This is pretty much exactly my situation - never had any problems with the wireless one on either PC or console, but there really isn’t any reason to go wireless when you’re sitting in front of your PC. (If you do go wireless, you’re going to want to invest in some rechargable AAs). It’s not like you’re going to be trailing a cable across your entire living room or something - most people still do their PC gaming from a chair in front of their desk.
Quick specific question - has anyone played Saints Row 2 with a controller? I love the GTA games, but only played 3, Vice City, and San Andreas on a console, never played 4 at all. SR2 on PC is just hard to get into with keyboard…
Joe
Yup. With an Xbox one. It was fine, I guess, although because the controls are very different from the Saints Row 2 ones, and I had replayed it before just for old time’s sake and to get a refresher on the NPCs, it was a bit confusing at first 
Airk – I see what you mean about most desktop players not needing a wireless. I’ve got a very weird setup though, and sit much farther away from my monitor (and even farther from my CPU) than is normal – or good for my eyes, I admit. I don’t use a desk, I just have a recliner and a monitor on a movable stool kind of thing, and I can even work/type/play in bed at night, as I’m doing now. My keyboard and mouse are wireless (and my mouse works on any surface). The only thing plugged into my CPU that really binds me to it is my headset, which I only use at night so I don’t bother my neighbors.
So, to cut a long story short, wireless sounds good for me. Am I right about GTA IV, by the way? Will it work better with a controller? As I said I really enjoyed GTA3, but the car was so hard to manipulate with a mouse/keyboard in the sequel that I haven’t played past the first scene. Very disappointing, and I’d love to get more into that game.
I’m a bit confused about exactly what to buy, though. For example, it’s mentioned above that with a 360 wireless controller I’ll need a wireless gaming receiver. If you scroll down that page, they have a trio “frequently bought together” that includes the 360, the wireless receiver, and a rechargable battery 2-pack.
Meanwhile, there’s also this trio of "frequently bought together:
The 360 and the rechargable batter 2-pack, plus a “play and charge kit.”
Presumably the wireless receiver is required and the “play and charge kit” is just an optional extra, correct? So the first three-pack is the better way to go?
I prefer the PS3 controller, myself. But they’re both pretty good! There’s drivers to get it to work in windows.
On a slight hijack note, I found my old Gravis gamepad at my mom’s a few weeks back. I’d still play with it, if I new how to get that joystick port to fit on my laptop…maybe some USB converter? 
ETA: I think it works wirelessly if your PC handles Bluetooth. Since it works on my android phone, I’d say that’s a safe bet!
I’m a diehard mouse/keyboard guy.
I have a Logitech Gamepad that I’ve had for years but only recently started using outside of MAME. I found several games recently that almost required gamepad, mapping keyboard controls was a mess. Those games are Burnout Paradise, Star Wars Force Unleased II, and Driver San Francisco. All great games, but a gamepad makes them much easier to control. Especially Driver, trying to “shift” into other cars required moving my hand to a 2nd set of directional controls on the keyboard. Not sure why it couldn’t use the driving directional controls while on the overhead map. Poor console port I suppose.
I also played Psychonauts a month or two ago and found the keyboard controls difficult, I’ll try it again with the gamepad.
The Logitech gamepad works as a normal DirectInput device but also has an X-input mode, which I believe emulates an XB360 controller. I haven’t messed with that yet.
There are games based on musicals now? That’s right up my alley! Though Mame seems an odd choice, I’d’ve gone with Sweeney Todd! The Game (I see this as a side-scroller, catch as many humans and make them into meat pies while avoiding the Beadle, with the Judge as the final Boss level). Or West Side Story: Jets vs. Sharks could be a good multiplayer battle game.
(Seriously, what’s MAME?)
That’s interesting, I’ve played BP and it doesn’t seem problematic on mouse/keyboard for me. Maybe 'cause I’ve spent years playing the old Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit with just my keyboard, and so I’ve gotten used to using it for racing. But as mentioned above, I really would looove a steering wheel for racing games (which I do enjoy quite a lot) but those are out of my price range, or at least beyond my willingness to pay for a single-use add-on.
Thank you for your responses!
Having looked over the wired X360 controller, I think I’ll go with that after all. The cord appears to be about 8 1/2 feet, and that should be long enough for me to enjoy playing from my couch or bed or anywhere else I’d be likely to want to play from. (Also, way fewer accessories needed for purchase!)
MAME = Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. It plays the actual ROM files from old arcade machines.
Now that I think about it, after I started using the gamepad on Driver San Francisco, I just automatically used it on Burnout Paradise. I had played the PS3 version so I was used to gamepad on it anyway. Yeah the controls on Burnout aren’t that complicated.
I remember the old Need for Speeds well. Hundreds of hours of fun. Splitscreen too. I remember if were playing multiplayer over a modem the game would lose sync during the race but not tell you, so my friend and I would both think we were in first place. “I’m in first!” “No, I’M in first!” We still joke about that even in modern racers, “You’re not in first, right?”
If you haven’t played the new version of Need For Speed Hot Pursuit it’s a lot of fun. Check out some YouTube gameplay videos.
Slight Bump:
My wife and I want to play the Lego Games that have come out this generation, but we only have a PC. Therefore, we want two controllers for the PC and I have some simple questions.
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We prefer wired. Do they connect to the USB port? If not, how?
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We do not care if they are uber-cheap, as long as they basically work. If they break in a year or two, we’re cool with that. What’s the cheap way to go? I still want them to be easy to hook up and setup for common games, so I assume they will be XBOX 360 clones or something.
Suggestions? Thanks!
I’d suggest the Logitech gamepads, they are cheap, well made, and wired USB. Mine can emulate an XB360 controller for games that are into that sort of thing.
And has proven to be a hideously designed program with an almost incomprehensible setup method.
Do yourself a favour, ignore what Jragon said and buy something cheap and plug/play. I recommend the MS wired 360-style controller. You just want to play, not just hack for ages with badly designed software that may work (it didn’t for me, the sticks never worked, but the buttons on a Dualshock 3).
I have the Logitch RumblePad and its wireless version, which are great controllers and highly programmable. But, I have run into at least one game (Jurassic Park) with controller option that assumes you have an XBox controller, and was more stubborn about this than I was in the end.
I don’t generally play the kinds of games that benefit from a gamepad, but I’m glad to have the RumblePad for the following games which I play on my Media PC:
MAME
Simpsons: Hit and Run
Psychonauts
Beyond Good & Evil
Shrug, I found it pretty self-explanatory. Plug in a controller, go to driver manager, check the box and tell it to install. Then you select the mode from the profiles tab. Dualshock 1 emulation doesn’t have joysticks, the rest of the emulation modes do, with minor differences between them (specifically pressure sensitivity, and motion/tilt control).
It’s one of my favorite programs and I’ve never had a problem using it. And the fact that it can trick the computer into thinking it’s a 360 controller as well as map normal keyboard keypresses to buttons has made it even better. Most plug ‘n’ play controllers can’t trick the computer into them being 360 controllers, and sadly a lot of games throw a fit if you want to play with a controller that’s not the 360 one.
My Logitech has a switch on the back that switches between regular gamepad and XBox controller. Works on-the-fly for me, even when I’m in a game. No fiddling with software at all.