Monthly Archives: April 2026

I have a review ready to go, but this week, I’m setting that aside for something part rant, and part ramble. I know, it’s something I haven’t done in a while, but it’s been bugging me for a while now.

I was in the middle of a game when my controller stopped working. Specifically it was the right bumper button, but this is my third controller in less than a year. The cost of playing games on my controllers is starting get higher than buying the games themselves. Maybe it’s slight hyperbole to only point to the controllers, as I did have to get a new gaming PC, but let’s just get to the point: controller makers are really starting to cut corners, leading to shoddy products that can’t do their one job.

Let’s start with the last decent controller I had, a G-Pad Thorium, which lasted me a decent six months of solid daily gaming. When that broke, I got a generic X-Box compatible because Amazon recommended it. That lasted three months, and like the G-Pad, the problem was analog stick drift. I went back to G-Pad, this time for a Helium. Three weeks later, the right trigger got mushy. I tried playing some games that didn’t need it, like platformers and card games, but then the left stick developed a drift after another month. Cue my next search on the web.

I asked online if there were any controllers that dealt with this issue better, and the internet answered “Hall effect controllers.” Instead of using mechanical spring-loaded sensors, hall effect controllers measure analog stick movement with magnets. So in theory, they would last longer, right? Weeeeeeellll… Continue reading →