IMO, I personally hate the four-button layout. Call me weird, but I found the button layout on the GC controller very comfortable--they were all different sizes, approximately proportional to their use, in highly different locations. With the exception of those odd X and Y buttons, it wasn't easy to get the buttons mixed up. I always get turned around when using the buttons on the PS controllers and on the DS as well. The fact that the PS games I've played do not have button conformity (AKA the same buttons are almost always used for the same thing every game--at least with what I've played) only serves to confuse me.
Never played an XBox, so I'm not obliged to say anything about the controllers or the system itself. It's had some slick-looking games, but, because I've never played anything about them, it'd be very impudent of me to speak for/against the system.
Although it DOES seem to attract the "snotty cool" crowd... though in the defense of legitimate gamers, most of the real gameheads try to stay on the up-and-up when it comes to all the systems. Thank goodness. A good game knows no system, except for technicalities.
