Categorized | PS3

Gearing Up Your Playstation 3

Sony and many third party developers are offering a full lineup of excellent gadgets and add-ons for the Playstation 3 home console and we are here to give you a quick view on the must-haves for any hardcore gamer.

First up is the updated Six Axis controller, the Dualshock 3. Now, for those who have bought the later releases of the PS3, this controller would already have been packed into the unit. For those who bought the early launches however, this force feedback controller will provide you with that extra level of immersive fun. A vast majority of the PS3’s games support the rumble feature. Most provide the usual fare of light to heavy shaking synched with onscreen explosions and vibrations, but some game provide an even deeper level of interactivity –providing tactile cues for players that is not provided visually. Metal Gear Solid 4 makes use of this feature by vibrating the controller lightly as a quick alert to players that there are enemies nearby.

The Playstation Move is Sony’s foray into the motion control industry and for their first device to use the technology, the Move is very promising. The main Move controller is a wireless, camera and motion tracked device; its accompaniment, the navigation controller, is an optional tool that proves to be quite useful in many Move-compatible games. There are plenty of games that make use of the new technology: Resident Evil 5 Gold gives the game a more action-oriented feel, puzzle-platformer Echochrome 2 makes use of the Move as a flashlight to alter the shadows in-game and in Little Big Planet, Move allows players to have better control over content creation.

Namco’s GunCon 3 is a top notch addition to the existing gun-controller lineup from the Japanese game developer. The GunCon itself feels pretty well balanced and weight just right when supported with two hands. While the Move does provide players with excellent gun-play controls, nothing makes a shooter game more immersive than actually holding a device that feels like the real thing. Some players may be put off by the need to set up the infra-red nodes, but once you are done, you can hook up a second GunCon without any problems. The only real problem with the controller is the fact that aside from Time Crisis 3, only a few other games support it.

Music fans will certainly not want to pass up on the impressive Rock Band 3 controller set. While this may seem to be quite a massive investment, any gamer would agree that the new wireless music controllers are well worth it. The guitar now supports a wide variety of features, and it looks quite grand –and the fact that Fender designed some of these Guitars certainly factors in. The drum pads are responsive and easy to use. While we could have used a little more flexibility in terms of pad arrangement, the current setup (which players can add cymbals to) is not that hard to get used to.

While there are plenty more peripherals and add-ons for the PS3 that we would have liked to add to this list, few are as surprisingly useful as this last entry: the PS3 remote control. Aside from being an amazing video game system, the Sony HDMI powerhouse also acts as a Blu-Ray player (Playstation 3 games are hosted on Blu-Ray discs after all). While you can use the standard controller with the system, nothing completes the home theater experience by having a device that has all the playback functions you would ever need.

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