What Were The Most Useless Features Of This Console Generation?

[Video Games Are Dumb]

Hello Era,

We've come a long way from the bloated joys of the PlayStation 3. A system that could be hooked up to a printer for no apparent reason. Or the Xbox 360, which allowed users to simultaneously view netflix with friends and their avatars. Neat? Absolutely. Useful?...Well, no.

Now the sun is setting on a more practical generation BUT that doesn't mean there weren't a few oddities that ultimately served little to no purpose beyond being there. Both of my examples are from the PlayStation 4 but I hoping to hear some Xbox One examples as well.

Dualshock 4 Lightbar

It seems silly to get so bent out of shape for some a small, barely noticeable feature. But with the Dualshock 4's battery life already below many other controllers, having the equivalent of a blue flashlight seemed a tad bit irresponsible. Worse yet, when Sony finally enabled users to lower the brightness settings, it could only be set to dim. Not off. Never off.

That's not to say it doesn't serve of purpose. It's actually necessary for the PlayStation Camera and PlayStation VR accessories. But let that sink in. You'll at least need to spend 40 dollars to rationalize this ridiculous feature that YOU CAN'T TURN OFF. Some developers actually went and changed the color of the light for dramatic purposes but Razer Chroma RGB it is not.

Dualshock 4 Speaker

When has this ever been a good idea? When Nintendo introduced a speaker into the Wiimote, it made some sense. Afterall, they were going so outside the norm that perhaps they had envisioned a quirky new mechanic that would soon be implemented in their first party games. But nope. The entire generation and Nintendo couldn't warrant it's inclusion.

So why the hell did Sony try it? In your best case scenario, is there ever an advantage to pumping out a tinny garbled mess through the front of the controller? Worse yet, most of the games that implemented this feature allowed you to turn it off and simply play through your actually sound system, emphasizing how pointless it is to begin with. But remember, you have to do that to EVERY SINGLE GAME. And if you muted the speaker or are wearing headphones and forgot to check the sound systems of the game, you might miss out on key information or hints. I hate this speaker so, so, so much.

Moving on...
Okay Era, that was a lot of Dualshock 4 bashing. As much as I loved that controller, it had some obnoxious add ons. So please share what are some complete obscure and bafflingly redundant hidden features. And as always, explain your answers.

EDIT: Era, saying you like the Lightbar/Speaker without providing an answer is just forum clutter, y'all.

 

[Aardvark Barber]

Eh, I liked the light on the DS4. (especially v2, where you can see the light from the front of the controller. V1 was pretty bad, considering you had to flip it over to see if it was on) In steam you can set it to any color RGB and brightness setting, including off!.

 

[____]

The speaker seems cool on paper, but when used in practice it was 'uniquely used' but also very annoying. I remember some game (maybe Days Gone?) where I was playing on mute (I believe I was on the phone w/ someone or something) and every time I would collect a collectible the dialogue from that speaker was SO LOUD. I think the same with Death Stranding happened but I never got around to turning the feature off.

Lightbar never bothered me a single bit. I don't even notice it's there.

 

[Kalentan]

I liked the speaker. Some games used it very effectively.

 

[SweetVermouth]

The stupid Wii U gamepad and the fact that Nintendo bothered the everliving crap out of you to make sure you don't play using a Pro Controller.

Those Captain Toad levels in 3D World? Gotta use the gamepad.

Random gyro shrine in Zelda BotW? Gamepad time it is.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Never really had any problem with the lightbar, and the speaker was OK enough. Share button has been pretty useless to me tho.

 

[SeriuzBiznus]

The touchpad on the DS4 could have been great, they just made it useless by not really, well, using it.

 

[Rocketz]

When games at the beginning of the gen pushed companion apps really hard. Only one I liked was D1 as I could change my inventory on the fly.

 

[zombiejames]

The speaker I liked, and the light bar was used pretty well in Until Dawn.

 

[funky]

Light bar.


Let's kill battery life with a light the person holding the controller cant even see.

 

[Deleted member 47700]

I liked the speaker just fine. Plus:

 

[EvilBoris]

The Touchbar on the DS4

I love the speaker

 

[Duxxy3]

Basically the dualshock 4.

 

[Belthazar90]

I kinda like the lightbar, honestly... It gives the DS4 a unique feel

The Touchbar on the DS4

I love the speaker

Click to shrink...

The touchpad is quite useful when used by developers. Example: opening specific menus on The Witcher 3 using swipes.

 

[Goldenroad]

I always mute the speaker on the controller and I have the light bar dimmed as much as possible. I have also used the Share button like maybe once or twice in the last 6 years, so that would be up there for me as well.

 

[FlintSpace]

I also like the light on DS4. Serves no purpose whatsoever but looks kinda cool.
Was a nice indication whenever I am using it on PC.

 

[Shining Star]

The speaker and the light bar are cool, you take that back.

 

[DeadMoonKing]

As someone for whom gaming is a solitary experience, I never got any use out of the share button (yet still manage to hit the damn thing every now and again >_>). Did anyone else find it annoying?

I'm also not a fan of the light bar or controller speaker either, but neither actively annoyed me. (The lousy battery life did, however.)

Edit: The touchpad is so useless I completely forgot about it. Throw that in there too.

 

[Allforce]

Maybe not useless but I still have no idea what either of the Start and Select buttons on the Xbox One controller are even called or what they do half the time.

Menu? Settings? It's just Pause to me on the right and the left one with the two boxes I have no idea

 

[Vonbon]

The Kinect ofc. I use mine to prop up items on my shelf now :D.

Also the snapshots when you get a trophy. Most of the time it's a picture of a black screen or some random frame that usually means nothing without the proper context.

 

[Dougieflesh]

Share Button and Touchpad are cool. Yall are weird

 

[Jimnymebob]

SAVE THE LAST HUMANS

 

[TheOnlyJ]

The Kinect ofc. I use mine to prop up items on my shelf now :D.

Also the snapshots when you get a trophy. Most of the time it's a picture of a black screen or some random frame that usually means nothing without the proper context.

Click to shrink...

I can't believe everyone's missing this one, the obvious answer. It's so useless it's not even in later iterations of the XBOX, as opposed to the DS4 stuff which does still get used sporadically. Completely useless and helped kill any momentum MS had going in this gen.

 

[TriniTrin]

Touch pad was worthless on ps4

 

[Jessie]

The stupid blue light

 

[XSX]

Share button is cool, lightbar and touchpad (aka big button) are not

 

[Duxxy3]

Maybe not useless but I still have no idea what either of the Start and Select buttons on the Xbox One controller are even called or what they do half the time.

Menu? Settings? It's just Pause to me on the right and the left one with the two boxes I have no idea

Click to shrink...

I call them windows and hamburger.

They're morons for "renaming" the back and start buttons.

 

[Belthazar90]

The most useless for me was definitely the Wii U gamepad... It had some gimmicky uses but didn't work for what you actually wanted it to do: play a game on it far from your console.

 

[shaneo632]

DS4 touch pad and speaker weren't totally useless but just ignored by most games sadly.

 

[Siresly]

The DS4 touchpad is also kind of just... It can basically operate as a button or as an alternative to an analog stick. But why? What does it do better than an analog stick, or motion controls? Has any game managed to answer this?

I can appreciate experimenting and trying things, but the DS4's additions turned out pointless at best.

 

[reminiscingLemon]

The touchpad gotta go, it was really bizarre to see the dual shock impliment something the Ouya gave us, it really hasnt been used well at all atleast not in anything i can think of, its basically just an extra 2 function keys to make up for losing the select button.

I dont hate the speaker, ill admit i always get a little kick out of its use, but honestly i probably would prefer to lose it if it could save battery time, which is abysmal on a DS4.

And again i'd love to say ditch the lightbar on the controller, it should absolutely be optional but i had a PSVR for basically 8 months before i could afford or even find move controllers & i'd have beenleft pretty dead in the sand if every DS4 didnt come with a lightbar, so i mean its kinda justified its existence to me in that sense. Although yeah draining the battery in non psvr games, without the option to dim or turn it off entirely is dumb.

I'm not a big lover of the Share button, i've never once browsed the social aspect to either PS4 nor XB1 as much as i browsed MiiVerse (R.I.P) & the steam community pages. The social aspect to the big 2 consoles feels really underdevloped to what steam & Miiverse did. Being able to stream directly from the hardware is cool af tho, although probably a feature id wager <5% of users actyually utalise.

Wow, i feel like this thread is really just turned into a dunk fest on the dual shock 4, its not all bad lol I love the form factor & gyro (albeit under supported in 1st party stuff) just every other thing it added didnt really ammount to much.

 

[Damien1928]

PlayStation Live (that streaming thing?)
And Ps Now

 

[dedge]

Battery in the DS4 could be better, and as an option it would be nice to turn off the lightbar if needed, but I really enjoy the light, touchpad, and share button on the controller. Multiple buttons, swipes, and just having a larger button versus say Select or the double box button on Xbox, are all positives for me. The lightbar outside of VR is gimmicky, but I do like it and the slit on the touchpad is a feature I hope is kept.

I rarely stream but I love being able to easily capture moments in games to look at them later/over time.

Speaker is pretty useless I agree.

 

[Cipher Peon]

I LOVED the lightbar. Easily my favorite part of the PS4 controller, outside of the share button which should be mandatory on all controllers going forward imo.

The most useless feature of this past console generation for me? Probably the Xbox One's second HDMI cable. Never used it.

 

[TMC]

PlayStation Live (that streaming thing?)
And Ps Now

Click to shrink...

PlayStation Live was pretty great in its infancy when people were using it for shenanigans. I remember watching countless hilarious streams while I was waiting to respawn in a game.

I think the most useless feature would be the light bar for sure in the DS4. Literally didn't have any use for it over the entire generation personally. It served more as an annoyance until the option released to dim it.

 

[PROh1bited]

Maybe the HDMI in port on the Xbox One

 

[Opa-Opa]

Lightbar is on another level of uselessness.

Nobody uses yet everybody suffers from it.

 

[Symphony]

Half of the new aspects of the Dualshock 4.

Speaker? Useless if you wear headphones, was only neat as a gimmick in Wii games where you held it to your ear like a phone due to the Wiimote shape.
Light bar? Can't even turn the damn thing off to save battery and it constantly shines a coloured light onto your screen.
Touch pad? Basically never used aside from as another button that is annoying to press and costly.

 

[onpoint]

The light bar was great in multiplayer games that used it, like Towerfall.

 

[reminiscingLemon]

The Dualshock is getting a lot of heat in this thread, how do you all feel about HD Rumble & the IR sensor?

that marble game in 1 2 switch was cool n all but was it really worth jacking up the price of a joycon for that?
How about innaccurate readings of your heart rate in ring fit, is it really worth spending £70 on a pair of
controllers that only really function as 1 together, for these cutting edge features? naaah.

and dont even get me started on their amazing drift 'feature' that nintendo europe still refuses to recognise and repair.

 

[Coxy]

I liked the lightbar myself - remember it from Destiny.

The share button would be my vote - zero interest in it

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Lightbar is about the only thing I found truly useless. Speaker was fine although I almost always play with headphones attached so it never does anything anyway but I like it when I'm playing through my surround sound.

Maybe the HDMI in port on the Xbox One

Click to shrink...

No way! This saved me from using an extra HDMI slot for my Spectrum box, so I was able to hook up an extra classic console instead lol.

 

[Deleted member 13645]

The whole "play it now" thing during downloads. It claims you can play a game and it'll download the rest in the background, but it rarely works and a lot of games will just bring you to a screen asking you to wait. It's a feature that is barely used and companies seem to see as a nuisance more than anything.

 

[AndrewDean84]

Touch pad and light at are useless and only made the controls cost more.

 

[Spazerbeam]

If handhelds count, the Touchpad on the back of a Vita. Got in the way moretimes than not.

 

[Chromie]

Dualshock 4 Lightbar

It seems silly to get so bent out of shape for some a small, barely noticeable feature.

Click to shrink...

This. Fuck adding lights to controllers. This is not a barely noticeable feature for me. I fucking hate it and it's distracting. Even on dim lighting it's too bright.

 

[rochellepaws]

Most of the Wii U features, maybe the TV tuner was the most useless.

The Dual Shock 4 touch pad and speaker were used in a lot of the games I played and thought they had a lot of creative and fun uses, I'd miss them if they were gone. The lightbar is kind of fun as well when it changes colour based on in-game factors. People who think they aren't used very much should really broaden their horizons outside the best selling AAA list.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

If handhelds count, the Touchpad on the back of a Vita. Got in the way moretimes than not.

Click to shrink...

Haha this is a great answer. Plus it's totally going to screw over any future attempts to emulation the system. Hopefully by then it will become a dedicated hotkey, if possible, as it never functioned at the same time as the front touch.

 

[Fadewise]

You got it in one with the lightbar. In fact, that thing was more than useless, it actively detracted from my gameplay in by shining a big old light to reflect off of my TV in a dark room.

 

[StallionDan]

Wasn't it revealed the light bar uses next to no power? The dimming options was due to screen reflection.

The speaker has been used really well in a lot of games.


Anyway, the "What's New" feature in PS4 dashboard. This had the potential to be great, like a social media news feed. Unfortunately auto-posting when earn a trophy is part of it, and turned on by default, so it is 95% trophy spam which nobody cares about if it not a platinum. Some games (Like Borderlands 3) like to spam random shit when you play them, using it as a damn ad space, most devs don't do this, or do it like 2 times per playthrough, for 1 playthrough only. Borderlands 3 does it every 30 minutes for infinity it seems like.

Any manually shared videos or images get lost in the spam, which is a shame.