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Scuf Xbox 360 Controller Review

There are plenty of custom options on offer with your Scuf controller, you can pick from a whole range of custom paint jobs, button colours, paddle configurations, wired or wireless connectivity, rubber grip and more, but here is a run down of the setup I opted for:

SCUF Elite Design
Wired
L Domed Stick
R Domed Stick
Left Rear Paddle – set to A
Right Rear Paddle – set to B
Trigger Stops
Scuf Grip
Blacked Out Buttons
Rumble Pack Removed

As you can see in the picture below, the thing looks fantastic, offering a very slick styling over the standard Xbox controller. Very little has been left untouched after my customisation options were applied, the metallic charcoal grey Remington finish. Which according to Scuf is “a weapon grade resistant finish” and although I’m not entirely sure what that really implies, I do know that the main body of the controller is coated with a tough kind of rubber that looks and feels great, offering an excellent level of grip that you just don’t get with hard plastic standard controller. The same goes for the whole under side of the controller, which I chose to also have finished in this “weapon grade rubber” again providing grip, which Scuf say is handy if your a person who has sweaty hands, fortunately I don’t have sweaty hands, but if you do then this maybe helpful to you.

Spinning the control round we get our first look at some of the Scuf controllers more unique features. The most prominent of which are the paddles on the underside of the controller. As standard these come set to the A button on the left paddle, B on the right paddle. Your finger tips sit naturally over these paddles, meaning that you can execute these two buttons without ever having to take your right thumb off the analogue stick. They have a really nice tactile click to them too, light enough to be easy to use but not so much that you end up holding it down by accident.

The next thing you can see is the trigger stops, these are fully adjustable too using the provided allen key. At the pre-configured setting the triggers only press in half way, cutting the time between you actually pressing the trigger and bullets being fired in half. Ok it’s factions of a fraction of a second, but in FPS gaming that can make all the difference, It feels a little odd at first but it definitely makes the triggers feel more responsive. The only problem I have with it is at the side of the trigger is the back of some part of the mechanism, I have long fingers and kept rubbing my finger tips over it, its a little sharp and started to bug me after a while. After letting a few other people play test the controller, they said it was a problem that only affected me, its nothing major but people with long fingers may want to keep this in mind.

I opted for the domed analogue sticks, mostly because I wanted to cover the custom aspect of this controller as much as possible, so it didn’t make sense to leave them as standard. While some gamers prefer only the right stick on the Scuf to be domed, as it can help give better precision while aiming and the convex shaped left stick is better to sink your thump into for rigorous running around, but no, I wanted both of them different. For those of you who are familiar with the PS3 controller, then that’s pretty much what you get here.

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Peter Donnell

As a child still in my 30's (but not for long), I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!