Does the PS3 controller's D-Pad suck?
 

Like, I got FFVII, and noticed SFA2. Thing is, I normally don't bother with the D-Pad, but since these games don't use the analoue stick, I hardly have a choice.

In Street Fighter, I often find myself unable to to hit shit like normal fireballs, and the controller feels cheap under my thumb. Often I'll have especially hard times with diagonals. Is this normal? Just a bad unit? Something else?

Might have a bad controller. I have never had a problem with mine.

really you can't use the stick with street fighter? i remember they used to sell arcade style sticks especially for that game.

Not the same kind of stick, mask. The arcade sticks usually "click" at 8 or 16 different parts around a circle. The analog sticks on a ps3 controller do not.

I've never liked the PS pad, always ripped the skin off my thumb on 2D fighters

Yeah, playstation d-pad is horrible because it's separated into 4 buttons. Give me a good old-fashioned + anyday.

Why? How? Do you win those games at least? The few times I had legit injuries playing games was Soulcalibur 2 (arcade stick fucked up my right elbow after prolonged gameplay) and Rock Band 1 (the first time we did long sets my hands would stiff up and we had to chill for a few, I don't get those bad cramps now).

Also, I have a 'guitar playing stance' that puts stress on my right knee, so now I bob around more to relieve that. I think I need a longer guitar strap because my arm needs to hang more relaxed instead of being 'elevated' since the guitar hangs higher.

One time we had such an intense SC4 session my right thumb felt like a chicken wing. That's the best description I can muster.

Never use the D-pad so it doesn't bother me.

I wouldn't say mine sucks, but the sticks are def better

As a general rule, I hate using an analog stick in any game unless I'm forced to, and then I somehow manage to adapt (Fallout/Oblivion...on old Morrowind on Xbox, I used the D-pad).

As far as fighting games go, it was on the D-Pad that I managed to finally figure out how to execute Ultras on SF4, because the stick wasn't personally cutting it for me.

Yeah, I can win with them, just fucks up my thumb after a long time.

Just looked, it's actually a condition known as Playstation Thumb which affects people after long periods of play.

Which is meaningless, since the choice is D-Pad or nothing.