The Skill-Stick Revolution

The Skill-Stick Revolution

I, um, hate to be the one to break it to you, but aside from the more comfortable grip and the extra pair of shoulder buttons, the 360 controller is largely the same as the Xbox's, and not terribly different from the Gamecube's. So the innovative part is not the controller, but how it's used. Not that it at all undermines the point of the article. It's strange, though - sports games, by conventional wisdom, are the place you'd be least likely to see change in the formula.

The 360 controller may not be a particularly innovative piece of hardware, but it is definitely the best controller I have ever used. I even got one to use with my PC. What little innovations they did add make all the difference. It is comfortable, everything is positioned perfectly, and when developers program the assignments properly it is one of the best ways to play a video game. It really is a fantastic controller and I can play for hours without feeling any sort of numbness or pain.

But, you are right, the real innovation comes from developers not the controller itself. But, we still have to give credit where credit is due. MS got this one right.

Yeah, I have to disagree with you as well, Bongo. I'd had an Xbox for over a year when I held the 360 controller, and I was still blown away by it. There's something about the refinements they made, subtle as they may be, that transformed it from a piece of plastic with a wire attached to an extension of my hand.

Well, of course it's a lot better. I agree, it's the best controller I've ever held. It just doesn't, as the article seems to imply, represent a departure from what was technologically possible for the previous five years.

Oh, I'm just nitpicking.