Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller for Xbox 360 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I will be returning this product the day after receiving it in the mail and after five hours of gameplay.
Bought this controller despite Mad Catz (MC from here on out) notoriously poor reputation -at least from back in the day. This controller is officially sanctioned by Infinity Ward, makers of Call of Duty series. After MC's successful run with the new Street Fighter controllers, I figured that MC had finally evolved from a cheap third party hardware manufacturer to a legitimate rival to the stock M$ gear. Unfortunately, this is not the case with this controller.
Pros:
-Selectable "combat" buttons located on the bottom of the controller. Allows you to perform a variety of tasks without taking your hands off the thumbsticks
-Rubber side grips are comfortable and do provide excellent traction.
-Cord length is long enough to accommodate an average sized living room
-Controller is weighty and attractive. It certainly feels like quality merchandise
-LEDs, Shiny!
Cons:
-Combat buttons are not properly placed for either me or my roommate's hands. They're too high up and it requires a bit of finger gymnastics in order to hit them properly.
-Combat buttons are almost flush with the controller body. You can't just slide your finger over them to activate it. You have to actively readjust your finger position in order to depress them
-Thumb sticks are sluggish. Perhaps more precise? YMMV, see explanation
-Thumb sticks are *extremely* hard when the sticks are in any position other than neutral
-Shoulder buttons are the size of a credit card, WTF were they thinking?
Extended Version:
I had to stretch to say anything positive other than "combat buttons exist and are present". While they are there and while the controller feels good in the hand, there's not much else to praise. The shape is different; much less boomerang shape than the OEM controllers but I can't say if that's a good or bad thing. I REALLY like the OEM shape but this one didn't bother while playing, it was close enough.
Now on to the bad...
I bought this thing almost exclusively for the combat buttons. I run tactical setup so I can drop-shot in COD2 and anyone who plays knows that means giving up the stickclick stab, which is a pretty big disadvantage. I was hoping that this would negate that. Unfortunately, the combat buttons were located too far up the controller so I had to reposition my fingers if I want to hit them. I bought this so I WOULDN'T have to reposition my fingers for snap melee. These buttons in fact are located so far up the grips that there's no way I can have my fingers resting on them and still have my index fingers not rest on the shoulder buttons. Perhaps this was their intent, I do not know. I do know however that I cannot use my middle fingers to flick the triggers.
Speaking of triggers... They're more triggery, if you could pretend that's even a word. They definitely feel more like what you would find on a handgun as opposed to the OEM controller, but that's hardly a basis for comparison. They take a longer throw to engage than the OEMs. I'm not terribly offended by it but the roomie couldn't stand it.
MC claims that the thumbstick internals are the same as the OEM version. I can say with absolute certainty that this is not the case. The sticks are sluggish compared to OEM and require a greater deflection from center to get an on screen reaction. Some people would consider this a pro since while I see sluggish, others see precision. Bumping up the sensitivity resolved that problem and made it more to what I was use to. However, the click functions are HORRID! It's easy to depress the sticks when they're in neutral but one you them deflected (as in you're moving), they become extremely hard to press. This is a huge issue as my run thumb was aching after less than an hour in game. I eventually had to switch back to an OEM as it was too uncomfortable.
TL:DR. Nice try MC. Steal the OEM sticks with the OEM clicks, execute the jackasses who decided on the combat button placement, and make the shoulder buttons normal-sized as opposed the postage stamp sized monstrosities you currently have and you may actually have a winner.
If you're hurting for button relocation, I recommend waiting for the black ops version to see what improvements come around; this controller feel s like a beta product, great concept but too buggy to go into production as is.


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Xbox 360 Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller

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