My latest video is VERY SPECIAL to me

So... my latest video is pretty special. All the cutaway segments were filmed by my little brother Ephraim. I'm actually going to be hiring him as my official videographer due in no small part to you kind lot and your generous donations. I plan on doing many of these more involved videos. Let me know what you think!

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If you know me or have been watching this channel for any length of time, you'll know that I fancy myself a CONTROLLER NERD. I love controllers. I collect controllers. I think they're awesome. I was sitting here appreciating my collection of controllers when I realized that I don't talk about them nearly enough on my channel. And having had

#5 Xbox 360

Let's be honest, the Xbox 360 controller is the defacto gamepad for PC games. It's a solid controller with support across the board, even for games that you shouldn't be playing with a controller on PC.

It's great in that "lowest common denominator" kind of way. It has four face buttons, analogue and responsive triggers, perfectly clicky bumpers, a grouping of function buttons including back, home, and start, and concave thumbsticks. It also has this killer accessory--the chatpad. And this works on Linux when using the xboxdrv driver. [chatpad connects to controller with shotgun sound]

But the 360, for all its positives--is lacking in several places. For example, the ergonomics of the pad are surpassed by every other controller on this list. And maybe I've just been unlucky, but every gamepad I've bought after the initial run has has serious issues with both thumbstick sensitivity and deadzones.

To use 360 controllers on PC you either need a wired controller (which is its own SKU for some reason) or a wireless dongle to connect the gamepad's proprietary 2.4 GHz signal to your PC.

And bad news: this controller is over a decade old. Its age sets it apart from other controllers on this list--missing modern features that I consider must-haves for PC gaming in 2021.

But the D-pad might be its most egregious sin. This mushy, awkwardly placed disc-shaped abomination resigns you to playing platformers with analogue sticks. And anyone who does that is damned to hell for eternity.

Look, the 360 pad was designed with shooters in mind... not just shooters, but Halo, specifically...

And you might be throwing your keyboard through your monitor at this point "SHOOTERS WITH A GAMEPAD?" Look, you're right. On PC? You have better options for shooters on a gamepad. And that's not really how ***I*** use gamepads on PC anyway.

Really, on a PC this layout is best for racing and third person shooters... but again, there are better controllers on this list.

So let's talk about them...

#4 Steam Controller

The Steam Controller is rad. It's awesome. It's amazing. It also quickly becomes incomprehensible. And that's its biggest flaw.

Physically, the Steam Controller fits great in my large-ish hands. Valve dared to upend the status quo when it comes to their first-party gamepad--eschewing the familiar dual thumbstick/facebutton combo for two large trackpads, a single thumbstick and awkwardly placed face buttons. But that's not all, the bumpers and analog triggers are complemented by a second-stage digital trigger click and grip buttons on the rear.

But the controller really shines--and also falls flat--when it comes to software. Very few titles support this gamepad natively, and Valve knew this would be the case. So they integrated customization features right into Steam that allows you to not only perfectly tailor your inputs to your favorite games--but also confuse the hell out of yourself and everyone else who dares to download your configuration.

And, yeah, the face buttons are awkwardly placed... but they are good enough as is and are less important than face buttons usually are given how customizable the gamepad is. The thumbstick is also a bit of a stretch for my thumb and it's convex top always makes my thumb slip off. I'm tempted to say that this [show timelapse of moving analog stick to left trackpad in GIMP] would have been a better layout for the Steam Controller, but then everyone would know that I secretly prefer playing shooters with the Steam Controller.

But the trackpads. Oh man, these trackpads. They're better than sex. They feel amazing, allowing you to have course camera control with the swipe of a finger or finer adjustments with more conscious movements. They also have haptic feedback which gives you the impression that they're rolling like a trackball.

The best and most eye-opening feature of the Steam Controller is one Valve included more as an afterthought and the community discovered on its own: motion controls.

The software allows you to only activate gyro aiming when your thumb is resting on the trackpad, and this gives you a level of acuity on a gamepad that approaches the accuracy of a mouse. And this is important because if you're going to play a shooter with a gamepad and you're not using gyro aiming, then you'd be better off not playing a shooter at all.

That's awesome... but then again... few games actually natively support the Steam Controller. So when you've mapped an xinput A button press to the right grip, the game doesn't know that and just shows you an A prompt. [Shot of google image search for "a button"] And for all your big gamer brain, until you've fully inculcated yourself in this new controller scheme, it might as well be an unknowable prayer to elder gods. Keep in mind that even if you're familiar with emulation and you're used to using a dualshock controller to play SNES games--this is different. At least on a dualshock there's a 1 to 1 mapping and your muscle memory can just kinda take over. Here? You can map whatever functionality to whatever button... and the game is non-the-wiser--and neither are you.

And there's so much potential here for mapping.. you can set the left stick to be the left Xbox stick and the right trackpad to mouse input... but in many instances, the game gets confused and either locks out mouse input when using a gamepad or alternates displaying gamepad and keyboard prompts when using "both" on the Steam Controller at once. So you either have to configure the left analog stick to work like a keyboard button and deal with keyboard and mouse prompts which in no way correspond to your Steam Controller or use the right trackpad as an analog stick and lose most of the benefits of even having a trackpad.

The Steam Controller is also wireless. It supports 2.4Ghz via proprietary dongle and bluetooth.

Now, if more could be done to resolve the software compatibility issues--and the pad was still in production--the Steam Controller would be #1 on my list. And for games (shooters) it actually is my #1. But most of the games I prefer to play are platformers. So let's talk move on to controllers that don't SUCK for that kind of game.

#3 DualSense

Okay, here we have the Sony PlayStation DualSense. This is the PlayStation 5 controller. It is cool and functionality for PC is constantly evolving as Valve and the Linux kernel develop the software needed to interact with this device.

And this controller is interesting. In many ways it feels and functions identically to its older brother the DualShock 4. It has four well-sized face buttons, three function buttons, bumpers, analog triggers, two thumbsticks, a great d-pad, and a large and clickable trackpad. The left-side of the controller lends itself well to platformers, since there's only one right way to play a side scroller... and that's with a D-pad. It also has motion controls and audio capabilities...

But it differs from its predecessor with a built-in microphone, adaptive triggers (which aren't supported, yet on PC), and HD rumble... which is kinda weird right now as it exposes itself on my system as a freakin' audio device. [Play music through the rumble] Yes. I'm playing music through the haptics of the DualSense.

It interfaces with your PC via either bluetooth or the (thankfully) USB type-C port on the top of the controller.

But all this extra technology means that they had to cut some corners in a few places. The D-pad feels like it has slightly more travel than the DS4, which makes it slightly less responsive. It also has looser build tolerances--at least in this initial run. [Compare barely touching the D-pad between DS4 and Sense]

The face buttons also feel looser here, with more room to move the button without triggering a press, which also requires more force and responds with less of a satisfying click. [cutaway to me picking up the DS and pressing a face button. Disappointed face. Pick up a DS4 and push a button. "Ohh yeah. That's the stuff."]

The ergonomics of the DualSense are good, but thumb placement here is slightly less optimum for my hands since I have to actually pull my thumbs back awkwardly to reach both left and circle.

So... okay... I've compared the DualSense to the DualShock 4 a lot... mostly unfavorably... but don't let that fool you. These are all rather nit-picky issues. And I've gotta get this video to 10 minutes somehow.

Fact is, between the trackpad, available gyro aiming, good D-pad, and USB-C port--this is one of my all-time favorite controllers for PC. And it stands on its own as a fantastic piece of gaming ingenuity.

#2 Switch Pro Controller

This Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. This pad is awesome. Xbox-style thumbstick placement--which, for shooters--is my preferred style, four large and responsive face buttons, an extra function button, four digital shoulder buttons, and a surprisingly only "okay" d-pad.

[Cut to me saying "Nintendo... I thought we had something special."]

The Switch Pro also offers motion controls, so you can enable gyro-aim using Steam's controller config. This is a critical feature in my opinion. However, choosing when gyro aim is activated is especially difficult with the Switch Pro Controller since it only has digital shoulder buttons and this usually has to be configured on a per-game basis. Ideally, in a game that has discreet aiming, you can enable the gyro when holding the aim trigger... but other games might not lend themselves as well to this option.

The gamepad has bluetooth connectivity as well as a USB type-C port--which is really the only good option. [reuse ds usb shot] And I want to complain about the D-pad. This is better than the 360's D-pad, but it feel a little stiff and also just less responsive than the DualSense D-pad.

Overall, though, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is a fantastic option if you don't need analog triggers. And really, the digital triggers and D-pad placement are the only things that keeps this from being #1 in my book.

#1 DualShock 4

Okay, so we talked about the PS5 controller and honestly not a lot changed between generations. But every nit-pick I had the DualSense really had to do with comparing that device directly against the DualShock 4.

The DS4 has immensely satisfying face buttons [cut to shiver of me "ohhh yeah"], excellent analogue sticks, the best-in-class D-pad, three function buttons, analogue triggers, well-placed bumpers, motion controls, and a clickable trackpad. It also has audio capabilities that I've literally never used. It connect to your PC via bluetooth and (gags) micro USB and has a god awful light bar that illuminates everything within 100 yards of it.

Despite the awful use of micro USB and the hideous light bar (which you can thankfully control with Steam Input) the DualShock 4 is, I believe, the best gamepad for PC. Bar none.

It has the best thumbsticks with the best placement, the best ergonomics, and simply goes toe-to-toe with the the lowest common denominator (the Xbox 360 controller) while also providing the best implementations of required features for a PC controller. Namely, gyro-controls, its d-pad, and the touchpad. Which, by the way, is useful for that 10-foot experience of sitting on the sofa and playing a PC game. Plus, the touchpad can be customized via Steam Input to do any number of things in game.

Also, this controller's ergonomics are--simply put--perfect. If I'm going to play a shooter on PC, I'm gonna use a mouse and keyboard or a Steam Controller. So for me, the analog stick placement on the DS4 is perfect. The grips are shaped well for my hands and leave my fingers and more specifically thumbs where I can comfortably reach every control without having to channel the spirit of my contortionist Aunt Caroline.

Many games also detect the DS4 and change button prompts accordingly. While not directly a feature of the gamepad, it just one of those "icing on the cake" things that increases the DualShock's lead against all the other controllers available for PC.

Conclusion

Okay, so you might be wondering: why didn't I include the Xbox One and Xbox Series X controllers on this list? [JK Simmons laughing gif]