If you plan on playing
any Xbox games with friends, you need to
get more controllers.
Mad Catz has been producing third Party peripherals for over 10 years,
and it shows with the Xbox Control Pad.
The first thing that people will notice about the pad is that it is slimmer
than Microsoft's offering in the controller market. This enables people
with more "normal" sized hands to position their thumbs correctly.
It is the button positioning that is one of the few drawbacks to the Control
Pad, but that really can't be pinned on Mad Catz. Microsoft designed the "black" and "white" buttons
so far up, that a lot of gamers won't be able to reach them. A slightly
tighter button arrangement could have been beneficial, but isn't essential.
The biggest improvement over Microsoft's controller is the D-pad. Instead
of the round pad on Microsoft's controller, Mad Catz has replaced it with
a more traditional styled pad. This helps avoid any confusion when navigating
menus and such. The D-pad is fuly directional, so no functionality is lost.
The control sticks are a little loose (in a good way), which helps with
games in need of fluid gameplay, such as Dead or Alive 3. Trigger buttons
have some "give" to them, especially useful in racing games where varied
acceleration is needed.
Overall, this is an excellent all around controller, with all of the functionality
of Microsoft's controller, but with a slightly smaller casing and a much
smaller price. At $24.99, this is an excellent way to get some multiplayer
action happening.
Daniel "monk" Pelfrey
