Tried the PS4 today

[superballs]

So, I got my hands around a PS4 controller and got to play some FIFA14.

Ok, graphics as expected are great. But what I want to talk about is the controller.

My biggest gripe with the PS controller since PS1 has been the flimsy feeling analog sticks. They're precise as any other, but the lack of resistance whatsoever made them feel, to me, like fancy 360 degree control sticks.

This is something that Sony has certainly rectified. While I wish they would have placed the left stick in the foremost position, where they kept the D-Pad, but overall, they feel nice, I suppose i could get used to the position.

The analog triggers are a big step up from the PS3. Fingers don' slip off them nearly as easily, but they don't hold a candle to those on the XBOX 360.

Overall, while being very small, they are also very comfortable and maintained nice ergonomics. Given that I've been a Dreamcast, XBOX and 360 owner, it is an adjustment, but one that won't take very long. The controller does feel good.

Unfortunately I didn't get to play with the pad in the middle.

Fifa was pretty nice too. As someone who is not getting an XBOX1, I was a bit apprehensive on what the PS4 could offer controller-wise, it's no longer a worry.

 

[Gord Lacey]

While I wish they would have placed the left stick in the foremost position, where they kept the D-Pad, but overall, they feel nice, I suppose i could get used to the position.

I've noticed that comment a few places, and it always comes from the XBox crowd. Sony has never had a stick there, so those that have gone from the PS1->PS2->PS3->PS4 would be really, really confused if they had decided to move it there. Definitely an area for a 3rd party company to step in and provide an alternative.

 

[superballs]

I've noticed that comment a few places, and it always comes from the XBox crowd. Sony has never had a stick there, so those that have gone from the PS1->PS2->PS3->PS4 would be really, really confused if they had decided to move it there. Definitely an area for a 3rd party company to step in and provide an alternative.

I agree with you, Gord, that coming from the PS systems, it's just the way it was, and I remember it back from when i first gleefully unwrapped my first dual shock in the mid 90s, however, the XBOX controller borrowed the general placement heavily from the Dreamcast, and even to a point from the Gamecube, and to a degree the N64, where the analog stick wasn't in the same postion relative to the D-Pad, but it was still more or less front-row center and in a postion that I personally find more comfortable.

The Sony design is a throwback to the original PS controller which didn't have an analog stick whatsoever, so the analog sticks were added on as an option, an alternate method to the digital pad, which was the primary control method, and therefore was in the position for primary comfort.

That said, just to clarify, I think Sony themselves should put out an alternate design, ensuring the quality of a first party peripheral and allowing both options, but that's just me.

Otherwise, I'm willing to adjust as MS lost my console business as of their announcement of the 1.

 

[grashopper]

Yea I don't get why they don't make two official controllers. Let us choose our preference. If one choice runs away with it drop the other

 

[brakel]

For the year that I owned a 360 I never could get used to the controller. Since I was still playing on the PS3 probably didn't help. I had to heavily modify my DualShock3 in order to get comfortable with it but I couldn't get over the offset sticks of the 360 controller. My head kept expecting them to be mirrored. For the DualShock3 I bought after market trigger caps and thumb stick caps as well as a rubber skin for the whole controller. But for the 360 I couldn't move one of the sticks. I eventually made my own trigger caps out of some silicone stuff for my DualShock3 and I kept the after market stick caps and the rubber skin. It's the only way I can be comfortable with the controller. Now that I've played with the DualShock4 for several days I don't think I'm going to need to do any modification to it. The only thing I need to get used to is that I can't just set the controller down on the arm of my chair or my knee and expect it to stay there. With the rubber skin the DualShock3 would stay wherever I put it but the "naked" DualShock4 just slides off!