Discovering the perfect controller for enjoying PC video games is a extra private journey than it sounds. It’s bought to be snug to make use of, with each button, stick, and set off simply in attain. It’s additionally necessary that you simply’re getting the options you need. For instance, these would possibly embody straightforward setup on PC, good battery life, multi-platform compatibility, and accessibility choices, like the power to remap buttons and regulate stick or set off sensitivity.
At Polygon, we play video games on plenty of consoles and platforms — each new and previous. Our workers has all kinds of preferences and wishes. We’ve come collectively to share our favourite PC-ready controllers.
Microsoft Xbox controller
On the Polygon crew, the Xbox controller bought the best variety of endorsements of any controller. This speaks to its consolation and worth, and that Microsoft has launched sufficient colours to fulfill various tastes in design. It additionally helps that it’s often round $50 (relying on the colour), and that it simply works with most PC video games. Whatever the Home windows PC recreation shopper, there are not any additional steps for setting it up.
This controller is a refined model of Microsoft’s Xbox One wi-fi mannequin, with added texture round its grips, plus a seize button within the center. It may, after all, hook up with Xbox consoles, and to PCs which have Bluetooth. One universally constructive change from the older model is that, if you wish to join by way of a cable for wired play, its connector port is the extra ubiquitous USB-C as a substitute of Micro USB. It additionally has a 3.5mm headphone jack for personal listening, although it may well solely be used in case your controller is wired into your PC, not wirelessly.
Past PC compatibility, the Xbox controller boasts native compatibility on current variations of Android and iOS. So, whether or not you might have a telephone or pill, this controller can simply join by way of Bluetooth. A rising variety of cellular video games assist it, too, and it really works like a allure with the Xbox Recreation Move recreation streaming app.
It may work on much more platforms if you are going to buy 8BitDo’s intelligent $19.99 USB Adapter 2. With it, you should use the Xbox controller in your Nintendo Change. Along with Change assist, this USB adapter permits you to simply join your Xbox controller to different gadgets, like Mac, Raspberry Pi, and extra.
The most important draw back to the Xbox controller may not hassle you: It requires two AA batteries, although on a constructive word, the battery life is across the 40-hour vary, relying on utilization. Should you don’t wish to change out batteries, we advocate this $44.99 8BitDo dual controller charging dock, which incorporates two rechargeable battery packs, sufficient for 2 controllers.
Microsoft’s Xbox Elite Collection 2 builds on the wonderful basis of Microsoft’s Xbox controller with options that fanatic players might recognize. It options swappable stick caps and directional pads, adjustable rigidity for its analog sticks, and customizable again paddles. It additionally ships in a pleasant zip-up case. If you’d like extra buttons and tweakable settings in a controller, this could be value its $178.99 worth. This mannequin is appropriate with Xbox and PC.
Sony DualSense controller
There’s one other slice of our workers who swear by Sony’s DualSense, a contemporary controller that retains the symmetrical analog stick association that PlayStation controllers are identified for. In contrast on to the Xbox controller, the DualSense has comparable ranges of compatibility (each are appropriate with Android and iOS, and have built-in Bluetooth for assist on PC). Nonetheless, the DualSense does have key variations, in addition to a couple of perks that assist to justify its greater $69.99 worth.
By way of utilizing the DualSense on a PC, it’s potential to do, however it’s somewhat difficult. It may join by way of Bluetooth for a wi-fi connection, however video games that don’t assist the DirectInput controller API probably received’t acknowledge it as a controller. Plugging the controller into your PC would possibly clear up that subject, however there are different methods to get round this barrier if taking part in wirelessly is necessary to you.
One is to depend on Steam, which helps the DualSense controller with its SteamInput API. That makes Sony’s controller a first-class citizen within the eyes of Steam, proper subsequent to the Xbox controller, and loads of video games ought to provide no-fuss DualSense assist.
In case you have PC video games that you simply wish to play on different companies, like PC Recreation Move, Epic Video games Retailer, and extra, you would possibly expertise some middling compatibility with the DualSense. Nonetheless, including them as a “non-Steam recreation” inside Steam can clear up for this. To do that, click on the “Add a Recreation” choice within the backside left nook of the Steam shopper, then discover the executable file (.exe) in your storage.
To get round utilizing Steam solely, you may obtain an app referred to as DS4Windows along with some drivers, which ensures recreation compatibility on PC by emulating the DualSense as an Xbox controller. The app offers you a bunch of settings to customise the DualSense’s button mapping, if you want. And, in case you wish to go down the rabbit gap of determining which PC video games assist the DualSense’s haptics and adaptive set off options (and the steps to getting them to work), the positioning PCGamingWiki has you lined.
The DualSense is the official controller for the PS5. In video games that assist its options, it may well have realistic-feeling haptic suggestions and gyroscopic movement controls, and its triggers can present rigidity to make sure actions really feel extra sensible. There’s no higher controller for the PS5 than this one. It’s a very good controller for utilizing PS Distant Play, too. When it’s linked to an Android gadget for a PS Remote Play session, the DualSense helps adaptive triggers in video games that reap the benefits of the characteristic.
8BitDo’s $19.99 USB Adapter 2 additionally works completely with the DualSense, letting you play video games in your Change with it as soon as it’s paired. I most well-liked to play Splatoon 3 with my PS5 controller’s analog stick association. Heck, it even helps gyroscopic digital camera motion, similar to the official Change controllers.
Identical to Microsoft, Sony additionally has its personal pro-grade controller. It’s the $199.99 DualSense Edge, which is appropriate with the PS5. It’s tempting to name out its similarities to the Xbox Elite Collection 2, of which there are lots, however it’s extra useful to talk about the way it differs. For one, its stick modules may be changed solely — a transfer that makes the DualSense Edge somewhat extra user-repairable. Additionally, the PS5’s interface for the Edge is intuitive, and it makes remapping controls and setting schemes the breeze that it ought to be.
Whereas the Edge is appropriate on PC, Sony and Steam haven’t developed drivers that allow players take full benefit of its again paddles and swappable management schemes.
Nintendo Change Professional controller
The Change Professional controller is one other workers favourite. If it’s an ideal Nintendo Change and PC controller you’re after, that is the head when it comes to consolation, sturdiness, battery life, and different Change-specific extras, however we’ll get to these somewhat later.
The Change Professional controller can be utilized to play PC video games. However just like the DualSense, it’s not a plug-and-play affair except you actually plug it in by way of USB. To make use of it wirelessly, working Steam may also help you out, because it officially supports the Change Professional controller. Including non-Steam video games to your Steam library is a intelligent approach to make sure compatibility for video games that assist controllers. Once more, you are able to do that by clicking the “Add a Recreation” choice on the underside left nook within the Steam shopper.
Alternatively, when you don’t wish to use Steam to play your video games, counting on DS4Windows and its bevy of drivers is a free but barely superior option to make Home windows acknowledge your Change Professional wi-fi controller. In fact, that $19.99 8BitDo USB Adapter 2 that I preserve referencing can turn out to be useful right here, too. After plugging it into your PC and tethering wirelessly to it, you’re good to go — no fussing with apps required.
The Change Professional controller is, unsurprisingly, a improbable Change controller. Just like the Pleasure-Cons, it helps movement controls, HD rumble for extra refined, correct jolts of haptic suggestions in video games, and amiibo connectivity to redeem in-game perks in a number of video games, together with the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
This may appear small, however it stands out as being one of some wi-fi Change controllers in existence that may wake the console remotely by holding down its house button. Many require you to manually activate the console, which generally is a minor annoyance.
8BitDo Final 2.4g controller
8BitDo has launched plenty of controllers in recent times, however the title for its Final controller is becoming. It has most of the options from its finest gamepads, plus some extras that ought to settle any sticker shock related to its $49.99 worth.
For starters, its asymmetrical analog stick structure, general form, and face button labels ought to really feel proper at house for individuals who love the form of the Xbox controller. All the buttons, triggers, and sticks really feel simply pretty much as good to make use of as any trendy controller from a console producer.
Like a number of different 8BitDo controllers, this one may be completely custom-made with its Final software program on cellular gadgets, or on PC. From there, you may remap controls, assign buttons to its two rear paddle buttons, tweak the actuation sensitivity of its triggers, and regulate stick settings. The controller permits as much as three customized management schemes, which you’ll swap between with its center “star” button.
The Final controller ships with a charging dock, and nesting inside that dock is a 2.4 GHz transmitter that makes it quick and simple to connect with a PC. The dock makes for a handy option to cost the controller, and you may swap between DirectInput and XInput through the use of a swap on its again, relying on the necessities of every PC recreation.
8BitDo makes a pricier model of this controller with Nintendo-style face buttons referred to as the Ultimate Bluetooth. They’re just about similar, and it may well work by way of 2.4 GHz with PC, too. Nonetheless, its largest profit is its Gulikit Corridor impact analog sticks, that are immune to growing drift over time by design. By comparability, the potentiometer-based sticks used within the Final 2.4g (and all the different controllers talked about up to now) bear no such assure. There’s a risk it’s possible you’ll by no means expertise the difficulty firsthand, however the anti-drifting sticks alone could be a motive for some to contemplate shopping for the Final Bluetooth.
The Final Bluetooth is comparable in plenty of methods to Nintendo’s Change Professional controller, with its movement management assist, rechargeable battery, and Nintendo-style face button structure. Nonetheless, it doesn’t have all of the identical options. For example, it doesn’t assist NFC, so you may’t faucet an amiibo on it, and its haptics aren’t as much as par with Nintendo’s. Nonetheless, it’s one of some third-party Change controllers that may wake your console from sleep. If it’s paired, press the house button, then shake the controller to awaken the Change.