Sporku

Sometimes I feel as though I'm on a pointless journey here. I've been searching for years for a decent gamepad to use on my PC, and with every single option I've tried so far I've been met with nothing but annoyances. Is it really so much to ask for a good wireless controller that doesn't feel like it's made of cheap plastic and have a fully functioning d-pad and analog sticks?

So here's what I've tried so far:

• Built for PC gamepads. I've tried several gamepads made specifically for PC over the years, and all of them have suffered from at least one crippling issue. The most common being a badly constructed d-pad that doesn't function properly (you wanna go right, huh? well, good luck doing that without also going diagonally too!) If the d-pad is tolerable, it's the analog sticks that are a problem. For the love of god, who the hell thought it'd be a good idea to build round analog sticks into a SQUARE hole? Not to mention that in comparison with most first party console controllers, PC gamepads almost always feel like they're made of cheap plastic.
  
  
• Playstation 2 to USB Adapters. Theoretically a fantastic idea. Sony's Playstation controllers are probably the most well designed and functional controllers I've ever used. Unfortunately, I've tried a couple of different PS2-USB adapters and both of them were anything but useful. Both of the adapters I picked up had problems with the controller ports, where one of them would intermittently work, or if you decided you wanted to use two controllers at the same time one of the controller ports would decide to crap out on you, so you'd only be able to use one controller at a time.
  
  
• XBOX 360 Controller. This is what EVERYONE recommends I do. I've tried it, and I've gotta tell you it's great aside from one crippling flaw. The XBOX 360 controller has THE WORST d-pad ever to grace a 1st party game controller. What the fuck were they thinking? Sometimes I feel as though the d-pad in that controller has a mechanism inside of it that triggers random directions whenever you touch it, just to fuck with you. Now, there's several guides on the interwebs about how you can remedy this issue, but I don't think I want to risk wasting $50 tearing apart a controller and using some sandpaper on a d-pad only to end up breaking it in the process.
  
  
• Playstation 3 Dualshock Drivers. This is my most recent (and most successful endeavor). Being that Sony sucks all kind of ass with their proprietary hardware that only works with other Sony hardware, they couldn't be bothered to write a simple driver to use the Playstation 3 Dualshock controller in Windows. So of course that means that there's some shoddily developed drivers floating around the internet developed by a third party. I had to jump through all sorts of hoops to get them to work, especially since I'm running Windows 7 x64, which doesn't play too nicely with unsigned drivers. I did eventually manage to get my PS3 controllers to work, but of course there's a couple of really annoying downsides. First and foremost, I couldn't get bluetooth connection to work so I had to go out and buy a 15-foot long USB male A to male mini-B cable. Beyond that, when I'm done using the controller and decide to unplug it, it'll turn my PS3 on and sync with that, which means that I'd either have to unplug my PS3 when I'm using the controller on my PC or get up and turn the damn thing off constantly.
  

So yeah, I've tried just about every option available to me (that I'm aware of). If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, it'd be greatly appreciated.