Cray Grey
I've went through a number of gamepads over the years, dating back to when they connected to the PC via an analogue gameport. I've had pads from the likes of Thrustmaster, Saitek and a few others, most recently using a PS2 controller via a USB Adapter, which was far from ideal.
Over time, the layout of the Xbox 360 controller has become something of a standard for PC games that use a joypad. Many games already include mappings for the controller, and Steam's big picture mode more or less assumes that you're using one. I was looking for a new controller, so with all this in mind I decided to go for the wireless version of the gamepad for windows.
The last time I used an Xbox controller was on the original Xbox with one of the original humongous controllers. I don't have the smallest hands in the world, but that thing made them ache after an hour or so. Not so here; the controller is a nice size, the analogue sticks are positioned well in range of my thumbs, and the overall balance of the gamepad feels good. It also doesn't resort to any of that nasty grippy rubber paint that was all the rage not that long ago. That stuff doesn't last in a tropical climate, tuning into a sticky, messy goop that then has to be removed.
As others have mentioned, the Windows version of the pad uses AA batteries. Myself, I see this as a bonus. Instead of relying on a LiPo pack that may or may not survive more than a year's worth of use (I've heard really bad things about the kit that adds a Lithium battery to the controller) NiMh rechargeable AA's tend to be quite robust, and they're dirt cheap. If they were ever to die, replacements these days are about $1.50 apiece. Ever since low self-discharge cells became the norm, having them go flat by themselves is no longer an issue. Thank you Sanyo for your Eneloops and Amazon for your Amazon Basics AA's; I have a pile of both types at home.
The integration of the gamepad into Steam's big picture interface is impressive. Having it mapped to the Xbox 360 controller layout was a smart move on Valve's part as they were able to concentrate on the on-screen prompts being consistent, etc. It makes me wonder how SteamOS will be once it launches.
Software-wise, the gamepad ships with next to nothing. A driver CD is supplied, which installs drivers and little else. This is the source of the controller's greatest failing; unless you're playing a Games for Windows Live game (hereby referred to as GfWL), there is no way supplied to turn the controller off once you're done. It supposedly turns itself off after a short period of inactivity, but I've heard that can be unreliable (I'm testing this at the moment, and it's yet to turn itself off since I started writing this review). Many resort to disconnecting the batteries once they're done to turn the controller off, which is a workable (if clunky) solution.
If this were what we were stuck with, I'd have docked a star, perhaps 2 for this alone. It doesn't detract from the gamepad while in use, but it's an annoyance that seems doubly odd given a mechanism exists to explicitly turn the gamepad off from software, but that software isn't provided with the gamepad to cover all eventualities. Only the abomination that is GfWL gets that level of control.
Thankfully, the community at large had a bit of a poke about, and the "Xbox360 Controller Manager" was born. This is a little tool that sits quietly in your system tray and responds to a long press of the guide button (the silver button in the middle) with a prompt to turn that controller off. The tool itself takes single-digits of MB of memory, which is background noise in this day and age.
For those of you that haven't already discovered this essential little piece of software, you can get it here:
http://pety.me/XboxExt/
Save it wherever, add a shortcut in your "Startup" start menu folder, and then forget about it. Using it will become second nature, and you'll forget that it's a 3rd-party application. Honestly, this utility removes the one problem I had with the gamepad, and does it so effectively that I can't help but wonder why Microsoft didn't ship it with something similar.
Overall, I highly recommend this. The biggest niggle I had with it was solved by its users, and if you're looking for a wireless controller for Windows, there really isn't any reason not to get one.
P.S. I'm done with this review, and the controller still hasn't turned itself off. Thankfully, there's an app for that...
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
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Shawn