The Logitech F310 may be ugly, but it's $15 and will always be there for you

[Nergal]

 

 

The Logitech Gamepad F310 looks like the product of a plastic mold designed to create garbage. Its beady little buttons will absolutely grow calluses on your thumb, and you will definitely flip the XInput/DirectInput switch on the back accidentally and spend 10 minutes trying to figure out why it isn't working. But once you realize your error and re-grip those bulbous analog sticks, the F310 will settle back into your hands and its seams will creak out the comfortable, gentle groans of home.

This was my main controller for years, not because I thought Xbox 360 controllers weren't good, but because the one I was using broke, and an F310 was there, at the bottom of a box. It worked so well I put off replacing it.

I finally did, but while the Xbox One controller I'm using now is an obvious upgrade, every time its pathetic micro USB connector pops out in the middle of a Rocket League game, I pine for the root-like cable of Logitech's blue hunk of input plastic. It does not use Bluetooth. It does not have a battery. It has never heard of those things and would break a beer bottle over their heads, given the chance. I'm sad that, at some point between two moves, I lost mine.

The good news is that the Logitech Gamepad F310 is on sale for $15 at Amazon right now. I'm buying another one. When it arrives, it'll be hard to say I have a 'new' controller. It'll be just like the old one, sitting in a box, waiting to be dug out at 1 am and ready to do what it does best: function as a gaming controller.

If you'd rather spend more on a better controller, head over to the best Black Friday controller deals we've found so far. But I really think everyone should have an F310 in a box somewhere, like a charm that helps your household resist pretty things.