DUALSHOCK 4 Controller

The functionality of this controller is great and the quality could not be less.

This is the best playing and best feeling gaming controller on the market, and yes, you can use it wirelessly (via Bluetooth) on a desktop PC running Windows 8.1. There are many tutorials on the internet that explain how to do this, but 4/5 methods I found and used completely failed. Most were intended for Windows 7 users. My rating for this controller is 5 stars because it is an outstanding contoller. The remainder of my review will be a quick tutorial on how to get it working quickly and easily any time you want to use it, without messing with your computer's settings or opening up the command prompt- so read on only if you want to know how to get it working on Windows 8.1 64-bit. If you have a somewhat newer laptop, you almost certainly have Bluetooth. If you have a desktop, there's a good chance you don't. Either way, open the control panel. Everything should be alphabetical, if you don't see a Bluetooth setting, you need a dongle to use the controller wirelessly. They're pretty cheap, but many aren't compatible with Windows 8+. This one worked for me and arrived in 2 days to Southern California, (with the "standard shipping" option), shipped in the same box as the controller I had purchased simultaneously: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EW3WS9M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Install the Bluetooth software with the USB dongle plugged in. (I disabled most of the startup entries associated with the aftermarket Bluetooth and had no issues with it working properly afterwards). Bluetooth: Check. Next you need to download the latest XBox 360 device drivers for Windows. Microsoft will tell you that no further software is needed for Windows 8.1. Disregard and download the XBox 360 drivers for Windows 7 64-Bit and install. (You're free to disable the Xboxstat.exe startup entry). If you've researched this at all, you've probably heard that you need DS4Windows, (now know as "Inputmapper"), to get this to work. You don't. So don't download that program and don't donate money to make their ads go away. It's unnecessary and doesn't work, (in my experience), when the remote is wireless on 8.1. However, you DO need to download special software. Download the files needed here: [...] Open the zip folder and extract the entire "ScpServer" subfolder to C:\Program Files (x86). Plug in the Dualshock 4 controller via USB to Micro USB cable. (The same one you charge Android, and some Blackberry, phones with). Order one of those as well if you don't have one. Watch this video and follow all the steps up to 4:55 (STOP there as he makes the process overly complicated): [...] If you followed the aforementioned steps carefully, then all you should have to do to connect the Dualshock 4 to your Windows Bluetooth is hold down the Playstation button for a few seconds. It will blink a once or twice before Windows recognizes it. When the main light on the Dualshock 4 lights up red, your device is connected and should be recognized by your games. The downside to following this method is that your Bluetooth device will ONLY work for the Dualshock 4 controller, (it will no longer work for Bluetooth headphones, etc.). Also, games will think that you are using an X-Box controller, so when controller buttons are shown on screen, they will appear as X/Y/B/A instead of ⬛/🔺/X/🌑, and the main LED light will not change colors based on the game as they do when connected to a PS4.

I touched on the DS4 in my PS4 review, but I think it's fair that I reiterate my favorite features here, since I purchased a 2nd controller, and my favorite feature really shows itself when you have more than one. it is a remarkable improvement to the PlayStation controller line. My fiance is incredibly impressed by how comfortable it is, and the fact that we both agree - even me with my large mitts - shows how much effort was put into the ergonomics of the controller. The weight and size feels perfect, and really does the system as a whole justice. One really neat feature, that gets glanced over in some reviews, is the ability to plug any standard headphones into the controller and pump all of the system audio through the controller, wirelessly. No delay, either. I've been using my iPhone earpods (later version), and the quality is great. Microphone works well too. When not using the headphones, the speaker on the controller adds a layer of depth to games like Knack and Resogun that is a real treat. One really awesome feature that we didn't realize from all of the pre-release reviews is that each controller can be assigned to a user, and that user can be connected to a PSN account. Whenever you turn on a controller, it asks "who's using this controller?". Which ever account you pick, that person will log in. In a game like Knack, both me and my roommate have our own PSN accounts and are both logged in. Depending on which controller is used to launch the game, that user is the primary player and is playing to earn trophies on their profile. Each user, though, has their own "home screen", meaning at any time I can press the PS button on the controller and go to MY home screen, see my friends, change my settings, etc. During this time my roommate can't interact with the screen - it's my home screen after all. We can hop back into the game quickly, or he can press the PS button on his controller and go into his homescreen, where he gets to interact with his friends, change his settings, etc. Because we're both logged in, the status of both of our accounts is "Playing Knack". It's a fantastic way to utilize the account system and tie it directly with a controller. If we're playing with his game save, and he is earning trophies for his account, as soon as he wants to stop, he can end the game and put his controller down and I can go to my homescreen with the PS button and launch a new game. I am instantly using my account and earning trophies for me, now, without having to log out of the system first or changing which controller is "Controller 1". It is one of the stand out features of the system for us. Having used several controllers over the past 20+ years, the DS4 is my favorite. It's obvious why as soon as you hold it in your hands. And having an extra one for your console really shows of Sony's attention to detail with the PS4.

As someone who has owned an Xbox, and Xbox 360, onw of my biggest concerns switching to PS4 was the controller. I hated the dualshock 3, thought it felt completely unnatural in the hand, like they were clinging too much to the legacy feel rather than updating the ergonomics. I have to say, I am quite pleased with the Dualshock 4. In some ways I am still adjusting, but overall the experience coming from the 360 controller is not that painful. The more widely spaced sticks are a godsend for those of us with larger hands, the new lips on the thumbsticks and triggers bring parity to the grippy comfort of the 360 controller, and the face buttons and D-pad feel smoothly clicky. Everything has a nice, premium feel to it. The things I'm still not adjusted to are the new locations of the Options (i.e. start) and share buttons. Because they are so recessed it can take a bit of fumbling for me to find and hit them. The idea behind having them so recessed is so that you won't hit them by accident, but at the moment they are a bit fiddly to find. Most likely once their location is more in muscle memory that will go away. I also am not yet sold on the touchpad. I keep hitting DPad buttons to command the OWL in Killzone rather than swiping the direction on the touchpad like I'm supposed to. The two most common negative points from other reviews are: The battery life: really this is not a problem, as long as you remember to plug them in after every couple play sessions. While its not ideal, its not as big a deal as people make it. Just form the habit; it takes 30 seconds, and the rechargeable solution is much better than having your controller suddenly disconnect and having to hunt around the house for spare AA's so you can back to playing (360 controller) The LED: It's not as annoying as people make it. It lends a nice, futuristic vibe and I don't find it to be very obtrusive. I do agree that Sony ought to make a software update that allows the LED to be disabled from settings, which would also save battery. Enough people have made this suggestion that I expect Sony will get around to implementing this by the end of the year.

I've owned a Playstation Four for a while now, but I've used the provided controller to the point where I've worn down the analog stick covers, degraded the vibration rotors, and rendered the R2 button unresponsive. However, let the status of the controller stand as testament to my dedication to the PS4 dualshock controller. The thing is extraordinarily comfortable. Before I actually got the PS4, I seriously wondered if the changes to the Playstation system altogether would be worth investment. I was afraid I would be paying more money for more of the same. Fortunately, I made a great investment in the new-gen system, and the controller is a definite improvement over the former controller. The analog sticks aren't as close together as they were for the PS3 controller, and the addition of the touchpad certainly was, at first, the subject of amusement and speculation given its early limited uses. However, it has been a useful feature for games and other non-game related features. The addition of the headphone input was, at first, not very useful to me given I didn't have any games where I needed headphones, but that has changed over time. The alteration of the select/start button setup to the share/options configuration isn't anything I consider worth mentioning since the option button is sort of designated as an all-in-one feature of the PS3's start/select, but the change may be confusing to anyone who is not familiar with the new controller layout. I play Battlefield Four, and at first I was confused how to "spot" an enemy without the select button, but a different button is designated with this task, and it's really easy to learn the controls for games even with the start/select change. The new controller also has a large blue light strip along the front. It doesn't really have many functions other than to look cool, but it does serve some various offhand functions for the Playroom "game". This is usable only for people who own the Playstation Eye, though. The light does change color based on different functions/uses of the controller. Everything else is, for the most part, similar if not the same as the PS3 controller. You'll have the classic Playstation direction keys and shape buttons associated with all the previous Playstation controllers. Despite the early odd experience with the controller, I really noticed the difference between the PS4 and PS3 controllers. I have used the PS3 more sparingly given the handles are a little larger yet "roomy" (spaced apart) than the PS3's controller. The controller is very comfortable and is also somehow lighter feeling than the PS3 controller, for all of its added mass. The controller is altogether vastly better than its predecessor and certainly merits more praise than I thought was possible, but I'll try to be concise. The share button deserves its own discussion, though, so I apologize for this rather lengthy review. The share option is nothing short of awesome. I had always wanted to record gameplay from the PS3, but the money necessary to buy a decent game capturing device simply drove me away from making the investment. Now, however, I can simply plug in a USB drive into the PS4 and export my gameplay files to the USB and then transfer and edit the files to my liking. Admittedly, the quality of the videos I make aren't as great when compared to a person who uses a good game capturing device, but the tradeoff is simply the fact that I'm not looking to be a frontman for a particular game title or company. The system works well enough without spending a crapload of money on really expensive gaming equipment. The PS4 and its controller really help amateur gamers like me feel comfortable and happy playing games without much further investment in other equipment. This may not be the same for every person looking to have a good time playing on the PS4, but the new features to the system and, for that matter, to the controller make gaming so much better than it ever has been.

So I've been using this controller for PC games since about December last year, and I've come to really like this controller. I can't speak for PS4 usage since it's probably a given anyway that it'll work flawlessly, but on PC it's worked most of the time for me. I will say, however, that as there are no official drivers, DS4Tool is the best we're gonna get, and I've been looking at the XBOX One controller to see for myself how it stacks up in terms of ease of use with PC games. I have to say for some games the DualShock 4 behaves very strangely, probably due to the fact that the controller is just masquerading as an XBOX controller (because that's the only way it'll run on PC so far), but still it's something to be aware of. Most of the major problems I had with DualShock controller design in general were fixed--the d-pad has a much better feel to it, the analogue sticks actually have ridges around the edges so your fingers don't slide off, and the triggers feel about as good as the excellent ones on XBOX 360 controllers. The touchpad in the middle can also serve as a mic button or whatever you want when using it for PC stuff. It's much more accessible while holding it normally than I would have thought. The last of the really big changes is the grip on the controller; the handles are elongated so that finally people with big hands like me can hold the controller and feel comfortable. I've always felt that the controller handles on the previous dualshocks were tiny. Pretty much everything I had a problem with got fixed, but IMO a big downgrade is the micro-USB port on the back. I've gone through a bunch of cables either because their connection is loose or they're just bad. I feel like mini-USB is better, but you can tell by the molding on the back of the controller they could barely even squeeze the micro-USB port inside the controller with the light bar taking up so much space. Also be aware it doesn't come with a cable, you must purchase one separately, which was quite a pain to find out when I initially purchased one. The only other thing is the buttons are now no longer analogue, but I don't think too many games relied on that to my knowledge other than maybe MGS. If you're getting this for the same purpose and are willing to put up with some oddities, I'd highly recommend it, but as the XBOX One controller now has official drivers for PC, it may end up being more compatible with more games I think. You CAN use Bluetooth with this on PC too, but the support for it is also weird sometimes, specifically with getting it to pair with your PC might be kind of annoying to do depending on your adapter. I should also mention that some people had issues with the rubber covering the analogue sticks rubbing away, but after months of extensive use, I haven't had this problem, so you may get one where this happens or not, I feel like it's a random manufacturing thing. If it does wear off, there are covers for the sticks you can put on to replace it that will probably work fine. If you're going to use this for PC gaming, just be aware it can be iffy at times, but the controller itself feels amazing to use, if you can deal with weird behavior every now and then/on some titles.

First of all, there is no such thing as a perfect game controller. As soon as you optimize things for one type of game and/or one type of player it will be suboptimal for other types of games or players. I have been playing video games since 1977 and have played or owned almost every game system since the Atari VCS 2600. I have used the stock controllers, many aftermarket controllers, and even made and played a few custom controllers and in the few hours since my Dualshock 4 arrived I have held it in my hands, (carefully) opened it and looked at the fabulous internal design, and used it with my PS3. In my short time with it and mentally comparing it to everything else I can honestly say that this is the best, most comfortable joypad so far (the Valve Steam controller is in Beta still, so it will be awhile before this promising looking device is out). Second, I am not, repeat NOT a fanboy (O.K. I was one in the past, first Atari, then Nintendo, and even championed the ill fated Dreamcast for a bit) and even prefer the X-Box controllers for some games. It was not about placement of the d-pad and left thumbstick, but more that I have big hands and the Dualshock always felt too small for me, the handles too short and the thumbsticks too close together. I did get used to it and liked everything else about it. Thankfully, the Dualshock 4 fixes these problems. Even putting aside the light bar, touch pad, and speaker (all of which I am looking forward to seeing implemented in interesting and innovative ways) the Dualshock 4 is the most changed, most improved controller since the original Dualshock improved on the original Playstation controller (edit: actually, thinking further back, the SNES controller was a HUGE improvement over the NES controller; which often caused hands to cramp and bruised thumbs, leading to the term "Nintendo Thumb"). In fact, the most interesting change is that "Dualshock 4" appears nowhere on the controller (I guess there was no good place to put the name). I did take a few pictures if the internals while I had it open and will post some in customer images (there are only 4 #0 Phillips head screws, but there are 4 snaps/catches holding it closed, 2 in front between the thumbsticks and 1 on each side about 1 inch from the shoulder buttons, making it not too hard to open). I may post an update once I've actually used it with my PS4 for awhile.

I've always liked the way xbox 360 controllers fit comfortably in your palms, unlike the way the Dualshock 3 controllers have to be held further away in the fingers, but I like most everything about Dualshock controllers better, not least the symmetrical sticks and the separate d-pad buttons. This Dualshock 4 controller is the best of both worlds for me. It fits in the palms in the way that I like, and it fixes the few problems I had with the Dualshock 3. The rim on the sticks and the lip on the triggers prevents my thumbs and fingers respectively from sliding off when they get sweaty, the buttons feel just the right balance of clicky and squishy and easy to press, and the triggers and bumpers have just the right amount of resistance. I am mainly a PC gamer, and to use this controller with my PC all I had to do was install the DS4Windows driver to make it look like a xbox360 controller to games (for those not familiar with controllers and PC gaming, most games that support controllers assume xbox360 as the standard and don't support others very well without a workaround like this). Since the initial setup, I almost never have to mess with it, games just see it as an xbox360 controller (even the default button configuration is usually fine). It does mean that I get the xbox360 button prompts, but once you've memorized the layout you don't even look at the buttons and it's not a problem at all. Rumble works perfectly, as well. Also, with DS4Windows you can change the color, brightness, and behavior of the light on the controller. You can turn it off entirely, have it on just when charging (I just use mine wired, but I'm pretty sure you can use wireless if you have a compatible bluetooth dongle), have it flash when low on battery, have it change colors depending on battery, or whatever else you prefer. The touchpad mouse also works on PC (with the DS4Windows driver, and possibly without (can't quite remember)), and although I've had a little trouble setting up the sensitivity in a way that I like (right now I have it set up to touchy, but I'm confident I just need to get around to fiddling with the setting) it is really nice to have, both for regular situations and for emulators and oddball games that support controllers during actual gameplay but not, for whatever reason, in the menus.