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Dirty Thoughts: Xbox One Elite Controller


Dirty130
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Xbox One Elite Controller. $199.95 @ E.B. Games.

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MjE0WDIyNQ==/z/OsYAAOSwL7VWjofJ/$_35.JPG

 

 

Back in mid January, my :1a: button suddenly died on my standard Xbox One controller. Having it been the second Xbox One controller to give in within a year of purchase, I was a little upset at it's failure. Knowing I could return and exchange the controller was peace of mind, but assured me nothing in the product itself.

 

 

Upon returning the standard controller to the store I'd purchased it from and having raised my issues with it to the friendly attendant,

 

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I think he saw an opportunity. He suggested that rather than I exchange my standard controller, I 'upgrade' to the Elite. I shot the attendant a look.

 

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He told me that I might as well try it given that my 2 previous controllers had failed and if the Elite fails too, to simply bring it back for exchange, downgrade and/or refund. I mulled it over for a bit and took him up on the offer, having to hand him the extra $120 of course.

 

http://www.bolgernow.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Gary-Coleman-150x150.jpg

 

Upon getting home and opening the clearly well thought out packaging, I put my battery pack from my previous controller into the new Elite and synced it to the receiver without any hick ups or delay.

 

http://nkjlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/gary-coleman-arnold-150x150.jpg

 

The controller's extra weight was instantly noticeable, more so if you've been alternating between your 360 and One. Some might say that the extra weight is irrelevant, but I have to disagree. I feel the extra weight causes finger and general hand fatigue far quicker than the standard One controller.

 

It's no secret that I sink massive hours into my gaming sessions, sometimes lasting up to 16 hours and even beyond. It's these times when I notice the weight as a negative instead of just a non-issue. Sure, maybe I should play less, but this was never a problem with the standard controller. This has left me concerned that I may want to go back to the standard controller.

 

http://www.lushlifenewyorkcity.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/GARY-COLEMAN-150x150.jpg

 

The joysticks now return to centre with more 'spring' than the standard controller, I feel this too adds to the fatigue I've already mentioned. It may sound minor, and it is I guess, but rarely goes unnoticed after extended play. Still, it's better than your stick leaning to one side after a few months of play causing auto-movement, right?

 

http://static1.purepeople.com/people/7/12/17/@/129863-gary-coleman-arnold-dans-la-serie-150x150-1.jpg

 

Another small gripe is that I wish they had left the face buttons coloured. While it looks cool all in black, during QTEs I've always found that seeing the colour of the button on screen and then hitting the corresponding button seem to go hand in hand, or brain to hand if you get what I mean? This could just be me, I don't know. You might have noticed that I'm a rather visual person.

 

http://www.topkool.com/fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/arnold-et-willy-020-150x150.jpg

 

Onto the Direction Pad. This was something a lot of fighting game fans had thought of, and even tried over the years; extending the d-pad shape to a more circular shape. I recall sticking coins to controllers (PSX) and handhelds (Gen 1 PSP) over the years myself to no real avail. I've spent some time playing various fighting games since purchasing the controller and feel it's safe to say it's a solid improvement on previous Microsoft d-pads from the original 360 to now. I found old school notations like http://cdn.wikimg.net/strategywiki/images/e/ee/Arcade-Stick-Hcb.pnghttp://cdn.wikimg.net/strategywiki/images/1/1d/Arcade-Stick-Right.png often found in SNK fighters and the like were pretty comfortable to pull off over and over, while being more accurate to execute than the old style d-pads. Accurate execution of special moves and combos is of course very important in fighting games.

 

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With the simple magnetic release of the joysticks and d-pad, you'd think they'd come off or out of place from time to time? Surprisingly, not even once has anything like that happened in 4 months of play across various games.

 

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The optional paddles are an interesting feature. While I don't currently care to use them, I tried them on and off and can see the advantage of not having to move your thumbs away from the sticks and instead using the paddles to input commands. It's awkward to get used to, but definitely beneficial to the hardcore gamer I think. The Hair Trigger switches I've generally ignored and prefer the full depth of the trigger, especially on :1rt:. The bumper buttons are well improved from the standard controller also.

 

 

All in all, it's certainly not a necessity, but I'm pretty happy with it minus the price tag. I give it 4 out of 5 Arnolds.

 

http://portfolio.lesoir.be/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=509055&g2_serialNumber=2 http://portfolio.lesoir.be/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=509055&g2_serialNumber=2 http://portfolio.lesoir.be/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=509055&g2_serialNumber=2 http://portfolio.lesoir.be/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=509055&g2_serialNumber=2

 

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Pretty much agree with the write up, it's a solid improvement, as the one that comes with the console is pretty bad.

 

When I first opened my XB1 on launch day, the first thing I noticed was how awful the controller was, it was too light (yes weight matters) it felt cheap and a step down from the old 360 faithful. I feel Sony controllers are getting smaller as well, I think the PS4 controller feels solid and extremely better made than the XB1, problem is the PS4 controller was made for toddlers, or maybe my hands are too big?

 

3 months of my usual heavy gaming killed the left analogue, the rubber/plastic had worn an indentation from the surrounding chassis into the stick, occasionally when moving it in a direction it would get stuck in these indents! Terrible design. I purchased a pair of thumbsticks online from a mod shop, they are still plastic but more rubberised, and extremely tough, been using them on my standard pad now without issue since.

 

I can't help but think the XB1 should have come with the Elite to start with, sure that would not make them money on selling them extremely overpriced later on, but considering the PS4's gimmicks on their controller, the XB1's controller would of been a worthy adversary, as it stood, the basic controller was not only cheaply made, but offers nothing new this gen.

 

The paddles I used for a week then they went away, useless I thought, but they are back out now I am grinding Forza 6, as I find them very very good for racing games.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love mine, I tend to only use the bottom paddles and map them to LB and RB most of the time so I don't have to take my finger off a trigger to use them. Although it's good in some shooters, like Halo, to map them to the jump button so you can jump around like a twat and never stop aiming. I do use the hair trigger on RT but I adjusted the 'dead zone' so I can rest my finger on it and just have to twitch to shoot. Beware though if you go to play a game that takes advantage of the pressure sensitivity on the triggers, I went back to ply Arkham Knight for some achievements and couldn't for the life of me figure out why the batmobile was going so slow it couldn't even make it up a hill without the booster. Took me all night to figure out it was because I had the hair trigger setting on the RT lol.

 

I don't think I would ever go back to a regular controller again tbh.

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  • 2 years later...

Fresh onto our shores, I picked up the "revised" Xbox One Elite controller yesterday morning. I'd had one on pre-order since about late February when I returned my 10th and final Xbox One Elite controller and have been using the standard controller that came with my One X console during that time. Just to note, that standard controller's triggers have developed a bit of a resistance to being pulled in and make a click sound when you initially break the resistance and the trigger comes in. While annoying, it doesn't seem to hamper my gaming but is pretty sad given the short time I've been using the controller.

 

So, back to the revised Elite controller. Upon picking it up, I said to the assistant store manager "This is the new, revised one, right?" and he replied "Well, not really. This one just has better glue on the grips. The proper "new" Elite controller has been postponed indefinitely." So, basically, I'm expecting the same fails from this new controller except for the grips. Great :rolleyes:

 

Well, the d-pad is 500 times better than the normal controller's and I'm just happy to have it back in my hands for fighting games. The last few months have sucked playing all those ACA NEOGEO games with the standard controller's joystick or d-pad, jumping when I just want to move forward and neutral-jumping when I want to jump forward. Ugh..

 

I tell ya, if I can't get a year out of these 'new' controllers, I'll be returning every single one of them for an exchange too!

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Personally i love the regular X1 controller. I feel its a major step from the 360 one, especially the D-pad. Personally i can't stand the PS3 controller for anything else than fighting games. I hate the fact that for them R1 is the trigger while for us its R2 and R1 is a bumper. I hate the joystick placement on the PS3 controller as well.

 

But anyway all of this to say im very satisfy with my X1 controller. Obviously i can't compare the quality of it with the 360 as much because i used to play Gears of War 5 hours a day or more, and add to them COD and well when i get stress in online games i crisp hard the controller and almost all of my 360 ones ended with the same problem, the character moving forward by himself as the joystick couldn't go back in ts neutral place.

 

Since im on X1 (3 years and a half more or less) im on only my second X1 controller (normally i would change 360 controllers every year at the minimum) but ill admit i drastically toned down my online shooters habbit. I still play a lot and i nolifed Neverwinter but it never stressed me much, unless i was going for an achievement in a hard dungeon. Otherwise it was always casual "pepe" gaming on this.

 

When i look at the elite controller, i think the paddles could really help on GOW for wall bouncing and such, im sure it could improve my play BUT 150$ for improved performance, without being sure the durability will be there is too much for me. I have friends who have returned elite controller like any normal controllers because they started mal functioning after heavy months of gaming. So i feel there not "that much tougher"

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