Touching the Future: PS4 Controller Hands-On

Initially it feels much the same as before, the now raised dimples / grid treatment on the rear of the pad the immediate headline. On the front, we've got the same matte finish as previous PS iterations, but this new back cover, which stretches the entire length of the pad's rear, automatically feels superior, surer grip come longer play sessions.

It's in these - we try out Driveclub and Knack at Sony's lounge area - that we grow gradually disconcerted, though we're at a loss to understand why. We\re not comfortable with the controller. A quick nip over to The Last of Us stand and comparison check later, and we realise its a combination of three factors. The PS4 pad's thicker all over, so our hand grasp no longer so easily swallows the controller whole. The pad's prongs no longer taper towards the end, and so they don't sit as easily in the groove of your palms. This, coupled with the smallest shift in the dual analogue stick positioning, means your thumbs are no longer directed in to the pad's middle in a straight line, but angle up so they're angling upwards, two sides of a equilateral triangle, pointing to the midpoint of the controller's middle bridge.

It's apparent we're not comfortable because we're trying to hold the controller the old way. An initial issue that'll likely fade in time - and while we're undecided about the lack of prong taper, the new stick shift is far more comfortable (agreement coming from a few other folk who had issue with the previous dual stick configuration). The stick tops have a dipped inner circle that give you a better grip with your thumb flesh on the rims, while the smaller convex raise inside that smaller circle still makes you feel you're planting the thumb tips onto something solid.

Select and Start have altered from rubberised rectangle and 'play' icon to plastic vertical strips sat beside the newly raised D-Pad (standard Hadoken quarter circle test seems fine, though not as clicky as we'd like) and face buttons (feeling the same, though the icons look slightly larger), while the names and functions have been replaced. We've now got Share (for the social and gameplay capture the system will offer) and Options (assumption being games will send you to a more specialised gameplay and control sub-menu rather than a generic pause menu).

The PS button's now shifted down to the bottom of the bridge though still sits in the middle (and again, no change in feel or design). The push to the sides of the standard buttons is to make way for the new mic holed in the middle of the pad bridge, and the longer rand larger rectangle of the touch pad on the controller - which had zero use in any of the demos we played, but did have a soft click when pressed (and the pad is lipped over the controller top). The lip rests beside the standard USB lead connector for plugging into the machine, and that rests besides the stretched triangle of light to designate player colour. That area's fully smooth, the blue glow a sexy addition though positioning means that during a multiplayer day session (or anything other than a fully dark room), it's less convenient to check whose controller is whose than the PS3's 1-4 red LCD on the controller front.

Shoulder buttons and triggers: both similar and as responsive as before, though the triggers now have a more pronounced flick at their end, and the housing is more triangular than before. As we're getting used to the new bulkier shape, grabbing triggers with sticks shapes our hands into the player claws that are only one COD session away from cramping.

Much like the machine it'll be plugged into, appreciation of the PS4 controller's design grows gradually the more you look and study it. It's a confident reiteration of a Japanese classic. We'll just have to get used to remoulding our hands out of the shape we've trained them in for almost a decade now.