Elder Scrolls Online’s Controller Support Is Phenomenal

July 18, 2016 Papa Dom

Apologies in advance for the lack of content this weekend – Rob, Chris, and myself each had ourselves some important ~~cookouts and bachelor parties~~ business meetings to attend, and none of us were at ~~our parents’ houses~~ Wicked Good Gaming HQ to give you that good good lovin’ you so desperately crave. Not to worry – we’re back now, nursing our collective hangovers, and I’ve got some great news for you – Elder Scrolls Online’s controller support is the tits.

Not long ago, Bethesda rolled out ESO’s “Orsinium” DLC, which focuses on adventures in and around the Orsimer (read: Orc) capitol city named, you guessed it, Orsinium. What I didn’t know was that as a part of the pre-DLC patch, Beth sneaked gamepad support (which says its in beta, but it works just fine) into the mix as well.

I’ve had a decent break from ESO lately, because as much as I love the canon and the lore and the adventuring, I just can’t get into PC MMO’s like a used to. I used to be a heavy 2-3 night-per-week raid guy a few WoW expansion packs ago, and I just don’t have the time anymore to sink my teeth into endgame content as I once did. That’s where ESO comes in, because leveling and soaking up all the story and atmosphere is the best part of that game. I’m a huge fan of the console Elder Scrolls titles, and must’ve dumped somewhere between 180-200 hours into Skyrim (I’ll definitely be doing that again too when the remaster comes out this fall). ESO was always pretty fun, but I think being used to the controller on Xbox took a little of the engagement away from me, so I was always pretty bummed that I couldn’t use a gamepad with ESO… Until now.

Not only is ESO’s controller support easy to set up – its incredibly fun to play. Bethesda built a totally different UI with the Xbox and PS4 console versions in mind, so if you’ve seen those UIs, you already know what you’re gonna get. If you’re a Mac OS X user, go ahead and click right here to download the drivers and install the file. If you’re a PC player, a quick Google search will get you the drivers you need. If you’re someone who owns a PS4 controller, I’ve read that you can just plug and play and be ready to go. I’ve included a little gallery below to walk you through the process, from installing the drivers to enabling the right settings in-game, so pull up each image as needed to walk yourself through the setup. Its ridiculously easy to get everything going in less than 15 minutes and experience the joy of ESO with a controller.*