I was tinkering with my DS4Windows profile and I was randomly struck by how much I like my DualShock 4. I got it a few years back when the last of my wired and wireless 360 controllers finally gave out (seriously, those things were made from paper, I probably had a dozen and they ALL broke. I'm pretty sure they could be restored with the right spare parts though... let's put a pin in that 🤔)
I got a DualShock4 mostly for the novelty- I looked at the Xbone controller and far as I could tell it offered basically nothing new over the 360 controller except better design. The DualShock4 on the other hand had all kinds of fun features, like the touchpad that also counts as two clickable buttons, the gyro, the lightbar and there's even a standard headphone jack on the controller that Windows keeps routing all my audio to when I least expect it.
With DS4Windows, you can make use of all of these bells and whistles and do some cool stuff with it. You could turn the touchpad alone into as many as six different inputs (Left and right click, four different swipe directions). Still haven't figured out something to do with the gyro though- maybe I just don't play the right types of games.
I do prefer the Xbox controller layout and I thought the DualShock3 felt outdated and awkward to use, but they tweaked the design just enough for the DS4 where I don't really mind the stick placement or the L2 and R2 buttons. I just wish it kept the pressure sensitive buttons for those occasions when you want to emulate Metal Gear Solid games.
It honestly blows my mind MS seemingly added no new features for the Xbone or the Series X controllers. With the Xbox Elite Controller and the DS4 Back Button Attachment (which I kind of want) I thought for sure they were prototyping features that would become standard in this generation.
only reason I switched back to xbox is because I had a real bad time with my DS4 on windows fighting with steam's controller wrapper and didn't like the non-removable battery, but I think the DS4 is a little more comfortable to use. I like the xbox dpad maybe a little bit more because it gives some haptic feedback. If I didn't have issues with the software I would call it about even.
The Gyro works in wii emulators which can be pretty cool actually.
Yeah adding more hard drive/SSD space is still like that. The PS5 takes a standard M2 SSD like any random PC would, the Nintendo Switch has a slot for an ordinary MicroSD card like every Android phone used to have (sigh), but the Xbox Series Whatever has its own funny-shaped non-standard SSD from Microsoft because fuck you that's why.
I think just use what you like. I'm kinda glad Microsoft didn't change the controllers much between generations. All my old Xbox One controllers still work on all games on the Series X, which is nice because I don't need to buy new controllers if I want to play games with someone locally.
I think it's all personal preference though, you'll probably be fine using DS4 for most things. I'll always prefer xbox, because the analog placement on sony really hurts my hands.
I think DS4 is my favorite controller of all time. I remember the store I was in when I first held it at a PS4 demo unit, love at first sight
