So for the past couple of years (… coming on a decade?) I’ve liked the 8bitdo controllers a lot. Build consistency is a bit of a shitshow but you can tell almost instantly if you have one of the bad ones (and it is usually a matter of just loosening one screw unless the PCB itself is cracked). And the Ultimate Pro Whatever The Hell With Charging Dock is really nice and I love that I never have to worry about my controller needing new batteries when I am on my PC. In theory I can just plug it in but that gets into a mess with games that auto-detect what is connected and so forth. The charging dock that doubles as a receiver is delightful.
But when I switched to linux for fulltime gaming a while back… things got messier. 8bitdo has no linux support whatsoever. Mostly that is “fine” because the controller is a controller and I can use a phone app when I want to change what the rear buttons do. But I can’t update firmwares. Which, again, is “fine” except I finally wanted to get back into Crosscode and have learned that shitshow of an html5 engine ONLY supports xinput on PC and apparently the functionality to tell the 8bitdo to present as an xinput might only be in a beta firmware? So all the joys of debugging but with very non-technical resources on google.
Not the end of the world (was mostly planning to moonlight to my xbox anyway) but kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back as it were. Because Crosscode is a mess of a game technically that even the devs acknowledge was a mistake (AMAZING experience though) but what happens the next time I run up into a corner case? Not ready to throw this in the bin and rage purchase a new gamepad but very much ready to start browsing what my options are. Especially as (some) third parties are actually pretty good these days.
So what gamepads do you folk use?
I use the Steam controller, (obviously not helpful since they don’t make it anymore) most of the time.
I also have the remake of the old Xbox “duke” from a few years back. The largeness of it in my smaller hands always felt surprisingly comfortable. It’s wired and recognised as generic xbox one controller - BUT only when running steam. If steam isn’t open, then the controller continuously turns off and back on every 20 seconds.
I have a few DS4 controllers sitting here that still work. Eh. Not much use but they work fairly well. I don’t really like the PlayStation control design.
I have never tried a Switch / Switch-compatible controller on yet. My partner has a couple for… the Switch! But I’m hoping they do well because I just bought my daughter a Sonic-themed, Gamecube-style wired controller for her upcoming birthday (she obsessed with Sonic and saying she wants to play a game one day instead of just watching). It would be good if she can just take it between playing Switch with her mum or PC with me.
Final comments -it’s wired or replaceable batteries for me. So many dead DS3 and DS4 controllers sitting around from years back that won’t charge, or last about 15 minutes. But wires never get in the way anyway, and I always have eneloop AAs ready to go.
SC was and still is such an underrated controller, such a shame valve stopped production.
Every now and then you can get one as good as new for ~50€ on ebay.