The Grumpy Old Gamers

August 8, 2020|All Reviews, New Fangled Review, Posts

 — by Damon Harris

Being a mature gamer has it’s merits.  Sure, I may not have ridiculous precognition-like twitch-reflexes or seemingly endless hours to absolutely pour into videogames, like younger gamers do.  But I have something else.  I have a bedtime, because I have to work in the morning. 

As such, I also have money, dammit.  And boy howdy, it’s needed if you want to pay this ticket price for entry on this.  

This is my Grumpy Review of the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller.

I purchased this controller 2020 PQ (pre-quarantine).  I didn’t feel too guilty purchasing this controller so late in a console-cycle, as it’s forward compatible with the upcoming Series X. 

Elite Series 2’s stock was limited for reasons I don’t quite understand yet.  So I had ordered it online and picked it up at Best Buy.  The clerk brought it out from the back and commented “Wow, this sure is heavy!” as she placed it down on the counter. A statement to which my internal monologue giggled at, as I reached down to check out the box, I mean, how heavy could… “Holy crap, you’re right, it IS heavy!”  My brain cut-away to the time I fumbled around the monstrosity that was the original Xbox controller (“The Duke”, as it became known).  I often lamented the weight of it.  It was cumbersome, unruly, and became the source of much parody.  I hoped this was not the case for the Elite Series 2. I loaded the new controller onto my donkey and headed to the car.

Once home and opened, the weight of the package made much more sense.  The Elite Series 2 comes with it’s own case which doubles as it’s charging dock – complete with a fancy grommet in the top to plug-in the longest USB-C cable I’ve seen packaged with any consumer electronics.  Braided too.  Nice touch Microsoft. The rest of the case has cut-aways for all the various swappable controller pieces.  Thumbsticks, paddles, d-pad, adjustment tool, silencer, etc. (It doesn’t come with a silencer, but it IS reminiscent of a hitman’s attaché case)

Wait, charging dock?  Yes a built-in battery in an Xbox controller, finally!  Rated for a whopping 40 hours of play time, and to my experience so far this is just about right.  This battery assuredly contributes to it’s 345 grams (0.76 pound) weight. You’d think it would feel heavy in the hands, but it doesn’t, it feels balanced.  The best way I can describe it’s feel is: It’s not a controller, it’s a device.

And what a device.  It’s easily the nicest the controller I’ve ever used.  The matte black finishes are premium, as are the grips; which wrap all the way around to the front of the controller.  The ABXY buttons are also stealthed out, no colour coding here.  This is ELITE after all. 

And if there’s one thing that elitists demand, it’s customization.  It’s here in many forms, including:

Tension adjustable thumbsticks: 

This is massive, and the first thing I changed. Pop the thumbstick off (easy to remove anything on the Elite Series 2, simply uses magnets) and use the included tool to ‘dial in’ your preferred tension – out of 3 settings.  Low, medium, high.  I love the high tension.  Think easier small adjustments during sweeping turns in racing games, or dialing in a precise headshot in shooters.  I would actually like more adjustability here.  Keep going Microsoft, this is the way!

Steel paddles:

Want to break old gamer brains?  Let’s add more buttons!  This time to the rear of the controller, near where your middle and ring fingers rest.  These aren’t NEW discreet button inputs, but rather mappable paddles to existing buttons.  I struggled for a while to find a use for these, as years of face button usage has me brainwashed to thinking I don’t need any more. But, adding jump/melee in shooter games to two of these paddles on the right has allowed me to keep my right thumb on the aiming thumbstick. Similarly mapping the left paddles to D-Pad controls freed up my left thumb.  I thought I would have to “teach an old gamer new tricks”, but it turns out they are pretty convenient, and avoid frustration.

Swappable D-pad:

Comes in 2 flavours.  Faceted, and traditional.  Again, old Nintendo-thumb has me making the yucky face at the faceted D-pad, but it really does make it much easier for rolling inputs. Fighting game fans, this is your d-pad.  Hadoukens all day long! 

Trigger throw settings:

This adjusts the throw, or depth of your triggers.  Whether you like a long squeeze for your racers, vs a quick hair trigger-like experience for shooters, or in between.  Short throw reminds me a little of the Switch Pro controller.

Profiles/App customization:

A 3-way switch that will change between button map settings on the fly.  All button mapping is done through a companion app.  Admittedly, I haven’t delved super deep into the app other than basic remapping. But there are even thumbstick dead-zone settings and the like contained therein, if you really need to dial in your thumbstick settings.

Another killer feature of this Xbox controller, is you don’t have to use it with your Xbox.  With connection via USB or Bluetooth (first Xbox controller to have Bluetooth!), it will work with many other devices.  (Android, iOS, PC, Apple TV, etc). 

As a whole, the Elite Series 2 is nothing short of impressive. It must have some caveats?  It sure does:

$229.99 CAD

(ouch)

That being said, the build quality is impeccable. This is clearly in the “ultra-premium” category. Even still this is a HIGH number.  I looked at it this way: I was in the market for a both a PC gamepad, and an Xbox gamepad; something hardware-agnostic appealed to me.  Granted, I could have bought a dedicated controller for each and still come under that price.

But remember…   it’s not a controller, it’s a device.