Published , by Blake Morse
Published , by Blake Morse
The evolution of video game controllers is pretty incredible. What started off as nothing more than a stick and a few buttons has morphed into a cavalcade of d-pads, analog sticks, shoulder triggers, touch pads, and buttons that bear the logos of whatever console they happen to pilot. But one controller seems particularly ready to help players navigate through the next generation of consoles. I am, of course, talking about the brand-spanking new PS5 DualSense controller.
After four generations of consoles, Sony decided to switch up its iconic controller design to something shaped slightly more like their competitor’s controller, only with the analog sticks side-by-side and a touch pad. And, honestly, it was a smart move. The form and weight of the DualSense is much more ergonomic and contours to the grip of your hands in a more natural way.
Beyond the way it feels to hold it, there’s some cool new features to the Dual Sense as well. For starters, the shoulder buttons now have haptic feedback that’s just begging to be used for steering in racing games and knocking an arrow in adventure games. There’s now a built-in mic in case devs want to build wind-blowing or speaking features into their games. And the speaker function has already been used by games like Demon’s Souls and Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales to add a more immersive experience to sounds of armored feet clomping through castles and swooshing around New York with web-slingers.
There’s also some very nice nuanced features to the controller, like the tiny little laser-etched X’s, O’s, squares, and triangles that make up the DualSense’s matted grip. There really is a lot to like about the PS5’s controller and it feels like we haven’t even begun to see what they can do. For these reasons and more we felt the DualSense deserved our award for Best Gaming Accessory of 2020. Welcome to the next level, DualSense.
Check out the other winners from The Shacknews Awards 2020 in our Year of the Games: 2020 article.