dominance.
Also, some people advertised that the Steam controller offers you more power. This is no longer true; Steam caved and allowed you to customize most other controllers through Steam as well (unsurprisingly given what a disappointment the Steam controller turned out to be.) I would say that generally speaking, the more of a "power user" you are, the worse the Steam controller is for you - it will generally work with AAA games, but obscure stuff, especially emulation, often confuses it. The Steam Controller is absolutely not aimed at power users, despite the customization. It's aimed at "couch users" - people who want to use Steam like a console. Do not consider it if you intend to do anything else. It is not aimed at you and will not serve you well.
Just get an X-Box controller. They won the PC controller wars. I cannot even begin to express how much easier everything got once I finally gave in and purchased one. No matter what anyone else tells you, no matter what bells and whistles you see, what it comes down to is this - everything will be easier for you if you get the controller games were designed around. That controller, for 99% of PC games today, is the X-Box controller; and even for the ones that aren't, they will always support it, simply because it's become the standard.
Heed my warning! Do not become like me! I have wasted hours upon hours trying to get it to work in various cases; you don't have to. Just buy an X-Box controller, at least for your next purchase. If you're desperately curious about some of the Steam controller's gimmicks, get it - but only as a backup controller. Never make rely on it. It will fail you.
The only thing I'd strenuously disagree with is the argument that it is better if you put more time into it. This is a half-truth at best. All controllers are customizable in Steam now, and while the Steam controller's trackpad and such offer a tiny bit of additional control, it comes at the expense of the controller mostly failing to serve its most basic function for many non-Steam games or when Steam isn't running. Trading core functionality for a few gimmicks ought to be a nonstarter. "I can bind something to both stages of my triggers!" is absolutely not a worthwhile tradeoff for "oh, and in some cases it won't work at all."
(And while you can sometimes - not always - work around its basic failings as a controller, either through fiddling with Steam and running stuff through it or by using external programs, at that point your "time put into it" isn't so much customizing it and tweaking it, it's time wasted getting the controller to do something that virtually any other controller on the market today would do out of the box - with no real benefit to show for it at the end, since none of the Steam controller's unique gimmicks are going to work in that situation anyway.)
Like I said. It's a controller designed with a monomanical focus on one specific use case - couch gamers using Steam as a console to play Steam games, without a keyboard or mouse. It offers some marginal benefits in that situation, plus a few other highly situational gimmicks. Anyone who wants to use their controller for anything else should stay far away (or at least shouldn't have a Steam controller for their only controller.)
The idea of using your controller as a keyboard is a cool gimmick, but anyone considering the Steam controller needs to understand that it has sacrificed major parts of its basic functionality in exchange for that gimmick. If you're not interested in using it as a keyboard / mouse substitute, it is absolutely not worth it.
Anyway, I don't mean to be that down on it. As long as you have another controller as a backup, it's probably fine to have one to play around with. But I would absolutely recommend that everyone own at least one X-Box controller (or one for each player if they frequently play multiplayer) as a backup. Those are the standard now, and the benefits of "virtually every game made today is designed with this in mind" drastically outweigh anything the Steam Controller can offer.
I am also playing/enjoying Pubg/Fortnite with my steam controller due to the customization and precision of the /pad/gyro.
Even all major troubles with Steam in offline mode using SC have been fixed already.
Ofc SC isn't for writers and can't replace fullscale keyboard ;) but it still does better job than other controllers tho...
OP, sure you can buy xbox controller, I have mine in the closet for almost 2 years since I've got SC. I have been using my xbox controller for everything except FPS games, wherever I could, in pair with Xpadder. I've even created some sort of daisy wheel profile for sticks just for casual inet surfing or ingame chatting. All that before SC came out. Now I have pretty much all I need with Steam and Steam Controller. Also I don't have my mouse connected bcuz I don't really need it (kind of, because I have wacom tablet if I need serious job done, SC can handle everything else).
As you can see I was always looking for a way to use a controller on PC and SC is a bliss to me. I don't really like to stuck at desk having my hands up for gaming and I happen to like games that requires precise cursor movement, xbox controller cannot provide accuracy I need, I tried my best with it. Console ports or controller adaptive aim assist is a joke. Controls is a part of gaming exp I enjoy. SC with touchpad, backpaddles and dualstage triggers really suits me. If you have a way to try it (friend or local store) do so - thats my suggestion for you. SC have a long learning curve but if you don't like it you porbably wont dedicate time to it anyway ;)
For me it most certainly does. I say this as someone who used things like Xpadder, and Pinnacle Game Profiler to allow my 360 controller to be used on keyboard and mouse only games. The difference is night and day in every aspect. I don't even use my 360 controllers any more unless I absolutely have no other choice. This happens in only two cases, Prince of Persia 2008, and when streaming my Xbox One to my PC.
The controller isn't perfect, but for me it's just far better than other options. I can't really use a keyboard and mouse for video games due to issues with my disability, and for games that do have controller support the trackpads, gyroscope, dual stage triggers, and other SC features help tremendously.
I highly disagree with Aquillion, but I'm not going to say he's dishonest. I know that when I've used certain products, or software I end up encountering issues that many others don't get. I can count on one hand the amount of games that do not work, or gave trouble with the SC. My biggest issue in the past seems to have been fixed, because I'm no longer getting random crashes while playing games in Big Picture Mode.
Depnds on the gamegenres you prefer but the SC works with pretty much any game as long as Steam is running in the background.
There are some cases where you will need to tinker a bit more in regards to non-steamgames or Emulators, but those cases will hopefully be fixed with future updates.
Functionally the only controller that is " similar" to the steam controller is the DS4.
But they are quite different in trackpadlayout and designphilosophy.
Both have trackpads and both have a gyro.
But the SC has more options starting from gripbuttons, dualstagetriggers, more precise haptics on any facebutton,trackpads or even the triggers and gripbuttons.
The trackpads are better positioned and easier to reach than the single trackpad on the DS4.
Those Trackpads on the SC were not an afterthought but the whole controller was designed around it, and are therefore more functional escpecially with the combination of the haptics.
The gyro is also much better on the SC and very usefull for extra precision.
My xbox360 is gathering dust at the moment, i never liked the suboptimal stickaiming.
The DS4 might be better if you are really into hardcore platforming or fighting games.
But i prefer to use a hori fighting commander for those rare cases and the SC for the other 90 percent of gamegenres.