The XBOX Elite Controller isn't blowing my mind...

[Cthulhu Calamari]

It's nicer than a regular controller, sure, but in Canada it's over $200 after tax, and considering what you get I'm probably going to return it after 2 days of use. Am I on crazy pills, or is this thing an extremely overpriced underwhelming chunk of plastic?

 

Software

Out of the box it needed a software update through the "Xbox Accessories" Win 10 app, and that required - no joke - ten attempts, with it alternately giving an unknown error message, or hanging at random progress percentages.

 

Once it was finally finished updating, the software itself isn't very intuitive, and doesn't appear to have any additional help info in-app. The customization options themselves also seem kind of pointless. Yeah, I definitely wanted to turn down the vibration, but the actuation adjustments for the sticks don't come with any in-app explanation of what the different curves actually do, and there isn't any visual feedback for what difference the slider makes...

 

The main thing I was interested in with this ridiculously extravagant controller was the ability to set deadzones on the sticks. In games like Hollow Knight and Hyper Light Drifter I often find my character is facing the wrong direction after frantic movement because the snap-back on the sticks can inadvertently trigger a turn around after I've released my thumb... I can set the deadzone in Steam's settings, but does that carry over to games played through non-Steam launchers? If it does, then Microsoft's app seems even more pointless to me.

 

Am I just an idiot for not finding whatever setting this is? Or is it just not there?

 

Hardware

I can't find a definitive answer online about whether all of the articles I've seen about defects or shoddy build quality were limited to units from an initial product run, or if these problems persist today. Does anyone know if they still have a surprising fail rate for the stick and shoulder buttons? Because of one of the sticks on a $200 controller starts to sag after a couple of months of casual use, I will be furious. If it matters, this one is:

 

Model No.: 1698

Lot No./Date: 1850

 

Also, the trigger switches are supremely underwhelming. I got the Bionik Quickshot custom grips for my standard Xbone controller, and those work really well. The only issue is that the actuation point in "quickfire" mode is only halfway on the actuation arc. That's acceptable for the types of game that's meant for, but I really assumed that a first-party option (that wasn't just sticking a piece of plastic in the mechanism) would be a true analogue-to-binary converter, but no: the official Microsoft option does the exact same thing, with the "quickfire" mode still only registering half-way actuation. That's no reason to keep this controller.

 

So the only current stand-out feature seems to be the paddles, but as far as I can tell, all they can do is be mapped to existing Xbox gamepad functions (X, Y, A, B, etc.), and can't have any further function mapped to them. Is this the case? They are only there to make hitting existing buttons easier when you're using the sticks, and they can't add functions? On a PC? I'm used to the software for gaming mice being a bit unintuitive, but at the end of the day I can map unused keyboard inputs to extra mouse buttons, and then modify in-game controls to take advantage of a mouse I paid too much for.

 

Am I Crazy?

Should I just buy another standard Xbone pad for $50-60 CAD (depending on colour), and another $20-30 for the Quickshot mod, and just save myself over a HUNDRED DOLLARS?? Or is there some software function that I am just too thick to find? Alternately, if there are any recommendations for 3rd-party controllers that are actually worth picking up, I'm open to suggestions.