So, it’s September of 2022. Both of my 2 year warranties expired. Luckily, I bought extended plans. The controllers lasted and used well for I don’t know how many hours of Battlefield V’s Firestorm. Pandemic hit and me and the squad put in countless hours of WWII style battle royale. I’d argue with anyone that it’s one of the top battle royale games available. Just unfortunate that it wasn’t very popular.
I digress. This is about the Xbox Elite Controller 2. Never spilled anything on it that I can recall. It has been bumped and occasionally dropped, but never from much higher than my knees. I never threw the controller and never treated it badly. They worked flawlessly for a little over two years. One exception was that on both controllers, the little rubber cover on the switch at the back…fell off. One fell off on the right side. The other controller the left side is missing the rubber piece. They’re so tiny, I wasn’t able to find them when I noticed. You don’t use that switch too often, so it wasn’t a deal breaker.
The controller is much heavier than the regular controller. It feels nice in the hands, like it means something. I’m not a fan of the PS controllers, they seem to lack weight and proper weight distribution. I guess if you have tiny fingers, the PS controllers are easier to handle. The rubber grips on the Elite controllers definitely give you a more serious handle and the battery life seemed pretty impressive. I don’t recall ever playing and then being all like, “Damn it, already?”.
I actually found myself using the extra buttons in the back much less than intended. I had plans on mapping out my controller for pilot games. Battlefield V and Battlefield 2042 really dropped the ball with their plans and helicopters. Nothing like Battlefield One’s flight controls. Those were incredible.
I’ve heard at least a handful of people mention that their Elite controllers started to stick drift and button lag after only a few months. This wasn’t my personal experience. After about two years, I started to experience stick drift on three of the four total sticks and many of my buttons were rapidly declining their registration marks. I’d have to press harder and harder, sometimes not throwing grenades at all…or accidentally switching to single fire when it wasn’t my intention. Shit like that.
Would I buy again? Not sure. If I knew I’d have a pilot game to use it with, most definitely. Right now though…I don’t see any reason to go with it again. As I mentioned earlier, I have extended warranties. So, while I have time away from gaming anyhow…I’m gonna ship them off tomorrow. I’ll let you know how they came back. Both have the same issues. I bought one from Microsoft’s website and the other I purchased at a Walmart and is covered by Square Trade. They’ll ship off on the same day and let y’all know who got it back to me first, etc.