Jeez, It's Not THAT Great

I see that plenty of people are raving over this controller and perhaps even saying this is "the best controller ever". While the 360 wireless controller is pretty sweet, it's not all that innovative except with its Ring Of Light features, which are completely overhyped. But first things first...

Design
A good controller must have all its buttons easily accessible. This was an easy thing to do back in the NES days, but a look at the Dreamcast, N64, and Xbox controllers shows you that it's not all that easy.

I was fine with the huge Xbox controller. Sure it was kind of big, but the only thing that peeved me was that the white and black buttons that were out of the way. Lots of people hailed the new sleeker S-controller as the second coming, but that moved the black and white buttons to another inaccessible location in the controller. Luckily, those pesky buttons were used mostly to do things like switch weapons, pass to your 5th wide receiver, so it was ok.

The 360 controller solves that by moving them to the top of the controller as two "bumper" buttons. So the problem is solved, but heck Sony figured that out 7 years ago with its Dual Shock controller.

That being said, the 360 wireless controller has 2 triggers, 2 bumpers, 2 joysticks, a D-pad, 4 face buttons, a back and start button and the Xbox guide button, all pretty accessible. It rumbles too. Yay.


Wireless
Wireless controllers had always been cool, but the 360 takes the coolness to a whole other level. Not only does there not seem to be any lag whatsover, but the controller lets you turn the console on and off by pressing the "Ring Of Light" or Xbox guide button on the controller. This also assigns your controller to be Player 1, and if you start up another controller, it assigns it to the 2nd Player slot. Cool. But really useful? Not really. I don't get why so many people miss this, but you can't take out game discs and put in new discs while your butt is parked on the sofa! So yeah, sure I turn my 360 on with the controller but then I get up, get a game disc out and put it in. So really, I can just turn it on with the power button on the console just as easily.

Also, while playing a boxing game, I find myself pressing the Guide/RoL button accidentally, which brings up a different screen with some random crap, without even pausing the fight. Annoying, but it hasn't been a problem with any other game. Plus, I don't understand why I keep pressing that button accidentally, since the game is mostly right analog stick.


Look
Not that it matters, but the white paint on the controller makes it look cheap. Also it gets a little dirty.


Durability
Can't comment on that now but my old busted first-party controllers all got busted because of the wire, which there is none of in a wireless controller. My old Xbox wireless controller got a bit crapped up, but third-party controllers are notoriously bad. So I get a feeling this controller will be alright.


Battery
You can buy a rechargeable battery pack for $10 extra, but the good ole AA's have lasted fine so far with me, and I've probably played the 360 for well over 50 hours at least. Then again, I can't tell the difference between my first and second controllers, so it just means that AA's are good for 25+ hours for me. I always get good luck with this kind of stuff, as my Logitech wireless controller lasted well over a year with the same battery, so I don't know. Don't blame me if the battery gods don't smile on you too, so it's probably good to get the battery pack.


Cost
That brings the total cost of this controller to $60 as opposed to $40 for the wired controller. $20 is a good price I think to not have wires all over the living room, to rid yourself of the worry of yanking your 360 down by accident and the overall coolness factor.


In Conclusion
This is a fine controller. But it's really nothing special. The black and white buttons are finally moved to the shoulder of the controller, but Sony figured that trick out YEARS ago. And the Ring of Light is a cool little thing, but that's all it is. The 360 wireless controller is probably the best there is right now, but it's not going to wow you or anything.