I bought a Logitech controller about a year ago and it worked great up until a few days ago. I feel like if I’m going to spend $80 on a controller it should last more than a year. Any suggestions?
I’d just get an Xbox controller. It’s plug & play due to the Microsoft system and I’ve had zero issues with mine. It’s technically wireless but I have it wired via USB all the time.
I also own a couple Logitech controllers and they’re fine but I sometimes come across games that just aren’t designed around their control scheme (it’ll swap the stick and D-Pad or something). But the Xbox scheme is universally accepted. I know a couple guys who used Playstation controllers but that takes a little more effort to get working and they sometimes come across games that just assume ABXY buttons instead of the PS shapes which gets annoying for them. No personal experience though.
I use an Xbox One controller and like it. I have a few friends who swear by the Elite model but I don’t feel like splashing out that much money on a controller, especially when I’m happy with this one.
Seconding that. I use an Afterglow controller for XBone myself; the newest version is less than $40.
amazon.com/PDP-Afterglow-Wired-Controller-Xbox-048-121-NA/dp/B08FCTBC2D
I have an Elite controller. There are good and bad points. The ability to swap out sticks is ok but ultimately a bit of a gimmick, I don’t really care how long the stick is or how it feels. I find it super useful being able to assign buttons to the paddles, particularly left and right stick clicks. I’ve always found stick clicks to be a bit awkward, and having them assigned to a button that can be used by fingers that are otherwise not doing anything is great. Being able to have several different control schemes is also good, I’m often switching between schemes for different games. It is also easy to modify relatively quickly.
Being able to assign different buttons also means you can have button combinations that would otherwise not be possible. This is more of a console issue, when playing on the PC you have a keyboard so there’s plenty of available keyboard bindings. The console is limited though, and being able to do things like have D-Pad LEFT and D-Pad RIGHT as a button combo by assigning the D-Pad buttons to the paddles broadens the controller’s ability to be used in games with complicated control schemes such as Microsoft Flight Simulator.
On the negative side. It rattles horribly when it vibrates. The sticks are removed by just pulling them off, I think they have magnetic connectors, but they can also twist. This seems to undo something internal and if you do it enough the stick binds and gets stuck. I find when my kids use the controller they sometimes accidentally twist the sticks and make them bind up. I had hoped that I’d be able to assign other key-binds other than just the standard controller buttons, but you can’t. You also can’t set macros, like I can’t set a button to be A+Y for example.
I’ve always hated the feel of the Xbox controller. I use a PS4 controller instead. It’s plug-and-play on Steam but does require a lightweight program if you want to use it on games played through the Xbox PC app.
I got the original Xbox, then the 360, I liked the controllers but hadn’t experienced anything else. Then when Microsoft went all “multimedia” with the Xbone I got a PS4 instead. The controller seemed ok but I was getting a weird shake in my left thumb that meant I couldn’t play racing games (MotoGP, F1 etc) smoothly. I blamed the different position of the left thumbstick on the PS4 controller. Now I’m back to the Xbox with a Series X (it was available, the PS5 wasn’t, and it came with a good deal through the phone company that included GamePass) and I think on the whole I prefer the Playstation controller. I do prefer the left stick position of the Xbox controller but the more slimline feel of the PS controller feels better in general.
I’ve also been using a pretty good Switch controller on mine. Steam lets you tell it you have a switch controller and it works fine.
A PS5 controller may be a good investment for later games if they are able to take advantage of the controller’s rumble technology, PC games wouldn’t have anything for the PS5 for a while, though ports of Playstation games might. Of course by the time it’s gonna be of actual use there may be 3rd party or even an Xbox controller that uses similar technology.
Does the PS5 controller do something different from the Xbox with its rumble?
From what I’ve heard, the PS5 uses a linear motion rumble, which has different properties than the traditional rotational mass rumble.
Also there’s a short discussion in a Triple Click episode about it. (Starting about the 4 minute mark)
I guess there’s improvements to the haptic feedback and additional audio response in the controller as well, I just forgot about those.
Again, actually experiencing this on a PC game isn’t likely for a while, so it’s probably worth waiting for when it’s actually matter, but I think if games that come out for the PC do have these features it could be worth getting.