I’m often close enough to my PC while playing games that wireless seems a little unneeded, but more than that, I just want fewer batteries to manage.
Adjusted title to mention preference for no batteries.
I think the top tier controllers unfortunately have a rechargable battery in them, some can be hooked up wired and act as so but eventually some day in the future the battery will die from the constant charging and might bloat. If anyone still makes a top tier wired controller it prob wouldnt work with the switch so theyd be losing out on sales for a major console and price the controller higher to make up for it. Essentially wired controllers have become a nieche product. If you find anything wired as good as guilikits controllers though let me know as well since thatd be pretty sick.
Hori literally makes a great wired controller for Switch and it works on PC
I got a wired wired XBox360 controller at GameStop 10 years ago for a really good price and it works wonders! I’m on Windows 8.1 and for most games it doesn’t require any sort of configuration either, I just plug it in and it works right away
I have a 360 controller and Microsoft offers a USB wireless dongle that lets me hook up any standard 360 controller. It pretty much works like it of the box with any game.
I have a dualshock 4 that I use wired x3… honestly atm im just kinda waiting to see if a steam controller 2 comes out cause most of the controllers I saw on the market were lacking a decent bit of features, or basically the same as I have for double the price tho
most of the controllers I saw on the market were lacking a decent bit of features
Yeah, I’ve screwed that up on a number of occasions before. Didn’t think about the fact that there’s actually a set of features that I do care about, get a gamepad, get it, and then discover that it doesn’t do everything I want. Wish that there was some checklist out there so that people at least think of them before buying, even if it’s not features that they care about. Something like:
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Wired mode of operation.
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Wireless mode
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Input latency. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ve ever seen game controller companies rate and provide this, though several of people have gone out and built measuring systems and then rated a variety of controllers. There is a surprising degree of variation in latency among gamepads. There’s also some variation for a given controller (especially for wireless), and the latency is large enough to be noticeable, especially for Bluetooth. Some discussion, and a database of measured latencies from someone doing so: https://gamepadla.com/
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Rumble motors. This is one of my big “I don’t think about it at purchase time and then get a gamepad that lacks a feature that I want” issues.
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Hall effect analog sticks. These avoid stick drift. I still don’t know what happened here, but twenty years ago, I had a Playstation 2 gamepad with analog sticks using regular old potentiometers that never saw drift. Today, a lot of the gamepads I do get, even when new, don’t reliably reach a perfect zero when my thumb is off them. It might be that that older gamepad had a larger hardware-imposed dead zone, and that newer gamepads don’t and expect one to deal with it at the PC level (which is obnoxious, IMHO), but it was enough to drive me bonkers. Hall effect analog sticks, unlike those with traditional potentiometers, don’t have stick drift, will reliably zero. They do cost more, but I personally am fed up enough with modern, potentiometer-based sticks not zeroing that I always want this.
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Hall effect buttons. I don’t see the point – button sensors don’t have any problem, in my experience – but some gamepads have these.
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Gyro
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RGB LED
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Battery life
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Weight
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Additional buttons that one can tie macros or whatever to.
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XBox-style face button layout vs Nintendo-style face button layout. If you don’t care about correct button labels, Steam will let one swap these in Steam Input, but I’ve run into a couple of games that don’t like Steam Input, and if you play games outside of Steam, that’s not available, will need to do up some other form of mapping.
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XBox-style vs Playstation-style analog/D-pad placement
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DualSense-style haptic feedback. From memory, PC video game support for this is very rare, but some people might care.
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Swappable, rather than built-in, batteries. Only an issue for wireless controllers. One reason I got a Logitech F710 some time back was because I wanted to have swappable AA batteries. Will add weight.
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Depth of analog trigger pull.
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Force required to depress buttons. I have had gamepads that are fatiguing. As far as I can tell, gamepad manufacturers don’t normally list this (unlike keyboard manufacturers, where keyswitch manufacturers do a great job of providing a whole graph of pressure at various depression depths).
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Slightly clicky face buttons. This has become more popular recently, as best I can tell.
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Linux support. Not usually an issue, but I had a newly-released official XBox controller that had some kind of authentication thing that made it a pain to get working at one point.
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Linux Bluetooth support. This actually has, surprisingly-enough, been an issue for me with some official console joysticks. I think it was a DualSense gamepad that I had a ton of trouble with, probably non-standard stuff from Sony.
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Linux support for updating controller firmware. Not going to be an issue with no-name $15 controllers, since there won’t be updates. I have had to use an XBox to update controller firmware before, after I couldn’t convince Linux to do it, even with a passthrough USB Windows VM.
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Rounded D-pads. If you’ve ever used the original NES controller, you know that you can really start to hurt with rigid, squared-off edges. Most modern controllers are a lot more-comfortable than that.
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Headphones/headset jack. I don’t route my headphones through my gamepad, but if you use a gamepad in wireless mode a long way from the computer along with wired headphones, it might be very desireable.
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Can be disassembled. Some gamepads have all sorts of really weird security bits required. Probably doesn’t matter for most people, but of all electronic devices that I’ve personally pulled apart, gamepads have been the most-obnoxious; I have three entirely separate sets of screwdriver security bits that I’ve had to get at various points in time to pull apart gamepads.
This is a good list, but y’know a niche ya missed? Pressure sensitive buttons, only really useful for those emulating old games that used them, but still a fun feature to remember.
Oh, yeah, good point.
It’s not complete, just a mental brain-dump of the last time I was trying to build a list of gamepad features that might be of interest. I’m sure that there are some other missing things as well.
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I use DS4 pads plugged in, but I’d love a newer model that didn’t have a battery, but had the same layout. So many of the cheaper gamepads come with terrible dpads.
PDP Xbox controller. They’re relatively cheap and have a range of options from pretty basic to “elite”
The one I use is a stepup from the basic, with RGB. It has extra buttons on the bottom where your middle fingers rest that can be mapped to other buttons. I have them remapped to be extra bumpers as it’s more comfortable/easier for me to play games that rely on a lot of bumper use.
I recently got a used PS3 controller because I literally couldn’t play some emulated games without the motion controls. It works as well as you’d expect a PlayStation controller to work.
I have had a Power A Fusion for around 5 years now and I love it. Replaced the sticks after a couple years cause the rubber wore out, but no drift issues or anything. Though it depends how hard you are on controllers. I have some friends that basically destroyed theirs in a year or two.
The 8bitdo ultimate or 2C wired look like good options. I haven’t used any of their controllers but I’ve heard good things about them, and they have hall effect joysticks!
I’ve got the 8bitdo Ultimate Bluetooth and it’s great. I finally upgraded to it from my old Xbox 360 wired controller. I would say it’s a worthy successor. I assume the wired versions are solid too.
Yeah, I have the 8bitdo 2C (wireless). Highly recommend it. I’d imagine the wired version is just as good.
I use the wired one on PC and it works and feels great. Also it’s so cheap for such a good product.
Steam Controller
All hail the mighty steam controller
I prefer wired controllers but only if they use usb-c. I’ve had too many micro USB ports wear out on me on the controller side. I think the ps5 controller works well, though my preferred is GameSir. GameSir is a Chinese company but the build quality is excellent, and they use Hall effect sticks. Shipping takes a bit but for the price I don’t think you can go wrong.
Micro USB sucks.
That said, USB C ports do wear out if you bump them a lot, which is a lot more likely in a controller than something like a phone. My laptop USB-C charging port is wearing out because my kids are rough with it while charging. I’d much rather have a cheaper barrel jack than I can solder at home than something complex like USB-C for something that could very likely need a repair in a few years.
I use BT controllers: DualShock 4 and Steam Controller. They work well enough, and I’m a lot less likely to bust the port if it’s only used for charging. I’ll probably upgrade to the DS5 though, since the micro USB charge port is pretty busted now.
Oh yeah, kids add a whole extra layer of fun. I’m not one to solder my own gear, especially circuitry that small, so I prefer the longevity of USB - c, comparatively anyway. Great points!
Same, but I like the option to fix it at some point.
USB-C is really complex electrically due to it being able to flip, which means you have two rows you have to solder instead of the typical one (so basically you have to have a heat gun and know how to use it). But it’s way better than micro USB, so chances are you won’t need to fix it.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen this mentioned yet. It’s a database of tested controllers and their latency.
I wouldn’t. I can’t imagine wanting to go back to a wired controller, especially when they have built in rechargeable batteries now.
I like gamesir’s controllers and have had several. the g7 series is nice for what you describe. they have a wide array of options so check for some reviews to see the festurrsfeatures fully.
Switch Hori controller, $20, great quality especially for the price
I prefer wired. The problem I have with most is that they are battery. Thus, the wired part is always a USB connection that inevitably wears out with use and disconnects randomly.
It’s not an innovative controller with programmable buttons or anything, but the razor controllers have a keyed recess that all but makes it impossible to disconnect or wear the port. It’s really the only selling point, but one that has kept me from looking for anything else.
why do you prefer wired? just wondering
This is just my opinion, and there are always legitimate use cases for wired or wireless. Losing connection at the worst time is the main reason. I play online, so it’s a complete and absolute, non-negotiable dealbraker to me. Every other benefit wireless gives and every other negative wired gives is trumped by this singular requirement.
I won’t go into every situation, but almost every minor issue in wireless results in disconnects. This ends up with me using wired anyways, which leads to the problem in my previous post: worn out USB ports. Wired by comparison has far less disconnects.
On a side note: I also wanted to add (but didn’t feel it was worth editing at the time), razor is stupid expensive for just that one little feature. I’ve had this controller for years, and back then it was the only one I could find like it. To me, it has been worth - but if I was to buy another I’d definitely look for something similar that is cheaper with possibly more features. It wasn’t meant to be a razor promoting post.
valid. even if i haven’t exp the same disconnect issues, i get it. hope you find one that works for your set up.
Honestly, a Dualsense wired up. The special haptics and triggers only work when plugged in, so I plug mine in all the time. Some games, like Pacific Drive, Metro, and Returnal are COMPLETELY transformed by the triggers and haptics. Even the lil speaker makes a difference. My partner and I both use Dualsense controllers but we will never have a PS5 hahaha
If you do the Duaksense Edge you get the nice locking USB connection too, which would reduce wear on the USB port compared to other controllers. It’s easily my most used controller.
Alright I’ll preach from high places about the dualsense but
250+USD for a controller
money isn’t really a problem but nahhhhh this insane hahaha
Quick edit: not even Hall effect laaaaawl
It’s $199 I think, but yeah I understand entirely. I used an Astro C40 before so this was actually the cheaper option of the two.
Ahhh I think it’s cuz I was looking at Canadian prices. That’s quite a lot still! I love my regular Dualsense.
