Dell showed off Concept Nyx, a server that would allow you to play games on any screen in your home. If someone else was using that set, you could also share that larger screen with them. After being forced to go head-to-head in two separate Rocket League windows on a single TV screen, I was not a fan of the idea. It looked like the waste of a good 65-inch TV.
Dell and Alienware have come back with a weird PC gamepad. Like a cross between Valve's ambitious-yet-flawed Steam Controller, Sony's dualsense and the latest xbox offering, it has a trackpad, two analog sticks, the usual face and top buttons, and adaptivetriggers. Two rear shift buttons and dual scroll-wheels along the bottom make it easy to change your settings. The two top buttons have a feature that allows you to slide your finger across them for different effects.
I have a love for gadgets that goes back to the first time I held an NES controller at five years old. It's much better than Dell's previous "UFO" pad, which was similar to the Atari's failed Jaguar controller. The sturdy build quality and familiar feel of the gamepad make it feel like a premium device.
We couldn't play any games with the controller because the demo gods weren't in Dell's favor. It didn't feel complete just from holding it. I'm not sure if I'm too used to the idea of directional pads, but I still find them essential when playing games from the 2D era. I prefer a real directional pad over the circular one in some PC games. Dell might be able to find more room for a trackpad if Valve can shove two on the steam deck.
Dell could be trying to one-up Valve's original Steam Controller, which took a huge risk by featuring two circular trackpads to recreate the feeling of mouse and keyboard controls. I was never able to adapt to that device. The reason console controllers settled on a standard design is because it works.
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