Controllers Peaked with the DualShock | Semi-Ramblomatic

For third-person games and *especially* driving games, mouse and keyboard offers tremendously fine control over exactly what direction you're looking with the mouse, and then terribly clunky control over your character's actual movement, generally limited by WASD states. Sometimes you have to do ridiculous feather-y micro tap-tap-taaaps of a button -- it's really hard to call that as good as an analog thumbstick. Re: what controller is peak -- I'll agree with others here that the XBox controller and the Gamecube controller are more comfortable to hold than a DualShock. But, yeah, they're pretty much just sliiiight tweaks to the DualShock layout and they know it.

I would say the GameCube controller is better but as discussed, it’s broadly similar. However, those adaptive triggers and the unique positioning and size of the A button meaning it’s easy to push it and another button at once made for some very interesting gameplay.

Three things, sorry if I ramble: I only recently got my first gaming PC and so my first experience with keyboard and mouse controls. I *immediately* gravitated towards using the keyboard only for first-person games, point-and-click adventures (pretty obvious I suppose) and more menu-heavy games and my controller for everything else, just like Yahtzee did but coming from the opposite direction. Still not used to keyboard controls but I seem to understand inherently when it's worth the effort. I rather like Switch 2 joycon-with-grip arrangement these days, my small, stubby hands seem to find it the most comfortable. No drift issues after pretty constant use since launch, too, so I'm glad Nintendo finally dealt with that particular MASSIVE FUCK-UP FOR WHICH THEY WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN. Thirdly: Yahtz, you really really should watch Jacob Geller's video about playing the Ace Combat series with a flight stick. It'll give you a different perspective to really chew on, I think.

In general the dualshock, or it's descendants, are the best joystick type controllers. The exception being for games like street fighter where a more classic arcade type controller is much better.

i played my n64 for years and i've still got no idea how you're supposed to hold that controller

We should also bring up how 3rd party controllers have really improved during this and the last generations. They were the ones you got when you were on a budget back in the day. Now you have ones that surpass the 1st party and are compatible with multiple systems.

Now that I have had time to watch the video... If I remember correctly the N64 controller was built with Golden Eye specifically in mind so it has the middle arm to provide balance that feels like a gun and provides enough space for the early analog stick sensor and trigger on the bottom. To another point... using the analog stick for Super Mario 3d was incredibly innovative for it's time and was probably the first well built 3rd person control interface in game history. Compare early Tomb Raider for instance. I think it works well for the same reason the original Mario run and jump controls do, they are both spatially intuitive to move and control in the context of the area in which the character can visibly move. Nintendo hit that one out of the park really. It took a while for everyone else to catch up and get it right. The only major improvement after that is using the right stick for camera control giving the player back a sense of control of the characters neck muscles in a sense. The fixed camera systems prior to that were often very detrimental to the game. The RE series flipped that on it's head brilliantly though. I think Naughty Dog might be the first team to really nail the combined movement and view controls in Legacy of Kain: Defiance where both characters have the full suite of movement and view control without the target locking. Then comes the Batman games and everything has emulated that ever since because it's damn near perfect. From that point things develop in terms of traversal mechanics, but the fundamental movement and view controls settle in for good as a baseline. It's hard to replace something that works that well after literally decades of trial and error.

I mean...I'm struggling to come up with an argument. I use an XBox Controller with my PC but I had an original PlayStation with the non-dual shock controller, which itself was a departure from the joystick I was used to. When I was bought a duel-shock it was mind-blowing how much better and also intuitive it was to use.

The Steam Controller (2026 model) is the new peak. ...but it's basically DualShock with a lot more stuff.

N64 controller: I used the outside two handes. My big long fingers could work the middle joystick and the Z button underneath just fine. I was an oddity among everyone I knew. First time I used a dual-stick style was Halo and I was hopelessly confounded. Took a while to get used to it.

Without even watching the video I already agree 100%. They are easily the best design overall and I have used every controller design going all the way back to IntelliVision paddles. Oh god those sucked. The DreamCast design was good, but the DualShock is the far superior and more flexible design by far. Sadly all the touch surface garbage after that is well... just useless garbage.

While I have played video games with various controllers over the years, going from The Dualshock Analog Controller (thank you Ape Escape for burning that into my brain) to the Nintendo Gamecube controller was the weirdest for me, which is saying a lot given the N64 controller, but I digress. Because going from a controller with two analog sticks to a controller that had one dedicated analog stick and a yellow C Stick was something I'd guess would come back to haunt me, and it did, but after using a PS2, PS4, and PS3 controller, I unlearned the weird awkwardness of the Gamecube's analog stick usage right before the DualSense Controller came along and blew my mind with how amazingly responsive it is with its Adaptive Triggers and 3D Rumble. Chef's kiss, perfection incarnate thy name is the DualSense Controller.

I love my DualSense Controller😊🧡😄

One major tweak from DS2 which was borrowed from the XBox was the Shoulder Triggers. Honestly it took me a long while to come around to them. I know for certain things, they might feel more immersive, like for gun triggers or driving pedals. And the DS5 added contextual resistance. But I dunno, in the long run, were they better than normal shoulder buttons? I think I still preferred using L1 and R1 to aim and shoot instead of L2/R2. EDIT: Bit of a side comment, but when I play fighting games that require multiple button inputs, I sometimes use an overhand grip on the face buttons so I can get better finger action. EDIT 2: While there are some games I'm happy to play with Keyboard (which I was primarily introduced to through playing Yahtzee's adventure games), I still sometimes map them to a controller, because you can't orm about with a keyboard. With a controller, you can kick back, or lie down, or lean or whatever, which is sometimes ergonomically more important than a larger input pool.

I agree the DualShock was the design that worked the best, but I still enjoy the more ergonomic design of the Xbox controller (the Elite version being the best with it's back buttons). The offset thumbsticks feels way better personally. But props to Sony for starting the evolutionary branch upon which all great controllers evolved from.

They don't call him "tiny contortionist hands Yahtzee" for no reason.

The N64 controller was intended that you either had your left hand on the left-most prong for the D-pad, or the middle prong for the joystick. I think, I grew up in the Wii era and only played N64 when playing Smash at my aunt's commune.

I'm quite fond of the DDR floorpad and the Kinect. ...Look, I dance a lot. If I'm not dancing (it happens) I stick with mouse and keyboard.

Regarding Yahtz's comment on the N64 controller, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've ever had to use the far left handle, as very few of the games I ever played on that system required the D-pad (or, for that matter, the left shoulder button, which I think just usually mimics the right shoulder).

I feel like using and mastering a controller is kind of like learning a language. I’m just a couple years younger than Yahtzee and grew up with Nintendo primarily, and my favorite has always been the GameCube controller. But as he points out, that’s effectively Nintendo-brand DualShock. Even playing PC games though, I struggle with just a keyboard and mouse unless it’s something like Secret of Monkey Island or Return of the Obra Dinn. That’s because “gaming” to me meant “console gaming” growing up, and controllers (especially SNES and GameCube) were how my brain learned to interface with ludic worlds as such. It’s my mother tongue. Glad I don’t have to play N64 games with the original controller anymore though.

Before watching I've never disagreed more with a title on a gaming video.