I've felt for a long time that one of the most ridiculous mistakes MS made during this last generation was their refusal to fix their d-pad. They even made a special revised controller, with a special d-pad that twisted and elevated for a better experience, only it actually still felt like the the same piece of shit that they had been packing in with their consoles since day one.

It's really said too, as I've been playing Xbox 360 exclusively for this entire generation, and otherwise the 360 controller is pretty much perfect.

And now I see someone who has used both the PS4 and Xbox One controllers, and who claims that the Xbox One d-pad is only an improvement, and says that it still feels bad.

Is this actually correct? Did MS once again not make a d-pad that works well and feels good to use? Does anyone know of someone who used both controllers, and claims that both d-pads feel just as good as one another, or did Microsoft actually drop the ball on this again?

What are you using a dpad for?

How many games use the d-pad for gameplay anymore? for stuff like selecting weapon/character/track/camera angle it works fine.

The D-pad on the 360 is complete dogshit. I have lost count of how many times I have tried to select something(which is what it's mostly used for these days) and it selects something else. The rocker design was a complete fucking disaster. MS just doesn't learn.

It kind of makes no sense to say its an improvement but it still feels bad, If the 360's dpad was crap and this is an improvement you technically can't call it crap as well.

As for that looking at the video it seems like Jago is doing all the actions hes inputing in with the dpad so whats the problem here? and Since I've never heard of blunty before I'll stick with some actual professional reviews once the systems are released.

@hunkulese: @thrillhouse87:

I think most people that play fighting games with a controller prefer the d-pad. It's not a fighting game but when I played Guacamelee I only used the d-pad on the PS3 controller. I'm not really a fighting game guy but I prefer it for 2-D platformers when the option is available.

@thrillhouse87 said:

I use the d-pad all the time. The positioning of the d-pad is a bigger problem for me than the d-pad itself though. Usually.

Something being less crap doesn't stop it from still being crap.

Ive used both controllers but for my Xbox adventures i played forza which doesnt use the dpad so I have no idea if it still feels like a rocker with the look of a solid dpad. That being said I would assume if its better then it should suit almost every game except for fighting games and then odds are people will get a fightstick to use. I hope they have enough time to reverse the decision on not having backwards compatible hardware like a fightstick work, those things are expensive bits of kit

I'm gonna take that one step further and ignore both the amateurs and he professionals and wait till I can try it myself. Too many agendas this generation to trust anyone with this stuff.

opinions, there are many this is one of them.

Or like, you know. Launch, Mitch will talk about it some more. Like on Rebel FM, or their live events. Or by the time Tekken 7 rolls around, then there'll be more fighting games and stuff.

In theory, with Nintendo's d-pad patent having expired, every controller could/should be as good as a classic Nintendo d-pad. If anyone has a bad d-pad this generation (which isn't confirmed based on one persons opinion) then they have messed up something that is extremely easily fixable.

@hunkulese said:

Fighting games and 2D platformers, off the top of my head

I also use it for all menus too, but the 360's pad is still mostly fine for that.

@spaceinsomniac: I presume you haven't used it? It's kinda weird, its clicky now, doesn't feel like a spongy piece of shit anymore. I dislike it still, but that might be more because I think D-Pads are just a bad form of input. At best they are just 4 buttons like WASD on a keyboard with worse spacing, but when they are all attached to a single plate? Blah.

You monsters saying "What do you still use the dpad for?" are all fucking monsters. MONSTERS.

You're not very old are you? I don't mean that in an offensive and stupid "you don't agree with me, you must be a child" kind of way. I mean I can't imagine someone saying that who grew up with the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis.

Clearly, analogue sticks are superior in most ways--and with most games--but would you rather have two good analogue sticks and a good d-pad, or two good analogue sticks and a shitty d-pad?

And seriously, "worse spacing?" Try playing a Mega Man game on a keyboard and get back to me with your results.

Just looking at pictures of it; I can't imagine it being anywhere near as bad as the 360 one, and even that doesn't really bother me that much; I can see how the 360 controller would be insanely frustrating for fighting games though.

Fighting games are the only type of game that I can think of that I would use the d-pad in any meaningful way. Consequently, I don't really care much about d-pads at all. I'm far more interested in how much play the triggers have, the feeling of the buttons, how the controller sits in your hand, the feel of the sticks, etc. D-pad is on the absolute bottom.

I've tried playing with the Xbox One d-pad with Killer Instinct and I can say it plays more comfortably than the Xbox 360 d-pad. If I had to say what the Xbox One d-pad feels the most like, its like playing Super Street Fighter 4 on the small 3DS d-pad (not the XL)

It's kind of obvious the amount of people complaining about 'y use Dpad' don't play fighting games or platformers. Isn't the structure of a Dpad patented though? I don't know by who but I remember hearing that before, otherwise surely Xbox would just be like 'lets copy those guise and do it.' To me the PS3 Dpad works great and as a semi hardcore fighting game/platformer fan I've always picked those types of games on the PS3 as opposed to the Xbox. (Even selecting weapons in Gears of War is a bit of a headache.)

I watched this video earlier and couldn't believe it. I've played with both new pads and i thought the new d-pad on the X1 controller was great. Like another poster above said, it's not a rocker anymore, it's clicky and flatish, kinda like the SNES/Wii/3DS d-pad (flat like those but clickier). I played a bunch of Killer Instinct with the new controller (I puroposefully took the demo station with the controllers and not the fightsticks) and I kinda forgot that I was using the d-pad. That's a compliment I think. With the 360 d-pad, I'd never forget it was using it because it'd constantly be infuriating me. I would still say that the Dualshock d-pad is better (I mean, the Dualshock d-pad was always been great), but I still think that, despite the improvements, the sticks and triggers on the Dualshock aren't as nice as the X1. Horses for courses though. They're both great and console owners on both sides are super lucky this gen.

I don't think the d-pad on the DS3 is particularly good either, though certainly they're a few steps up from the horrid 360 controller's. I can't even imagine people saying that d-pads have no use. Holy crap!

I can honestly say I have never played a D pad intensive game on my 360 so it has never mattered to me. What has mattered for me at least are its great ergonomics, and great triggers and buttons. I have never had a problem with the D pad on the 360 for what i use it for. For huge fighting game fans it might make a difference, but at that point buy a fight stick. I understand that a lot of people play platformers with d pads as well, I am not one of them.

Would you want to pay for two fighting sicks, for what would likely be the cost of a new game each, and only be useful for an extremely small amount of games?

Then I wouldn't go suggesting "at that point buy a fight stick." Aside from that, I don't actually like fight sticks. I grew up playing Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat on consoles, not in arcades. I'm never going to care about tournament fighters enough to buy and learn how to use a fight stick, but I certainly care enough about them to not want to play them on a crap d-pad.

And the 360 pad is so awful that you can not even reliably press right or left without many games registering as you pressing up or down. If MS can even fix that much, it will at least be some progress. Probably enough for everything but tournament fighters.

He said, "Cross-Pad".

:P

Man, just think... If Xbox One was compatible with Xbox 360 controller, you could use the aforemented revised dpad controller for 360.

Unfortunately Xbox One is not compatible with Xbox 360 controllers, since it is a bad system and nobody should buy it. ¯\(°_o)/¯

I've always hated the PS3 dpad in how it just has 4 slim buttons coming out of the controller. Opinions you know?

I liked it when I played it ... it's better than it looks. It's no PS4 controller, but it's still good.

@egg: speaking as someone who owns a new style d-pad 360 controller and has used the One controller, I can honestly say that the new One d-pad is miles better than the old controller, even the revised swivel one.

What looks bad about the new D-pad? Looks great to me without having used it myself. Both controllers look excellent, Sony looks to have solved all of the things that were terrible about the DS3. Now if they had just moved the left thumbstick to where it naturally should be placed I could see myself preferring that controller.

What? There is not just one level of crap. You might be able to write better stuff than The Eye of Argon but that doesn't mean your stuff isn't crap. You might be able to make a better D-Pad than the 360 controller's but that doesn't mean that it isn't crap.

EDIT: The D-Pad looks better designed but now it seems badly placed, though with the Xbox's general controller design I don't think there would be a comfortable place to put the D-Pad.

The DS3 had a four-way D-pad while the Xbox 360 controller had an eight-way. Naturally the DS3's was better.

As someone who doesn't play fighting games, I'll gladly exchange a decent D-pad for the lack of a blue dot reflecting in my monitor.

So far people have said the new D pad is great.

I use a dpad for a lot of my favorite games, so I'd be really disappointed if this was true. Or maybe not, I may never own an Xbox One. (I probably will).

I hope it's good, but people that say a competent D-pad is unnecessary are a bit delusional. It got to the point where I had to use my fightpad to play a lot of XBLA platformers. Not to mention fighting games being pretty unplayable.

@mlarrabee: I'm not sure if people have mentioned it before, but the light bar is actually angled down slightly.

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2013/02/controller_01.jpg

If you hold the controller naturally, you should never see the Light Bar on your TV unless part of your TV is lower than your hands.

From what I can tell, you only see it on videos recently because most of the demo TVs are slightly below where the controller is being held, and most of the comparison videos has the people angling the controller upwards.

I could be wrong, though, so I'll have to get my hands on it to know for sure. Although in my case my TV is above my computer monitor, which is way above where the controller would be, so it's highly unlikely to get any reflection for me, but I can definitely see it being a concern depending on some TV setups.

Edit: Also, while I have ultra huge hands due to long fingers, the guy who made the youtube video in question has HUGE HANDS and sausage fingers. So his experience may not match what everyone else experiences. I really hope the XBO's dpad is better.

It makes sense and you can.

My opinion is that your a crazy person.

I'm going to buy a ps4 and I do most of my gaming on ps3, so this comes from a quite pro-sony oriented person (that does not mean I'm anti-ms btw). Still I have to say that the xone controller looks great and we rarely heared complains about it so far. Simply judging by the look of the d-pad, it looks comfortable and responsive. Unlike that shitty 360 d-pad that already looks like the incredible clunky mess it is. I read that the controller was build by the same guys that built the 360 controller, so I would trust them to deliver quality work.

The unresponsive feeling that the guy in the video had, might as well be a due to the non-final and buggy version of the game he is playing.

I dunno what this thread is about. The new D pad looks miles better and I doubt touching it is going to change my mind. The problem with the d pad was always that it's a big circle on a rocker. Now it's not.

ok well I'm glad you get to use the dpad you like the most, which just so happens to be the one MS forced you to use

Now if MS had just moved the right thumbstick to where it naturally should be placed I could see myself preferring that controller.

derp

Xbox One isn't for XBLA platformers... it's a better graphics box! It's for big budget Xbox One games, all six of them!

If you play XBLA platformers (Xbox One does not play XBLA games) and use XBLA fight pads (which are no longer compatible) you are backwards. Did you not hear that less than 5 percent of users play those? You should get with the program and move on to Kinect!

I grew up with the SNES, GameBoy etc. There's no harm in having a good D-Pad sure, I just never use them in modern games for movement, because why would I want to? If I use a D-Pad now it's to select a weapon or change items. Just where you tap it, at which point they might as well be separate buttons.

I don't like Mega Man so I won't comment, but I'll happily play SMW with a keyboard.

@egg: You want MS to move the right thumbstick to where the face buttons are placed on every controller ever made? To each their own..

The Dual Shock is the only controller where the left thumbstick is placed in the secondary position. Every other controller made by Sega, Nintendo, and Microsoft over the years have placed your primary movement input in the primary position.

The d-pad on the new xbox pad is definitely an improvement, to the point where I think it's probably fine for most people. Is it as good as Nintendo or Sony's d-pad... hmm.. not sure, I would need to spend more time with the controller to find out.
Got to say though... that PS4 controller is mighty fine. Tried it at TGS and it felt super snug in my hands and the buttons and sticks have been much improved :)

D-Pads are sooo last gen. It should just be another analog stick.

Damn so much bitching here.

I don't like the PlayStation controller, d-buttons. I don't like how they are not connected like on the 360 pad or Nintendo's controllers. Remember that Nintendo does have the best d-pad and MS has done what it can considering that Nintendo has the patent on the d-pad, which I think ran out which is why MS can use it on the Xbox One.

I also don't like the analog stick placement on the Dualshocks.

@brich said:

There is....another...

I only really use the D-pads for UI stuff, inventory management, switching weapons, ect.

I don't really care as long as its functional.