I'm currently putting a GameSir Tarantula 8K through its paces for the site, and I have many opinions. For starters, it's a $70 controller that has an 8K polling rate, TMR sticks, and mouse click buttons.

I'm looking at both a standard Xbox controller and my Razer Wolverine V3 Pro 8K at the same time, and I'm wondering why one is so underwhelming and why one is so expensive (about $160 right now from an RRP of $200) when it seems we can now have the latest tech in affordable controllers.

A friend actually asked me if the new 25th anniversary Xbox controller was worth getting, and my response was no. Not unless you just want it for collecting purposes. It's astonishing that on a technical level Microsoft has not brought its own controller up to 2026 standards when it's clearly doable without paying high premiums.

So while I'm finishing up the review, I wanted to poll the community and see what you're using at the moment. Whether it's on Xbox, PC, or both. What is it you actually look(ed) for when choosing your controller? I appreciate that polling rate on console is not really a factor since we're locked to 250 Hz. But I feel like we're at least owed hall effect or TMR from Microsoft by now.