I'm looking at buying this game amongst others, and it's brought up one of the problems I have with PC games. A number of people have suggested this game runs better with gamepad control, and so do many others. But I've never owned a gamepad, and never been at all comfortable using one. I have big hands, and it seems to me all the gamepads I've handled - PS1 & 2, PSP (well, it's like a gamepad), etc, were designed for 12-year-olds! 12 year olds with small hands, too...

Now, I know it's entirely possible to play this game and others with mouse & keyboard, I've played a multitude of games designed for gamepads before, but I'd quite like to try one... So, I'm asking for advice: what's a good gamepad for a player with big hands & a limited budget? It has to fit 3 criteria:

Run on Win7x64 natively. I can't be bothered with emulators & messing about with settings.

Be big enough to wrap my hands around with out getting cramp after 5 minutes... my handspan, thumb to little finger, tip to tip, is 9"/23cm.

Be cheap. Well, OK, reasonably priced. I may not like it, and at best I'l use it for a handful (even with big hands...) of games.

Suggestions?

First you should probably read this thread. If your after a controller for Blood Rayne 1.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/bloodrayne/gamepad_too_sensitive

As for a controller I quite like the xbox360 wired controller. It runs natively on win7, its fairly cheap around £20. The controller isn't huge but its pretty large compared to a PS2/3 controller and quite comfortable to use for long periods.

Thanks, I've read all the posts here on controlling Bloodrayne, but my general interest in a gamepad continues regardless...

I thought the 360 controller might be a good one - is there a fundamental difference (probably price, if nothing else) between the wired & wireless version? I'm sure I've seen it far far cheaper on eBay - are there versions to be aware of that are better or worse?

If you get a wired one its just plug and play. If you get a wireless one you need to buy a wireless USB adapter for windows so thats about £15 extra plus you will need to either buy a rechargable battery pack for the controller or go through AA batteries fairly fast depending on how often you use it.

Hmm... I have a laptop, so already with wireless adaptor, assuming that works with this sort of peripheral. And I have Ni-MH rechargeable batteries for my camera...

Well I'd look into if the adapter would work or not. The batteries would be fine though.

I've checked on eBay and there are a number of 360 controllers with adaptors for under £20 (OK, mostly from Hong Kong, which I won't be looking at, but some in the UK).

Thats not a bad price if the seller ratings are good, so you don't end up with a duff controller.

I'm an old hand at ebay (I've got 24-hour telephone support, and nothing left in my bank account). But, yes, you pays your money & you takes your chance on eBay...

It won't be this month anyway, the car needs an MOT...

I was also going to suggest the Xbox 360 gamepad but saw you'd mentioned that you'd tried various console controllers so thought you may have tried it already.

However, I've read that the wireless version has issues with PCs. You may be able to get it working but it may also take some work (unless Win7 has fixed this issue).

I use a wired version myself and it's a nice shape. I prefer the Xbox controllers to Playstation ones.

I have to admit that my experience with consoles ends longer ago than the 360... I gave up trying to handle the older, smaller, controllers & never tried the Xbox at all.
On eBay there are a number of different Xbox controllers for sale from various manufacturers - I like the look of ones by Datel & Gamexpert. But I'm wondering if there are any noted as good or bad.

Also, they're slightly different shapes...

Well, what I will say is that both Vista and Win7 have the Microsoft Xbox 360 controller drivers present within the operating system, so all you have to do is plug it in and Windows finds the driver, so it's native support. I don't know if this is true for non-Microsoft 360 controllers, though.

Additionally, the Microsoft Xbox 360 controllers do come with a CD with the drivers (for XP machines) and some software. The software is very basic, only present there to automatically check for updates and to check the "quadrant assignments" of your attached controller(s).

Hmm... the official Micro$oft ones are, of course, more expensive...

Thanks for the advice folks, the final decision will be financial, it seems. I'll see how things are near Christmas...

decent prices, but there are a number of demands on my cash right now...