As a primarily keyboard and mouse gamer, I don’t often encounter controllers that I really enjoy using. Especially one that sits within the budget range of pricing.
Then I encountered the MSI Force GC300 Wireless Controller, a multi-mode wireless controller that just feels right in my hands.
Looking at the specs, we’ve got pretty much everything you’d like in a controller: 2.4GHz, Bluetooth, and wired connections, hall-effect triggers, with trigger stops (basically shortening the length of the triggers), a 3.5mm audio jack with an integrated mute button, 16mm analogue sticks (not hall effect), rumble motors, and two remappable rear buttons. There’s also a promise of 20 hours of battery life.
Pretty decent specs all around, and in all honesty, the GC300 delivered on pretty much every front mentioned. Both wired and wireless connections were instant, without the need to install any drivers on my PC, and the Bluetooth connection to my phone was just as easy.
The Hall Effect triggers feel just springy enough to fight back, although not as cool as the adaptive triggers on the DS5. The trigger stops don’t turn the triggers into buttons, as on something like the Wolverine, but instead shorten the trigger length. This is a great feature for swapping between more control on a throttle in a racing game and spitting out as many bullets as possible in a shooter. You can also adjust the range and intensity of each trigger in the MSI Center software.
The 3.5mm audio jack works precisely as you’d expect, and the on-controller mute button helps if you want to say something not so public.
The analogue sticks feel smooth while offering enough bite for nice and precise control. I did find the thumb pads a little too small at times, but this is probably because I’m used to a bigger analogue from my default controller.
The rumble motors feel pretty decent, too, without being too much of an annoyance. You can also fine-tune just how much rumble you want in both the left and right grips via the MSI Center software.
To round things off, the GC300’s extra back buttons were a nice feature to see on what some would call a budget controller. Their positioning is just right for your left and right ring fingers to hit, but it may take some training to get used to for the older gamers in the crowd, like me.
During my week or so of testing, with a few hours of gaming here and there, I was able to drain the battery of the controller to about 50%. With some rough gamer math calculations in my head, I can see the GC300 realistically getting close to, if not matching, the 20-hour battery life on the spec sheet. The controller also goes to sleep after about 5 minutes of no use, to help keep that battery topped up.
Software-wise, everything is handled via MSI Center. You don’t necessarily need it to actually use the controller, but if you would like to fine-tune the rumble settings, trigger settings, or perhaps program a macro to one of the ring-finger buttons, then you’ll need the software. It’s straight forward to use and doesn’t have much to it to confuse our gamer brains.
With all that said, however, my favourite part of the controller is just how comfortable it feels. I would say I have an average-sized hand, roughed up a little by trying too many pull-ups in a row at the gym, and the size and textured grips feel good in my hands. It is slightly lighter than your standard Xbox controller, but still weighty enough to feel solidly built and could take an angry hand-squeezing or two.
The buttons and D-Pad have that jelly style press, similar to what you get from an Xbox controller, which I enjoy more than the clicky buttons a lot of 3rd party controllers have. Everything is accessible without having to hold my hand in some weird position, too, and it’s just a nice controller to game on because of all of this.
Personally, I struggle to fault the MSI Force GC300. If I had to fault it, these would be my two personal nitpicks from the device. One, the smaller analogue sticks, and two, the D-Pad is your classic style D-Pad, and I’ve become one with the disc-shaped D-Pad for ultimate thumb rolling. But those are just personal preferences. Also, I have had a friend mention that the D-Pad isn’t great for fighters who edge hold their directional keys. As a pretty poor fighter and an admitted thumb roller, this was no issue for me, but I thought it might be worth noting for the true fighters out there.
Overall, for less than R1,000, you can grab yourself the MSI Force GC300 Wireless Gaming Controller that functions great on PC, and just as well on Mobile via Bluetooth. It packs many of the features you’d expect to see in more expensive controllers, and just feels very comfortable to game on.
