It’s probably more due to not knowing how to use it and just going with whatever random config was applied. It’s not a controller for people who aren’t used to controller remappers and just wanted it to function like a xbox controller.

One of the things noticed when trying to set up an edge to edge swipe output a 180 was how inconsistent it turned out to be unless I changed the rotational angle to be corner to corner. Which is even less ergonomic than swiping naturally. Smaller surface area probably made the 180 less consistent too with how much further the camera moves with small movements.

I used left touchpad as a touch menu when I was using the left joystick. After moving to the left touchpad I prefer it over joystick due to being able to rely on a sprint hold mapping it on the outer edge without accidentally triggering it like I would on the joystick. And I’ve come to love mapping stuff like crouch, slide, or dash to it too so combining movement actions to touchpad clicks. Frees me to use back buttons for other stuff and further reduce my need to lift my thumbs away from movement and camera controls.

That’s my experience as left joystick and left touchpad user.

Some functionality that keeps me using the Steam Controller has been touchpads for movement, quick gadget swapping with touchpads, quick 180s/gyro activation with touchpads.

I use it to play games like Doom Eternal, Left 4 Dead 2, Spin Rhythm XD, The Finals, etc.

Sadly I don’t find myself doing the same on the Steam Deck opting for the joysticks instead, since I don’t find the placement, smaller size, square versus circle, and flat surface versus concave offering the type of consistency that I use the touchpads for on the Steam Controller. It feels more a touchpad appropriate for slow paced games or just desktop navigation than optimal for the way I use the touchpads on the Steam Controller. And I don’t see Valve delivering on the touchpad end that I would like with the next Steam Controller with all the inputs it would be fitting in.

Some functionality that keeps me using the Steam Controller has been touchpads for movement, quick gadget swapping with touchpads, quick 180s/gyro activation with touchpads.

I use it to play games like Doom Eternal, Left 4 Dead 2, Spin Rhythm XD, The Finals, etc.

Sadly I don’t find myself doing the same on the Steam Deck opting for the joysticks instead, since I don’t find the placement, smaller size, square versus circle, and flat surface versus concave offering the type of consistency that I use the touchpads for on the Steam Controller. It feels more a touchpad appropriate for slow paced games or just desktop navigation than optimal for the way I use the touchpads on the Steam Controller. And I don’t see Valve delivering on the touchpad end that I would like with the next Steam Controller with all the inputs it would be fitting in.

Not an issue for most players who will be using joysticks as their primary, but sucks for Steam Controller dual touchpad users who’ve been waiting years hoping for a Steam Controller with updated gyro, better bumpers, and 2 more back buttons.

It is still the best controller I’ve used despite having come from a console background so dual joystick controllers being my most used controller prior to it. I loved being freed of the reliance on aim assists and weapon/item wheels.

Nothing has come close to replicating the functionality of the dual touchpads which I use for movement, quick gadget swapping, quick 180s/gyro activation.

And I use it to play games like Doom Eternal, Left 4 Dead 2, Spin Rhythm XD, The Finals, etc.

If strong aim assist is present then that can outperform gyro, but that also can outperform a lot of mouse users to the point that even PC lobbies have mouse users abandoning mouse for aim assist supported inputs. So it depends on the level of aim assist. But, with aim assist removed from the equation gyro is better than joysticks and is surprisingly usable against mouse players despite the absence of auto aiming.

It is stable.

Steam Input for use with my steam controller and playstation controller for gyro controls. Particularly love the dual touchpads for movement and camera controls and extra click inputs over a single joystick click. I can’t deal with default control schemes anymore when it comes to controllers after becoming reliant on the amount of customization Steam Input provides, since it goes beyond a simple remapping with layers, modeshifts, chords, touch menus, action sets, etc.

Linux support that reduces need to fiddle around with settings and mess with lutris type tools and more devs putting in the time to try to be Steam Deck certified. Even when it doesn’t run well on the Deck for more demanding titles there is still benefit for more powerful systems and future Steam Deck follow up.

Existence of Steam forums and guides has come in useful for help and has popped up on search results that I wasn’t able to find on pcgamingwiki, so reddit isn’t the main place I need to rely on. Been a way to also try to reach devs without having to use reddit or twitter.

Steam workshop. I do use nexusmods, moddb, etc. But, sometimes just having it integrated into Steam makes it convenient.

Other launchers are more like comparing a dumbphone versus a smartphone where if all someone wants to do is make calls and text that is fine, but for those that have become accustomed to Steam launcher features beyond launching games there needs to be more done by competitors. Having to use stuff like GLOSSI to try and utilize Steam Input when using third party launchers, or have to fall back to syncthing to try and sync saves from other launchers when using Steam Deck just makes the lack of Linux and custom controller support apparent.

Always be moving/dodging, do glory kills for health, chainsaw for ammo, and most importantly master the Quick Switch technique. This person has a great guide on it. It’s basically where you switch weapons after every shot so you don’t have to reload and you output damage really fast even on the hardest difficulty.

Given that you are on a controller you can just swap between 3 weapons and still delete enemies. Like here is my play through with my steam controller where I pretty much spammed super shotgun, ballista, and rocket launcher to get through the game on nightmare. There was an update pushed that lets controller uses bind weapons to any button, so set weapons to quick switch with that over relying on the weapon wheel which breaks momentum.