I do get their point. But, it’s not a GamerNexus exclusive criticism though, since it’s like giving a gaming mouse to someone who only uses a controller to review it then being surprised the type of insight you’d expect from a review channel centered around gaming mice. Like covering latency which is useful and general feel, but not really getting into how it translates to different grip styles and doing tracking and flick tests to see how their aim translates over.

For a good review I would expect some coverage highlighting the unique features of the Steam Controller like the gyro, touchpads, capacitive joysticks, and grip sensors along with some basic Steam Input information on what exactly are the settings available for the grip sensors. Those are after all the features that are missing from cheaper alternatives. Coverage on that for gyro gamers interested in the controller because of that tech and how well it works as a gyro activation features has been lacking, since these are inputs that many reviewers are not familiar with. Along with how the gyro compares to existing controllers and how prone to drift it is and how smooth the gyro is when mouse is bound to it on high refresh rate monitors.

Lot of the controller perspectives have felt like they are coming from the point of view of Xbox controller users who pick up a mouse for everything else, so not having much understanding or experience in how to really utilize these features or not having enough time in the two weeks they got to try it to really understand it. So coverage has been just some few second long clips of this feature exists and being more mentioned because it is on the spec sheet. It’s like getting a review on a motorcycle from a channel that only reviews cars and hasn’t driven motorcycles before.

I guess what I’d at the minimum expect is an example like this old 10 year old clip at the 1:21 mark of someone showcasing mouse input on the touchpads, gyro being activated on touch, and then demonstrating it being used to aim at multiple targets and getting forth a lot more information in those 40 seconds than 20 minute long videos to people who hadn’t seen that type of input use before and actually coming across as though they have put in time to be actually proficient at it.

You can pop off the joystick after opening up the controller and replace it with either the 8bitdo joystick or steam deck joystick. Whatever is cheapest. This video shows shows the process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8CmCkltzY

I also use eneloops and the same eneloops I used since I got my Steam Controller back in 2015 and would also use on my 360 controller still go about a month before needing a charge.

It’s why I pointed out the omission of Steam Input and only focusing on what you find frivolous even though you yourself use Steam Input made your argument seem misleading. That one truthfulness about using Steam Input did end up hurting the initial statement, since it went from what could have been waved off to ignorance or not finding use in it to becoming a sign of intentional removal of information due fear it undermines the main thesis.

It would have been better to state the pros of GOG which can stand on its own. Even now you seem to be undermining the utility of Steam Input choosing to keep highlighting the gimmicks which gives off the sense of still not wanting add to the idea that there is utility Steam provides beyond that. As though gimmicks negate whatever utility is provided.

All I’m saying is it would have been a stronger argument to bring up the utility you find in combination with bring up the negatives you find about Steam, which would have given off a stronger impartiality when it came to your stance conveying to readers you can recognize both the good and the bad. That would have led to a stronger final conclusion than one that seems more overtly one sided.

Fixating only on features you don’t care about to argue your point while omitting the features of Steam you find useful due to it not strengthening your position is rather misleading. Steam workshop is another I forgot I have found useful for mods for certain games.

GOG strengths like DRM free and install files are good enough to stand on its own without trying to make it as though Steam’s feature only have things you see as worthless.

I don’t consider Steam Input to be a gimmick. I use it to turn my Steam Controller (2015) into a mouse/keyboard like experience on a controller. Setting things up like touch activate gyro with mouse bound to the touchpads and gyro. And then using a combination of modeshifts and chords to shift the touchpads into a set of 5 inputs on edge/center tap and then an additional 5 when holding down the left grip. This lets me keep my thumbs on movement and camera controls throughout the game, and have to rely less on weapon wheels. An example is where I left click on my right to reload, center click to melee, up click to switch to gadget 1, and right click to switch to gadget 2, down click to switch to gadget 3. I also use Steam Input to set a sprint on the outer edge, so I can sprint when I want to instead of having to rely on things like toggle sprint or auto sprint.

And when I use regular dual joystick controllers like the 8bitdo Ultimate 2 Wireless I’ll set the extra bumper button to act as a modeshift to turn the joystick or facebuttons into a dpad as an example, so I don’t have to move my left thumb off the joystick to the dpad and temporarily lose my ability to move. This made Nier Replicant a fun experience for me setting up the dpad to switch between the 3 different weapons during combat while being able to continue to move around. Steam Input also lets me set up mouse input on the gyro while retaining analog triggers without having to bother with the much less feature rich 8bitdo controller app. People have used Steam Input to set up touch activated gyro on the dualsense and used conductive tape to set up touch activated gyro like on the Steam Deck and the upcoming Steam Controller (2026).

Steam Input also has things like touch menus and radial menus, so it can really change the gameplay experience due to being able to set up configs for game actions devs didn’t set it up to do. Like an example is Doom Eternal where people kept asking to be able to bind specific weapons to the facebuttons or dpad so people could quick switch like keyboard users instead of the weapon wheel to bypass reload animation and shoot faster. Devs finally provided that option much much later, but Steam Input users were able to do things like set up a modeshift so holding down the right bumper would shift the facebuttons into something like keyboard keys 1,2,4,4 and behave as regular XYAB when the right bumper isn’t held down without need for devs to change the game.

Steam Input changed the controller experience to one where I don’t use aim assist on controllers, so when most people default to aim assist in games that just goes to show how valuable Steam Input has been for controller users who utilize it and want more from the controller experience beyond default Xbox controller setup. I would enjoy games less if Steam Input went away because of how feature rich it is compared to other controller remappers out there. Gotten to a point where even if I play non Steam games I’m trying to get Steam Input working with it, so I can customize my controller experience.