Thank you Turtle Beach for sending us this controller to review!

Late last year, I reviewed the truly excellent PDP Victrix Pro BFG, one of my favorite controllers ever. While not perfect, and certainly pricey, it's a premium controller with a premium feel and feature set. This year, Turtle Beach (who wholly owns PDP) decided to give it a nice refresh by combining the optional (and separate purchase) Hall effect modules with the base controller, while also updating the FightPad to be more ergonomic. On the whole the changes are small, but adds up to an even better controller with this Turtle Beach Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded.

There are three versions of this controller, though only two are currently out as of this writing. There is a PS5, Xbox, and a soon to be released PC version. I reviewed the PS5 version of last year's model, as well as the Xbox version. This review is for the Reloaded Xbox version. If they are anything like last year's versions, they are excellent, with some aspects being better on each. If you are a PC or Xbox gamer and enjoy controller rumble, or like having Bluetooth functionality to connect to a mobile device (or pretty much anything else), then the Xbox version is what you want. The new PC version does seem to have some neat features, but it is unclear if every feature of this Xbox version, like rumble, is available there. (As of this writing I have not reviewed it.) I will say that I slightly prefer how the PlayStation and the new PC versions look, with the glowing Victrix logo centered over the touchpad, and the PS5 version supports touchpad as well as motion controls. The PC version promises mouse and keyboard emulation, as well as out of the box Steam Deck support, which could be pretty great. If you aren't sure which to get as a PC player, or if the mouse emulation via the touchpad isn't important, this Xbox version is a safe choice for most Xbox and PC gamers.

The Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded is one of the best takes on the modular controller in the market, in my opinion. There are two modules, each held in by small hex screws. Each module covers two units of control: one on the left, and one on the right. The left module covers the left analog stick and the D-Pad, which can be flipped in position if you prefer an Xbox or PlayStation-style layout. I prefer the Xbox layout most of the time, unless I'm playing a precision-heavy 2D platformer, where having the D-Pad on the upper left is preferable. The D-Pad is a membrane type, which some gamers like better, while others like the microswitch one used by some of the competition. While I slightly prefer microswitches, implementation goes a long way. In this case, the membrane D-Pad here is fantastic.

Where this thing is really unique is that the D-Pad has an inset design where you can literally pull the cap off and swap the top of the D-Pad. What this means is if you like the classic cross D-Pad, one is included for you. That's not actually the default, though. The preinstalled D-Pad doesn't look like one at all. It's a slightly concave diamond-shaped disc of sorts that you place your thumb on and move it around. It works surprisingly well, especially for fighting games. But for games where you activate menus, I prefer D-Pads with a more defined up/down/left/right. For those cases, I prefer the classic cross or the third included D-Pad, which is probably my favorite. It has a clearly-defined cross, and then an indent in each diagonal, making it easy to tell just by touch where you're pressing. To swap D-Pads, you just pull up until it pops off, and you push down into place the replacement you prefer. There are guiding indents to keep you from putting it in wrong.

The thumbsticks have just as much customization. You can swap the thumbstick caps; the defaults are nice concave ones, but if you prefer one to be convex, you can swap one of them. There is also a longer-stemmed stick that many like to use for shooters. To swap them, you firmly pull up on a thumbstick, and it just pops right off. You can also swap something that's really quite rare with most controllers: the analog stick gates. This is quite remarkable, as older Nintendo consoles used an octagonal gate, like the extra set included here, rather than the more common circle. While making circular motions is more difficult in this case, in its place you can more easily make sure the analog stick is pointed in an exact cardinal direction, while still giving you some sense of analog freedom of movement. While I doubt I'll use these gates most of the time, if I'm playing classic 3D platformers, I'll consider putting them on. To my knowledge, the Victrix Pro BFG line is the only modern controller with these optional octagonal gates.

Those thumbstick features are great, but they're pretty much the same as the previous Pro BFG. One of the major improvements on this Reloaded version is the move over to Hall effect sticks. While they are available as an additional purchase for previous owners, it's still great to see them included here. Also, some people (myself included) experienced phantom trigger inputs when the left Hall effect stick module was installed on the older controllers. All of those issues are resolved on this Reloaded model, making it work better than ever.

On the right side, there is installed a module with the standard buttons and right analog stick out of the box. Like the left module, this is removable, but unlike the left module, it can't be rotated to put the stick into the upper right. What you can do is swap it out with the included FightPad module. This thing is nothing short of amazing, and they made it even better by adjusting the position slightly to make it more ergonomic than the older model used to be. The older one is still great, but before the bottom two buttons, X and A on Xbox, were a bit of a reach. That is no longer a problem, as each row of buttons has been shifted up a bit. The top row is slightly farther than before, but I'd say overall it's more balanced.

The FightPad's design is certainly meant for playing fighting games like Street Fighter, which it's ideal for. The buttons are larger, mechanical via microswitches, and feel so good to use. The six-button layout makes fighting games so much better, because having to use bumpers or triggers for heavy attacks just feels terrible in comparison. Also, out of the box, the button config lines up perfectly with most recent Street Fighter games, so no in-game configuration was needed at all. If you do want to reconfigure the buttons, you absolutely can; more on that later. If you love fighting games and prefer a controller over a fight stick, this may well be the best one around.

Outside of the crazy amount of customization, the Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded retains the connectivity, carrying case, hex-bit tool, and everything else from the previous model. The storage/carrying case is as nice as ever, and a high-quality USB-C cable and a 2.4GHz wireless dongle are both included. Wireless connectivity works as great as it always has, and I love how comfortable the controller is. Whether you connect wirelessly or wired, both identify as an Xbox One controller to Windows, which is likely how it shows up on Xbox also. In any case, in order to adjust any settings on the controller, you need the Victrix Control Hub app. I was able to get the controller to work just fine in Linux via the 'xone' open source kernel module, but it doesn't work out of the box this way, nor is it officially vendor supported.

Bluetooth connectivity works perfectly on Windows, Steam Deck, desktop Linux, and Android; I have not tested anything else. Unfortunately, in order to switch between normal and Bluetooth mode, you need to know the magic button combination, in this case holding the Xbox + menu (aka start) button for four seconds until the small LED starts flashing blue. Then you can pair with it. You switch back to Xbox wireless dongle mode the same way. From what I can tell rumble doesn't work when paired via Bluetooth, but this is common for most controllers that I've seen.

As for the Victrix Control Hub, the app is mostly excellent, with a few areas for improvement. It works on both Windows and Xbox, since it's a Microsoft Store app, and looks and functions identically on both. While testing this I discovered that the Xbox will power on from this controller, which is pretty great. It works pretty much like a first-party one from what I can tell, and the share button worked also. I don't know why Steam doesn't see the Share button, but that might be the fault of Windows and the Xbox Game Bar. The Game Bar does see the Share button, and it works fine with that.

Back to the Control Hub, the menu is navigable by controller or mouse. From the main home screen, you can see the status of the volume, audio mode, mic mute, and mic monitoring. You can also go to the configure, diagnostic, support, or update menus. Update is for updating the driver or firmware; support gives you quick access to the manuals, legal agreements, and customer service. Diagnostics gives you a quick and simple way to test out various aspects of the controller. The meat of what's here is in the configuration menu.

In the configuration menu you can adjust buttons, back paddles, analog sticks, the L/R triggers, and the audio settings. There are three EQ modes listed, but it's unclear what they do, as there is nothing on-screen to indicate this. The audio settings are only used if you connect a headset to the 3.5mm jack on the bottom of the controller. The controller supports three onboard profiles (these profiles impact every stored setting, from buttons to audio), and you have to look at the controller to know what profile you are on by pressing the rear profile button once (it has a people icon on it). Each profile is assigned a color, and the LEDs will briefly flash the color of the selected one. The app will respond and update depending on the profile you select, but it doesn't display what the active profile is. This is a misstep, in my opinion.

What isn't a misstep is the ability to remap buttons from the Configuration menu. It lets you remap any button to any button, which is far better than most. This is especially useful for the FightPad. You can also easily map or remap the four rear buttons as well, though they are positioned such that I find them really easy to activate by accident, so I turn them off. If you want that functionality, they are very easy to access and feel great to use. It's also worth pointing out that you can remap those rear buttons on the controller itself with key combinations, as the app isn't required to change them.

The Analog Sticks configuration screen is not quite as good as some of the competition, as it lacks the ability to adjust response curves, though that's not really a feature I use much even with it available. I do appreciate that you can swap sticks or even invert them from there. You can also adjust the dead zones from the app.

You can customize the triggers by adjusting the dead zone, or even remapping what they do. The triggers have a pretty good amount of travel to them. There is a physical clutch that you can use to adjust the depth that the triggers can travel to reach 100%, and it works well. The only thing is that the location of the clutch buttons is easy enough to hit on accident; I wish they were higher up. I've had to reset them to full travel countless times. It's not a huge problem, but one I've ran into.

While most of my issues with the previous model of Victrix Pro BFG Wireless Controller for Xbox are resolved, there is one that unfortunately remains. In the ultra-competitive world of premium game controllers, there is an increased demand for higher controller polling rates to make your inputs feel even more responsive than they already do on this excellent controller. It's a shame that this polling rate, when connected wirelessly or wired, seems to remain limited to 125Hz. This won't likely impact most users, but it's still an unfortunate omission. Even with that being the case, I still absolutely love this controller. The sturdy plastic and rubber coating around the grips makes it feel great in my hands.

Though not without flaws, I absolutely love the Turtle Beach Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded. It will likely remain my go-to controller, as the PDP Victrix Pro BFG was before it. Like with many things, comfort is king, and this one is definitely one of the most comfortable. And with the included Hall effect sticks, it should last for a long time to come and never drift. Fighting game fans will of course love that FightPad as much as they did on the older Pro BFG, but now it's even more comfortable to use. It's certainly an expensive, premium controller. If you could use it at a higher polling rate, then it may well be one of the best. It's still great, and I don't know how to give it a stronger recommendation than it's the controller that will remain on my desk. Strongly recommended if it's within your budget!