What are your thoughts on controllers?

[xunilhr]

I want a controller for my Shield and have been looking at the Nvidia. Is it worth the big price? Anyone had success with a different controller?

 

[tflash]

The controller is nice, but some of it is a bit low quality for the price. The triangular track pad clicks down in a cheap way, and the volume control is the wide part of the triangle but it's all one piece. I think the vol. button(s) should be a separate moving part. By the way they don't tell you the vol. control only works when playing on the tablet. If you have it hooked up to your tv (console mode) it will only mute or max. You have to use the tv's remote to regulate it in between. Also the interface to the button mapping program for games without native controller support is awful. I'm still trying to figure it out to play Granny Smith as the preloaded map doesn't work at all.

 

[Paul627g]

The controller is nice, but some of it is a bit low quality for the price. The triangular track pad clicks down in a cheap way, and the volume control is the wide part of the triangle but it's all one piece. I think the vol. button(s) should be a separate moving part. By the way they don't tell you the vol. control only works when playing on the tablet. If you have it hooked up to your tv (console mode) it will only mute or max. You have to use the tv's remote to regulate it in between. Also the interface to the button mapping program for games without native controller support is awful. I'm still trying to figure it out to play Granny Smith as the preloaded map doesn't work at all.

I think aside from some of the quirks you mentioned here like volume control and the track pad the controller itself for gaming is right on. I'm a heavy console gamer and find the SHIELD Wireless Controllers very nice to use for gaming. They are fluid in control and lightweight in your hands. The battery life on a single charge is downright crazy too. A few of my fellow ST friends have also commented about the battery life.

The mapping program is a bit quirky but I try to shy away from games that don't have full controller support built in. That falls on the game devs shoulders and not NVIDIA.

 

[tflash]

I think aside from some of the quirks you mentioned here like volume control and the track pad the controller itself for gaming is right on. I'm a heavy console gamer and find the SHIELD Wireless Controllers very nice to use for gaming. They are fluid in control and lightweight in your hands. The battery life on a single charge is downright crazy too. A few of my fellow ST friends have also commented about the battery life.

The mapping program is a bit quirky but I try to shy away from games that don't have full controller support built in. That falls on the game devs shoulders and not NVIDIA.

A lot of the best games are made for touch only like Baldur's Gate (has Bluetooth keyboard support, yeah) and Icewind Dale.
The mapper program is written by NVIDIA and should bridge the gap between touch devices and console like devices. It won't do if the interface is just a bunch of symbols with no instructions. (My main gripe with 'international' app interfaces in general.)
One of the reasons that Google TV didn't catch on is that apps had to be written for the GTV remote with buttons, and a keyboard, as well as a 10ft interface (thank you Shield Hub app for the 10ft interface)

One thing that is really impossible (or very difficult) on the controller is the touch control of 'swipe' (scroll) or 'drag and drop' for mice. To make the controller fully functional for a tablet, they should make the touch pad square, and support multitouch so I can do two finger scrolling and pinch to zoom. That would make this controller awesome!