If you've ever had a friend who prefers inverted sticks pass you their controller, you know just how disorienting a new control setup can be. If you're looking for a new way to play shooters on a controller, however, Steam has added a galaxy-brained new option for you, and it's a bit weird.
First innovated by programmer Jibb Smart, the "Flick Stick" control scheme maps the right stick into a 360-degree scheme, meaning that pressing left on the stick will always turn you 90 degrees to your left, down a full 180, and so on. The vertical aspect of aiming is then performed by tilting your gyroscope-enabled controller, similar to the tilt controls in the Splatoon series. If that all sounds a bit confusing, check out the above video, as it's the kind of thing that makes much more sense once you see it in action.
"Flick Stick" controls now implemented in Steam beta https://t.co/WmUsz3bl46
maps analog stick to 360 degree turning with gyro for better aiming on a controller. video demonstration: https://t.co/Ne5OxLUoFS pic.twitter.com/asvd0sniN4
— Wario64 (@Wario64) July 17, 2020
If you'd like to try this unorthodox control scheme, go into Steam's control settings and bind the right joystick to Flick Stick, and the Gyro to Mouse. Again, you'll need a controller with a gyroscope to try this out, so if you have a DualShock 4 lying around, that's probably the best option. Neither the popular Xbox 360 nor the Xbox One controllers have gyroscopes.