Valve shows off Steam Controller prototype in new video

If you’ve been as curious as we have about Valve’s recently-unveiled Steam Controller, here’s some good news - the company has released a video that shows off a prototype of the controller in action. In the video, Valve’s Jeff Bellinghausen shows how the controller works with a few games, including Portal 2, Civilization 5, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Papers, Please. Check it out:

In the video, Bellinghausen explains that the controller is set to use legacy mode, which means that the games haven’t made special key mappings for the controller. Instead, the controller has convinced the games into thinking that it is a keyboard and mouse combination, and has set up mappings accordingly. In Portal 2, the left trackpad acts as the WASD button configuration for movement, while the right one acts as a 1:1 substitute for mouse controls.

Civilization is an interesting case, since the game is predominantly played with the mouse. In it, the left trackpad acts as the set of arrow keys on a typical keyboard, which allows for control of the camera. The right trackpad acts as the mouse, where players can move around, select and control different units. The buttons at the bottom of the control are used for zooming in and out of the map.

If you squint, it looks like a confused Darth Vader

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive seems to play like a typical controller-based FPS, albeit with a higher level of precision than is afforded by the dual-thumbstick approach controllers usually employ. It shows that once players get used to it, they won’t need controller-centric options, such as aim-assist. However, it still won’t be as good as a keyboard+mouse combination, since that affords the best amount of precision required for a game like Counter-Strike.

The most interesting example in the video is Papers, Please, since the game is entirely played with the mouse. In it, both of the trackpads act as the mouse, which allows players to use either one of their thumbs to play the game.