Hello lemmings, I’d like to buy some sort of gamepad I can use on my PC (running opensuse tumbleweed linux).
Since my youth I’m a die hard keyboard & mouse player, but since I’d like to try co-op with my wife I’d need second device. What is currently considered a good buy? Should be good in terms of price/quality ratio. I don’t want to spend a lot on a thing with questionable future, might as well end up being ultimate dust collector. On the other hand I don’t want to buy ultra cheap POS that would have terrible build and insta drifting joypads.
Wireless is a plus, but should have its own USB receiver (box PC without bluetooth).
Last thing: I’m based in EU, so should be available there.
Thank you very much!
I’ve had a Gamesir Nova Lite since September, and I strongly prefer playing games with a controller whenever possible so I’ve used the heck out of it, and I’ve had no problems. I really like how the buttons and joysticks feel and it’s supposedly got hall effect joysticks. I only use it on Bluetooth so not sure how it is with the dongle, but it has one. It’s on Amazon and they’ve got their own site to order from that does worldwide shipping. For the $25 I spent on mine, it’s a lot nicer than you’d expect from the price, I’d assume it’s similarly cheap in the EU. Retro Game Corps did a side by side video with an 8BitDo a while ago. The company marketed the shit out of it to influencers, but it’s legitimately good. (It doesn’t have a headphone jack and gyroscope, fyi, in case you care about that.)
I have been using the Nova Lite for a month now with no issues. I only use the dongle and it works well on both linux and windows. It is availible on MaxGaming for 23.90€.
How is the build quality of these? They’re available locally for me, for decent price, but reviews are mixed bag. Some say it’s the cheapest and shittiest piece of plastic with questionable durability, others say it’s decent…
I’d happily recommend it to an adult on a tight budget, but it’s not premium. It’s a lightweight, soft plastic with a textured surface where you’d want it that I think feels nice but I can see why some might not. It will not survive an afternoon with an eight year old with anger issues, but I treat mine with some care and put it back in the (very cheap and flimsy, but included) plastic case it came with and I’m not worried about it. It’s decent enough, imo.
The problem with recommending controllers is that so much of this is subjective. I wanted something that felt more like the Switch buttons than my wired PDP Afterglow Xbox controller did (hate that thing), and what I got was exactly what I wanted and was impressed for what I spent on it. I don’t have an 8BitDo Ultimate 2C to compare it to which seems to be the direct competition in the price point (seriously, check out the Retro Game Corps vid ) - and there were some trade offs for both - 8BitDo was maybe slightly more premium feeling but similarly light and had Android only Bluetooth and wouldn’t work with my Switch, the GameSir has firmware upgrade issues (don’t upgrade the firmware!). Honestly, if you can get the 8BitDo, that might be the better choice for your use case - with the dongle it has a higher polling rate so less input latency, but I’m not playing anything where I’d even notice that. Also I suspect I prefer the ergonomics of the GameSir, but again that’s subjective. Or just buy one of the more expensive 8BitDo controllers, it sounds like you’re on less of a tight budget than I was.