The Video Game Revue

Controller Showdown: Part 2

Picking up where I left off...

D-Pad

The story of the directional pad or "d-pad" is pretty much the inverse of what happened to the shoulder buttons: the d-pad was once the single most important feature of a console controller, and has since languished to the point where it is typically used for in-game menus or similar auxiliary functions. Modern console games have gravitated toward the use of analog thumb-sticks and left the d-pad in the dust.

That having been said, the d-pad is not entirely unimportant, since some popular games do make good use of it. It's often used for weapon-swapping in FPS games like Gears of War, and some players prefer it over the analog stick for old school fighting games like Street Fighter II and Soul Calibur. The d-pad is just important enough to matter, but not enough to make or break a system.

This is fortunate for the Xbox 360 because it has one of the most finicky and difficult d-pads of perhaps any popular console since before the NES--more than twenty years ago. Between the 360 and the PS3, there is no contest here: the PS3 d-pad is flat-out superior in every way.

Tilt Controls

The PS3 offers some motion controls built-in to the joystick, while the 360 does not. However, the PS3 tilt controls feel laggy and inaccurate, and I have yet to see them used for much more than novelty purposes. Most of the time I forget that this feature of the PS3 even exists, so while this is another victory for the PS3, it's a hollow one.

Weight

One of the nice things about the PS3 controller is that it's nice and light. The DualShock 3 is significantly heavier than the rumble-less Sixaxis, but the 360 controller is heavier still--particularly with those battery packs that the wireless controllers rely on.

In all my years playing console games to date, I've never really thought about the weight of my controllers before. This is because it's never been severe enough to make me notice the weight contributing to fatiguing my hands until now. That is, in a nutshell, how heavy the 360 controllers are.

Don't get me wrong: this is not a serious problem. I hardly ever notice the heft of my 360 controllers, but it's one of those small factors that combines with other things like a slightly uncomfortable R-Trigger and stiff analog joysticks that makes the 360 controller a little hard on the hands. Honestly, most players will never notice or care, but since I'm going into detail to compare the 360 controllers against the PS3 controllers, this is worth mentioning.

Analog Sticks

This is by far the most important aspect of the two controllers, since they are heavily used in all kinds of console games these days. It's only over time that I've noticed much in the way of differences between PS3 and 360 analog sticks; when one is "in the zone" and not thinking at all about one's hands, there doesn't seem to be much difference.

The first thing to notice is that the placement is different. The PS3 analog sticks are aligned horizontally, while the 360 controllers place the left analog stick higher up--in a spot where the D-pad traditionally resides. At first I expected for this to make some kind of significant difference in how the controllers handle relative to each other, but I haven't been able to notice any.

The shape of the tops of the analog sticks is another story. I initially found that the 360 analog sticks tend to dig into my thumbs, partly because of the concave design of the tops, and partly because the analog sticks themselves are stiffer (provide more resistance). Over time I got used to these features of the 360 controller and sometimes I even feel like I can get a slightly better grip on the 360's analog sticks than on the PS3's. However, I would say that the convex design of the PS3 analog stick tops is more comfortable and works well.

The difference in resistance is the biggest factor in how these analog sticks affect my gameplay. I find that because the 360 controller requires more force, it is easier to snap to a certain direction accurately with the 360 sticks. That is to say that if I suddenly need to make a hard motion in a certain direction, the extra resistance seems to make my motions more accurate once I've adjusted to using the 360 controller. The PS3 controller, by contrast, requires more finesse.

There is a trade-off here, however: not only does the PS3 controller require more finesse, but I find that it allows more finesse. It is easier to hold the PS3 stick in place only a small way from center than on the 360 controller--in other words, it is easier to make soft movements.

The general gist of all of this is that I find that the 360 controller works a little better for twitch action titles like fighting games and FPSes, while the PS3 controller works a little better for games with more sim style controls like driving and flying games. That having been said, any game that appears on either console should be tuned with that platform's hardware in mind and will therefore account for the particular strengths and weaknesses of that system's controller.

Overall, I would call this category a tie. I started off liking the PS3 analog sticks better, but I've gotten so accustomed to the 360 controller for certain titles that I think a PS3 controller would throw me off. If there is any victory to be had here one way or the other, I think it is marginal and would play a distant second to individual taste.

Coming next... still more?

posted by Parappa @ 9:58 PM