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.
Never liked XBox controllers. They feel fat and clunky, especially trying to use the bumpers, I feel like I have to strain my fingers. I also hate the way the sticks feel in general, theres something about the friction curves that’s just… off. Idk how to describe it. Also, no gyroscope. I will praise the triggers on the XBox one controllers though. I like the shape and the amount of travel they have, I think they rock for racing games.
My favourite controller is the Dualshock 4. Haven’t had a chance to try the Dualsense but even that looks a little bloated. The DS4 is lean, has all the features I want, and those thumbsticks are the best I’ve used on a stock controller. You can practically use them like a trackpoint on a laptop, they’re very precise and great for use with a linear response curve in shooters with zero deadzone.
I really liked the Steam Controller, but the lack of a right stick was sometimes an issue. Being able to switch between mouse-like and joystick-like input in certain games on the fly was important and not always easy to set up. No issues with the stick itself going bad, but the rubber cap on the stick for both the ones I bought was worn smooth pretty fast. In shooters, I generally had a harder time tracking targets with the touch pad, but an easier time snapping to targets. Quick headshots were easier than with a stick, but sustained full auto fire was oddly tricky. Touch pad makes it shockingly good for N64 emulation since you can put A and B on the ABXY buttons and then the C buttons on the pad without the weirdness of having ‘buttons’ on a stick that you have to resort to with other controllers. The touch pad is also useful for DS emulation. Dual stage triggers also came in handy way more than I expected them to. Really neat, and I’ll definitely try a v2 if they ever make one, but it’s a pretty divisive device and there’s a steep learning curve to using the pad to aim.
Tried a Razer Wolverine Pro Ultimate, and I loved the extra buttons, but stick drift was a serious problem. Four back buttons and two extra shoulder buttons meant my thumbs almost never left the sticks. The controller was basically unusable after a point, though, and I really didn’t feel like spending that much on another one. Steam also wouldn’t recognize the extra buttons, so I had to use Razer’s proprietary app to configure it, which wasn’t great.
Was gifted a Dualsense Edge and it’s so far been really nice. Haven’t had much use for the touchpad yet, but that’s mostly because of the games I’ve been playing. Sticks are pretty cheaply replaceable, but I haven’t had any issues with them after about a year of heavy use. Steam also recognizes all the extra buttons and lets me map them all I want, unlike the Wolverine. Battery life is much worse than a standard Dualsense, though. Apparently they cut into the battery area to make room for the removable stick units. That battery life issue is my only problem so far, however. Well, that, and I doubt I would have paid $200 for it. Again, it was a gift.
What I would really like to see is a controller with six face buttons, similar to how the original Xbox controllers or even the N64 controller have them. I wouldn’t always use the extra buttons, but there are times when they’d really come in handy.
The dual stage triggers made the Steam controller the dream controller for Rocket League IMO. Mapping boost to the second stage freed up my right thumb to control other things
Tough call between the Dualsense and the Dualshocks 1-3.
The Dualsense has great features, but is large enough and bulbous enough that I’m forced to use a full palm grip. That’s good some of the time, but sometimes I like a lighter finger grip that the earlier Dualshocks allowed for. I think of it similarly to claw vs palm grips on mice. A full palm grip on either can get too sweaty over time. The Dualshock 4 is a bulbous mess that fatigues my hands. On all of them, the plastic feels premium and sturdy and really fits well together. Plastic molding is an art, and they are good at it.
I have a few 8BitDo’s and they are all good too. The Pro-2, SN30 Pro, and Ultimate C (their naming conventions are flour of control). A bit cheaper feeling than the Sony offerings, but still pretty good.
The Xbox Series controller is… Fine. The plastic feels cheap, the face buttons feel cheap, it’s too big and requires a palm grip, the R1/L1 buttons feel cheap, the d-pad is one of the worst in history. The analog sticks almost feel great except they’re too tall.
Shout-out to the Steam Deck for feeling phenomenal. Also shout-out to the RetroBit Genesis controllers- they feel really good, but the lack of sticks and fewer buttons than most modern controllers makes it hard to use for modern games.
The JoyCons are awful. Most 3rd party options are better but I still haven’t found one that I really like.
The GameCube and N64 both feel kind of cheap. I think the plastic is a bit thin, and the sticks and buttons rattle around slightly.
I don’t see it mentioned often, but basically my favorite has been the GameCube controller. Massive primary button with the secondary button the same shape but smaller and next to it, with the alternate (X/Y) buttons a different shape that flow around the primary, all in easy reach but all different to the touch. Especially when I’m playing the Xbox or Switch for a while and then switch to playing the other I’m messed up on the controllers for a little while since Nintendo and Microsoft swap the A and B buttons but both keep A as the primary button (I think a legacy of the original NES/Famicom putting the A button closer to the right hand and the B button farther in, to the left of the A).
I’d prefer the right thumb stick to be the same shape as the left, and it needs a left shoulder button, but beyond that I’d pretty much keep the layout as-is, maybe a slightly different size/shape to better fit in hands. I’ve seen a few third-party controllers like that for the Switch but haven’t looked into them enough to buy one.
Xbox Series X controller with added ExtremeRate back paddle kit.
For PC games:
og Steam controller
Most of the time I use the Dualsense Edge though, because I rarely use controller on pc and almost never turn on my Xbox.
I play most of my 2d games on purpose built retro handhelds, so there’s no real separate controller to speak of, but I do love pretty much all of them in different ways.
I really wanted to like the OG steam controller but the touchpad-joystick-analogue makes it basically impossible to play any of the games I’d want a controller for. It’s a great controller for using on things that aren’t really intended for controller. Want to play an FPS leaning back in your chair? It’s great for that. Want to play Hades? I’m gonna pass and plug in my dualshock instead.
I actually revisited it recently and gave it a second shot after getting used to the steam deck pads, but unfortunately it’s still not really doing it for me personally.
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.
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.
8BitDo Pro 2. It’s like a Playstation 2/3 and SNES controller did the fusion dance. I use it on my Switch and PC, response is great, tactile feel is amazing.
Just got this thing last week, I love it so far. Still haven’t figured out how to make good use of the back paddles on PC, but even without those it’s a great controller.
They seem nice and not too pricey. Their website said they have Hall effect sticks. Shouldn’t those be more durable and longer lasting than regular sticks?
For how long did you use them before you started having issues with the sticks?
So my sticks still work, but I’ve worn down the rubber on two of the left joysticks so much its crumbling apart. Purchased in 2021 and was my main driver until that happened about 6 months ago, so a fair bit of use. Used that opportunity to try out the PS5 controller and the new Xbox series ones.
And I mean… they’re good?
The resistive triggers were cool and the touchpad is really customizeable. Xbox controller stays solid but boring.
Switch Pro controller feels great but weird to be playing PC games with. Nothing WRONG with it, just feels mentally disconnecting for some reason lol.
Idk. For me the Pro 2 and the wireless SNES sized 8bitdo controllers are perfectly comfy. Have an ultimate in its way to me now actually.
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Never liked XBox controllers. They feel fat and clunky, especially trying to use the bumpers, I feel like I have to strain my fingers. I also hate the way the sticks feel in general, theres something about the friction curves that’s just… off. Idk how to describe it. Also, no gyroscope. I will praise the triggers on the XBox one controllers though. I like the shape and the amount of travel they have, I think they rock for racing games.
My favourite controller is the Dualshock 4. Haven’t had a chance to try the Dualsense but even that looks a little bloated. The DS4 is lean, has all the features I want, and those thumbsticks are the best I’ve used on a stock controller. You can practically use them like a trackpoint on a laptop, they’re very precise and great for use with a linear response curve in shooters with zero deadzone.
I really liked the Steam Controller, but the lack of a right stick was sometimes an issue. Being able to switch between mouse-like and joystick-like input in certain games on the fly was important and not always easy to set up. No issues with the stick itself going bad, but the rubber cap on the stick for both the ones I bought was worn smooth pretty fast. In shooters, I generally had a harder time tracking targets with the touch pad, but an easier time snapping to targets. Quick headshots were easier than with a stick, but sustained full auto fire was oddly tricky. Touch pad makes it shockingly good for N64 emulation since you can put A and B on the ABXY buttons and then the C buttons on the pad without the weirdness of having ‘buttons’ on a stick that you have to resort to with other controllers. The touch pad is also useful for DS emulation. Dual stage triggers also came in handy way more than I expected them to. Really neat, and I’ll definitely try a v2 if they ever make one, but it’s a pretty divisive device and there’s a steep learning curve to using the pad to aim.
Tried a Razer Wolverine
ProUltimate, and I loved the extra buttons, but stick drift was a serious problem. Four back buttons and two extra shoulder buttons meant my thumbs almost never left the sticks. The controller was basically unusable after a point, though, and I really didn’t feel like spending that much on another one. Steam also wouldn’t recognize the extra buttons, so I had to use Razer’s proprietary app to configure it, which wasn’t great.Was gifted a Dualsense Edge and it’s so far been really nice. Haven’t had much use for the touchpad yet, but that’s mostly because of the games I’ve been playing. Sticks are pretty cheaply replaceable, but I haven’t had any issues with them after about a year of heavy use. Steam also recognizes all the extra buttons and lets me map them all I want, unlike the Wolverine. Battery life is much worse than a standard Dualsense, though. Apparently they cut into the battery area to make room for the removable stick units. That battery life issue is my only problem so far, however. Well, that, and I doubt I would have paid $200 for it. Again, it was a gift.
What I would really like to see is a controller with six face buttons, similar to how the original Xbox controllers or even the N64 controller have them. I wouldn’t always use the extra buttons, but there are times when they’d really come in handy.
The dual stage triggers made the Steam controller the dream controller for Rocket League IMO. Mapping boost to the second stage freed up my right thumb to control other things
It was old Assassin’s Creed games that made me appreciate the triggers. The A button on right trigger second stage made parkour much better.
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.
Tough call between the Dualsense and the Dualshocks 1-3.
The Dualsense has great features, but is large enough and bulbous enough that I’m forced to use a full palm grip. That’s good some of the time, but sometimes I like a lighter finger grip that the earlier Dualshocks allowed for. I think of it similarly to claw vs palm grips on mice. A full palm grip on either can get too sweaty over time. The Dualshock 4 is a bulbous mess that fatigues my hands. On all of them, the plastic feels premium and sturdy and really fits well together. Plastic molding is an art, and they are good at it.
I have a few 8BitDo’s and they are all good too. The Pro-2, SN30 Pro, and Ultimate C (their naming conventions are flour of control). A bit cheaper feeling than the Sony offerings, but still pretty good.
The Xbox Series controller is… Fine. The plastic feels cheap, the face buttons feel cheap, it’s too big and requires a palm grip, the R1/L1 buttons feel cheap, the d-pad is one of the worst in history. The analog sticks almost feel great except they’re too tall.
Shout-out to the Steam Deck for feeling phenomenal. Also shout-out to the RetroBit Genesis controllers- they feel really good, but the lack of sticks and fewer buttons than most modern controllers makes it hard to use for modern games.
The JoyCons are awful. Most 3rd party options are better but I still haven’t found one that I really like.
The GameCube and N64 both feel kind of cheap. I think the plastic is a bit thin, and the sticks and buttons rattle around slightly.
I don’t see it mentioned often, but basically my favorite has been the GameCube controller. Massive primary button with the secondary button the same shape but smaller and next to it, with the alternate (X/Y) buttons a different shape that flow around the primary, all in easy reach but all different to the touch. Especially when I’m playing the Xbox or Switch for a while and then switch to playing the other I’m messed up on the controllers for a little while since Nintendo and Microsoft swap the A and B buttons but both keep A as the primary button (I think a legacy of the original NES/Famicom putting the A button closer to the right hand and the B button farther in, to the left of the A).
I’d prefer the right thumb stick to be the same shape as the left, and it needs a left shoulder button, but beyond that I’d pretty much keep the layout as-is, maybe a slightly different size/shape to better fit in hands. I’ve seen a few third-party controllers like that for the Switch but haven’t looked into them enough to buy one.
For 3D games:
For PC games:
Most of the time I use the Dualsense Edge though, because I rarely use controller on pc and almost never turn on my Xbox.
I play most of my 2d games on purpose built retro handhelds, so there’s no real separate controller to speak of, but I do love pretty much all of them in different ways.
I really wanted to like the OG steam controller but the touchpad-joystick-analogue makes it basically impossible to play any of the games I’d want a controller for. It’s a great controller for using on things that aren’t really intended for controller. Want to play an FPS leaning back in your chair? It’s great for that. Want to play Hades? I’m gonna pass and plug in my dualshock instead.
I actually revisited it recently and gave it a second shot after getting used to the steam deck pads, but unfortunately it’s still not really doing it for me personally.
I like both switch pro and Xbox controller. But I hate how the A/B/X/Y are inverted between the Nintendo and Microsoft controllers…
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?
My favorite controller currently is: “Gulikit Kingkong 2 Pro”
It has hall effect sensors for the sticks and triggers so pretty much drift proof.
The layout is similar to a switch controller but the buttons can be swapped for a more Xbox-ish layout.
You can look it up on amazon. I bought it back in Nov 2022 and it still hasn’t failed me.
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.
8BitDo Pro 2. It’s like a Playstation 2/3 and SNES controller did the fusion dance. I use it on my Switch and PC, response is great, tactile feel is amazing.
Just got this thing last week, I love it so far. Still haven’t figured out how to make good use of the back paddles on PC, but even without those it’s a great controller.
Playstation controllers got it right, or at least, their kind of configuration. Doesn’t have to specifically be a controller from PlayStation.
Anything with offset analogue sticks is cancerous to use.
Offset analog sticks was a mistake
8bitdo Pro 2. I LOVE me some 2D platformers, and the D-pad is absolutely amazing for me. I think I have 4 in total now, two wired two wireless?
Only problem is the sticks wear out, but they sell replacements! So no tossing the whole controller :D
They seem nice and not too pricey. Their website said they have Hall effect sticks. Shouldn’t those be more durable and longer lasting than regular sticks?
For how long did you use them before you started having issues with the sticks?
So my sticks still work, but I’ve worn down the rubber on two of the left joysticks so much its crumbling apart. Purchased in 2021 and was my main driver until that happened about 6 months ago, so a fair bit of use. Used that opportunity to try out the PS5 controller and the new Xbox series ones.
And I mean… they’re good?
The resistive triggers were cool and the touchpad is really customizeable. Xbox controller stays solid but boring.
Switch Pro controller feels great but weird to be playing PC games with. Nothing WRONG with it, just feels mentally disconnecting for some reason lol.
Idk. For me the Pro 2 and the wireless SNES sized 8bitdo controllers are perfectly comfy. Have an ultimate in its way to me now actually.
Edit all of my controllers are non hall effect
Agree on the Xbox controller. I even bought an adapter to use the Xbox360 controller on my PS3 :D
Mostly agree, except I’ve never liked the dpad on the 360 controller. An XB1 or Series S|X controller is a noticeable step up IMO!