KontrolFreek's Close Quarters Combat joystick extenders have greatly improved my Xbox One experience. I am not sure my game play is any better, but my hands hurt far less.
As a kid I dreamt of having complicated, awesome flight simulator like joysticks. As an adult I miss the chunky, easy to hold Atari 2600 stick. The current generation of console controllers packs so many inputs into such a small device that it is impossible to fit every hand, thus causing me no end of pain. I've tried a bunch of gel wraps and various sleeves, nothing has helped me nearly as much as KontrolFreek's joystick extensions.
The joysticks are just slightly too short for my fairly small, very beat up hands. Adding these Close-Quarters-Combat styled toppers to the joysticks is just the answer I need. The slightly increased length helps the controller fit my hand a lot better and in my first session I noticed a marked decrease in pain.
There are a number of different length extensions to choose from. I went with the CQC as they are the shortest and I tend to play FPS style games with a penchant for the melee. If sniping is your cup of tea, longer extensions may help you gain further aiming and movement sensitivity. You can also blend extensions of different sizes and fine tune your right and left sticks.
When first trying them out I certainly sucked more for a brief while, but then my mediocre play went back to mediocre. I find the small increase (1.7mm) to the stick does give me a bit more angle around the fulcrum and I was able to increase my look sensitivity from 6 to 10. I did miss and brush the sticks a few times when going for a button, but my muscle memory quickly adjusted. I suspect removing the CQCs and going backwards would be tough.
Hand pain is a constant bother. I've worked in jobs that require heavy computer use for most of my life. I have significantly reduced flexibility in both hands and when things start to hurt I look for solutions. These KontrolFreek extensions are not a 100% solution but they help me customize the fit of my controller and it does make a difference. They certainly help me continue enjoying a very old hobby.
Maybe I'm mediocre plus now.
