I'm sure it's been answered, but wtf is "haptic" and how does it improve gameplay?
Haptic literally means 'touch' or 'the sense of touch'. Feedback is feeback, that is, a response that alerts you that your action has caused a reaction.
The simplest example is when you touch your smart phone screen, and there's a varying degree of vibration in response to signify a completed action.
The rumble pack on the N64 was haptic feedback.
The rumble in controllers is haptic feedback.
As controllers get more advanced, they've added more and more nuances and variations of feedback to differentiate between different actions and responses. So getting shot and sliding across the ground in a shooter both vibrate, but differently enough that you immediately know the difference.
Sony's new controller has a lot of new tricks through both the controller and the triggers.
As somebody that generally turns rumble off in multiplayer shooters, I hope I can turn all of this stuff off in games, lol.