A review of the Sony Dual Shock 4 as a PC controller (without patching)

Among other things I bought on blackfriday - the only exciting one being a 144hz monitor at last (which was then promptly canceled as out of stock) - One of them was the Sony Playstation Dualshock 4, in some ridiculous colors. I bought it for my PC, which strikes me as odd. I also "bought" a steam link, airquotes, because it has sat in a box since it arrived. Turns out! We never bought a TV to go with it.

Regardless, the wireless on the DS4 reviewed as working well with the Steam Link, and I would like to get some use out of the link as a party game hub of sorts. But on top of that, Steam apparently added beta drivers for using the DS4 through Steam, so I thought I'd talk about my experiences with that for anyone looking to do so, and also on running it through other clients to see how those end up.

I guess this is a hardware / software review or something?


When I first started this blog or at least back in the proverbial day, I picked up a used wired Xbox 360 controller to get through the various xbox ports I'd picked up on PC. It was inexpensive and reasonably fine.

It may be a result of my hands aging, but controllers have never felt quite as responsive as the SNES and Genesis controllers I gamed on as a child. I've read that patents on d-pads prevent them from being as good as Nintendo's age old offerings, but I also really liked the Genesis d-pad as well. The DualShock4, which I'll call the DS4 from here on in, had an appealing looking pad. So what the heck, let's give it a try.

In terms of handfeel, the DS4 is smaller and lighter than the xbox one controller. It doesn't feel cheaper made, except the weird touch bar doodad at the top, which feels like it should be attached to a circa 2005 flip phone manufactured by a company named "Sovy". It has been a long time since I handled a playstation controller, but it feels immediately familiar. I actually kinda wish I had this for when I did FF7, because memories. The d-pad isn't a huge improvement, but it is an improvement in stuff like Sonic or Broforce.

I feel like the Steam implementations doesn't necessarily make for as effective a usage of the hardware as it should. I dunno, stuff like the Share button not being just set up to replicate f12 and/or the touchpad as far as I can tell not working kinda sucks. It is a touchpad, right? Because I seriously have no idea. Had no idea.

I didn't install the DS4 fix stuff while trying to test the controller out since that's an extra layer above what I'm reviewing. I wanted to plug the controller in and give it a shot as is, using Steam's drivers. Oddly windows makes a sound when it is plugged in, but games outside steam do not seem recognize it. Some games that recognize it do so with very odd button configurations, like everything basically invests for the face buttons, usually the ones that do not show the correct prompts.

This is a list of all the titles I tried to get working or played around with from mid-November to late-December. It obviously isn't comprehensive in any amount but should give you an idea if it works - good indies tend to be updated, AAA games tend to be updated, bad indies or older games that haven't seen updates not so much. Please note: These tests were done from late November to late-December. Some games will in due time update, or already have.

Abduction Bit - Doesn't seem to detect the controller
Aero's Quest - Doesn't seem to detect the controller

should look like this

Axiom Verge - Displays prompts correctly and works flawlessly. Feels really good, was tempted to play through the game again.
Broforce - I think the prompts might have been wrong but it worked really nicely. Finished the entire game using it.
Darksiders Warmastered Edition - Displays prompts correctly but feels a little off on the DS4 as opposed to the X1C. That's personal preference at work, mind you.
Ittle Dew - Always pushing left bug
Magic Duels - I don't use controllers in duels, but if you leave the DS4 plugged in, it bugs out and "always pushes left" on the d-pad. It does show the proper prompts as you disconnect it, though.
Pix the Cat - Doesn't detect the controller whatsoever
Risk of Rain - Works fine but doesn't allow screenshots anymore and doesn't use correct prompts. Does however allow the touchpad to sort of vaguely work? Not well, but first time I've seen it do anything.
Shank 2 - Works fine but displays the wrong prompts
Shovel Knight - Played the first five minutes of the new DLC. Seems to work fine, even has the prompts, but man do I hate that game's sense of challenge.

not like this

Skyrim - I was really surprised to find the DS4 didn't seem to want to work at all. Maybe it's in the SE version? Unsure.
Sonic and All-stars Racing Transformed - Doesn't seem to quite work right. Buttons are wrong, I think?
Sonic CD - Oddly enough, ignores the d-pad and only accepts inputs from the face buttons and analog sticks. Very strange. Bit disappointed.
Sonic Generations - Works fine but displays the wrong prompts
Speed Kills -  Doesn't recognize the DS4 or X1C properly and was promptly uninstalled.
Stardew Valley - Doesn't recognize the DS4 as an X360C or otherwise.
Transistor - Ran this after doing the configuring discussed below; worked fine but wrong prompts. I really need to play this one.

or this

Witcher 3 - Seems to work perfectly, prompts and all. The back lights up green. I don't know what that means.
Zigfrak - Detected the controller but is completely broken, with one analog stick only half functional and the other causing the game to make jet noises without doing anything. X1C does the same thing.

After this, I tried getting a game that didn't work right, to work right. In this case, I went with Sonic CD, which I did actively want to play with the DS4 layout. And... Absolutely nothing is available anywhere I can find in either the game or Steam to get it working properly. It was pretty strange. I'd read there's the option to rebind in the API, but it doesn't seem to be available in Sonic CD.

There are different options in big picture mode, activating PS4 configuration just made the controller not work. So I rebooted and fired Steam up again, and at last, it started showing the options to get Sonic CD using the d-pad. So basically you need to go into big picture mode, then configure some options, then reboot your system and then configure a couple more options on top of that.

This is past the point where I'm willing to call this guy plug and play. You can however change the specific color of your controller's lighting, which is pretty cool. The touch pad, noted above as working strangely, was doing so due to it being set to "split pad". Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to have different games run this differently.

my head hurts

I largely find the DS4 better for platformers and games where the more analog d-pad fits the flow of my hands better, so I'll probably look into running the input wrapper that allows it to 'pretend' to be a Xbox 360 controller whenever I next play such a platformer or fighting game if the controller isn't where I want it to be. SFV is still basically an early access title and KOF14 is a PS4 exclusive for now, so I don't see many fighting games on the horizon... Maybe I'll finally try out Mortal Kombat next year, which I bought in like 2014 and promptly forgot about...

Anyway, basic conclusion: The DS4, at least for the period of testing it, doesn't quite feel ready. Physically, I'm a big fan of the controller. The build quality is nice and I feel like Steam doesn't make use of all its features. I really want the share button to take a screenshot, and I wouldn't mind having access to a touchpad, but neither of these seem currently available (You can take a screenshot with share+RT, which is just baffling. Why the added gesture?) at least without more configuring than I really want to manage per title.

As such, I would say for my first controller, I'd probably go with the X1C. But for a second controller, the DS4 is definitely worth owning. Now to buy a TV...