What would you recommend?

I'm looking for one to play PC games that are ported from consoles, (e.g., Alan Wake, Jade Empire, Psychonauts.) Honestly, I generally prefer gamepad over keyboard + mouse for games that have complex control schemes that uses too many keys or combos.

I doubt anyone is going to back me up on this but I swear by the Logitech 2 Rumblepad. Beauty feel with smooth buttons and not too rough on the thumbs (ie the NES that had the arrows carved on the directional thus assuring you would rip all the skin off your thumb if you played for more than ten minutes).

If that doesn't work this is a nice option:

having 4 currently i keep going back to the Official Xbox 360 Controller with wireless receiver. but wired will work too. just make sure you get the PC versions a normal wireless xbox one using its play and charge kit cable will not work.

of course any xbox 360 controller (official) will work with the pc wifi receiver!

xBox Controller

Dualshock 3 for games that extensively make use of the d-pad. Xbox 360 controller for everything else. I personally use both.

The Logitech F310 is pretty good. I've been using mine since last December and never had any problems.

Try this topic

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/can_anyone_recommend_a_good_joy_pad

The official XBox controller or whatever it's called. The DualShock design just doesn't fit my hands properly, and all third-party PS controllers that I've tried make my hands hurt as well. YMMV.

I have one of those too and while it's very durable with a great battery life I dislike the square notches for the thumbsticks.

I would suggest just getting a 360 controller if it's wired you're good to go minus some driver installation and there were wireless ones being sold with the adapter. The adapter has the added benefit of allowing up to 4 controllers and headsets to be connected to your computer so you don't have to waste usb ports for additional controllers. A lot of newer games offer native 360 support so that's another plus.

Now the 360 pad is pretty good but not long-lasting, I have two and the left thumbstick on one is all wonky making it hard to run properly and at full speed and the right thumbstick on the other is doing the same. I've had my Rumblepad 2 for at least 7 years and it hasn't given me any noticeable problems but I'd recommend a newer Logitech gamepad due to Xinput being used in modern games as opposed to Directinput, though I have no idea how much of a problem that really is in the long run.

Point taken. It's not a death nail for me but it is there and it is a flaw.

Does the dualshock design fit any ones hands?! I'll recommend the XBOX 360 controller, in my opinion it's the finest controller ever made.

The official Xbox controller is the best you can get in my honest opinion. They're robust, easy on the hand, and use directInput, so vast majority of modern releases will instantly detect it and work great with it. Really, I can't recommend it enough.

Depends.., I didn't like the Xbox360 controller for several reasons, the sticks need too much force and therefore precision is out of the window, I don't like the indented sticks, there is no software support on a PC outside 3rd party software and then you're still screwed if you need to set sensitivities or swap axis.
I recommend Logitech's Dual Action for a cheap gamepad or the more expensive rumblepad, I even prefer the PS3 controller over the Xbox360 as it has the smoothest sticks and has the best D-pad of all gamepads I have tried though the Xbox360 has better triggers if you find that important.

Love the 360 controller meself.

Xbox hands down unless you need the d-pad than I feel everything will do better than the xbox. If you need the dpad I would wait for the PS4 controller cause it will be easily connectable to the PC and they have really improved the analogue sticks and the triggers (read: ripped off the xbox).