The dualsense is my favorite improvement of the current ten consoles, I think it really enhances how immersing it is and make me even play shooter with a controller and gyro rather than mnk

It's been a long time since I played PS2, but the analog triggers and bumpers and X/O/Tri/Sq got a fair amount of function. Ace Combat is of course a racing/flying category, but a non-racing function was Square pressure zoomed out the map variable. The other 3 shape buttons didn't utilize pressure sensitivity, but the triggers and bumpers variable controlled throttle/brake and yaw.

I vaguely remember an FPS game where aiming down sights with binoculars equipped offered variable zoom.

But realistically, there's a ton of uses for variable buttons, but devs have to employ them. I'd bet the utilization of the 6 extra PS buttons is nonexistent for any cross-platform games, especially PvP games. If you stick to PS-only titles, you'd probably find more examples. Unfortunately, I stopped at PS2, and nearly everything in my collection was racing. I can't remember the details, but something about the Xbox one controller was lacking when I played the Spyro trilogy re-release/re-port.

The only thing I have ever played, aside from racing/driving games, that really made use of the analog nature of the triggers, was Metal Gear Solid. Squeezing the trigger really lightly just held the gun up. Holding it a little harder activated the laser sight. Pulling it all the way fired your gun.

That game made use of every feature of the controller back in the day, which was also one of the only games I've ever played that used Playstation's pressure sensitive face buttons. AFAIK, they don't even have pressure sensitivity anymore, like the original DualShock controller did.

I pretty much never see the analogue triggers used beyond a basic 1/0 switch outside games with vehicles (and sometimes not even those). There's no degrees of actuation unless using them to accelerate and brake. And I'm not sure what else you could really use them for besides feeling like an actual trigger when using a gun in the game (which the adaptive trigger system does really well).

Nintendo Switch has been using digital triggers since 2017 and only racing games are really affected, haven’t seen complaints about anything else

If you want to emulate Gamecube games, there are a couple where it's needed (Mario Sunshine comes to mind), or some older games that make use of six axes (the Descent series can make good use of 6). But my experience matches yours--very few need them, and the few that do probably have workarounds.

I can't remember any specific examples but I do remember there being some GameCube games that used the analog triggers dynamically. They did something like a light press would do one thing, then a medium press would do something else and then pressing it all the way down would do another thing. I wish I could remember what it is that I'm vaguely remembering but I think I do remember there being a shooter game where you could hold the button down halfway to charge up a shot before pressing all the way down to fire it.

GameCube games like Melee definitely need analog triggers for shield control

For a few specific genres, they matter a lot, and if you play those games it'll suck to not have them. For everything else though, I'd actually prefer a digital trigger.

https://github.com/xemu-project/xemu/issues/2609

This guy apparently was making a list of XBox games that use analog triggers for an issue on an emulator. Each entry lists what function the game uses the analog trigger for.

It looks like:

• Acceleration (and, I assume, brake). By far the most common. Not always ground vehicles; spaceships and such.

• Rewind/fast forward in some sports games.

• A mining game that used it for drilling.

• Lean in some first person shooters.

• Sidestep in some first person shooters.

I prefer controllers that let you lock the triggers for very short pulls so they act like buttons, buttons would be fine too for most games, big exceptions are probably racing already mentioned, space flight/flying combat, and many fighting games

As well as accelerate and brake, they're very useful for aircraft rudders or some directional thrusters in spaceships.

I can't think of much beyond that though. I think the analogue up-down-left-right sticks are a lot more commonly used - if only for moving a character in 360° rather than 8 directions only.

The game I played that I feel needed them the most was F-Zero GX. So, obviously it's still racing, but they're not used for throttle or brake, they make you slide laterally.

great for racing games and GameCube

It seems like you've already answered your own question lol They wouldn't really matter at all if you aren't playing any games that need them.

Since the Switch Pro 1 and 2 don't have analog triggers, I've noticed how much analogs get in the way of the games I actually play on PC (all using them as buttons only) with a XBOX Elite 2, which I have setup to have the triggers as "buttons", but I still miss the clicky feel.

It's rare to need the analog input of triggers, but it is needed occasionally. I set my controller to trigger buttons and haven't changed them back in over a year.

I can't imagine a controller being cheap enough to be worthwhile modding to hall effect joysticks and that being worth the price+work. The GameSir Cyclone 2 is the controller I have and it is top tier. TMR sticks and microswitches L2+R2 option. Secondhand this often comes up on eBay for £25.

I don't think i ever played a game that provided such option, but then again i don't play racing game much and i don't play fps with controller, so that elimitate most of the use case.

The only time i use it is with steam option to program half press and full press, so i can use my pc desktop with a controller and browse with it, half press to mouse wheel up/down, full press to page up/down so i can get varied scrolling.

Yes, it can make a big difference in some games. The 8bitdo 2C is a nice inexpensive controller with analog triggers.