Hey, it's me again. This time I've decided to do a blog about controllers. I've not had enough things to ramble about, and I'm not really in the mood for it, so perhaps a special Modern Warfare 2 Ramblings edition next week? I'm hoping to cure my writer's block I've had all week, hoping to finish an article. Let's see if this will help!

First, as always, an update of goings on in my world. <---Previously on the Blogs---> The Sitoxity Blogs - Forza Motorsport 3 The Sitxoity Blogs - Fanboys Gaming Ramblings 5 - Bonus Update! The King of Fighters XII - First Impressions Halo 3: ODST - My Take <---Square-Go Articles---> Coming soon! - Video Game Trends: User Interfaces Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review The King of Fighters XII Review For the love of... Sonic And Knuckles Preview: MAG So there have been many variations of controller in the world of video games, from the Atari's, to Nintendos, and even recently to Microsofts. Many have their own tastes and like certain ones, others praise them all for being unique, but good at doing their jobs. Each have their own roles, and what they're best at. I'm going to try and touch on this, and other things concerning them. Wow, look at that. That's not even all of them! Many are from the oldschool days, and some companys are not even in the console business anymore, all of them look quite different, yet all are made for the same purpose. The only controller out of that bunch that stayed similar, and consistant, was Sonys. The Dual Shock series have seen improvments, but never a cosmetic ones, bar a few colour tweaks. Eventually losing out the wire, the Dual Shock 3 is Sonys best controller thus far. HAving intergrated the old PS3 Six-Axis with vibration functionality, this remains one of the best controllers to game on. It's comfortable, you can just pick it up and it feels right when you hold it. It can also be used for a great amount of games, without losing any controllability. The one downside? Battery. Once the battery inside dies (Which, let's face it, WILL happen, eventually) you are generally screwed. Since it's built in, a new controller needs to be bought. This isn't really handy, but if the lifespan of the battery is good enough, should never be a problem. One thing that people complain about is the set up for First Person Shooters, some blame the button layouts in the games, other blame the controller. I personally, feel that one other controller this generation is more suited, and no, I'm not counting a mouse and keyboard. The Xbox 360's controller, in my humble opinion, is the best current gen controller for playing First Person Shooters. Why? The positioning of the Thumbsticks. Further apart from the PS3's, it leaves room for manouvering much better. It just feels much more suited to that type of game, and it really shows, especially when most games just have the same control layout mapped in their games. This could be from a Developers own ideal scheme to use, or just how it makes sense when they hold this controller when they play a game on the 360. Now, hold on a second. I wonder if you're thinking the same as I did. After closer inspection of the two above controllers, do you see any similarities? I do. Screams of Heresy and blasphemy now fill the air! The fanboys rage. Hold that thought though. What is it that's similar? It's the SHAPE. The general shape of them. Why? Because that's what fits our hands neat, with the most comfort possible. Yes, the 360 controller is a little bulkier, not as much as the original Xbox, but still, compared to a Dual Shock 3, it's about twice the size. The shape remains the same. Our thumbs and fingers can easily get to every button on these controllers, and that's the reason why they're like they are. A LOT of thought goes into the designs of these things, and it's not surprising that they stick to a general design to help with something as important as comfort when playing. The motion controllers of today, (The Wii-Remote, Playstation Eye, and to an extent, the Xbox Live Vision Camera), are similar in nature, especially the latter two. I personally, see the gimik in them, but not much further than that. It might be because the Wii has never had much compelling titles for me, or something that struck out as an amazing control scheme. But that's just me. You can see in the chart, the slow progression of the curved nature of the controllers however. They started off boxy, and slowly began to curve out. This is when the comfort started being very important I believe, and it's what started where we are today. A short blog indeed, but I believe I like it. Hopefully I'm starting to perfect my layout, although I may have to edit it when Version 4.0 rolls around soon. Again, thanks all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. See you guys next time. I'm off to play Uncharted 2 online.