Does anyone remember the Atari 2600, let alone it’s joystick controller? It was a stick and an orange button. Easy peasy right?
WRONG!!
Fast forward to the current release of the Sony Playstation 3. The controller has a helluva ton of buttons. You have 4 analog “trigger” buttons, 4 regular digital buttons (for your right thumb), and 2 analog thumb sticks that also double as buttons. So all in all (excluding the select, start, and Sony buttons) that’s a grand total of 10 buttons!!!
10 damned buttons. Why? Why do we need that many buttons? I would say that the point of diminishing returns has hit with this controller for quite some time. I never ever wanted to own a Playstation because of how many buttons the controller had and the functionality of it always seemed overwhelming. Now after owning a PS3 and playing certain first person shooters (FPS’s), racing games, and role playing games (RPG’s), I can say that all them buttons are not necessary. Give me a mouse and keyboard if you’re gonna make a game that extensively uses all buttons logically.
(side note, the reason I own a PS3 is due to the fact that the Nintendo Wii wasn’t doing it for me anymore and I wanted a console and Blu-Ray player that wouldn’t be obsolete due to new newer profiles)
I guess my question is, why can’t we have just 2 analog trigger buttons and two digital buttons on top? The analog sticks and digital pad (d-pad) are nice, but whatever. The original Nintendo and Sega Master System did fine with just 2 buttons, so why can’t we go back to that?
Now, lets tackle the “me too” factor of the Playstation 3 controller. One nice thing about getting away from the Wii was the waggle that came with it. The motion gimmick was fun while it lasted, but I was ready to move on. What did I find though with the PS3? A retarded version of the waggle because they had to have the “me too” factor. Do you know how annoying it is while playing an FPS that you have to stop what you’re doing, because there’s a huge controller graphic on the screen telling you to rotate your damned controller from left to right? It’s so annoying that I stop, take a piss break, and grab another beer, because I know time stands still at those moments. And I contemplate turning off the game to never to return to it ever, because of that shit.
So if that isn’t mildly annoying enough, Sony has introduced dual wielding dildos to control games (called the move). I kid you not, these black sticks have dildonic tendencies with one having a ping pong ball on top (I’m assuming that vibrates for her pleasure). Now I got away from the Wii, because of the waggle. But now Sony is bringing their version of the waggle to this damned system. They say that not all games will be affected by it, but I don’t believe them. I hope that gimmick dies a horrible death. Maybe down the road Sony will look back on this and say, “We shoulda just stuck with the machine that we originally decided to make without bandwagon jumping.”
btw, the most comfortable controller I ever used was the original large X-Box controller, seconded by the Dreamcast’s controller.
Our little family currently consists of Darryl, me, along with our pups Lucas & Lily. We've been together for 14 years now, and we love every minute of it. I enjoy all types of crafty things such as knitting, crocheting, photography, sewing, and making cards. Darryl enjoys gaming (both PC and PS3), playing guitar, cooking, and just veggin out. Lucas and Lily just love to sleep, eat, and pets.
