The Duke is a comfortable controller.

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I like it. It's face buttons are the main issue, which is a BIG problem, but any game that uses the triggers a bunch and focuses on only a few key face buttons plays great with it! Halo OBVIOUSLY has a ton of folks who stand by it (I agree), but Blinx of all things plays great with it! Racing games like Outrun 2, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Project Gotham Racing, and Forza play good with it. The sixth gen GTAs play surprisingly well with it too!

The build is solid. This thing won't break unless you REALLY try. Sticks are comfortable, if a bit odd (that right stick... I know its designed around being for camera control... but its still odd). The whole FEEL of the controller is just right for my hands.


Screw it. I'm gonna say it: the Duke controller is the Dreamcast controller, but done more comfortably. DC controller is only okay, but it suffers from being big while also lacking places to rest your hands, which can lead to cramps for folks like me who have larger hands but love to play games with rapid thumb movement. Duke is way better in that case. Heck, even its D-Pad is comparable! It looks horrific, yeah, but for fighting games it's actually pretty alright!

The Duke only truly flounders with those face buttons and with 2D action games without much diagonal input.

 

[ZombieFish]

Agree 100%. Also have bigger hands and longer fingers. For a long time a USB modded one was my go-to PC controller. If they weren’t so expensive I’d be using one of those xinput compatible new ones now. Never liked the original S controller either, with black and white buttons both recessed and in an awkward position. Honestly, The Duke is the only controller I’ve never gotten any kind of fatigue from. Miss the heavy triggers, too, so satisfying.

 

[Sumea]

I have one duke.
Originally when I tested the duke, the weird button placement Microsoft likely learned from their weirder PC gamepads threw me MAJORLY off when trying a Tony Hawk game in a xbox kiosk. Thanks to the weird slant shape and closeness of the buttons is was way too easy for me to push the wrong buttons whem coming from SNES/PS1 controller by hear childhood into later childhood. Later on I got an Xbox when PS3 and Xbox 369 (that is a typo I am keeping) were already out and having only S pads with it I was wondering what was my issue with the controller originally, until I was reminded that there are the two revisions of controllers.

By the way, my small tip to gaming on xbox. The sticks are likely old, and if not worn at least dirted by some dust, but they include something similar PS3 controllers are documented to do. Especially when playing PSO I will spin the sticks few times in a load screen to "calibrate" them and basically after power on spinning your sticks and letting them return neutral a few times is a good way to avoid weird inputs from the sticks, and this is why a stick might feel like it is outright broken when you start gaming on an Xbox.

My friend actually agreed with this assessment of the hugeness of the controller being good that he spent a good amount of money getting those modern hyperkin or what-company recreation controllers.

 

[poppy_]

The build is solid. This thing won't break unless you REALLY try.

I love dukes a lot but since they are getting kinda old the plastic is becoming brittle. I have 3 and they are all pretty flimsy at this point . I dropped one and half the grip blew out. At least they are still cheap...