it's no secret that i don't play a ton of games on an actual xbox but what i am
is an avid xbox controller user although
confession time my weapon of choice even though the xbox one has been out for
years now is still the xbox controller but
i am very hopeful that that changes today i'm getting hands on for the first
time with the new xbox series controller
and i guess i have to call it that right like i can't call it an xbox series x
controller because it's the same controller for the series x and the series s
immediately the back texture is real
nice but before we get too far into it let's do a quick incomplete history of
xbox controllers starting of course with
this one right here so this is the xbox controller s for
small presumably it's got a couple of memory slots on the back remember guys
controllers were all wired in those days so you could totally put you know memory
cards built into your controller it's got triggers on the left and right so
just no no shoulder buttons though so just the triggers and then on the front
it's actually which is kind of crazy not that dissimilar to a current xbox layout
so just an xbox logo in the middle that became a button one generation later you
still got your back and start as well as what did we use these ones for actually
on halo that turned your flashlight on and off and maybe change grenades
pretty cool one controversial innovation for this generation was this breakaway
cable so we've actually already been arguing about it off camera here uh
james is a fan apparently it saved his console from his dad tripping over it
but david and i are sort of more in the this is a really strong connection and i
think the console could probably come off the cable you know in fairness david
we probably don't remember just how heavy the original xbox was yeah so
maybe maybe that's fine moving on the xbox 360 controller is in my opinion one
of the most perfect controllers ever it has a crappy d-pad the finish on the
thumbsticks is quite frankly not very good and you got to get kind of third
party little rubber things to put over it but the contour
oh in my you know small adult large child
sized hands this controller just feels
like home everything is easily within reach except the buttons you frankly
don't really need that often like your xbox button yep that makes its first
appearance here as well as your back and start in the middle and of course in
addition to the triggers we now get shoulder buttons which has become pretty
much the standard these days
bumpers i'm not calling them that they're called bumpers
that the breakaway cable makes a return but only
sort of by default xbox 360 controllers
were wireless so this is just for the people that go out and want to save a
buck and or have slightly lower latency by using a wired controller i mean most
people were pretty forgiving about it because it was cool to have a usb type a
on the controller allowing you to plug it in with automatically installed
drivers on a Windows pc and use it for games i won't say that the experience
was entirely seamless on the pc but it's gotten a lot better now at least we have
that finally they added an accessory jack on the bottom of the controller allowing
you to plug in a keyboard if you had any use for that or more commonly a headset
to which you owe the pleasure of all those shrieking children in your ears
for all those years for the xbox one controller microsoft
wisely didn't really change much it's got the same smoother contour compared
to the original xbox s controller and all they've really done is update the
headset and accessory jacks at the bottom add a charging port so you can charge
with usb micro b terrible connector but yes i know type c
didn't exist yet fine whatever and just like the xbox 360 controller they stuck
with double a batteries which personally i prefer integrated batteries will make
the controller lighter if you go with a lithium style battery but what they also
do is make it a lot more work to change them out when the time comes and you
think about how long a console generation lasts these days you could
very easily wear out your battery in the time that you own it especially that's a
good point because your xbox one controller is actually going to work
with the new series consoles
now let's have a look at these two side by side while they really haven't
changed practically anything uh okay i actually went out of my way
not to look at a ton of coverage of these um because i wanted my impressions
to be just you know fresh but wow i can see why they went for
intergenerational compatibility here because
if i was an xbox user i would be outraged if i had to replace
my basically identical controller with another basically
identical controller i mean to be clear i'm not criticizing microsoft for
sticking with what works if it ain't broke don't fix it but uh wow yeah they
have not changed much back to the texture though that is
markedly better this really grabs on to your hand but not in like an
uncomfortable way it's not like sandpaper but it feels both rougher and
yet somehow more premium even though the plastics
feel pretty similar like they're both reasonably stiff you know this might be
a little more rigid actually that feels pretty good the thumb sticks
look like they have used did they use the same mold even i don't think they
changed at all one welcome addition is a similar d-pad
style to the xbox elite controller well one of the optional versions of the
d-pad included with the xbox elite controller it makes diagonal presses
very easy while still having a really good feel for you know left right down
up games like if you play old emulated games like i do a lot they've added a
share button right in the middle of the controller so you can you know share
things with people who give a sh in all seriousness though you press it to take
a screenshot long press it to record a short gameplay video or double press it
to check out the gallery and through the xbox app you can actually synchronize
all that stuff with your phone where it's much easier to share on social media or whatever now let's talk
tactility because that really is what it comes down to for a controller there's
the feel in the hand and then there's the feel of the buttons and i want to go
straight back to the d-pad actually because that
there we go that is something special
one of the big problems with the 360 controller for me is that the d-pad is
it feels like a joystick with a big flat top on it quite honestly there's no
there's no feel to it you're just kind of mushing it around now the xbox one
controller did improve this a lot you can even hear it
it's not so mushy the new series controller
whole new level i would even say it goes as far as to
make it a little stiff compared to a good controller like the switch pro one
or the ps4 d-pad is pretty good
the ps4 d-pad is four buttons david your fanboy is showing
that's what a d pad no those are good for selecting items
playing super mario on that thing it's a little crunchy yeah yeah playing like
you know an elder scrolls game or something like that i'm navigating like oh i know i pressed that
but are they solving a problem that they never really had like it's not like
ah it is better i i'm i'm saying yeah this this is this
is clearly better but if i was playing retro games
that's rough what about a fighting game where you're doing combos like you're rolling it like down forward punch
doesn't feel great you hear that kind of crunchy sound like
the tactility of the diagonal is only
provided by the tactility of the down and the
directions like you hear that it doesn't sound like click click or even click
click it's just
like it's not very satisfying for that the z-axis
on the joysticks is really stiff these are both new they feel
very similar so it might just be the newness
i don't think they've really changed the feel of the abx y buttons in
over a decade now these feel very similar type c charging
another big improvement i am a huge whatever the opposite of a fan is i'm a
hater okay when it comes to micro b i think it's a terrible crappy fragile
port this is a great improvement and once again
double a batteries are back one thing to watch out for guys is that even though
they look nearly identical in size the
battery compartment is ever so slightly smaller so
many third-party like battery pack like charge pack accessories and stuff like
that will fit but microsoft is advising you that if it doesn't seem to quite fit
don't sit just you'll have to get a new one unfortunately i wonder if even like
these covers are interchangeable now i want to try it
nope yeah that's not going to work like visually i can't even tell the
difference between these things but they are oh yeah there you go no there's
a little lip there yeah that's a difference the good news about the if it
ain't broke don't fix it approach is that the conclusion for this is pretty
simple if you like the xbox one controller you're gonna like the xbox
series controller because it's basically the same thing just with a little bit of
additional functionality this is gonna save a ton of e-waste because your
player one controller the one that comes with the console anyway you're gonna
have that share button like who's gonna be hitting the share button and managing
the freaking gallery when you've got friends over so all your secondary tertiary quaternary
controllers can just be you know old xbox one controllers and there's no
functionality lost i think sony is making a huge mistake with the forced
non-intergenerational compatibility with the ps4 and ps5 controllers i get it you
got some extra you know special haptic whatever
nonsense but like i think game developers are pretty smart i think they
could figure out how to have like a you know use the rumble or something to
simulate it or you know something in an emergency
they have some compatibility right no so the you can use this on
backwards compatible games so on ps4 games that's that's not
intergenerational compatibility that's like the most arbitrary nonsense that's
taking something that works and intentionally making it not work like
sony shirt for your first party titles you can just say yeah requires x
controller it's not like there's no precedent for that like nintendo does it
all the time you can't play this fitness game unless you buy a 100 balance board
yeah exactly sony themselves has done it sorry this is turning into a rant about
why sony's controller strategy this generation is anti-consumer
anti-environment and basically just dumb
but that's just sony for you you know remember memory stick because i remember
remember to subscribe because i remembered that too see you later