She/They
Long tangent, but I got the Edge or whatever stupid expensive version they have for the extra triggers/levers underneath. I have really small/short palms and don’t have the reach to push all the buttons properly. I wouldn’t be able to play Elden Ring at all without them. I roll and use potions with the levers instead. Even then, it is still painful after a while and some of the contortions I have to do at times can be annoying.
I have the issue of barely having enough “wrap” with my palm and pinky to grip around the hand things that are angled down a little too much. I absolutely despise that the dpad is one of those rocker pieces underneath instead of individual buttons. I will accidentally do a direction I didn’t intend because I rocked the down button too far to the right. It is because the controller still isn’t straight when I hold it. lt is partially rotated in my hand so I can get a little more reach upwards and it makes the dpad usable. Having to compensate the direction of joysticks is super fun. I basically have to death grip the controller with my right pinky and tightly squeezed palm to keep it stable.
When that accessible controller came out for the Xbox I was super bummed it wasn’t for all platforms yet. Doesn’t help I would need to have 2 kits to be able to have separate sides like joycons. Joycons have been my favorite controller of all time as I can comfortably hold them. I tried making a proof of concept sort of gel/shredded memory foam cover, which did help, but it didn’t solve the severe pain in my palm, especially the area under my pinky that I use to death grip the controller. After seeing the glove Martina made after she cut off her pinky, I want to try and make a glove next to take the pressure off, improve grip, and sort of brace/support the part of my hand that I keep hurting.
It sucks that accessories keep getting more expensive. I haven’t had any issues my my edge, but you bet I would be utterly infuriated if it didn’t last when it is almost half the price of the console itself. I have some mechanical keyboards and those things can really get up there in price too. Ergonomic mice are not exactly cheap either. I hate having to use a trackball but so far the only comfortable one is that Logitech one and I have to use the extra angled base it comes with. I game with it.
It looks like with multiple power cubes you can break it up. My favorite thing about the switch is the separate joy cons. This is far far far less painful for me to hold than traditional controllers. If this worked on Linux, Mac, PlayStation, and my Steamdeck, I might try it, as long as I could return it if it doesn’t work out.
I struggle with buttons in general. My palms are too small so I can’t wrap my hand around them very well. I have to death grip with my palm or I drop it, but I am constantly shifting around as my fingers can’t reach certain things easily either. The off-axis joysticks on an Xbox controller is a no go as I have to hold the controller rotated a bit which means that up isn’t up. I do much better with PS5 controllers, but still get a lot of pain in my hands if I play too much.
I am still loving my Pixel 6 Pro. Other than installing AdGuard, or just change your DNS, I pretty much use it as is. I turned off all the Google home or whatever that thing was to the left. Take a minute and go through your installed apps and turn off notifications for things you don’t want or just uninstall. I don’t think you could ever convince me to buy a Samsung again.
My only gripe is the size and how the camera sticks out. The battery life is great, I have plenty of space locally, and I can wirelessly charge my earbuds with it if I want.
The games that just let you choose within the options are gold. With GeForce Now, OSX, Moonlight, or 3rd party controllers it is sometimes a total mess to just display as a damn PlayStation or Nintendo controller. I can’t stand the Xbox layout and it is even worse when I get used to playing a game with one layout and then I am expected to use a different one because using X launcher on other system doesn’t see the controller that way.
I can’t help that my brain can’t switch back and forth easily nor mentally remap buttons that clearly say something different when I look down. I have put labels next to the buttons on my 8bit controllers so I can “remember” what the Xbox layout is… The only layout I don’t need labels for is PlayStation.
Thank you for posting this! I really love how rendering works and how far we have come. Control is still one of the most beautiful games I have ever played and I was only able to experience the max settings with all of that turned on via GeForce Now. It is unfortunate that buying the hardware to see the full extent of these graphics is so expensive. I don’t game enough to justify the cost of building a new desktop with top of the line hardware.
My degree is Computer Science and I dabbled a little bit in animation in Highschool before that. Unfortunately, I am way out of the loop now days and didn’t get the chance to explore Computer Graphics much farther than about semesters worth of class (I was on a quarter system for context).
I still find the subject fascinating and the math behind it is quite complex. Optimizations have to be designed and put in place as the computations required are extensive, so shortcuts behind the scenes are made so a game is playable. You can get some amazing still images and videos as you just render it once, but real time is an entirely different problem. In fact, a lot of shortcuts are putting pre-rendered, or mostly pre-rendered, textures and assets in games. This is where my knowledge starts to wane, though I still get the gist of it.
Movies nobody asked for.