Five Best PC GamepadsS

A good gamepad for your PC can go a long way, whether you just like to play retro, emulated games, prefer to play arcade titles with a gamepad, or just prefer the feel of a controller for some games and a keyboard and mouse for others. The thing is, there are so many gamepads to choose from that finding a good one can be tough. This week we're looking at five of the best, based on your nominations.

Earlier in the week, we asked you which PC gamepads you think are the best. We're not knocking the keyboard and mouse here, but sometimes it's fun to switch things up a little. You came back with a few clear favorites and a few others worth digging into. We got more nominations than we can highlight here, but here are the five best picks:

The polls are closed and the votes are counted! To see which of these five great gamepads took the crown, head over to our hive five followup post to read all about the winner!

XBox 360 Controller

Five Best PC Gamepads

The XBox 360 controller is probably one of the most comfortable controllers available, and the fact that there are wired and wireless USB versions for PC games brings the joy to gamers who prefer to sit in front of their monitors as opposed to their television screens. The 360 controller was designed with ergonomics in mind, and designed in a way that's comfortable to hold, even for long periods—although how much you agree with that depends highly on your personal preferences and tastes. The controller also sports vibration feedback, a nice long USB cable in the wired model, and the drivers are all but pre-packed with Windows 7 and Windows 8 so installation is a snap. Getting it to work on a Mac requires third party software, but it's not too difficult to do either. They're available for around $25 at Amazon, which is definitely down from its $40 retail price.

Those of you who nominated the Xbox 360 controller praised its comfortable design, satisfying-to-press and not-squishy buttons (although the D-pad has always been and still is an issue for many people), its great driver support, and the fact that if you're playing any modern title on your PC with a game controller, it's a safe bet that using the Xbox 360 controller will make mapping buttons and commands easy, if it doesn't just work.

Sony DualShock 3 Controller

Five Best PC Gamepads

Sony's DualShock 3 controller—the same controller that ships with the Playstation 3—is also one of your favorites. How comfortable it is is actually a topic of massive debate. Some people love it, some people hate it, but not too many people prefer it to other, more ergonomic models. Still, for those people who prefer it, or already have one and can connect it to your PC, it works well without having to buy extra equipment, connectors, or cables. You can get one for about $43 at Amazon if you don't own one and need all of the cables, or about $40 if you already have the connecting cables required. Getting it to work in Windows can be a bit of a challenge (one made much easier thanks to third-party tools like Better DS3's offline Motion In Joy configuration tool. There's also the original Motion In Joy, but most people agree Better DS3 does the job better without spammy webpages and suspicious behavior on your PC. In Linux and OS X, it's much easier to configure.

Those of you who praised the DS3 controller in the call for contenders praised how easy it was to set up in non-Windows OSes and the fact that you can connect them to your PC via Bluetooth. You may have to remap buttons to get it to work perfectly in some games, but it's a good alternative to the Xbox 360 controller, although it's not nearly as popular.

Logitech Gaming Controllers (Rumblepad 2/F310/F710)

Five Best PC Gamepads

Logitech's gaming controllers tend to rotate pretty frequently, but the Rumblepad 2 earned a lot of praise from many of you even though it's technically not available anymore. If you really love it and prefer it to Logitech's later models, you can still get it, but it's ridiculously expensive compared to the Rumbleshock's spiritual successors, the $20 wired Logitech Gamepad F310 and the $38 wireless Logitech Gamepad F710. Since Logitech's gamepads are designed for PC compatibility, they ship with out-of-the-box compatibility for Windows and plenty of drivers to download to customize and configure the buttons to work just the way you like.

Each of the controllers is designed with some of the curves and comfort of the Xbox 360 controller in mind but the button layout and analog stick layout of the DualShock 3 controller in mind. They're comfortable to use for long periods, but how well they really hold up to sustained gaming is another matter. Some of you reported that you love them, others flat out hated them. Those of you who nominated them praised them for giving you the option to switch button and control layouts among classic game controller layouts, and support for thousands of of games.

Razer Sabertooth

The Razer Sabertooth earned a lot of love as a PC-friendly and Xbox 360-friendly third party controller, and it's not difficult to see why. It's large and hefty without being bulky and overly heavy, it's ergonomically designed and comfortable in the hand, and packs a ton of useful features. You can adjust the sensitivity of the Sabertooth's backlit buttons and sticks, the buttons have a solid click to them, the rocker triggers are firm, and the Sabertooth even comes with extra rocker triggers on the underside of the controller that the Xbox 360 controller itself doesn't have. All of the buttons—including the extra ones—are completely programmable, and it even packs a built-in OLED screen at the bottom to help you see what menu or mode the controller is in. It supports Windows right out of the box, will set you back $80 direct or at Amazon, and for your investment you also get a controller that you can unplug from your PC and plug into your Xbox 360 anytime you want.

If the Rumblepad and its successors emulate the DualShock 3's look and feel, the Sabertooth emulates the Xbox 360's approach (which makes sense, since it works with the Xbox 360). Those of you who praised it made special note of the Sabertooth's customizable buttons, firm buttons, and solid build quality. If you've had problems with the Xbox 360 controller's D-pad, the Sabertooth is worth a look, and vastly improves on it.

USB Retro Console Gamepads

Five Best PC Gamepads

Let's be honest, most people who game on their PC use a keyboard and mouse, and are more than happy to do so. If you don't really need an awesome, high-tech, programmable controller for the few arcade style games, platformers, or action games you want a controller for on your computer, a USB version of the retro game controller you love the most may be in order. If emulated games are your thing, and you prefer to play classic titles and old school games (whether it's on your PC or a custom arcade machine—maybe one powered by a Raspberry Pi—maybe you'd prefer to use the controller that the games in question were designed for! Depending on the one you want (several of you in the call for contenders praised the SNES controller and theN64 controller specifically, but they're not your only options).

Personally, I love the feel of the old SNES controller, and while I have more advanced controllers for my PC, sometimes I plug in my USB SNES controller and fire up MAME. You can get USB SNES controllers for around $10 at Amazon, but if you're even more old school and want the original NES controller, a good one will set you back $7 at Amazon instead. Looking for something newer? A USB version of the classic N64 controller, for $14 at Amazon. If you have the controller but don't have a USB adapter, you can even buy those instead. Here's one for the N64 controller, and here's one for the SNES. This $7 dual PS2-to-USB connector comes with a lifetime warranty and works like a charm—I actually own this, so I can vouch for it.

Depending on the games you want to play or the emulator you're using, you'll almost certainly have to remap buttons to the commands used in the arcade or to adjust to using a different controller than the game expects, but that's half the fun of playing old school and classic titles on new hardware. Once it's all set up, you're off and running and won't have to do it again.


This week's honorable mention goes out to the Xbox One controller and Playstation DualShock 4 controllers, both of which more than a few of you were thrilled about, even though they're not available. It's true, both controllers will likely have some PC compatibility not long after the consoles land on store shelves come November, and both of them will likely represent upgrades over the current console generation's controllers. We're willing to bet that if we do this poll again in a year, the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers will be dethroned by the Xbox One and PS4 replacements. Plus, a number of you noted that you had a chance to play with the new console controllers at events like PAX (the Penny Arcade Expo) and loved what you felt.



Photo by Mark van Seeters, Futurilla, and William Hook.