I've been encountering a problem most recently in No Man's Sky where basically can't move forward (but have no problems moving backwards or to either side) and cannot sprint/run. I first encountered this in Firewatch but thought it was a glitch in the game (I read posts in other forums blaming the game), but not that it's occured in No Man's Sky too I'm thinking it might be the Dualshock 4 controller itself.
The problem occurred intermitently and basically was this: when I tried to move forward (using the left analog stick) it seemed to stutter or crawl and barely get anywhere. If I strafed (move sideways) or moved backwards it moved at normal speed. Additionally, when I tried to sprint (by pressing R3) it basically didn't work at all. The problem is very intermittent, but this morning I tried switching controllers and it seemed to go away. But the strange thing both sticks seem to work fine most of the time, while navigating the home screen, etc.
Has anyone else encountered problems like this? Do you agree that it sounds like a bad controller? It's surprising because I'm not hard on my controllers at all (I know there have been tons of people with broken sticks, worn out thumbpads, etc) and this controller is only about a year old. I have 2 controllers and basically alternate between them - the old one seems to be OK (I haven't confirmed that yet).