Earlier this month, Valve announced its intention to go into the hardware market with Steam Machines complete with Steam Controller. In the event you haven’t seen it yet, you have to really . It’s wild, and totally obtainable – similar to Valve.

Now, you’ll be wondering – how the hell do I play games with that thing? Well, Valve is here with a video demo that shows how the controller is utilized in a number of games. What you’ll first notice is that the controller’s gamepads may be configured on a case-by-case basis. In a primary-person game like Portal 2, both gamepads may be configured to behave like a mouse and keyboard. In a more PC-centric game like Civilization V, one trackpad is configured to behave as a mouse while the alternative is configured to behave as directional keys.

Like all other new controllers, everyone is going to be skeptical until their get their hands on it. PC gamers are going to be much more skeptical as no other controller in history has ever matched the precision of a mouse and keyboard for PC-centric games, like turn-based strategy titles. Valve obviously thinks they’ve finally reached that level of precision, but we won’t know without a doubt until next year when the primary Steam machines launch.

If it’s essential to test drive a Steam Machine and the hot Steam Controller sooner, be sure you get your name into the running for considered one of 300 Steam Machine prototypes. You will find out more about that here.

[Image: Valve/YouTube]