My Victrix Pro BFG came in today and like the Edge it's mostly great with one huge drawback.
PRO:
1) Shape/Build/feel. This thing is nice. It's extremely comfortable. It's shaped like the Xbox controllers, which I've always preferred.
2) Back buttons. Four, perfectly placed paddles with enough tension to keep from false presses but are also highly responsive and snappy. Just perfection.
3) Customization. The ability to swap sticks from symmetrical to asymmetrical is perfect for either style, it's probably my favorite feature. The fight pad is amazing and the buttons on it are basically mouse clicks. If you play a lot of fighting games this is hands down the best standard style controller made for them. There are multiple D-pads and all of them feel nice and responsive, no mushiness like the DS.
4) Battery life. PDP claims 20 hours, and I believe it, mine hasn't moved off 2 bars since I unboxed it. Not near Elite levels but substantially better than the DS.
5) Top shoulder buttons. Better than both Edge and Elite. Very snappy, shorter pull distance than DS and significantly better feel than Xbox.
6) Programming. No flashy UI but it's nice and simple. You press a button on the back, hold down the paddles you want to configure and then press the button you want to assign tothat paddle. Easy peazy.
CON:
1) This is the big one for me. We know it has zero haptics, but it also has no rumble at all. I can live without DS features but the rumble is something that games feel naked without having. If you care about this the controller is basically a non-starter. If you dont then it's a great controller.
2) L2/R2 buttons. They have 5 trigger stop options and at the most aggressive setting they feel great for shooters, etc. Outside of that when you use full, or near full, trigger pulls they feel kinda cheap and loose.
3) Connection. The controller is fast and responsive, but because it uses a wireless dongle it can't turn the PS5 on, which sucks.
Overall impressions:
This is the most conflicted I've felt about a piece of hardware. One one hand it feels better to hold, it has better buttons, both front and back, it has better stick placement, better d-pad, shoulders, two more triggers, etc. On the other hand it has no rumble/haptic internals at all, has loose trigger play at default depth and can't turn on the console, which means you'll need a second controller near-by on PS5.
If you are someone who plays shooters or fighters a huge part of the time, this is an amazing controller. It's easily better than any other PS5 controller for those genres...even the Edge doesn't come close for those genres. If you primarily play other genres it falls short of just about every other "pro" type controller.
If I could only own *one* pro style controller for the PS5, it would be the Edge, It's just better for all around use. I'm still undecided if I'll keep this, because I rarely play competitive shooters and basically never play fighting games.
It kinda sucks we can't get a single pro style controller on the PS5 that does everything it should. We either get less paddles and battery life like the Edge, we get no internals and missing basic functionality like the Victrix, or mushy, poor quality, paddles like the AIM. Kinda a bummer all around.
