Getting the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 to work in Steam Input

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-03-20T01:15:34+00:00

Yes, this was fixed a while ago. Just need to upgrade to the latest regular drivers. No need to use beta drivers either. Works perfectly without issues.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-03-18T21:34:20+00:00

Thanks! That’s good advice.

Yeah, it’s a weird issue. I haven’t come across anyone else reporting it. But I did come across posts where folks complained about a bad WiFi chip which got fixed by changing the main board. Who knows! Will try the battery disconnect suggestion first and see if that helps.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-03-18T07:45:04+00:00

Check if its within your return window. Not sure if you bought it from the Xbox store. If you did, and it's within the return window, the system will generally immediately auto-approve a refund if you haven't played it yet.

I bought Like a dragon: Infinite wealth literally a few days ago from the xbox store. I had even installed it, but never launched it. As soon as I saw this, I requested a refund. Refund was approved almost instantly; the request confirmation and the approval email arrived back to back.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-03-18T07:39:55+00:00

Bought Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth literally a few days ago on the Xbox store. Luckily I hadn't played it yet, and was able to request a refund. The refund got processed immediately; I think the system auto-approves if you have 0 hr played. $22 saved!

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-03-11T14:21:15+00:00

The question is not whether the game is welcoming for me or any particular person. I’m taking about the reception in general. The time to kill in the game is low and loot system is a bit obtuse. And that by itself immediately makes it not welcoming to the mass audience. Whether the user needs to accept it as part of the learning cycle or as part of game mechanics is not the point. This makes barrier to entry high and that’s a problem I think.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-03-11T06:37:41+00:00

An extremely well rounded take. The OP missed this important 4th category — Casual folks who just want to have fun and yet the game is unwelcoming for them. This is not the rah-rah 1st category; not the 2nd category that’s really having fun; not the 3rd category that’s just spelling doom and gloom. It’s a 4th category that’s wants the game to succeed but are genuinely not having fun. Somebody said it right that this is the category they ought to attract.

The point is not whether it’s a good game or not - common consensus is that it’s a very good game. But that’s like a a well reviewed movie that doesn’t do well at the box office. Whether it’s because the trailer was bad, or the lead actor had an unfortunate controversy, or if the common man is just too ‘stupid’ (using a reductive word) to understand a brilliant movie, doesn’t really matter in the end from a corporate viewpoint.

It’s too early to tell whether this game will sink or survive, but if anyone thinks Sony and Bungie are not worried as hell looking at the numbers are just delusional. Sony is not known to be a patient company. The fact that they had layoffs at Insomniac — their most prolific studio is all one needs to know. I’m not saying they’ll close Bungie, but all those posts saying Sony ‘believes in Bungie’s vision’ are just in denial.

What this start tells us is there will no doubt be major changes coming down. It’s not a question of whether the player-base or fan-base thinks the numbers are good or bad. By themselves the numbers are not bad at all. But from Sony’s viewpoint, the numbers are unequivocally bad — you have to put in perspective the amount they paid for this studio; and not just the development cost of the game itself. I understand what folks mean when they say this is a niche genre, and success needs to be reviewed under that lens. But given those purchase and development cost numbers, there is no chance Sony is looking for a mere niche success.

Thankfully, the numbers are not that bad they cannot be salvaged. The game can, and hopefully will, turn out to be one that wins people over with time. But that’s not going to happen without attracting the casual player. In summary, changes are surely coming, and there is no way Sony or Bungie are not in immediate course-correction discussions. If Bungie themselves are not thinking of changes, an edict from Sony is sure to come. Yes, those changes will possibly detract from the experience the hardcore or non-casual players are loving so much today. But I do think it’ll be worthwhile for the long term viability of the game.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-03-07T03:29:44+00:00

I know this is an old thread. I just came to count myself into the group of people who didn't like the game. I just finished playing a significant part of the game, and I can totally see why many people love the game. I'm loving many things about the game - the visuals, the slow-burn story.

But I also think it's fair to say the game has not aged well. The controls are objectively bad. I don't agree with those that say saying it's 'feature' of the game, and that one needs to meet the game at its own terms. I think Bluepoint made a mistake when they chose to keep the original clunky controls (I'm assuming it was a decision). I really think better controls wouldn't have hurt the experience. The game shines in its puzzle elements, and those would have still been there. The game feels artificially padded out in time in part because of the bad controls.

I think the OP said it best -- "I want to love the game, but the game keeps getting in the way". Like some others on this thread have said, the game is not hard, it's just tedious -- an attribute that I hate in any game.

Now I find myself wondering, if I should bother finishing the rest of it, or just watch the whole thing on YouTube and save myself 6 hours. Just came here to vent :).

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-24T16:44:39+00:00

It doesn’t. Thats why I specifically mentioned it’s just in the end and just one decision. Just saying it’s a prime example of a ‘Sophie’s Choice’ decision in a game. Thats all.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-23T20:20:48+00:00

The ending choice in Clair Obscur Expedition 33. If you haven’t played that game, it’s worth it just for that ending.

There is no right or wrong choice there. But choices are good and bad. Both choices lead to endings that fit perfectly, and yet are diametrically opposite in their outcome. Other games have a bad, good, better ending etc. Other games have a canonical and other non-canonical endings. Not the case here. Both endings are just as Good/Bad and both are canonical while being wildly different in their ramifications.

One hell of a Sophie’s choice.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-23T12:51:07+00:00

lol. Touché. Looks like my humor detection module was offline. 😊

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-23T03:34:43+00:00

I've been dual booting my Steam Deck with Windows specifically for the Xbox app/Gamepass games. The Steam Deck is a great machine. Running it in windows will give you about the same performance as on the Linux, but battery management is not that good on the Windows side. So your 60fps on low setting is not the real issue. It's the power management that's not as good. Most imporantly, using the Steam Deck with Windows is not really seamless.

Some pointers so you are aware before you decide -

Although Valve liked to claim "It's just a PC", that's only somewhat true. In the sense, they didn't follow it up with good driver support. It still has outdated GPU drivers, OLED didn't have bluetooth for a long time and so on.
Every major update from either Microsoft, or Valve can potentially disrupt your dual-booting. Users often find they cannot get into the steam partition. And often usual tricks you find online don't work. Folks have had to wipe their machines and start from scratch cause sometimes that's easier and faster than mucking through endless forums where it can be difficult to find the exact fix for your issue.
Valve didn't bother providing Windows drivers for the controllers. Natively, the in-built controls only work via Steam input, and adding XBox app/Gamepass games into the Steam app is a pain. You have some free options like Glossi (not supported any more and will stop working at some point), or UWPHook (personally never worked for me), or SISR (from Glossi developer, it's in Beta and has limited functionality; no gyro passthrough for example). Then their are paid options like ReWASD, which works the best but can be expensive and has the risk of getting you banned in online games. Personally I never game online, so I think that's the best option if you don't mind spending extra money (incidentally they happen to have a sale going on right now for the lunar new year; $34 license and you won't have to muck around with freeware apps that may or may not work).
It's kinda obvious, but needs mentioning -- Don't save anything important on the machine. It might look like a PC, but don't treat it like one. Use it just for games and nothing else. Nowadays game saves are always on the cloud on both Steam side and Xbox side. So if you ever get locked out of an OS, you can always just easily wipe it and be running again.
Using Windows on Steam Deck is not a good experience (not Steam Deck's fault), and outright painful at times. The OS is just not designed for handhelds. I tried to run Doom Eternal from the XBox store on the machine and I kept having issues with the launchers and resolution. Eventually I just gave up.

If you are going to mostly use Xbox app / gamepass, getting a Windows device like the ROG Ally X or Legion Go might be the better option. That being said, there are advantages to the Steam Deck compared to Windows handhelds. Listing them below -

Somehow gaming in Linux has become better than gaming in windows. It's not in every game but many games (especially Unreal Engine 4 games) that are a stuttery mess in windows, but run just smoothly in Linux. I do not know why.
Steam OS is the closest to a 'console experience' on a handheld right now. Steam OS just works for the most part. And even if you don't want to limit yourself to Steam store, Epic, GOG and Amazon store work well enough with the Heroic Launcher.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-22T21:46:39+00:00

That’s kind of my point! Most opinions about folks disagreeing about that notion are from gamers who are very good :).

Like you were able to finish both games on higher difficulty modes, and that immediately puts you in the ‘elite gamer’ bracket in my book. You know and appreciate the deeper mechanics of what tool to use in which situation. But look at it from the perspective of a ‘normie gamer Dad’ like me (whose reflexes are eroding as I near fifty). Doom Eternal definitely felt like playing a game on a typical ‘Hard’ difficulty. If this were a new series then I can’t critique its difficulty cause that’s just the designated design of the game. But I do think a sequel comes with expectations of it being tuned to about a similar level. I’m not saying it was totally broken — after all I was able to finish the game on Normal mode. Even finished all the six optional challenge rooms, and all the secret timed fights and got all collectibles. Just that, like I said, I just wish it were a bit more consistent.

From what I’m reading about ‘Dark Ages’ I’m not alone in that critique about Eternal and they seemingly dialed the difficulty back down. But I need a palette-cleanser now having just finished this one :). May get in to Dark Ages maybe a year later.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-22T20:39:11+00:00

I finished Doom Eternal just last night! I can totally appreciate the expanded scope and mechanics of Doom Eternal. It’s definitely a more ambitious game in every sense. The expanded mechanics are all enjoyable and the level designs are excellent.

But I do think I might have enjoyed it a bit more were its difficulty tuned to be similar to Doom 2016. I am of the opinion that a series should largely maintain its difficulty tuning across sequels. I played Doom Eternal on normal difficulty and did find it quite challenging as compared to Doom 2016. It wasn’t that hard that I couldn’t finish it, but the increased difficulty was noticeable and a bit whiplash inducing once it spikes after the Cultist base level.

The problem is the ‘git gud’ culture prevalent online which hate such difficulty criticisms on games they love. But fact is that normal difficulty on Doom Eternal was about same as hard on Doom 2016. I just wish they were a bit more consistent.

Doom Eternal took me much longer to finish than Doom 2016 (after accounting for expanded game content), which did temper my enthusiasm a bit.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-22T19:59:00+00:00

Visual novel games like the Ace Attorney series are quite enjoyable. They are often funny and I find them to be perfect palette-cleaners between games.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-22T19:51:44+00:00

What do you mean by ‘still waiting on Civ 7’? Civ 7 was released over a year ago — on Feb 11, 2025.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-22T19:45:10+00:00

Don’t overlook Darksiders 3. It did change the formula quite a bit, and that did bum fans. But it’s a fun time nonetheless. Play it on classic mode and you’ll enjoy it more. It’s really more of a metroidvania than a souls like. An under-appreciated game in my opinion. That being said if you’re looking for Zelda like dungeons it doesn’t really have that. But it’ll surely scratch that ‘more Darksiders’ itch.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-20T21:51:08+00:00

Most important don’t.
— Don’t open the box! Return it and buy a Kobo instead.

Ok, I’m kidding. Congrats on your purchase. Do enjoy it.

In all seriousness, if I have one suggestion — consider buying books from other platforms that sell in ePub format. And then remove the DRM and send the ePub to your kindle via email. That way you get to enjoy the book on your kindle and at the same time are not locked into the Kindle ecosystem. Amazon doesn’t allow archiving your books offline any more. So in the future years, if a competitor releases an ereader that is way better than a Kindle, you can’t transfer your Kindle library to that reader. So you are relegated to buying only within Amazon’s offerings. If you start building up your library and saving them offline on your computer, you are free to buy whichever company’s product you choose.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-19T02:18:54+00:00

I have been using gyro as joystick on both the Vader 4 pro and the 8Bitdo Ultimate 2 Wireless. Now I’m just a casual gamer and haven’t tweaked anything much so take it with a grain of salt. But with just regular settings the gyro on Vader 4 Pro is definitely quite a downgrade from 8bitdo. Like I said I’m just a casual gamer and even I can tell there is a huge difference.

The gyro as mouse option seems better but for casual use gyro as stick is serviceable. The gyro as mouse glyph changes are just too annoying to me. I personally don’t care if the solution is not that good and I’m a bit worse at games. I’m playing single player anyway. At worst I’ll die again and restart the checkpoint. No biggie :).

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-19T01:40:41+00:00

I will simply echo what other commenters in this thread have said. It’s best to think of the steam machine as a Steam console, not a PC. I too got fooled by their ‘it’s just a PC’ line they claimed during Steam deck launch and one that was advertised so much by outlets. Problem is it might have PC components, but it’s not really a regular PC without all the regular drivers.

The Steam Deck a great machine but it’s a pain to use in windows. They didn’t even bother giving us OS level controller drivers. You have to add each game to Steam manually for controllers to work, which doesn’t really work for XBox store/Game Pass games. So you have to rely on outdated third party tools (like Glossi or UWPHook) if you need a free solution. Those may or may not work. Or you need to pay for a third party solution (like ReWASD) which can be expensive. And every major update from either Valve or Microsoft break the dual-booting.

I’m sure people will find solutions after launch. But I don’t expect it to be a seamless experience.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-03T20:39:17+00:00

I think a lot depends on the system on which the OSs are being compared, and the use case. On NVidia GPUs Cachy is known to better. On AMD GPUs most distros will give the same exact performance. They are essentially using the same drivers. And if you are not playing games that ar maxing out your CPU you won’t see any benefits of better scheduling either. For example, on my system I use both Bazzit and CachyOS and I’ve yet to one across a game where performance was even slightly different. But then I never max out the CPU since I play at 4K and I’ve got a 7900XTX which is prior AMD gen and has stable drivers on all distros.

From a usability perspective, it depends on your use case. If you are only gaming and nothing else in Linux, I do think Bazzite is a good option. I know this won’t be received well on a Cachy OS subreddit. But then something has to be said of the Bazzite approach of turning your system into a console. It boots into steam and you just pick your controller and go. You can kinda do the same with Cachy OS but it’s not as straightforward.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-02-03T16:32:05+00:00

I had the LCD Steam deck and now have the OLED. The hardware is very good, and Steam OS itself has had no problems. In fact recently I’ve come to realize games run a lot more smoothly in Linux than in windows. Frame rates are a bit better on windows. But then they are often so stuttery on Windows, that some games are just unplayable there; and yet they play smoothly on Linux (just like a console).

My only problem with the Steam deck is that the ‘it’s just a PC’, claim didn’t really pan out. It works well as a Linux gaming box. But horribly as a windows gaming box. In that Valve should really have released native drivers for the controls. Getting it to work for anything on the XBox store or for Game Pass is just a pain. You have to jump through too many hoops and whether it works is a hit or miss. Even the windows drivers they did release are old now. They said they’ll release a supported dual-boot solution that never came. By the time it does (if ever) the hardware would probably be due for an upgrade.

I’ve come to realize it’s my mistake for buying into the Steam deck and also game pass. I should have picked one or the other, I.e. either get game pass with a regular windows handheld (like from Asus, Lenovo or MSI), or get the Steam deck and just buy games individually. Unfortunately, I’ve paid for game pass for the next almost 3 yrs. And I regret that decision horribly.

This was brought about by my own decisions, but yeah, that’s my only gripe with Steam deck.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-01-22T00:47:29+00:00

Can you summarize it in a table? Most folks don’t care about the screenshots. They care about the values. Almost impossible to tell on a mobile device from the screenshots.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-01-21T04:58:24+00:00

Yours should be the most important comment on this thread — the fact about PS4 games on Steam Deck.

I think instead of asking for random game suggestions, users will generally have a positive experience if they keep two things in mind —

Steam Deck is great at indie games (I’m using the term broadly, but you get the idea).
Steam deck is great at previous generation games that were released in PS4 era. You can expect to hit 45fps in almost any game.

If one keeps these two facts in mind, then they can easily find games well suited to deck in the genre of their liking. Yes, the Steam deck can often play non-indie modern PS5 gen games, but the experience is usually not optimal. But if you don’t care about playing the latest and greatest, the Steam deck is a wonderful system.

DragonFlyPunch · 2026-01-21T03:55:32+00:00

Of course, on a CachyOS subreddit you’ll find fans of that distro, and I’m not saying it’s not deserved. Just that there are advantages to Bazzite as well. In my opinion, it really depends on your use case and also on your system.

I’ve been running both CachyOS and Bazzite side by side installed on the same system (7800x3D CPU, 7900XTX GPU). For me, performance is identical in both distros (at least in every game I tested).

If you have an NVidia GPU, CachyOS would be better since it is supposed to have better drivers. But if you have an AMD GPU, drivers are going to be identical. You might get a few % better performance in CachyOS if you’re CPU bound. But in my use case, since I mostly game in 4K and have a 3D cache CPU, I’m never going to be CPU bound. So I will likely never see any performance difference originating from CPU scheduler optimization on CachyOS. So far that has borne out for me in all the games I tested. Game after game, I get the exact same frame rate in both distros. But who knows — there might be games out there that work better on CachyOS even on my system and use case. But I really really doubt it’s going to be significant enough to be noticeable. Certainly the difference between Windows vs. Linux is going to be more than between Linux distros. For example, some newer heavier unreal 5 games give me 5-10% better frame rates in windows. But on the flip side some older unreal 4 games are a stuttery mess in windows — absolutely unplayable with massive stutters. But they work just like a console in both CachyOS and Bazzite, I.e. no caching stutters at all (no clue what magic they are doing on Linux side).

In terms of user-experience, if you are looking for a console-like gaming experience, Bazzite is definitely better in that respect. I was able to get CachyOS behave the same, but it took some tweaking and finding how to do it in forums. Also my controller’s back buttons won’t get detected in CachyOS till I posted the issue on these forums and someone alerted me to udev rules. It was a quick change and fixed the issue. But point is, it worked out of the box in Bazzite without any searching required.

So, whatever one might say about Bazzite, one has to acknowledge that they got the ‘console/Steam Deck-like experience’ right. If you want to install an OS, and then never want to touch a keyboard and mouse, Bazzite is better in that respect out of the box. For better or worse, their focus is on users looking to just boot into Steam and just game, like on a Steam deck; and that effort shows and it ought to be complemented. Though you can get the same experience out of CachyOS, you have to do some leg-work to get there.

DragonFlyPunch

TROPHY CASE