Question Of The Week [July 10th 2024]

Q: What Is Your Favorite Controller?

A: Honestly I think the answer to “What is my favorite gaming controller?” is pretty simple for me. But before I answer it, let’s break down the question a little bit. What is the main function on a controller? It’s there to control the character right? So as long as that works, that’s the single main requirement. Everything else comes out to personal preference. But, I think a controller also needs to be comfortable. It needs to fit in the player’s hands properly, allowing for all buttons to be accessed easily and not cause fatigue after a long play session.

So, with those things in mind, the Xbox One Elite Series 2 is easily my favorite gaming controller. Sure it is a bit pricey at around $150 for a controller, and even when it came out back in 2019, it could have used a couple extra little things, but what it does do, it does perfectly.

The best feature to me, is that it feels perfect. It’s hefty and weighty, it’s built like a brick and feels about as heavy as one. Upon the first initial play session, I was aware of how heavy it felt in my hands, but after the first time, I never thought about it again… that is until I picked up a “normal” controller. Normal controllers feel like baby’s toys now. So light and plasticy it just doesn’t feel right anymore to pick up a normal controller.

Along with the weight of the Elite Series 2, another big feature is the back paddles. These are 4 separate paddles on the back of the controller that will remap to any front facing button, and it allows me to rest my middle, ring or pinkys on them and casually tap or hold instead of moving my fingers to awkward positions. One of my favorites is using one of the paddles as a Stick Click. You know, like when you need to sprint in a game, and you have to click the left or right stick inwards (now known as the L3 and R3 buttons)? Instead of having to move my thumbs inwards and press down and hold it down while also trying to move the stick (which is much harder to do than it sounds), I can just casually click and hold the paddle. It’s a game changer.

Plus the controller boasts a feature to save different profiles and switch to them on the fly with a button press. Being able to set a driving game profile, a flying game profile and a separate fighting game profile is just insane! Also, a nifty little never talked about feature is being able to control the color and brightness of the actual Xbox Guide Button… for each profile! I didn’t even get to tweaking the Triggers to be short or long thrown and the different dead zones and profiles of the thumbsticks along with swappable thumbsticks too. It really is the perfect controller. And with both the Xbox Wireless technology and Bluetooth, it really makes it a joy to use on the PC for PC gaming and retro games with emulators.