From the PS3, DualShock controllers have a nice, rounded home button between the analog sticks that you can easily press to return to the console’s main menu. DualSense the PS5 changes that. I hate it.
Instead of a small acrylic knob with the PlayStation logo on it, the DualSense home button is the entire PlayStation logo. It is hardly raised above the surface of the plastic; you won’t immediately feel the button as your thumb grazes on the lower part of the controller that detects it, and the edges kiss you when you finally do. It’s a camouflage in all black, almost as if the controller’s most important button – the one that powers the console and lets you back out of games – isn’t you don’t want to find it, or use it, or at least.
Look, redesigns are always a difficult pill to swallow, especially when they follow the back of moderately good ones you’ve become accustomed to. I spent seven years with the DualShock 4 and the PS4 tablet system, which I didn’t like, but they’ve both taken a familiar warmth after thousands of hours of manipulation as an extension of my mind and mind. own body. A month or two into the life of the PS5, its weird design choices still haunt me. I don’t see getting over things like the DualSense home button without taking me to the home screen, and the button itself positioning more as a piece of image image than a practical interface, anytime soon.
I do not by itself, either. Here’s how Kotaku freelance editor and Rock, Paper, shotgun co-founder John Walker sent it to me over at Slack DMs:
What throws me is like branding, not a way of interacting. Many times I completely forget that it is a button, then accept that the reason I can’t find the menus that I am looking for is because of the sheer caution of the its new dashboard, instead I forgot another subsection of the override. Möbius interface.
I agree that doesn’t make much sense to me – it’s in the same place as the round “PS” button on the previous controller, so I don’t really have a good excuse. But gosh, there’s something just as powerful about being now as this particular relief glyph. His semiotics scream “DON’T PRESS ME! ”, Before you even get as unpleasant as a tactile interaction.
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The button is also a mainstay when it comes to DualSense configuration. Kotaku recently senior reporter Mike Fahey was on the Colerware modder controller add DualSense to it decorated in pink and black. The thing looks sharp as hell, and speaks to the flexibility of personalizing your PS5 controller – except for the home button. “The only downside to customizing a DualSense controller is that you can’t do much with the damn PlayStation logo button,” he wrote. “No matter what color you paint, it’s still the way it is. ”
The rest of the controller is excellent. The stimulators are so ergonomic I sometimes forget that I am slowing them down, except when the haptic feedback is involved and the tension can grow as I slow down. pull a bow back inward Astro Playroom. The grip feels better than the DualShock 3 or 4 ever did. The dimmed light bar is a power saving relief. The analog sticks feel more substantial, though time will tell if they actually hold up better than their predecessors.
In so many ways the DualSense is a monumental step up from the last generation. Too bad the button I touch first every time I turn on my device is not one of them. Sony may fix it with DualSense Pro.