XBOX360手制 (英)

costalam

Microsoft's forthcoming follow-up to its Xbox console is on display on the show floor of E3 2005 at various booths and we ran down this morning to get some hands-on time with the Xbox 360's controller.


Obviously since wireless controllers would be stolen left and right, not to mention possible interference problems with all of the electronics running throughout the show, the controllers on the floor are the wired variety. Other than the fact that they're missing the battery pack on the back, the wired controllers are identical to the default wireless variety.

Right out, let us say that this seems to be a fantastic controller. It's immensely comfortable, very, very light (remember that it's missing the battery pack though) and just feels great.

The first and most immediately noticeable thing about the controller is its weight. While it is indeed missing the battery pack that the wireless variety will have, we don't expect that to add a whole ton of weight to it. Even though the controller is feather-light, it still feels very solid. All-in-all, it just feels like an extremely well put-together controller.

After the shock of its lack of weight subsides, it's immediately noticeable just how comfortable the Xbox 360 controller is to hold. It's almost as if Microsoft took a mold of our hands and fit the pad to it. It's more comfortable than the Controller S, and that's not a bad pad at all.

The analog sticks are almost identical to the Controller S'. They feel like they're just as tight as the current sticks, which are almost unanimously praised as feeling the best. Spacing is identical as well, so all is great on this front.



The main face buttons feel a tad lighter than the Controller S buttons, which is kind of nice. They're basically as springy as a Dual Shock 2's buttons, which are easier to switch between with a game like Tony Hawk than the Controller S, so this will likely prove to be an upgrade as well.

As nice as the feel and weight of the controller is, the best improvement that Microsoft has made was moving the Black and White buttons up to the shoulders. It's a little odd to be playing an Xbox of some sort and having four buttons on the controller's shoulders, but 2 seconds of adjusting proved that it's immensely better than the Controller S design. The triggers are certainly still intact and feel identical to the previous controller's design.

The D-Pad is the only thing that may be a little suspect at this point. It feels like it's placed on top of a raised rocker, similar to the Controller S' D-Pad. It's reasonably loose though it does feel like it's easy to hit any specific direction without accidentally hitting an angle or some such. There weren't any playable fighting games or anything of that sort that we could really test the D-Pad with, so unfortunately we weren't able to really put the digital pad to a proper test.

Overall though, we're very happy with what we've played with the stick so far. It's a billion times better than the original "Fatty" on the Xbox and even much improved over the Controller S. If the PlayStation 3's controller is anywhere near as ergonomic as the Xbox 360 controller, we're in for one hell of a comfortable next-generation..