The new Steam Controller is here, and it looks like a chunk of plastic that a gamepad designer drew during a fever dream. But according to Kurt and Lucy, hosts of the gaming show Kurt & Lucy Gotcha Covered, the controller's strange silhouette hides surprisingly capable hardware — especially if you play games that don't normally work well with a traditional controller.

Kurt brought the controller to the show after getting some hands-on time. The first impression was not kind. “A lot of people when this thing was revealed were like, 'What an ugly honk of plastic,'” Kurt said. But once he held it, his opinion reversed.

The feel of the Steam Controller

The controller's weight surprised him. “It's light,” Kurt said. The plastic shell feels smooth but lacks the rubberized grip found on premium controllers like the Xbox Elite Series 2 — a detail Kurt noted because his hands get sweaty. “This is going to be Sweat City, population me,” he joked.

The vibration feedback was a pleasant surprise. Lucy described it as “running my thumb delicately over some stones,” and Kurt called it “nice, not too overwhelming.” The back paddles, however, drew a mixed reaction. Kurt found them too hard to press compared to the Elite Series 2's back paddles, which he considered too easy to press accidentally.

But the star feature is the trackpads. Kurt has a Steam Deck and used its trackpads to play PC games that lack controller support, like Planescape: Torment and Frostpunk. “That was my ability to actually start building my PC library,” he said. The new Steam Controller brings the same trackpad functionality to a desktop setup. “I think it's great,” he added.

Price matters

The Steam Controller is launching at about $100. Lucy asked Kurt if he would pay that. “I would pay that for that,” he said, after holding it for just two seconds. Context: the Xbox Elite Series 2 currently retails for $200 (discounted to $160), and Kurt received his as a regifted Taco Bell prize from Greg Miller. “All controllers are insanely expensive right now,” Kurt noted, pointing to cheaper options like 8BitDo controllers that lack trackpads.

Demonstrating the trackpad advantage

To show why the trackpad matters, Kurt fired up Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride, a hidden-object puzzle adventure game. These games rely on precise cursor movement — something a thumbstick does poorly but a trackpad handles well. "This is why this controller is the best, because I can play Grim Legends," Kurt said while maneuvering through the game's inventory puzzles, clicking and dragging with the trackpad. "This is probably impressing no one but me." He then spent several minutes solving a series of nested puzzles: finding an iron claw, using a blade to cut a rope, unscrewing a plate with a screwdriver, and feeding yarn to a cat.

The takeaway: the Steam Controller isn't for everyone. It's for PC gamers who want to play titles that were designed for mouse input — strategy games, point-and-click adventures, hidden-object games, and anything with tiny UI elements. The trackpads make those games playable from the couch.

Also: the new Resident Evil movie

The second letter in the show asked for first impressions of Zack Cregger's Resident Evil movie trailer. Kurt and Lucy watched it live on stream.

Kurt's first complaint: the “from the mind of” credit phras. “I hate when films go 'from the mind of.' Shut up with that,” he said. He also noticed that the trailer lacked Capcom branding — only Sony appeared — which he attributed to Sony holding the film rights since the original movies. That's different from the upcoming Street Fighter movie, which does carry Capcom's name.

Lucy liked the trailer's tone and the focus on a new character named Brian rather than established series heroes. “It's just random dude Brian uncovering all the things,” she said. “There were certainly touch points of Resident Evil — going through a drawer, trying to get a key off someone, bursting into someone's creepy ass house.”

Kurt, a self-described “Resident Evil freak,” said he doesn't actually want movie adaptations of the games. “Not in the way that people probably think they do,” he explained. “Not only have we had seven or whatever the hell those other films were, and then people seem to ignore that Welcome to Raccoon City came out a few years ago.” He admitted liking the controversial Welcome to Raccoon City Leon Kennedy — the bumbling, sleeping-on-the-job version.

But Kurt's real excitement comes from Cregger's track record. Cregger directed Barbarian and Weapons, two acclaimed horror films. “He could have done whatever he wanted, and yet he's doing Resident Evil,” Kurt said. “I'm not telling Zach what to do, but the dude is also a Resident Evil freak. Seeing this trailer, my reaction is I don't really care that it has the name Resident Evil. I'm just excited to see what that dude does with a zombie movie.”

The moment that excited Kurt most: a brief shot in a hospital where slow-moving zombies press against doors. “I'm excited to see slow-moving zombies,” he said. “A director who is twisted and messed with expectations of viewers take on a genre that has been done to death, pun intended, and back again.”

Lucy predicted the plot: the main character will find his love only to discover that she works for Umbrella. "You heard it here first," she said.

Game of the week: Forbidden Solitaire

The show closed with Kurt's pick for game of the week: Forbidden Solitaire. The game is a meta-narrative within a game; the “forbidden” part is that the solitaire game itself appears to be cursed. It opens with a modern Windows-like operating system and the user profile “Will Roberta” — a clear nod to Roberta Williams, the pioneering adventure game designer behind King's Quest and Mystery House. “It's a game for people who love old FMV-style PC games,” Kurt said.

Bottom line

The new Steam Controller is a niche product with a polarizing design. Its $100 price is reasonable given the premium controller market, and the trackpads genuinely unlock a category of games that traditional controllers ignore. If you play hidden-object games, strategy titles, or anything that needs a mouse cursor, the Steam Controller might be the best purchase you make this year. Just be prepared for a plastic finish that doesn't hide sweat.

As for the Resident Evil movie: Zack Cregger has earned trust from horror fans. Whether that trust extends to a series with a long history of mediocre film adaptations remains to be seen. But slow zombies, a new protagonist, and a director who knows how to subvert expectations? That's enough to keep the buzz alive until the full release.