Gadgetory

(upbeat music) - Today we're looking at something that's a little bit weird. I've been looking at this for a long time and I've been debating whether to do a video on it and I realized that right now there's kind of a pretty good reason to actually cover a video on it. This is the Avenger PS4 controller. Or at least the Avenger PS4 controller shell, apparatus, thing? So what this is, is it's a grip that attaches to the front and back of your PS4 controller. It adds a whole bunch of different little mechanisms here that you can reach with your fingers. And the idea is that with this, you should be able to play specifically FPS games without ever having to take your thumbs off the sticks. This is a concept that started actually on the Xbox 360 when a lot of multiplayer FPS stuff was really starting to blow up on consoles and with the PS4 being a bigger hit during this current generation, it made its way over to that system. And it's actually really interesting how this whole idea works. The idea is that you have all these little tabs and things you can reach using different parts of your hand, not your thumb specifically. That way you can just keep them locked on at all times. And it works on the very similar concept as a lot of expensive Pro controllers do where you have reprogramming of buttons that you can reach using other fingers instead of having to move your thumbs around and that way you can be focused on just movement and looking around, especially in FPS games. But the interesting thing about this is that instead of being a $200 controller which might have those buttons along with other features you might not necessarily need, it's just cheap little plastic shell attachment that is way more affordable and gives you that option. Though it's a little crazy looking. So let's take an actual in depth look on how this really works. When you first open this up, you might be a little intimidated of how exactly to put this altogether. It's in two pieces and one of them is very spinny and kind of weird looking, but it's actually really simple to setup. It can basically be done in three steps. The first one is take this front plate and just snap it onto the front of the PS4 Dualshock. Second step we're gonna take this back piece and see these kind of hinge parts right here? You're gonna loop 'em into the hooks that are on the top of the controller, don't worry about how everything else is lining up just yet, just get 'em in there into place. Now once you've done that, you can make sure that all the other buttons and everything are sitting in the right way they should and you're gonna take this back piece here on the bottom and just hook it together making sure it snaps nice and tight. Once you've done that, you're done. The entire thing is put together and it's really actually kind of ingenious how this all works, so again, the focus here is to try and make sure that you're never moving your thumbs away from the sticks, you can just stay focused on being able to do movement and looking around at the same time. So the main idea here is to have ways of reaching the four front facing buttons that aren't gonna need you to move your thumb around. So the way this is done by adding all these different little levers. There's one at the bottom for X, you can use your palm, just putting a little pressure. One for circle where you can use your index finger to lift up and then up above higher are these two that can be used for triangle and square. And you'll notice on the back of the controller all these kind of trigger extensions that are going on. This makes it so that you can either have a further back way of being able to reach the trigger or if you need to be able to hold down a trigger for a very long period of time, you can just grab the little loop here and hold it down and that's just gonna make sure it's nice and locked in. And it's more comfortable on your finger. And then as for the front buttons, instead of pressing down on them regularly, you're gonna rest your finger in the same position you would use for pulling the trigger, but if you wanna hit the button, you just tilt forward instead and that's gonna press down on R1 or R2. I will say it certainly isn't the most intuitive experience, it's definitely different from how you would normally hold it and use a controller, but with time spent on it, it's actually a pretty interesting and neat way of giving you this option of controlling more without having to ever use your thumbs. Trying this out too, it gives you this really kind of interesting highlight to what the logic is going into a lot of Pro controller designs and this whole idea of, how can we make things comfortable for players and give more accessibility without having to rely on more traditional controller inputs? Okay, so I'm just gonna mess around a little bit in Destiny 2 to kinda feel how this controller actually handles, I will say it's a little more intuitive than I thought it would be at first. The triggers of course feel normal and just kinda running around right now, I've been able to just play missions and not move my thumbs of the sticks yet. Some of the issues I am finding so far though, a lot of it just has to do with developing the right intuition like what goes to what, every time the game tells me to press square, it takes me a second to be like, wait, that's this one, yes okay, flip up on this. As far as the comfort of all the levers go, I've gotta say that they're a lot better than I thought just looking at them, I mean again, this thing is absolutely crazy looking. But it's really not that bad to hit the square, triangle or even circle, the only one that's kind of a problem which is a little unfortunate and probably needs rebinding in some games is the X because X is very often used for jumping. And so, when you're in a situation where you're trying to turn and jump at the same time, depending on where your thumb's moving on the right stick, it just feels a little awkward to have to flex your palm at the same time and it's not always the most intuitive thing to do. The other part about this that does feel a little weird to me in getting used to is the trigger setup. Because of how much they've extended them and the kind of extra layer it has, there's kind of a softness and part of the problem is this is just the way that the Dualshock 4 triggers are designed. It feels a little awkward, but what does help balance this out at least for things like aiming down sights is this whole idea of the loop grip right here, where if you need to aim down sights for a long time, like say you're using a sniper rifle, you can just hold down on it and it's a lot more comfortable than holding the button down the way you normally would. I will say at the same time though, that while the trigger pull feels a little weirder to me, I do like that I have one place to access multiple buttons at a time without really needing to use my index fingers very much. I'm either pressing down to use the triggers, going forward a little bit to hit L1 or R1, or raising the finger if I need to hit square or triangle. It just makes it so that you're able to access multiple buttons really easily with minor finger movements. You know, I gotta say, I originally ordered this mainly because it was just insane looking and I thought it would be a fun video to try it out, but it actually isn't that bad. You know, I didn't really give it much credit when I even first opened it up, but after having spent time playing with it, it works really well especially considering that it is a much cheaper alternative towards buying something like an expensive Pro controller. But then it makes me wonder, how does this actually compare to like a $200 controller, so I've switched over to the main Pro controller that's really become my go to on the PS4, the Razer Raiju Ultimate and again, there is a major price difference between this and the Avenger. This runs for basically 200 bucks and a little more 'cause you have to import it if you're in the US whereas the Avenger is 40 bucks and it's still half the price if you include buying a brand new Dualshock to go with it. Hey, speaking of Avengers, did you ever wanna customize you're your Switch in the color of your favorite villain, Thanos purple? Well that's possible thanks to today's sponsor dbrand. They have a whole line of Switch skins that are totally safe to use, check out the link down below. The main thing we really wanna compare here is the accessibility of additional buttons because on the Avenger, it's giving you this roundabout way of accessing front facing buttons with all these levers, whereas a Pro controller solution is gonna give you just additional buttons that you can reprogram to match whatever button you need them to be. One of the immediate easy comparisons is that on the Avenger if you're using default button layout, X is a little weird to hit and you need to use that fairly often for jumping depending on the game, whereas on the Raiju Ultimate, if I've programmed into one of these back buttons, it's just pressing down with my middle finger and that's really easy. Of course, when you're talking about something like a $200 controller, there are more features than just reprogrammable buttons. You're also getting things like redesigned grips, higher quality parts, more features in functions like being able to adjust the rumble motors. So you're getting more for that higher price point, but if you're just looking for a way to more easily access buttons and that's the only thing you care about, the Avengers is an interesting thing to compare against it. It's interesting to see how this shell approaches the idea of being able to access buttons in a different way compared to how Pro controllers have really evolved with this idea because here it's a lot of shifting your hand, putting a little more weight on the palm forward or raising it up a little bit, whereas a lot of Pro controllers right now have evolved from concepts that are really popularized by SCUF in the earlier days of PS4 and Xbox One. For instance, having back paddles that are accessible through using fingers that you normally wouldn't use while gaming like reaching for it with your middle or ring finger. This is something that went on to inspire for instance, Xbox One Elite controllers design where it has paddles in the back that are down on the sides instead of straight back down. And even SCUF and other Pro controller manufacturers are messing with other ways to access buttons in interesting ways. For instance, the newest SCUF Vantage adds side buttons where you're able to flex your finger upward kinda similar to how this one approaches that other form of accessibility. Whereas Razor puts reprogrammable buttons on the top middle so you can reach further in from where you'd normally be resting when accessing the triggers. All of these designs are focused around the concept of changing the way we hold and use controllers because in certain ways, games have evolved in a form that the standard four button layout isn't always the most efficient way to actually use it. That's not to say that the concept doesn't work at all, otherwise why would be using this design still? It's something that's very comfortable and makes a lot of intuitive sense to a lot of people. But for the actual, optimal, efficient way of being able to play a game where you wanna be able to look, move, jump, shoot, fire, all this stuff at the same time, well it's not really that convenient when you have certain moving around different controls. You need to be able to use your entire hand in different ways. Looking at how these third party shells and controllers address the concept of additional buttons and changing the ways that we actually interact with the controllers, it's really interesting to think about how that might actually impact future mainline controller design. 'Cause when you look at all the mainline controllers right now like the Dualshock 4 or the Xbox One controller, they're all just very heavily refined versions of concepts that we've been seeing over and over again for the past couple of generations. I mean, yes there's changes to things like the way the grip is shaped, maybe there's a little more distancing or slight changes, but overall it's the same concept. The sticks are roughly in the same place. You have a D pad, you have four front facing buttons and four shoulder buttons. But seeing all these new controller designs that offer things like buttons on the back side where the grip is or weird paddle things to be able to access buttons without having to use your thumb, it's interesting to think that if this is a better, more optimal way of playing a game, is that something that should start being rolled into new controller designs? Is this something that we could see kind of in the PS5 or new Xbox controller? Maybe not quite as crazy as this one is, but still the same concept of having ways to reach buttons that would involve something other than just your thumbs. When you're looking at a product like this, I think there's two main questions that people wanna ask. One, does it actually work? And two, if it does, is it worth spending just 40 bucks on this to modify your Dualshock 4? Or is it better to save up for a Pro controller? Well for the question of does it work, surprisingly yes, it certainly takes some getting used to like I've said and there's a couple of aspects of it that are a still a little weird even once you are comfortable with it. But I will say that overall, I think it did give me an improved experience where I have a lot easier, faster access to a lot of buttons, especially when you do a lot of things simultaneously. With that in mind, if the only thing you're really looking for is a way to access more buttons easily and no other kind of features, yeah for 40 bucks it's kinda cool. Now I will say that in my experience of using it so far, the plastic material it's made out of does feel a little bit more on the frail side. I get a little worried, especially with these upper levers here that if I got really intensively into a game, I might accidentally put too much and could even maybe snap the plastic. That hasn't happened yet, but it just doesn't fill me with the greatest confidence. On the other hand, if you spend more money on something like the Astro C40 or the Razer Raiju or any of the SCUF controllers, you're gonna get a lot more than just those reprogrammable buttons and a lot of other nice features that are really cool to make use of even if you're not necessarily looking for those in the first place. Look, in just a straight comparison of what's gonna give you the best experience possible and we're not talking about price at all, I do think a Pro controller is still the better way to go. It's something that's built from the ground up. It's gonna give you additional buttons that don't get all over the place. It's gonna have a better grip design and often times have a lot of other features that are really useful. But if you don't wanna spend that much money or you're not able to and you just want something that's gonna be a more affordable fix to give you a better experience right away, this actually is something that I think could really work despite how insane it looks. And look, I get it, if I watched someone else reviewing it and they were like, oh yeah this thing's actually great, it does a good job. I'd be skeptical too, I would just not believe it because yeah, it's kind of a mess to look at. But it really does, after a little bit of initial period of time of getting used to where all the different switches are and just getting that button association down in your head, it's better. I really wish we could use the Avengers theme in this video. I just know we're gonna get copyright claimed immediately. But just imagine like opening shot with that controller and just, bum, bum, bum bum, ba ba ba, ba.