At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Valve's Steam Machines are king. The Half-Life developer and Steam creator held a press conference that that everyone wanted to attend, but flipped the script when it devoted the majority of the event to its hardware partners. But even though Gabe Newell gave the briefest of briefs, some Valve-only content was still available: The company's press area included six Steam Machine prototype stations, giving the press a chance to try some popular games with the fabled Steam Controller.

For me, this was a first chance to test how Valve's haptic-powered trackpads hold up in first-person games such as Metro: Last Light and Portal 2. I came away interested in the technology, but not impressed enough to be completely sold on the concept.

The controllers on display were hooked up to 40" televisions through prototype Steam Machine hardware ostensibly the same boxes sent to beta testers late last year. Each test station had a comfortable couch to sit on, emulating a best-case living room gaming setup. Eagerly, I sat down at a station and started playing Metro: Last Light, sliding my thumbs along the controller's rigid trackpads to move and look. The Steam Controller prototype this isn't final hardware by any means uses its haptic feedback capabilities to vibrate under your thumb as you slide across its trackpads. It's an odd sensation: I was acutely aware of each move or twitch I made on the controller's surface, but I'm not sure what it added to the tactile experience.

The trackpads were also incredibly sensitive, at least on the default settings. This isn't necessarily bad: many gamers crank their mouse sensitivity in order to maximize movement. On first picking up the controller, however, it was extremely surprising. I've played shooters on a dual analog joystick setup before, and am used to a decided lack of quickness available the aiming stick will often glide along slowly, and in many cases, a game will throw in some aiming assistance to compensate. There was none of that with the Steam Controller, which means you're getting a purer experience. But it was initially much harder to aim than I'd hoped, and I never quite adapted to the accelerated aiming in my 10 minutes of playtime.



Clicking the dual trackpad controls was also incredibly easy, sometimes to my detriment. I'd crouch when I wasn't expecting to, because the clickiness of the left trackpad was much easier than I'm used to on a thumbstick. I'd like to think that's something to which one can adapt with enough time.

As far as additional buttons, the Steam Controller has plenty for a standard shooter setup. Two sets of triggers on the shoulders could aim and fire, and the buttons on the underside of the controller were responsive and didn't get in the way. The face buttons were easy to reach, though the non-standard setup meant I had to think more about what buttons I wanted to push. Configuring the buttons seemed easy, with a built-in interface that lets you change buttons on the fly.

Games such as Metro: Last Light and Portal 2 make intuitive sense on the Steam Controller, while my limited experience with Starbound proved to be slightly more frustrating, as Evan predicted in his editorial last week. The trackpads' sensitivity didn't lend itself to movement on a 2D plane, though this could be because Starbound isn't quite optimized in its controls the game is Early Access, after all. The ultimate test for Steam Controller, in my opinion, will be games with independent camera and character movement, like Dota 2. Sadly, I didn't get to play one.



I definitely want Steam Controller to succeed I love the idea of a new controller standard, although it would need to live alongside keyboard and mouse controls for other PC functions. And I'm hopeful after an admittedly short playtime with a Steam Controller prototype that such a device could be fantastic. But I need more time to evaluate if such a controller can be viable, and I'd need to see if it really is possible to adapt to such aggressive sensitivity controls.

It doesn't seem like Valve will divulge any release dates or pricing at this year's event--either for the controller or any of the Steam Machines--but I'm confident that Valve's device could be a significantly better experience than existing controllers.

Available in a playable beta version since early December, Starbound s take on procedurally-generated exploration has at least one galactic-sized milestone to celebrate in 2014. The indie adventure game has sold over 1 million copies, according to a tweet today by developer Chucklefish Games.

Starbound s sales success mirrors another molten-hot, early-access hit of recent weeks, namely the DayZ Standalone alpha. DayZ creator Dean Hall published an update on Reddit over the weekend revealing that the alpha version of the zombie survival game has sold nearly 800,000 copies in less than a month. While both games have some pretty radical differences in tone and setting, they both emphasize open, sandbox-style experiences and are finding huge audiences in spite of their still-evolving development.

The Starbound beta can be snatched up for $15 either through the game s official website or through Steam s Early Access program. If you re hearing about Starbound for the first time, check out our recent look at the beta version, where we learn about Cassandra s journey of exploration, survival and bloody stupid ways to die. And just like DayZ, we know there are a lot of changes on the way for the game. You can read up on some of Starbound's future plans here. The developer mentions something about planet-sized "spaceship dungeons," which have me, almost without thinking, reaching for my wallet. Ah, I see what it did there.

Thanks, Games Industry International.

Given that Starbound has both a grappling hook and the ability to create a cutesy rendition of the Morrowind theme, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's already finished. But no, those are just the most important features of a long and winding development road. In a new post on the game's official site, designer Finn "Tiy" Brice has outlined some of the things planned for future updates.

"We have a lot more than this in store," writes Tiy, "but Xealaz over at reddit compiled such a nice list of the stuff we HAVE discussed that I wanted to share it with you. As always, things are not set in stone."

The list includes everything from fixes and balance tweaks, including a smoother difficulty curve and rebindable controls, to long-term planned features, like space combat and planetary modifications. You can see the full thing below:


"NPC Spawners & Building Logic: NPCs will scan the structures you build around them and the contents of chests; they will have improved inventories/behaviors depending on how valuable their surroundings are.
"Macro Terrain Changes: Affect an entire planet s terrain and weather
"More Planet Scanner Data: See details in the planet scanner like planet occupants/dungeons
"Underground: More secrets will spawn below the surface
"Space Combat: Way in the future, expect space combat and the ability to board other ships.
"Spaceship Dungeons: Very large, size of a planet.
"Biome Hazards: Sandstorms, icestorms, meteor showers, toxic planets, airless planets.
"Ore & Difficulty: Higher difficulty planets will have improved ore distribution
"Story Missions: Eventually each tier will end with a story mission that ends with the bosses you see now.
"Ship Navigator Changes: Still not set in stone; but the new idea is to give a local map with fog of war. Instead of sector buttons you have to fly out of a sector and into the next one by uncovering more of the star map. The final sector would be infinite.
"Smoother Difficulty Curve: Better indication of the difficulty of an area. Difficulty will change within tiers as well as between tiers. There will be fractional difficulty (for example, Difficulty 1.12 in tier 1 would be easier than Difficulty 1.52, while still in T1)
"Monster Generation: Right now, monster parts just have stat boosts, but eventually rolled monster parts will affect their behavior and abilities. For example, monsters with spider legs can climb walls; fiery monsters inflict burning. You might get a burning spider dropping on you from the ceiling. Projectiles may be tied to specifically generated heads. Biome may influence monster part generation.
"Mini-Map: Rotating circular map showing highlights only such as the location of friendly players, spawn points but no major details. For the details you d use a mapping item to create a map as you travel.
"Teleporters: Stargates between planets and eventually between servers.
"Dramatic Planet Modification: Not going to be implemented any time soon. Ability for players to modify huge chunks of planets through things like orbital bombardment; removing the entire first layer of a planet and leave behind a lifeless surface.
"Tech Priority: Eventually all techs can be active at once, but a categorization system is in the works to assign priority to conflicting techs, preventing issues. A hotkey to switch the active tech will be added as a temporary workaround until the priority system is completed.
"Server Commands: More server commands and control for chat and port listening.
"Villager AI: Villagers will aggro when you steal from them and follow you more aggressively.
"World Storage: Improve world storage and organize *.pak files to improve modding. Add launcher integration.
"Spawn Points: Change spawn points on individual planets.
"Controls: Reconfigure controls; keybinding.
"Ship Size: Upgrade ship/increase size.
"Racial Armor: Racial abilities will not be inherent but will be tied to racial armor. For example, Avian armor can glide downward.
"Capture Pods & Mercenaries: May be able to capture NPCs with pods. Summon NPC Mercenaries by using the pod as a beacon.
"Reduced Wipes: Working on a system to patch without requiring as many character wipes in the future. This will require one more wipe and that s it.
"Other Changes: Colorblind Mode & Engine Optimization. FTL animation being revamped to reduce memory strain."


For more on Starbound, check out Cass's largely enthusiastic early impressions.

A few days ago, a stranger on Twitter half-jokingly informed me I should add "Starbound PR" to my list of credentials. I protested, of course, but the truth of the matter is that I've probably spent more time evangelizing Chucklefish's procedurally generated, sci-fi sandbox exploratory thing than I have championing Dota 2. Which is a little worrying because DotA is the game I spent a decade playing.

But there's a reason as to why I keep pouring friends the Starbound Kool-Aid. The game is absorbing. On the surface, Terraria in space; a natural follow-up to that other great side-scrolling sandbox. Both games pivot around the same motifs: exploration, survival and bloody stupid ways to die. Both also have a thing about lulling players into a false sense of security with their pageantries of cute. Outside these fundamental qualities, however, Starbound is a very much its own beast.



You invariably start the game as a refugee. A pop-up box will perfunctorily inform you of the circumstances of your flight and ask you to locate the Matter Manipulator on your ship. From there, it's your responsibility to beam onto terra firma and begin coercing a living from whatever hostile environment you find yourself in. My first playthrough included pools of green acid, my second trees made out of eyeballs and the third a bountiful rose garden. It could go any way to Sunday.

Lately, my first hour with a new character is almost always accompanied with death. Almost everything wants to kill you and those that don't usually look like they do. Some of the friendliest critters I encountered were tentacular nightmares, studded with eyeballs and lined with spines. And the cutest? Often the apex predators of their world.

Weirdly, perhaps, that's a big part of Starbound's appeal. Google's borrowed omniscience makes it hard to be fully surprised by anything these days. Yet, Starbound manages. Because everything is procedurally generated, each trip to a new planet still feels like an adventure, like a reason to indulge in a frisson of dread. Sure, that fresh suit of armor might be spiffy but will it do any good while I m spelunking on a Threat Level 20 moon?



Starbound, especially in its current state, isn't without its problems. Patches, machine-gunned at the players with almost dizzying frequency, break the game as much as they fix it. Balance is always in flux here. One day, crafted weapons might be dealing thousands of unreasonable damage points. The next, they might be as well butter knives against the onslaught of one-shot-kill-all birds. Wipes seem to happen on a weekly basis, making every bit of progress a possible precursor to a nihilistic breakdown. It's a beautiful, maddening mess and I love it.

There's a lot to like about Starbound. The potential for endless adventure makes it easy to want to return time and time again. One of the latest updates introduced a primitive, pseudo-Pok mon system and grappling hooks: two things no gamer in the right mind can say no to. It might eventually go pear-shaped but for now I'm happy traversing the universe in my koi-shaped spaceship. Just me and my intergalactic produce.

One of the biggest problems with Early Access - and pre-release alpha access in general - is that it's now possible to buy a game that doesn't include a grappling hook. Sure, to some extent you can be comforted by the knowledge that, as a game, the developers will eventually add a grappling hook. But what are you supposed to do before that unknown milestone? Luckily, for owners of Starbound, that question has been resolved as of today's major update. Oh, and it's also rebalanced everything in the game and added a significant amount of other new stuff.

Here's the change list, courtesy of the Reddits.


HUGE balance patch, every item, creature, armour and weapon rebalanced. Levelling system entirely rewritten
Added early implementation of creature taming (more features coming soon)
Added new mining items
Added new weapons
Added new throwable items
Added grappling hook
Added new boss and new sector of the galaxy
Added a stance system to weaponry, not currently used but will allow us to add secondary attacks to weaponry very soon.
Tons of new sounds
Guns more common in tier 3
Underground detached/rare biomes more common
Underground random encounters more common
Underground chests more common
Ore rebalance (probably way way too much ore at the moment, will be fixed later, enjoy it)
Baby monsters
New monster palettes
Added pixel compressor for high cost banking (idea from Ncrpts)
Disable using the beam-axe to light caves underground
Added new hats
some monsters now graze on grass (can look ugly, needs finishing)
Small bipeds now socialise with each other
All the monsters behave smarter and are less likely to get stuck
You can no longer attack through blocks
Fix the game on XP (hopefully)
Tons more fixes and smaller additions


While it's still early in the balancing process, the new levelling system has been designed to more easily allow for improvements over time. Expect a long adjustment period, then. Not that it should be a problem, as long as the game still lets people do cool stuff like this:



Now we just need to wait for other Early Access titles to get their grappling hooks. Come on GODUS.

Today is International Starbound Day, or it will be once I've finished scribbling on every calendar in the world. Chucklefish's openworldcraftingsci-fisandbox (phew) game enters public beta this very day, though you'll need to pre-order the game to be allowed in. The team are trailing this momentous occasion with a new video, which shows four-and-a-half minutes of crafting, exploring, jetpacking, dungeoneering, snowball fights and general milling about. It's lovely stuff, and it's awaiting your peepers after the break.



Starbound should land on Steam later today, but if you're too impatient even for that it's still available for pre-order on the site. As we mentioned a month or so ago, the beta will come in three stages, with the first expected to be fairly buggy and changeable (so don't get too attached to your characters or universes).

Thanks, Kotaku.