Valve's Steam Machines to be released on 10th November

[HEXUS]

Alongside the Steam Controller and Steam Link streaming box.

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[shaithis]

Wow, I had forgotten about these......

[directhex]

Valve are charging £7 per item for shipping.

game.co.uk are not

[cheesemp]

I'm seriously considering getting one these streamers. Good value way of gaming on the TV. Not sure I'm interested in the pad though. Still not sure what it offers over a 360 controller?

[directhex]

I'm seriously considering getting one these streamers. Good value way of gaming on the TV. Not sure I'm interested in the pad though. Still not sure what it offers over a 360 controller?

Integrated mapping, and a more mouse-like action for precise use.

As far as (most) games are concerned, it's a keyboard and mouse, not a joypad. So games with no controller support can be played

[Corky34]

I'm seriously considering getting one these streamers. Good value way of gaming on the TV. Not sure I'm interested in the pad though. Still not sure what it offers over a 360 controller?

In one of the first videos demonstrating the Steam Controller the narrator explains it thus...

"It's important to distinguish a joystick, which does a relative or velocity based movement, and this one-to-one mode, where you can move your thumb a fixed amount of distance and the view will correspond that fixed amount of distance."

As directhex explained it's more like how a mouse works.

[directhex]

In one of the first videos demonstrating the Steam Controller the narrator explains it thus...

"It's important to distinguish a joystick, which does a relative or velocity based movement, and this one-to-one mode, where you can move your thumb a fixed amount of distance and the view will correspond that fixed amount of distance."

As directhex explained it's more like how a mouse works.

Or, y'know, a touchpad. A decent way to think about it is laptops with both a nipple and a touchpad - some stuff one is better, some stuff the other is better. Traditional joypads are basically nipple-based, albeit a bit bigger and thumb operated.

[scaryjim]

I'm seriously considering getting one these streamers. Good value way of gaming on the TV. ...

I'd be *very* interested to know how a basic Windows 8 tablet copes with streaming steam games, actually. You can pick them up for < £80, and they're actually useful for something when you're not playing games Most have a micro-HDMI output to hook up to your TV, and most have bluetooth so you could use wireless controllers with it....

[Saracen]

Okay, just to make absolutely sure that what appears to be flipping obvious really is the case .... Steam Machine requires Steam account, yes?

I know it seems self-evident, and I'm assuming that to be the case, but just on the tiny offchance that I misunderstand the point of these, I'm double-checking.

[Ksyruz]

This looks really good, now they just need to build a TV with FreeSync and/or G-sync.

[directhex]

Okay, just to make absolutely sure that what appears to be flipping obvious really is the case .... Steam Machine requires Steam account, yes?

I know it seems self-evident, and I'm assuming that to be the case, but just on the tiny offchance that I misunderstand the point of these, I'm double-checking.

Yes.

You can actually remove Steam from them - the underlying OS, SteamOS, is a fairly vanilla Debian Linux. But enabling access to the GNOME desktop requires you to log in first to tick the setting to enable it.

[cheesemp]

In one of the first videos demonstrating the Steam Controller the narrator explains it thus...

"It's important to distinguish a joystick, which does a relative or velocity based movement, and this one-to-one mode, where you can move your thumb a fixed amount of distance and the view will correspond that fixed amount of distance."

As directhex explained it's more like how a mouse works.

I should have been clearer. I was aware of these touch pads as I've been following the design of this pad since it was announced. What I'm really asking is will it offer enough for me to replace my existing pair of 360 controllers and wireless adaptor for windows or should I stick with what I've got? After all most games I've played recently support the 360 controller if it makes sense.

I'd be *very* interested to know how a basic Windows 8 tablet copes with streaming steam games, actually. You can pick them up for < £80, and they're actually useful for something when you're not playing games Most have a micro-HDMI output to hook up to your TV, and most have bluetooth so you could use wireless controllers with it....

Personally I'm not convinced they'll have the grunt to run full 1080p. Also don't forget this device has wired networking which should improve latency significantly. I can definitely see the appeal of a tablet instead but I can't help but feel for me it would just be hooked up to play games on the TV permanently in which case I'd do better with this. (I've got a Android tablet and never use it as my phone does everything on the go well enough.)

[RT-XD]

Would be awesome if the Steam link was to support 4k. I can stream 4k games onto my TV downstairs - saves me buying a 4K monitor for a while

[Chadders87]

As much as I want one of them controllers just to try them I wont likely get one.

They lost my real interest when they first took away the customisable "magic screen" button, then secondly when they removed all other extra mappable buttons. Now its a cool version of a 360 control with 2 more grip buttons. Not enough to replace my keyboard though.

[directhex]

As much as I want one of them controllers just to try them I wont likely get one.

They lost my real interest when they first took away the customisable "magic screen" button, then secondly when they removed all other extra mappable buttons. Now its a cool version of a 360 control with 2 more grip buttons. Not enough to replace my keyboard though.

All the buttons are still mappable. That's the touchpads, the abxy cluster, the stick, the triggers, the paddles

[directhex]

I should have been clearer. I was aware of these touch pads as I've been following the design of this pad since it was announced. What I'm really asking is will it offer enough for me to replace my existing pair of 360 controllers and wireless adaptor for windows or should I stick with what I've got? After all most games I've played recently support the 360 controller if it makes sense.

It's super game-dependant, IME. Some games have been fab with the controller prototype. Others less so. Typically there's not a huge overlap between games which are great with one or the other.