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Having previously spent an hour adjusting to the buttons and control method applied for Total War, I was now trying to get used to quite different layouts for a game that essentially also requires a lot of ‘point & click’. It was then I realised one problem I was having with the Steam controller – relying on community published profiles!
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There were around 9 quite popular community profiles to choose from at the time of testing XCOM, after initially going with the most popular I soon changed my mind and picked the second one. I’ve had a little break from this game lately, but mouse and keyboard is certainly the ingrained control method of choice for me on this one. My thumb rarely left the pad, resulting in smoother movements in the game. After we’d both played for a couple of hours, we became quite accustomed to it and agreed that it was easier and more enjoyable playing Alien Isolation with the Steam controller than the Xbox pad. I noticed that my wife used the trackpad differently from me, she would take her thumb off and keep moving it back as if using a trackball. Like me, I noticed she was glancing down at the A, X & B, Y buttons a bit too often though, which isn’t great if you’re in the panic mode frequently induced by this game! It’s a different layout than what we’re both used to, so only time will tell on whether we will eventually get used to it. She took to it quite quickly, moving around more freely than I’d seen her before, rather than the almost stop-frame animation style of play I witnessed when she was using the Microsoft pad. I handed it over to my wife who’s only ever played this game with the Xbox controller. However the more I got used to it, the better it felt, and I was enjoying the game rather than lamenting the absence of my trusty mouse. I chose an already popular community option. Taking my first tentative steps around Sevastopol, I immediately noticed the more fluid movement in looking around compared to the Xbox pad’s analogue stick, but still knew it was no mouse beater straight away. This is likely to happen each time a new game is started up with the Steam controller connected.
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Upon first loading I was invited to set up the controller either by customising it myself or choosing recommended or community profiles. I’ve separated each test into the subheadings below. I also let my wife try it out Alien Isolation and my son (7-year-old) played Lego Star Wars 3. The games I tested with: Alien Isolation, Portal 2, GRID 2, Rocket League, Total War: Shogun 2, Bit Trip Runner 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. I found it a little under-sensitive for my liking, but that’s easily adjusted in the settings. Navigating Big Picture mode was responsive and my initial thought on using the trackpad for the first time was the obvious one – ‘it’s pretty similar to a laptop’s touchpad’, but with more accurate acceleration and of course, that haptic feedback.
#STEAM CONTROLLER PORTAL BUNDLE DRIVERS#
Hope this helps.Upon first launching Big Picture mode, I easily followed the instructions to pair the controller to the dongle and the drivers installed with no fuss. If you don't open the game in Big Picture than funny things happen with the controls (like the Steam Controller not being able to be rebound). I was not able to get the controller to control player 2 at all, only player 1. you may have to use the toggles to get them correct. I found that I could use the controller as player 1 and the keyboard as player 2 with the config settings above. (If you don't do this than every time you push a button on the controller the keyboard will regrab focus of player 1). Remap all of the controller buttons to the legacy controls.
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Select the X-button on the controller as the bound control. Push what is usually the start button on X-box controllers (the right arrow next to the steam button) in order to access all button mappings (This is called legacy controls in the config). Go to edit the controller and navigate so you are in the MENU controls. Make sure when you are in game that if you hit the steam button on the controller it brings up the menu and you can edit buttons (this means it is working correctly/through big picture). In case you wanted to know I just found this and also figured out why it wasn't working for me:
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