At the moment I use my 8bitdo pro2. It was kinda expensive but its a huge upgrade from my no name switch controllers and awful gamesube one from powera.
Also, the 3ds had really good controls (we don’t talk about the c stick)
Another vote for the steam controller - it’s versatile enough to work comfortably with every game I’ve wanted to play.
Steam Controller is of course an unbeatable classic, almost it’s own category with the weird but charming touchpads.
Of the more conventional controllers I’m a big fan of my current Gulikit KK3 Max. I was looking for a controller with Hall-effect joysticks, and this one looked like one of quality, so I decided why not eh. Feels like a good controller when I use it, so I’m content with it.
The steam controller. I love the trackpad!
That trackpad was a game changer for playing KB+M games with a controller, but to be honest sometimes I really miss the right joystick. The trackpad can fake it, but it’s not the same.
If they ever do another standalone controller I’d want it to be like a screen-less Deck. Both joysticks and trackpads and a couple more grips.
If Steam controller also had joysticks, it would be the ultimate controller.
I hugely regret not buying 10 of them when they were liquidating their stock and selling them for $5. I love mine and am really worried about what I’ll do when it inevitably breaks.
My favourite controllers are still the official Xbox controllers because of Xbox Design Labs. I like to have my controller look the way I want. And also they seem to be the only controllers that can still be powered by 2 plain rechargable AA batteries.
Edit: Here is my design for anyone curious:
My design was on the front page a few years ago…
I don’t care about colours or AA batteries, I’d rather have a cable personally, I do agree on the choice though.
Anything from the 360 onwards are my preferred controllers. A permanently wired 360 controller that does away with the massive battery compartment it my favourite but these days I use an “Xbox one” version with the USB C cable.
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far for this. To my mind, the modern Xbox controller is the perfect controller for PC. Like you said, this the AA batteries and colorways are great, unique features. On top of this, it’s well-laid out, feels good in the hand, and every button, stick, and trigger feels great to use. And most importantly, it has the broadest compatibility. Every game recognizes the Xbox controller, and almost every game has Xbox button prompts built in.
The only thing missing is hall-effect sticks, but I’ve never experienced stick drift on an Xbox controller so it’s not like I would notice a difference.
The Xbox controllers are too big for my small hands. For people like me the dualshock 4 is more adapted + it has better build quality and feels sturdier all around
DS4? As in the one for the PS4? It’s a bit of an unfair comparison bc they are different gens, but i would definitely argue that the current Xbox Series controllers are higher build-quality than the DS4. My Xbox One controller had creaky, rattly shoulders and an okay but not great d-pad. The newer ones fix that, fortunately.
All that said, I will not dispute that it’s probably less ideal for smaller hands. Sony has always gotten that part right.
I always thought the GameCube controller was ridiculously comfortable and ergonomic, so that’s my choice. The C stick might not be for everyone though.
Any Dreamcast fans here? Those controllers had similar ergonomics in the hand, although the lack of a second analog stick was a pretty big drawback in hindsight.
DualSense is the best right now IMO due to the features. If you don’t believe me, actually play Astro’s Playroom.
But I love the Steam Deck’s layout (so I guess I’d probably like the Steam Controller as well). A lot of that has to do with Steam Input being fucking awesome, but it’s also possible to get relatively good at using the touchpads as mouse, and the “touch right stick to enable gyro” is an awesome feature that has made FPS games playable on console for me.
I had a dualsense before, bought it thinking of those features. Turns out that a few games had support for it on PC, and most were shooters so I wouldn’t play using a controller.
The battery was abysmal too, it would barely last 4 hours. I’ve heard on some places that it was due to the touchpad being polled for input all the time, draining the battery.
Moved over to a 8bitdo ultimate Bluetooth with Hall sticks and couldn’t be happier
I have read that early DualSense units had a bug that affected battery life. If you still have yours, it might be worth updating the firmware.
I haven’t used mine with PC (I usually just use an X-Box One controller, which was my fav prior to DualSense probably), but it’s a shame that more games don’t use the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. It’s used relatively often and pretty well on PS5, and for me it’s a borderline killer feature. If more games utilized it in the way Astro’s Playroom did (yes I know it’s a tech demo but that’s kind of the point), it would be far and away my favorite for any system.
Haven’t had issues with battery life, but taht could be because I’ve updated firmware, or maybe the PS5 is just better at managing the DSs’ battery since they’re made for eachother. I also got the official brand charging dock, so perhaps that has something to do with prolonging battery life? Couldn’t tell you.
Steam Controller.
It’s big enough for my long hands. And it has a ton of features and customizability.
What I don’t like is the right track pad when games expect a joystick. Depending on the game controls, it can be suboptimal. (configurable to a degree with center deadzone)
Also using 8bitdo Pro 2, I like it. Bluetooth connection is somewhat crusty – for some reason, games think that I’m holding LT, despite me not pressing it. Maybe it’s a Linux Mint thing, I dunno. Works perfectly wired, though
I hated the Xbox controller when it first came out, probably because my child-sized hands couldn’t reach the buttons comfortably. So it was Playstation style for a long time.
Now as an adult I’ve switched over to the Xbox style (easier to plug and play for Steam gaming) and I like it a lot. It feels a lot more durable than any other controller I can remember using. Though I feel the size and weight of the controller makes it slightly more difficult to use the bumper and trigger buttons compared to PS controllers, it’s not a big deal because I’m not playing FPS these days.
Both styles are cool. Tho I have a slight preference for symmetrical sticks
I’ve been enjoying the GameSir G7 for a while. It’s wired but I kind of prefer that. My first G7 had a faulty left stick in the first two months. I think it was faulty from the beginning but I just didn’t notice it. I sent them a video of the issue and they replaced it outright.
It’s a bit smaller than my Xbox elite controller and it feels pretty great. I like the clicky dpad and the two back buttons. Stick tension is nice as well.
I’d like to see trigger stops but they haven’t done that yet. I’d also like to have clicky face buttons so I’m considering one of their khaleid controllers. Those are minor nitpicks, though. This controller has been terrific.
8bitdo ultimate. Already lasted more than a couple of months, as opposed to the last two Xbox controllers I had. I just wanted hall effect joysticks and Xbox layout.
Steam controller obviously (for everything other than retro gaming which often requires a dpad).
Not familiar with that, is it the trackpad one?
That thing confuses me
Why are the buttons below, why is there a stick if there are pads
The stick is better for movement, while the pads are better for aiming. And the buttons work fine where they are.
Arguably the left side pad is a bit useless for gaming itself, but its nice to have two pads for desktop navigation and using the on screen keyboard that is build into steam.
Careful now, the swarm of all 11 people who use the left touchpad for movement might hear you and eat you alive while they chant, “just try setting movement to the left touchpad. You’ll never go back… You’ll never go back …”
It’s true, I’ve never gone back, also the joystick is a bit naff anyway
I’ve tried it a number of times and just can’t get it to work for me. Far too much travel distance for me, and the lack of tactile feedback makes it difficult. In some ways, I like the floatiness feeling that that the travel distance creates, but ultimately it wasn’t worth the precision adjustments.
I tried it for some 2D side scrollers, FPS, and 3rd person games. I liked it most for 3rd person but couldn’t get a hang of the other two.
Plus, I really like using the left touch pad as a floating menu, which the joystick can’t do haha.
Oh, I forgot to say – the Steam Decks smaller track pad is actually nice for this reason because the shorter travel distance solves the floatiness issue for me in a lot of cases. I actually play Revita 50/50 between touchpad and joystick, just based on how I’m feeling.
Steam Controller is a flawed masterpiece that I wish we had gotten another iteration of.
Also, speaking of the 8bitdo Pro 2 line, the wired Xbox version of the Pro 2 is pretty great. It’s similar to the regular Pro 2, but it has analog triggers, uses Xinput, and has Xbox coloring and branding. It’s like they took the best parts of Xbox, SNES, and Playstation controllers and mushed them all together.
The normal one has xinput too. I have the general one. My pro2 has analog triggers too
I quite like a good ps4 controller
Have you tried the ps5 controller? Genuinely my favourite thing about the ps5. The adaptive triggers and the haptics are so good. The battery life feels better too. That was my biggest complaint about the 4s especially compared to the ps3s, those lasted for weeks.
I have and it was amazing but I don’t own one and I’ve never used it as a controller on the Linux PC.
Yeah if they like the PS4 controller, then they’ll 100% love the DualSense.
Just play Astro’s Playroom and you’ll get it.
I have both PS4 and PS5 controllers for use with my PC, and I prefer the PS4 one because it feels more comfortable in my hands.
