Configuring your control for a specific game.

Step One - Launch the game as you normally would and it is best to wait until it has loaded up properly before initiating Step Two. Wait for it to finish the introduction screens and get to the main title screen.

Step Two - Click on the in-game options menu, and go to Control setup, or Re-define keys, whichever one shows you the already set keyboard functions for the game. Example, W=forwards, S=backwards, A=strafe left, D=strafe right, R=reload, E-action, and so on. Write them down on a piece of paper to help with your control setting up process.

Step Three - Access your Steam Pop up system by pressing SHIFT+TAB at the same time. You should see your friends window and maybe a few others pop up, (depending on what you have set up) and in the top right hand corner of the screen, you will see some underlined options. [Game Groups], [Controller Configuration], and [Force Quit]. Click on the Controller Configuration option and you should come to a screen like the picture I provided. (Only without all the red lines and stuff. I added those later!) ;-)

Step Four - On the Controller set up screen you should be able to navigate to each part of the controller with either the arrow keys, or the mouse cursor, (please note that some games when run in different resolution e.g 640+480 or 800+600 etc may cause issues when using the mouse with the control setup screen, so just use the keyboard and ENTER for enter, and ESC for back a screen) Go to the left stick first and select it with enter. You want to change the left stick to D-Pad or Directional Pad. When the D-pad comes up there is a square on each button. Here you click or hit Enter on each square and add in the controls for forwards,backwards,strafe left, and strafe right. (Most games it is W forwards, S backwards, A strafe Left, D strafe Right.) To enter them simply click on the corresponding key on the Virtual on-screen keyboard, or move to the key with arrows and hit enter. If you want to add an action to the joystick by pressing it as a button, go to CLICK ACTION - and enter the action you want to insert the same way you entered the directions. Once you have entered all actions press Escape.

Step Five - Now go to the right joystick and click it or hit enter, and select JOYSTICK MOUSE. If you want to add an action to the joystick by pressing it as a button, go to CLICK ACTION - and enter the action you want to insert just like in the previous step. REMEMBER - When using the joystick to perform the action of a mouse, it will be EXTREMELY sensitive so you must adjust the mouse sensitivity in the Control setup to its lowest value, and then once in the game, you can adjust it to suit your game play with the in game mouse sensitivity settings. If you do not set the value in the control setup to its lowest, even the lowest in game value will be way too sensitive to use properly so it is essential that you do this.

Step Six - Go to the buttons section and click or hit enter and you will see each button which you can assign an action to. Select the most appropriate actions (As sometimes not all of them will fit onto the controller, thus minimising the need to reach for the keyboard during play) they are usually, A (Green) = Action/Use, X(Blue) = Reload, Y(Yellow) = Jump B(Red) = Secondary/Melee weapon. But of course you can assign whichever button that you choose, and it may take a few goes to get the optimal setting, but you will get there after a few trial and error attempts.

Step Seven - Now assign your Triggers and Shoulder buttons, the same way as the others, Right trigger is usually FIRE, Left trigger is usually AIM, and the shoulder buttons can again be anything you decide is best for that particular button or game.

Step Eight - Remember to assign the Start key as the Pause button, or as the Escape key. The select button can be assigned to a Map or game stats key.

Step nine - Don't forget, anything else that does not fit onto these buttons, can be assigned to the D-Pad on the controller. Example, If you use the mouse scroll wheel to go through weapons, D-Pad Left can be assigned to Mouse Wheel Down, and D-Pad right to Mouse wheel Up, and these two directional buttons will then cycle through your weapons. Leaving Up and Down for two more Actions.

And there you have it, an easy way to configure your Xbox 360/Generic USB game pad to each of your games quickly and efficiently. And you can even set it up a different way to use your controller in the main Steam menu system and much more, So email me at Puggles2g@hotmail.com if you are interested and I will write another Setup Guide to show you the easiest way to do it, and post it or e-mail it directly to you.
Hope you enjoyed this Guide to setting up your Game pad and I hope to see you all soon in-game soon.

Best wishes and Happy Gaming to you all
Puggles2g aka Daniel