Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Unveils New Xbox 360 Wireless Controller
adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft unveiled a new wireless Xbox 360 controller, which features a revamped D-pad that transforms from a plus to a disc. The new D-pad was developed to address complaints from users. Other new features include: A, B, X, and Y buttons that are gray instead of the standard red, green, yellow, and blue; and a matte silver color. The controller includes 2.4-GHz wireless technology with a 30-foot range."
That D-Pad is shit. I can understand not being quite up-to-snuff for playing a game, but you can't even navigate menus with that thing. Forget about entering text. I can't believe it took this long to address "complaints" about the utter worthlessness of those buttons.
My biggest problem with the 360 is the controlers and the fact that MS makes it.
But then again Sony is almost so evil I want to throw my PS3 away.
What's the reason behind that? Did colorblind players hate the colored buttons? Aren't a lot of games referring to the button colors instead of the button letters?
As for that transformer D-pad... The plus is still there in so-called disc mode, they should have made the remaining parts taller and concave to actually make a disc shape once the plus part is lowered. As usual, Microsoft has a good idea but screws up the implementation.
And the silver color... all I can say is that the circle is complete. The new cool color for electronics is silver, like in the '70s! Next year, fake wood grain!
Truly remarkable.
How did they do it?
It is seriously about time! The D-pad on the current controllers is absolutely awful (for those who don't know, often times it registers the wrong direction due to poor mechanical design). It has made some games (especially live-arcade games like megaman 9) incredibly frustrating.
Getting rid of the colors on the buttons seems baseless. I can't tell you how many times...
Me: "Press A" ::moving thumbs, squinting:: "... huh?"
Her:
Me: "Green."
The twisty d-pad is cute, but largely strikes me as a way of getting around Nintendo's killer patent on the golden standard. I can't imagine who would want to use the disc, except for perhaps fighting games.
Play&Charge sucks, I hate having to mess around with dongly wires and other crap to use my controller just get rechargeable batteries.
My original controllers work fine. If I want to play a fighter game I will play it on my ps3.....even tho I think the best d-pad was my SNES controller. Surprized they aren't black to match the new xbox revision :?
Maybe we can just gut the new controllers parts and put them in an old controller? I'm sure MS thought of that and found a way to stop that.
Seriously, take a 360 controller, hold left on the d-pad, and at the same time try to rock your thumb toward the up and down directions. It moves a lot! Using one on Windows, you can see in the controller properties how easily it registers diagonal presses. Now do the same thing with a Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2, which has a very similar d-pad. It's far less finicky than the 360 pad.
So really, how is this new d-pad supposed to fix that?
They still haven't addressed the bigger problem of not being able to use this thing in USB mode via the play and charge kit. First it screws owners into buying A 20 or 30 dollar dongle to use it on a PC. Second when bringing spare controllers over it makes the syncing process difficult. Especially for people who do LAN parties and tournaments.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
..but If my face was as asymmetrical as their gamepads I'd be dying of cancer. Just sayin'. ~ethana2
It isn't because of the disc, it's because of the way that the d-pad acts when you play fighting games (which is about the only reason you'd actually need a revamped D-Pad in the first place). Why is it that every podunk Japanese fighting pad manufacturer out there can put out a pad which works fine with a game like Street Fighter, but you can't seem to get a handle on it? Look at ASCII's pads, figure out what they do, and replicate it. Problem solved.
I don't actually have an X-Box 360, haven't figured out what I would need one for. It doesn't play Blu-Ray, almost every 360 game worth playing will also be released for Wii or PC, so why have yet another box.
On the other hand, I have 5, YES 5 360 wireless controllers. Two on my game machine hooked to the projector. Two on my 8 year old son's PC and one on my daughter's PC. The X-Box 360 controller is the best thing ever to have to gaming on the PC. Finally a standard PC joystick. It only took a billion years. Last time there was a standard game controller for the PC was the original two button, analog axis controller in the 80's that you needed a separate A/D card (there was no sound cards yet) to connect to the machine. It was the biggest piece of crap ever, but the 360 controller is AWESOME. A standard console grade controller for the PC.
Well that said, once I got these controllers, I bought all the Lego games (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Batman and Harry Potter), I bought Tomb Raider and piles of other games. After all, the PC just became the most powerful console and the best part is, it plays games from nearly every old console and it also plays Blu-ray etc...
Well, my kids LOVE playing games on the PC with their controllers. When the game says "press the green button", they press the green button. In the room with the projector (a cheap little 100 lumen BenQ Joybee) you can see the colors, but not the letters on the buttons. Also, since the projector typically is downscaling 1280x1024 to 800x600, it is really quite hard to read letters on the screen (even when playing Wii). So, the colors are GREAT.
Here comes Microsoft to tell us that if any of our controllers break, we'll be replacing them with controllers of lower usability. Oh well... good thing couldn't last forever could it? Let's just hope that Logitech and others don't change.
I have Xbox and I use it on older CRT television. Some games give you a hint a they tell you to press a button. Because of the crapy resolution I can't recognize the letter, but I see the color. With this controller it will be harder. And how often do you use the D-pad?
There already is a colour hack. It requires you to sneak into your sister's bedroom and to nick a few of her nail varnishes. You now have the luxury of brushing any colour you like on any button you want. Soon you will lovingly nickname your controller spotted dick.
Let the varnish dry and voila, you're the coolest kid on the block.
PS: Finding sex toys during your quest is perfectly normal. Admire your sis' liberated state! Let religion rest for a bit.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
...or against MS, but how is a disc-shaped D-pad and grey buttons "news" (for nerds or otherwise)?
My book: Friendly F#, fun with game development and XNA; my game: Galaxy Wars by VSTeam; my gamedev language: Casanova.
I never understood why the quality of d-pads has steadily taken a turn for the worse instead of better. I mean I understand analog sticks are the chosen medium of choice these days but I have to say Sony is the only company that still makes d-pads worth a damn anymore.
The "fake analog" d-pad design with more than 4 directions is and always has been poorly thought out and never performs well. They need to go back to the idea that the d-pad should feel like different buttons, even if they're not.
I have no idea what a 360 controller costs to manufacture, but third-party manufacturers can sell them at a profit for $25. At over $40 I will never pay for such controllers, unless of course they're bundled with a console I want and the price is passed on that way. One other exception, I would gladly pay $60 for a controller, if I could be ensured it would be fully compatible with all consoles released by the same company in the future (or at least the next one).
The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. - Einstein
I don't actually have an X-Box 360, haven't figured out what I would need one for.
The XBox 360 is the best *and* the most cost effective Media Center Extender available on the market.
:-D
Slap it together with Windows 7 and a Cablecard tuner, and you've got a networked DVR that can play 1080p h264 MKV's as well. Neat thing is that Windows Media Center on the host PC does the hardware accelerated decoding and ships it to the extender. It's very neat stuff.
I've never actually played a game on my 360
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
Do the controllers still come with a copy of the bluetooth HID spec, printed on nice soft 2-ply paper and conveniently rolled for bathroom use?
This must mean it fixes the problems with the d-pad being too stiff, having too much travel distance, having vague tactile feedback, and being too large to move freely around the tight recess it's placed in.
Oh, it doesn't? Well, nothing to see here, then. Maybe we can start some kind of benefit fundraiser to buy these guys a couple GBA SPs so they can see how to do it properly.
This is break through engineering? Something in the world isn't right...
I just looked at my honky 360 controller, and the D-pad looks the same as in TFA. It's a disc with 4 cardinal 'ridges' in the shape of a + and the whole thing moves. Does it now rotate like a paddle or something? I don't play a lot of scrollers/platformers or fighting games.
Incidentally, the PS3 controller sucks. Its left analog controller is in the wrong place, it's too small, and it doesn't have removable battery so when it runs low I can't just slap in the alternate battery I have in the charge cradle. This has been an issue with Fallout 3 lately (yeah yeah I'm late. I'm surprised they never fixed the PS3 lockup and slowness bugs though :( ). Also, most games seem to have the 'trigger' controls backward, they map to the 'bumper' (what PS3 stupidly calls 'R1' or 'L1') and not to the proper trigger ('R2' or 'L2'). That's fucking retarded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES_Max
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
A reasonably priced controller with a precise D-pad would certainly beat searching through eBay for an arcade fighting stick priced less than 250$ when it comes to Street Fighter 4...
If there's one thing I like about the XBox 360, it's the controllers.
They fit my hand comfortably. The coloured buttons are great for young children to figure out what to do and to communicate with one another (even if they can't read what letter is on the button). I never had a problem with the D-Pad - I like that it's a single surface rather than 4 individual buttons.
I have purchased a PS3 now because my 360 has already died once and the replacement (now a year old, I guess) gave me a red light recently so this one will probably fail, too. Plus the PS3 lets me upgrade the hard disk with whatever I want whereas the 360 is encrypted up the ying-yang. And no more XBox Live fees! It will take some time getting used to the PS3 menu system, though. Mind you, it is much snappier than the _slow_ menu system of the 360.
The major problem that I see with this is that the d-pad could potentially slip out of d-pad, or disc mode during gameplay if you're sliding your fingers on it. Slide your finger in a quarter-circle... are you now in disc mode when you were in d-pad mode? I see this actually causing issues and being a worse solution than the previosu d-pad.
Xbox live will go up by 20% and the controller prices as well.
Thanks Microsoft!
I'm letting my "gold" account expire and will be getting a VuDu box or another device to do netflix. I'm not paying $60.00 a year for their barely useful service.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The mention of "2.4GHz Wireless Technology" is a marketing logical fallacy: it allows the consumer to assume a lot of things no stated about "2.4GHz Wireless Technology." This is similar to popcorn that (yes, I've seen this...) carries the label "100% Whole Grain." Popcorn is made out of a full corn kernel (it won't pop otherwise); the "100% Whole Grain" label encourages the consumer to assume this particular bag of popcorn (with cheese and caramel) is more healthy than other, (im)possibly not whole grain popcorn.
Another logical fallacy: I could mention that 2.4GHz wireless technology is the technology used in cordless house phones from the 1980s. This would encourage the consumer to assume that 2.4GHz Wireless Technology is old, outdated, low-tech crap. In reality, it's perfectly workable; and it's also a federally reserved bandwidth for these uses, along with the 5GHz band. Lots of cordless phones have advertised prominently their 5.0GHz band utilization rather than 2.4GHz, because consumers know 2.4GHz is less than 5.0GHz and thus 5.0GHz must be better.
What fun.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
What is a more pressing problem is the weakness of the buttons. Those suckers lose their spring and then you're left with a duff controller. A better button probably would cost fifty cents a button.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
By the article, the D-Pad can be changed from the disc to a plus. Not the other way around (from a plus to disc in the abstract).
I mean the one that was on the 6-button pad for the Genesis, the japanese Saturn pad, and on the Saturn analog controller. I mean that was easily my favorite d-pad and anyway Sega would probably sell it cheap anyway.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
So everyone else bug off! Only the most elite spartans will pwning n00bs with this gift from the m$Gods in Halo::Reach. Buy Buy Buy!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Street-Fighter-IV-FightPad/dp/B001M241L4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1283365350&sr=8-2 :-)
Consoles have placed the X button in all four positions.
I can barely remember a time when I've had to rely on the D-Pad for anything in game other than menu/weapon selection.
Then I guess you've never tried playing Tetris Evolution, TGM Ace, or Tetris Splash on an Xbox 360. Most traditional puzzle games are designed for a digital control such as a directional pad, not an analog stick.
Nintendo's d-pad patent expired in 2005
Which doesn't rule out Nintendo abusing trademark law to try to extend the effective term of its patent. Not all defendants can afford a lawyer who can wield the functionality doctrine effectively.
Games in most [genres other than fighting games] seem to use the analog stick more than the digital pad
Most. Another genre using the D-pad is block puzzle games. What controller do you recommend for those?
Does anyone have any suggestions on third party controllers for Xbox 360 that have a good dpad? I find the official controller dpad fairly useless. Taking a quick look at Amazon, I see Hori and MadCatz controllers available. The Hori seems to get better reviews. Any others?
I'd be happier if they'd just fix the batteries so they don't drain in under an hour. I've been through 5 batteries and they all had this problem. I just use the wires now.