Let me say this before hand; I really wanted to like this controller. But be it as it may, I just can't say that it's my preferred controller.

3 years ago, I tinkered around with a roommate's PS3 controller, and fell in love with the design. Before that, I used a Wireless X360 Controller. After managing to get rudimentary drivers set up for it, I bought a DS/PS4 Controller. Using the DS4Windows Driver and Configuration Tool, I was completely blown away. Just about everything on the controller could be tweaked.

Fast forward 3 years. The Steam Controller has finally started becoming a stable platform, which promised total customization, and integration. I see it on sale for ~$25, and jump on it. After a harrowing 8 days of waiting, it finally arrives. I gleefully unpack it and rig it up.

I start up Steam, load the official config for Skyrim, and try playing. I was terrified. It had a terrible deadzone, and didn't detect any smaller movements, making my normal sniper playstyle impossible. Playing around with the settings didn't honestly do too much to help this, either.

So I tried the same for Fallout 4. Similar luck.

As a sort of last resort, I tried configuring it for Guild Wars 2. It was then that it's true purpose shined. Not as a gamepad, but as an amazing mouse and keyboard replacement. There was almost a world of difference between using my DS4+Joy2Key and using this controller.

Now on to the hardware itself.
It is large. Very large. And heavy, weighing almost twice what the DS4 weighs. It is, however, easy to keep a hold of. The grips are made of a matte plastic, similar to the DS4's. It has a glowing LED in the center of its Steam Button. The trackpads themselves have a nice feel to them.

But the Force-Feedback is horrendous. The "Tactile Feedback" system is very loud, and honestly feels more robotic than just turning it off. And there's a reason that Rumble is off by default: It's louder than a phone vibrator, and sounds like something's going to rattle apart every time it comes on.

All in all, I do like the controller, and would recommend it, but only if you have games that don't support gamepad/are willing to disable native gampad support and use it as a M/K. I suspect that these problems will improve in the future.

Kudos to Steam for their first foray into Game Controllers. Keep 'em rollin!