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8bitdo SN30 pro. Small, lightweight, perfect button placement. SNES controller designers knew their shit, just add two sticks and a pair of triggers and you can play almost anything with it.
great little controller. 8bitdo has a knack for small controllers that feel good in the hand.
I love this little buddy too. So much so I replaced the ABXY silicon contact pad with replacements from their official website. I love that they sell spare parts, I hate that they gouge me on shipping. So I bought 6 ABXY and 6 crosspad and still have 5 each remaining.
8bitdo Pro 2 is very versatile, I’m curious about the Ultimate. I love my SteamController for modern games.
When I played games on my PC I ended up spending more time configuring my Steam controller than I did playing the game.
A classic example of perfect being the enemy of good.
SC is more of a brother to grow up with than a controller
Me personally, I like the 360 controller the most
Have you tried the Xbox One controllers? If so, what do you like better about the 360?
I have, I had the day one 2013 controller, it was nice but it developed drift quite fast, and also is harder to repair
Sorry to keep asking questions, but what is harder to repair? Swapping the sticks? I’ve worked on so many JoyCons at this point regular sized controllers don’t bother me much
The trigger on the xbox one controller is loose and easy to take off, and it has a spring on it that flew off and I lost upon disassembling it. The 360’s controllers will remain completely function even without any shell, but are also able to be disassembled.
IIRC swapping sticks is the same on the two
Not op but the 360 controllers a tiny bit smaller, thumbsticks are shorter and wider which makes aiming easier imo
Interesting. I don’t have the biggest hands (fuck the Duke) and I didn’t notice the size difference. I don’t think I could go back to a 360 controller. The XBOne feels like the final form
I’m currently playing with a wired 360 controller, myself. its old and creaky and kinda scratched up but it works gorgeously still!
Me too, it’s aged very well.
Generally speaking, any xbox one or later generation controller. Theyre all relatively the same.
Real shit though, Xbox The Duke is my favorite
The Duke was so good!
i miss the black and white buttons from the mini xbox controller days. still feel like 4 buttons is not enough on the right pad, especially considering how often games use L3/R3 joystick click which i fucking loathe.
Get a controller with underside buttons. I also consider stick-clicks an abomination, but it’s great now that there are under-buttons we can hard-remap to L3 and R3.
8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth controller has some awful ergonomics on several things, but the underbuttons are excellent examples.
Big handed bastard
Logitech RumblePad 2 for the PC.
Basically a knockoff clone of the PlayStation 2 controller for the PC, from around 2008 or so I think.
Still mostly works somehow, except the mode swap button. I don’t even need that button anyways.
For fighting games, my own custom built stick. Put this together last year to replace the Hori RAP4 that had served me well for seven years until a button cap broke off. Super happy with how this turned out. It’s much lighter, I like having a detachable cable. GP2040-CE supports Switch natively so I no longer need an adapter (and I can feel the difference in latency now), and Sanwa silents mean I can practice late at night without keeping anyone awake. And it just looks good, it’s on brand for me.
For everything else that is not fighting games, 8BitDo Pro 2.
I also have a soft spot for the Wii Classic Controller Pro, I miss having gates on the analog sticks. I’d kill for a modern refresh of that with L3/R3, gyro, and USB instead of having to plug it into a Wiimote.
Oh man, after reading your comment I now have begun reading about the GP2040ce project. I got an empty wooden shell off AliExpress and have been wondering what to do with it for the longest time. They sell sanwa parts along with these generic Chinese encoders that I don’t care to bet on. This pico project looks like just the thing I wanna build
That’s a mighty fine stick you got there. One might even refer to it as lovely.
Steam deck’s controls hands down if that counts. If not, surprisingly I’d have to say my stadia controller. Got one for $20 and it’s fantastic.
I wonder how much the Deck translates to the Steam Controller. I haven’t had enough time with a Deck
deck is mostly more input options (right stick, d-pad, 4 back buttons instead of 2).
the biggest difference is the placement of the touchpads imho, as i cant use both shoulder buttons and the touchpad on a side without adjusting my grip, but that only mattered in shooters for which i use flickstick on the deck and not the right touchpad.
Oh, I like all of those changes except adjusting grip. I’m not familiar with flipstick. I went from tiger claw, to bumper jumper, to all paddles
I have this problem where my thumbs are naturally oily and touchpads arent always super responsive. The best fix I’ve found is gloves with the (conductive?) material. Do you know if the Deck uses the same type of touchpads as the controller? I also had issues with the New 3DSXL nub
the touchpads atleast feel like the ones on the steam controller.
flickstick is a control scheme where your stick only controls the camera horizontaly, so if you push the stick down you’ll spin 180° if you push it to the right you’ll turn until your character faces to the right and so forth.
At the moment, my PS5 controller connected to my Linux PC via USB-C. It has perfect support due to official in kernel drivers from Sony and very little lag when used via USB-C.
I’m switching to Linux when I get set up again. Fuck the Recall bull shit. Straw that broke the camels back. I had not considered controller drivers. Is Xbox One over Bluetooth a thing, or will I need to go with Sony?
The XBOX One controller should be fully bluetooth hid compliant and it should work out of the box for at least all the buttons and axis. There are userspace and kernel drivers for the XBOX controller too (xpad and xboxdrv) but I don’t have much experience with them or with bluetooth controller in general.
Good to know, thank you for the info!
Switch Pro controller for its asymmetrical layout + gyroscope (it’s so much better for aiming). I’d love to test a PS5 controller but symmetrical layout tend to hurt my hands (it was already the case for the PS3/PS4 controllers, so I have little hope for the PS5 controller).
Used to be the Logitech F310. Simple, reliable, used my preferred layout, inexpensive, and durable.
Then I got a PS5 and experienced the DualSense’s adaptive triggers and I can’t go back.
I had a Dualsense for my computer just because it has the best D-pad
Then I got Returnal and experienced the haptics and triggers and HOLY SHIT. I tried a keyboard and mouse and the game felt FLAT. It really is incredible! Pacific Drive also takes full advantage of it, the brake trigger feels like and actual car brake and the accelerator trigger rumbles and vibrates with the haptics as you go.
Absolutely fuckin dope.
Do you need to do any config to use the adaptive trigger on PC? And I assume it mainly supported on Sony’s first party title ?
No extra confit, it just works! It has to be plugged in, though, and it only works work certain titles (pretty much only Sony stuff. I can’t remember if pacific drive is Sony?)
I’ve looked at some lists and it actually supported by much more games than I thought, I don’t think Assassin Creeds is Sony title no?
Sony’s rep kinda iffy around repairability though, how long is yours ?
Honestly, it’s still the F310 for me. I have mine since the early 2010s and it’s still working perfectly. Those things are built like tanks and between XInput and DirectInput are compatible with just about any PC game of the last forty years, no extra software required. Also, they’re dirt cheap.
Honorable mention to the F710, the wireless version. While Windows 10’s USB stack unfortunately broke compatibility with it (causing randomly dropped inputs), Linux does not have that problem.
I have two and I can’t vouch for the “built like a tank” since one of them once in a while decides to drift around.
Still 110% worth it for the price.
Could just be dirty. The only time I had weird stick issues was because a hair got caught under the right stick and kept making my aim jump around willy nilly. They’re pretty easy to take apart and put back together if you have the right screwdrivers.
To be specific, the Xbox One Elite controller. I really liked the Series 2 but it fell apart on me. I never had much issue with the original. I’m a glutton for punishment though, and I’d get another Series 2. I don’t mind working on them so it isn’t the biggest deal
I really love the Switch Pro controller, but I wish it had analog triggers. I also have love for the GameCube controller. I am at home with the N64 controller, but I can’t say it’s a favorite
It’s probably because I have bias, but I’ve never cared for any of Sony’s offerings. Something about the sticks doesn’t feel right with both being at the bottom
I grew up with the PS Dualshock and Dualshock 2 controllers. They were all I ever knew as a kid. But, I absolutely prefer the XBox layout now as well. Something about it just works better for me. On the other hand, my wife also only knew PS growing up and she just can’t get used to the XBox layout.
I can switch between any controller and not think about it. My poor partner has to try to keep up with what console or PC and controllers we are using
The only one i still have issues with is going from xbox to nintendo controllers, because they use the same abxy face buttons, but they switched them around.
I like what switch games do when you’re using a single joy-con, they just show a button with an arrow pointing to which direction the button is, so what’s printed on the button doesn’t matter at all.
I’ve actually started using the Japanese style for PS controllers. O for okay, and X for no. I’ve only succeeded in fucking myself up since majority of my shit is American. I have a tablet and a DS4 at the moment, and it is getting me by
Same thing for me. I switch effortlessly and she really struggles with it.
I think I saw this idea somewhere. Make pictures of the button layouts and put which ever you are using next to or under the TV where she can see it so she doesn’t have to keep looking down
She almost never games and it’s always with a PS controller. So no need for that usually, but I’ll definitely keep that in mind.
My series 1 ended up developing a pretty bad flaw with the input chip and is dead-dead. It also developed a sticky X button right away, which I could repair but went back to not being perfect. The Series 2 has been more reliable, but I also use it less.
Oh, how long do you have.
First of all, favorite for what? For accesibility reasons if it’s not a dual stick game I am defaulting to a fightbox-type device these days. I favor a WASD configuration, rather than a thumb-for-up configuration and I currently favor a tiny, minimalist haute board box with cherry switches (blue for buttons, greys for WASD). It’s great, it lies on my desktop and it causes minimal strain even in high APM games.
For dual stick stuff, it again depends. Is this a shooter where aiming is a factor? Because then I’m gonna want some gyro. The DualSense is amazing to hold, just bonkers build quality. It is heavy and ugly as sin, though. It also doesn’t work perfectly with every PC game, so it feels like a hassle to use it as my default. There’s the KK3, which has gyro in Switch mode and seems to be less fussy than the DualSense. Plus they are trying to sell their hall effect sticks to third parties, so those are very smooth. It is a jack of all trades, though, and I actively hate KK’s dumb extra button configuration, with start and select all the way at the top, I keep pressing the screenshot buttons by accident.
If there’s no twitch aiming, and thus no major need for gyro, Victrix’s Pro BFG is fun. It has modular design where you can put the dpad on either location. The dpad isn’t great, but hey, the fightbox’s there for that. It does have a six button configuration, too, if you’re a controller fighting game guy. The best feature, though? Replaceable eight-way gates for the sticks, Gamecube-style. If you’re a Smash guy or emulating Gamecube it’s such a no-brainer high end replacement.
But honestly? Honestly?
The JoyCon.
I know people hate the JoyCon, but the idea of a split controller is amazing to me, and everybody else who has tried to do it, Lenovo Legion Go included, gets it wrong. The big handles aren’t the answer without a middle segment to hold the controllers. The two little boards are fantastic for 3D action games, the amount of tech in such a small frame is astounding and the button-based dpad is so good I’m using fightboxes on the regular now. It’s a shame there are some reliability issues, but I would buy a device just like it for PC tomorrow if they could sort out connectivity reliably.
Connectivity is just one of many problems with joycons.
The shitty sticks that may or may not drift after a dozen of hours and the faulty rail cable that disconnects the SL/ SR buttons are worse.
Right now I’m mostly using the Xbox One controller (on PC). It’s a controller that feels really good to hold. No weird gimmicks like motion control either. I think it’s one of the all time greats.
Runner up is GameCube.
Right now, a kind of weird one: the Bridget MX, from SGF Devices. It’s a 3D printed, all-button controller for fighting games. They don’t make that specific model now (it was a very early one), but this is the closest to it: https://sgfdevices.com/products/bridget-pe
At first I thought that not having a joystick would make games kind of boring. Like, too practical, not enjoyable. But no, it’s actually fun. Kind of like tapping out notes on a piano. It uses low-profile mechanical keyboard switches, and I have some stiffer, clickier switches on the way right now.
It’s meant for fighting games (Street Fighter, etc.), but I’ve used it for some 2D platformers and it worked great for those, too.
A non-3D-printed, less cheapo one would probably be even more fun to use, but I think I’ll stick with this one for now.
An Xbox one controller. I bought a newer seriesX controller but it developed stick drift almost immediately. My Xbox one controller is going on 6 or 7 years now and is still rock solid. And I play rocket league so you know I am hard on them.
