Let’s get ready to rumble! Sony once said it couldn’t be done, but after settling some legal troubles, we know it’s possible to have motion-sensing technology and rumble in the same controller. The official unit–the Dual Shock 3–is already out in Japan, and will come to the U.S. in mid-April. But Nyko’s already beaten Sony to market, offering a third-party solution to get your cake and eat it, too. Read on to find out if Nyko’s PS3 solution is as good as its Cord-Free for Wii Nunchuck.
The box is pretty jam-packed, and it’s immediately clear that you’re getting a lot more technology than in the sixaxis controller, which comes with the PS3. You get a controller, a battery pack, a very long USB cord–which puts the sixaxis’ tiny cord to shame–and a wireless receiver.
The device itself is larger and definitely has more weight than the sixaxis, but feels slightly lighter and narrower than the Xbox 360’s wireless controller. I wouldn’t say it’s much less comfortable than the 360’s controller, and that’s pretty impressive, given how awkward most third-party controllers feel. Still, it doesn’t feel quite as perfect as the sixaxis, which may be light and lack rumble, but is pretty nice nonetheless.
There are some very noticeable differences besides the size. The face buttons are slightly raised from the unit; it doesn’t particularly affect gameplay, but it definitely is closer to the 360’s feel on that side. Meanwhile, the d-Pad feels much less precise than you’d hope it would. Out of the box it feels like it’s a little too far off the unit, for some reason. It’s possible that patents are keeping the technology different, but you should be warned.
The device handles fairly well as a standard controller, and moving the analog sticks feels great. Adding some LED lights underneath the thumbsticks is also a nice touch. Going wireless works like a dream, too, as long as you’ve gotten the unit all charged up. It’s much more comfortable playing while you charge now, though, due to the long red USB cable that comes included.
But the rumble is going to seal the deal for most gamers. Some games are already rumble-equipped, but I would imagine all of them should eventually get rumble. I’m just assuming that downloadable patches should make it possible. It’s not the heartiest shake I’ve ever felt in a controller, but it does bring back some good memories. It was always strange that I’d be shooting off hundreds of rounds, and I wouldn’t feel anything.
All told, this unit takes care of many of the pet peeves that I had previously held about the PS3’s controller. If you can get over the slightly different feel and shaky d-Pad, then you’ll get an excellent third-party controller.
Nyko’s Zero Wireless Controller comes in black, silver, and white flavors for a suggested retail price of US$60.
For more, please see Nyko’s website.
The rumor mill continues to buzz with speculation that AMD is laying off five percent of its staff across the board, but it looks like the company’s trying to put out the fire — we just spoke with AMD reps who denied that any layoffs had already taken place, but wouldn’t comment further on “rumor or speculation.” That’s the message that’s been going out to pretty much every media outlet today, so it’s not clear if that means no job cuts are coming or if we’re just playing a fun little semantic shell game. We’re hoping things are turning around — the company has been meeting ship dates for Phenom processors lately, and it’s got the first certified DisplayPort card — but we’ll see how things pan out when the company announces its quarterly results.
Western Digital has busted out its latest hard drive - the 3.5″ Caviar SE16 which offers a whopping 640GB of storage space thanks to 320 GB-per-platter technology. This technology has already been used in its line of products since January this year and looks set to being the foundation of Western Digital’s entire 3.5″ hard drive family.