Not A Bad Gamepad

So when my Logitech gamepad for my PC completely crapped out, I decided that I could get by without one. After playing Madden 2004 a few times, I realized that ok I did need one. I ended up at Walmart and though I was wary of buying a game controller made by some company I never heard of before (Saitek), I really had no other choice so I bought this for $25, I think, and here's what I think of the Saitek P2500 after 10 seasons or so of Madden...


The controller doesn't feel too cheap, the dual analog sticks move pretty well, and most important of all...it works! I've thrown this controller a few times too and it's still going strong after a few months. I've only had a few phantom controller moments (when your character in the game moves without you pressing anything on the controller), but I think it's because sometimes Madden will move your player automatically if you don't do anything for a while. So this seems to be a durable, quality product. I only have a few problems though...

The button layout is downright freaky. You have your two analog sticks and clicking them count as your "Start" and "Select". There are 6 face buttons and two shoulder buttons, meaning that this controller resembles the original Xbox controller most. The black and white buttons were always out of the way for the Xbox and the 5 and 6 buttons are out of the way here. I prefer the PlayStation 2 controller design...4 face buttons, dual analog sticks, and 4 shoulder buttons, but it wasn't a huge problem or anything. But wait, it gets worse...

The 1-4 buttons are aranged 1-2-4-3 clockwise. What is up with that? Normally gamepads are simply 1-2-3-4, and so this Saitek layout was very hard to get used to. Just reprogram the buttons, you're probably thinking. Well, that's not entirely possible, at least in Madden 2004. You can't, for example, make the 4 button respond to the receiver with a 3 passing icon, in which case I could just play with the controller like it was a normal one. Because of this, I STILL sometimes throw to the wrong receiver in Madden.

The other problem is that the controller seems to mess up my computer. Now it's an old model, but every once in a while, when I start up a Madden game, I get the blue screen of death. I don't think that happened when I played with a keyboard or with the ole Logitech controller, but again, the computer I'm playing on is old, so I wouldn't worry about it. It'd probably work fine on my laptop, which is not as ancient.

Conclusion
So yeah the button layout is annoying. But I guess I should be happy that this controller still works after a few months. I've found out that is something to be thankful for when you're in the PC gamepad market.


xo,


underdawg

p.s. This gamepad is supposed to rumble, but I guess Madden 2004 doesn't have a rumble function in it? I dunno, but rumbling controllers were only cool back in the Star Fox days anyway. I doubt too many people care these days if this thing rumbles.

Related Reviews
Logitech Dual Action Gamepad