Controllers, Keyboards, Mice, etc.

[Moonface]

Not that it'll necessarily go anywhere since patent filings are a dime a dozen, but Sony have patented a touchscreen controller intended to allow players to choose where to place the buttons.
A neat idea that probably remains just that, but it made me wonder if anyone here had the freedom to put any button literally anywhere they want on their controller, where would you put it?

For me I don't have any issue with my controllers as is, and even then I doubt I'd get a touchscreen controller because not being able to feel any of the buttons would make playing a lot harder for me, especially when it comes to directional inputs on a D-pad or analog stick. I forget what it was but I'm sure there was a phone either released or pitched at some point that was this modular type thing where you could choose what it had and where it went; a controller that could pull that off somehow would be sick because then the tactile feeling of the buttons isn't lost, but I dread to think what the cost of such a thing would be. x.x

[ShiraNoMai]

I imagine this patent is for tablet/phone emulation usage and not necessarily a new peripheral. PlayStation, I imagine, knows that tactile buttons are always the superior choice for controllers. Modular button layouts definitely seems like the approach for accessibility purposes in emulation software, but even just button remapping sounds cool to offer in general

[Moonface]

I imagine this patent is for tablet/phone emulation usage and not necessarily a new peripheral. PlayStation, I imagine, knows that tactile buttons are always the superior choice for controllers. Modular button layouts definitely seems like the approach for accessibility purposes in emulation software, but even just button remapping sounds cool to offer in general

I was going to agree that it could be for phone/tablet, except that those devices wouldn't be able to provide shoulder buttons at all. The patent images indicate only the front buttons can be moved around, which makes sense given shoulder buttons can't really move anywhere so it'd be better to just have those be remappable if anything.

[Dragon Lord]

So in my never ending quest to continue throwing money at more controllers, keyboards and mice that I definitely needed, I've bought more controllers, another keyboard and a mouse lately, here's what I got:

So recently I picked up a FlyDigi Vader 5 Pro controller. Love it. This has been one of my favorite wastes of money lately. I have a FlyDigi Vader 4 Pro controller and I've loved that one since I got it, but the Vader 5 Pro had some slight changes to it that really caught my eye and they have been wonderful. One thing I loved about the 4 is how big and bulky it was. Fit my hands really nicely. I was a bit worried about the 5 Pro because I heard it was every so slightly smaller than the 4 Pro... well, it is, but thankfully that slight (and I might very slight) decrease in size has made it feel immaculate in my hands. It is delicious. The controller comes with all the fun bells and whistles of these mid-range controllers too: Hall Effect joysticks (not TMR, but HE is still good enough), mechanical buttons (sound like mouse clicks when you press them), trigger stops so you get that nice instant press on LT and RT (plus micro-switches so they too sound like mouse clicks), a pretty nice D-Pad (I'm not as picky as some when it comes to d-Pads, but it is a nice D-Pad). Controller feels very nice in the hand and even though it's only $80 (I know I say 'only', but this is actually dirt cheap in the high-end controller market). While this controller is labeled a "mid-range" controller and not a high-end, I definitely think it feels more high-end. I got a bundle for $110 that includes the controller, a charging dock and an accessory kit that has a few different styled joysticks you can swap to (I swapped to the domed ones and they feel amazing to use). If anyone is looking for a really good PC controller and you have a bit of money to spend, I can highly recommend this baby.

Another controller I bought back in November was the Mobapad HuBen 2 PC and Switch controller. Another $80-ish controller (though I think I got it on sale for like $65 or something) that comes with a lot of the same bells and whistles that the Vader 4 and Vader 5 do. Unfortunately I did end up encountering a QA issue with this controller that a lot of other people have. Apparently the early batches of this controller have an issue where a piece in the Right Trigger can break and makes the button unresponsive while the trigger stop is active. the RT still works if I don't have the stop in place, but unfortunately I do like having the trigger stops active because I like the short, instant press of the triggers with the mouse clicks rather than the standard full press. I did finally get around to contacting and discussing the issue with Mobapad and they are sending me a replacement controller. They were quick to answer and gave me no issues on requesting a solution to this problem. S-tier controllers with S+-tier customer support. I have gushed about their Switch joycons on here before (which I still highly recommend, if you're going to spend $70 on joycons anyways, get the Mobapad M6 HDs and elevate your Switch playing to a whole new level), so I was very excited to get this PC controller they released. While encountering the QA issue was a bit of a bummer, I was really happy by the swift response and solution of their CS and look forward to hopefully getting a controller that doesn't encounter the same issue again.

In other controller news, after the sad death of my original DualSense Edge (white) controller, I finally got around to dipping on the controller again and ordered myself a new one (black). Got it today and man, I missed having this controller to use. My original one unfortunately had a accidental drop that caused the L1 to break, and it broke in a way that was not fixable. So it has been out of commission since then and I've been without it for a while. While the Edge doesn't have a lot of the really nice features that I like, it is still the best option for a "pro" controller on PS5 that has back buttons and trigger stops. Does suck that the trigger stops aren't micro-switches so you don't get that nice mouse click though. I could have bought something like the SCUF or Phantom controllers that are officially licensed by PlayStation and have things like HE sticks, mechanical buttons and four back buttons instead of two, but what makes me stick with the Edge is that it's going to continue to be the best option for experience the haptics of the DualSense. While SCUF and Phantom do have that tech in their controllers too, since they are official licensed by PlayStation, I just feel like the Edge is always going to be the best option for the absolute best experience with the haptic feedback (which is one of the best selling points of playing games on PS5, I think). So while it was an expensive purchase (especially considering it's the second time I've bought one), I'm glad to have it again and it'll be super nice for playing Nightreign and having the map on one of the back buttons and the surge sprint on the other so I don't have to press L3 as much (which supposedly helps slow down the rate of stick drift).

Now for the keyboard... yes, this one was just a pure because I wanted to purchase. I purchased the Monsgeek M1 V5 TMR keyboard in transparent black keycaps with the Astrolink switches. Coming in at a whopping $159.99. This is purely because I'm interested in having a TMR keyboard, and the user reviews for this one are pretty good. The interesting thing about a TMR keyboards is that they can use both hall effect AND mechanical buttons in them. Obviously you can't use the Hall Effect features if you have mechanical switches in them, but the fact that you can have one keyboard that you can swap between completely different types of switches like that depending on how you feel is really interesting. While I already have a top-tier hall effect keyboard in the Wooting 80HE, I could not help myself after watching several videos on this keyboard and after having gotten a much bigger than expected tax return this year, I ended up not being able to resist thew allure of throwing away money on another expensive, interesting keyboard (plus I'm a sucker for that transparent black theme, I bought another keyboard a few months back for general use on my laptop that is transparent like that and it's beautiful).

Now for the mouse... yes, another mouse. I have so many of these damn things at this point, but I always convince myself I need another one. I purchased the recently released Razer Viper V3 Pro SE mouse. This is a Viper V3 Pro, but without the 8K polling dongle, which drops the price from $160 to $100, though I bought it because it was on sale for another $20 off at $79.99, which puts it at the same price as a lot of the Viper V3 Pro knock-offs. So of course if I can get the official Viper V3 Pro at the same price as the Chinese knock-offs, why wouldn't I? I tried the Viper V3 Pro back at the end of 2024, and while I really liked it for its shape and feel in my hand, I just couldn't justify keeping it at the $160 price tag when I was able to get an ATK X1 (VV3P clone) for like $80 and get the same feel. So I do look forward to getting this one, because I really did love the mouse and being able to get it without the added cost of 8K polling rate (which isn't even very noticeable over 1K, which is what the SE is, and you nee damn good PC to run 8K on a mouse without it killing your GPU) is very nice to me.

Anyways, that's all I have for you today in the adventures of how much money can I blow on shit I don't need but buy because I like shiny new toys.