The best controller I arguably thing is the 360 controller. It just feels right to use in fighting games and fps. I like xboxs layout with the analog sticks.
Dualshock comes a close 2nd but was never a fan of the analog layout.
I find the n64 most jarring and I get that it was meant to be used differently for different games, but I still preferred the 3rd party options that took it closer to a standard gamepad.
Your thoughts?
Phob gcc. The best stick box ever constructed with Hal effect sensors. Genius button layout with a larger primary button surrounded by secondaries. Swap to spicy sticks and bald buttons for added grip and fluidity. Add mouse click z and paracord cable for the perfect, best feeling, most responsive controller. The best part is that it is all open source and can be built for around $50 worth of parts
Gamesir T4 Kaleid. I love the hall effect joysticks, and it feels like it’s the right size. The one negative is that it’s wired-only.
OTOH, the GameSir Nova (not lite) is hot garbage. I hate almost everything about it, and its wireless PC connection (without the dongle that it does not come with) is trash. It’s basically only good as a Switch controller… And I haven’t even actually tried it for that.
The GameSir Nova Lite is much better, but still too small and you need to use the slightly-older 4200 firmware (from the official app) instead of the latest, because they got stupid about things.
I somewhat like the Xbox Elite V2 controller, but you have to get a good one. A bad one will have really crappy triggers that sometimes won’t work. I think I’ve even heard that the sticks are sometimes wonky. And it’s not hall effect.
I went for the GameSir G7 SE, one black and one white, so me and the missus have our own controllers. The black one has a click to the face button which is quite nice.
I thought I would miss wireless, but the batteries draining on my wireless pad (official) and the slight delay means I prefer the G7 instead. The cable is long enough that we can sit comfortably back on the sofa from our 55" screen. Oh, and the pads came with a month of Game Pass Ultimate so really helped justify them (just over $30 each?). Never thought I’d live to see a third-party controller this good, sold my official one for more than I paid for these.
I mean, I gotta mention Steel Battalion for the OG Xbox. The experience of playing with that controller is truly saddening when game developers these days won’t do anything similar. Yes, it was expensive back then, and would probably be expensive now. But you know what? It was totally worth that cost. Any person that has played the game will agree.
But for more normal controllers, I like the layout of the WiiU Pro controller, with both sticks at the top. I never owned a WiiU, but I did get a third party Xbox One USB controller that had this configuration. While it was obviously a very cheap controller, I really liked the ergonomics of it.
I have enjoyed my Xbox Elite V2 controller, it has served me well the last few years. The dish shaped Dpad is a nice feature, even though I don’t play games that use it too much I can see where it could be extra beneficial for fighting game players to make circular movements easier.
And a special mention for the Samba de Amigo controllers which I only got to use once because… I thought I would be able to pick a set up after seeing two in GAME (for maybe £99.99 inc. the game?), then ended up selling out and never coming back into stock.
I really like the ps5 controller. It’s comfortable, and the haptic feedback on the shoulder buttons is a really cool feature imo. The resistance is variable on the shoulder buttons so depending on what you’re doing in game, it can be harder or easier to depress the button. I thought that was cool.
I’m still not 100% sold on the shoulder force feedback. Sometimes it works well, but many games do this odd thing where you hold it down and it clicks repeatedly and uncomfortably like you’re breaking it and I’ve no idea what they’re really trying to convey.
Sounds detective to me. But I’ve only played FF7 Rebirth on it so far
I’d think that too, but it does it on both of mine, and it doesn’t get worse over time indicating any kind of damage.
It’s only certain games that trigger it.
For general purpose, I’d say 8bitdo Ultimate C.
I am a huge fan of the GameCube pad and would use it for everything if I could.
For 2D games, particularly fighting games, I’m very fond of the Saturn pad.
However, if I had to pick a best controller ever, it’s got to be the SNES pad. No question.
The PS3 controller was basically perfect for me. Comfortable, sensible configuration, and not ridiculously large for my not-man-sized hands.
Definitely my least favourite PS controller. Those convex shoulder buttons were terrible, and there was genuinely no comfortable way to use them.
The motion controls were used in a handful of early games (and I can only assume Sony forced them to implement them) and swiftly abandoned.
Meanwhile, I find even the “smaller” XBox controllers to be utterly unusable and have/had no troubles at all with the PS3 controller. Would be nice if there were more options for each console so that both you and I could be satisfied, but sadly that is not how it’s done.
Yeah, that would be nice. I know people who lament the loss of the original Xbox Duke controller, and that the only thing closer was the similarly jumbo Dreamcast controller.
Could even unbundle them from the consoles, and just pick the size when you buy them. If they can make them in Hello Kitty pink, or endless CoD camouflage colours, then I’m not convinced it’s uneconomical to provide different size grips.
I’ve had 2 “Xbox elite” controllers, both of them have had problems with sticky buttons. Annoying beyond belief. The regular Xbox s controller works better than either of the elites did.
That said my steam deck is my favorite controller when I need a controller.
Do you use the steam deck as a controller for your PC using steam link?
