I held out for years and years before finally buying an Xbox 360 gamepad for my PC. The analog sticks are good and I love the analog shoulder buttons but the rest is bollocks. The directional thumbpad is useless and the whole thing feels hollow and cheap despite the price.

Can anyone recommend a good all-purpose gamepad? I play dual analog shooters, platformers, driving games, emulated games, and pretty much anything designed to be played with a gamepad. I'm looking for something sturdy, precise, and preferably compatible with the proprietary Xbox gamepad spec (so that it works in games that require that gamepad).