The PDP Faceoff Deluxe+ Audio Controller is Solid but Slightly Limited
I’ve been playing around with the PDP Faceoff Deluxe+ Audio controller for the Nintendo Switch for a couple weeks and I thought I’d share my thoughts. First, the controller is solid. It feels good in the hands. There’s some heft, but not a lot, and it feels comfortable. Also, the camo designs look really cool and are textured for a little extra something. In addition, the D-pad and analog sticks feel amazing. The analog sticks are concave which is fantastic and then you add the texturing that is here, and it feels amazing. The buttons feel fine as well although I do think the four center buttons are spaced a little oddly. I haven’t bothered using the paddle buttons on the back though since I never use those buttons on these controllers, but they do feel solid. It’s also real nice that the USB cable is 10 feet long. Finally, it’s nice that you can plug your headset into the controller. This means you don’t have to plug into the Switch itself to mute it while others are around, and you don’t have to use your phone for chatting with your friends (for one game).
As an added bonus, because the controller uses USB, you can plug it into your computer! It works fantastic with Steam games at the least (I haven’t tried it with anything else).
The downsides to this controller are that it doesn’t feature HD Rumble (or any rumble) and the aforementioned chatting only works with one game currently. The controller uses the USB chat feature of the Nintendo Switch that was opened up by Vivox earlier this year, but so far, only one game utilizes this: Fortnite. This means that for most other games you’ll have to use the Nintendo Switch Online app or another service like Discord to chat with your friends. It should be noted that this is not PDP’s fault and I do not blame them for this.
Well, to really test this controller, I downloaded Fortnite and found that the chat function does in deed work and is clear. Or at least my friend told me it was clear when the mic wasn’t rubbing against my shirt creating static (I was using an old iPhone headset).
If you want an inexpensive pro controller for your Nintendo Switch and you don’t mind it being wired and lacking HD Rumble, the Faceoff Deluxe+ Audio controller is a solid choice even if you don’t plan on plugging in your headphones. As it stands, you only need the headphone feature if you play Fortnite or want to play your Switch on your TV and not bother anyone else in your house.
