Turtle Beach REACT-R Wired Game Controller

REACT-R Wired is an OK wired controller. I got the “REACT-R Wired” version of this controller. Comparing it to the wireless controller that came with my Xbox Series S, I would say this controller has both advantages and disadvantages.First off is the obvious, being a wired (not wireless) controller you have to plug it into your console (and it also can be purchased for around 1/2 of what a genuine Microsoft controller costs). The “wired” aspect of this controller may or may not be a problem in your case (for example, it is not a problem with my office XBox as the machine is right behind my monitor, but it would be a major issue with my bedroom machine as the XBox is across the room from where I play). However, because this controller is powered by the console, you don’t have to mess with batteries or “pairing” the controller to the console (nor do you have to deal with other issues that wireless controllers have).Next off, the controller has extra buttons vs the genuine Microsoft controller. In general I’ve found these extra buttons mostly useless in my case (however, they aren’t generally a problem for my gaming experience). In particular the two bottom buttons are all too easy to accidentally press when holding the controller, which isn’t a problem for me as those buttons don’t seem to do anything on my Xbox Series S (so while I accidentally press them a lot, those button presses don’t affect my game play).Another minor annoyance is that the “Start button” is lower than on the official controller, so pressing it risks bumping the right joystick. For those of us playing games that make a lot of use of this button (for example the “Mass Effect” franchise), this is slightly annoying. However, this effect doesn’t seem to cause a serious effect on my game play (as I just slightly adjust the behavior of my right hand while playing).However, the biggest annoyance I ran into, is the feel of the joysticks. The hard (and scratchy) plastic used in the joysticks makes it uncomfortable (on the thumbs) to play with this controller. I would have said this was a “fatal flaw” with this controller, except the “fix” for this is trivially easy. I just bought a set of “joystick caps” and put them on top of this controller’s joysticks. For just over $8 I got 20 of these caps, and the controller only needs 2 (one for each joystick on the controller). With the caps in place the joysticks are nicely padded, so it no longer feels like my thumbs are sitting on sand paper.——————————————————————————————-Update/edit 1:After using this controller for a while, I have discovered that it “wears out” quicker than the official Microsoft controller does. In fact I discovered my first problems with this controller after only about 2 months of use. Thankfully these problems turned out to be easy/cheap to fix, so I’m still happily using this controller.The first problem I ran into was the joysticks starting to “stick” in place (vs automatically springing back into the “neutral” position). This did have an effect on my gameplay, as my games thought I was continuing to move the controller in whatever direction it “stuck” into. Thankfully this was easy/cheap to fix. Since the problem was insufficient lubrication at the base of the joystick, I just bought a can of spray “silicone lubricant” (for under $5) and did a couple of quick squirts at the base of the joysticks (wiping off the excess with a paper towel). After doing that the controller’s joysticks no longer “stick” and in fact have more fluid movement than when I first bought the controller. This appears to have totally resolved this problem.The other problem was the controller intermittently stopped working entirely. After trying various fixes, the one that worked was replacing the USB cable I was using with the controller. Apparently the cable that came with the controller was of lower quality and just wore out with about 3 months of use (where I naturally move the cable around a lot while using the controller it’s attached to). But since I had a spare USB-C cable around the house (originally purchased as a charging cable for my phone), I just tried swapping to that cable and was very happy that the controller immediately started again working correctly). In my case the cost of this “fix” was $0, as I already owned the cable I swapped to. However, even if I had to buy a new cable, this would still have been a cheap fix (as I’ve previously bought such cables on Amazon for as little as $5 each).While these problems did show up quicker than I got problems with the genuine Microsoft controllers I own, so far every problem has been easy and cheap to resolve. And I find that I actually prefer to play with this controller than with any of my genuine Microsoft controllers. So I’m actually considering buying a 2nd one of these controllers for “2nd player” use on my (office) xbox.BTW: I don’t actually have this controller plugged directly into my XBox. Instead I have a (powered) USB 3 hub plugged into my XBox, and this controller is one of the devices plugged into that hub (along with an external disk drive, and a 2nd USB hub that I have a keyboard and mouse on). Even with all this USB “sharing” going on, my XBox Series S is still happy to fully use this controller (including being able to use this controller to start or shutdown the XBox).——————————————————————————————-Update/edit 2:I previously said that the extra controller buttons were mostly useless to me. However, I’ve since changed my mind on this issue, as I’ve found some very handy uses for those extra buttons. Among other things, those extra buttons can control a headset plugged into this controller.With a headset plugged in, you simply need to press the correct buttons on the controller to easily (and directly) adjust the headset speaker volume to whatever you prefer for listening. With most other controllers (including the genuine Microsoft XBox controller) you do not have this direct control of sound level. Also this controller has a dedicated microphone “mute” button, which makes it trivial to enable/disable your headset’s microphone. In my case, I usually (for “privacy reasons”) prefer to keep my microphone off most of the time, but I still want the option to “chat” online. This is trivial to do with this controller, as I just keep the microphone “muted” normally, and just press a single button on the controller when I want my microphone to pick up my voice.NOTE: Since I now now find some of the unique features of this controller (lacking in most other controllers on the market) useful to me, I have raised my review from 4 stars to 5.