PlayStation 3: The Controller
The boomerang is dead. We give you the poop on the successor to the DualShock 2.
Published: May 9, 2006
When Sony finally unveiled the PS3's look last year, nearly everyone had a sort of "huh" reaction to it. Of the three consoles, the PlayStation 3 was arguably the least aesthetically pleasing. It's not ugly, exactly, but it wasn't what most expected from designers at Sony, a company that actually sells hardware based purely on the looks of the product.
Still, the console played second fiddle to the controller. Dubbed "the boomerang" by the internet, it was almost universally rejected as being a bit too different. Luckily it was never a final design and Sony had always insisted it was a prototype. Whether that was a cover for all the bad publicity the game ever got or if it was never really the final design will probably never be known, but the result is the same: the DualShock is dead. Enter the PS3 controller.
The death of the DualShock name is key here; there's no rumble feedback in the PS3 controller. At all. Again, this may be a byproduct of perhaps the PS3 controller's newest innovation -- the fact that it has a motion sensor in it -- or it might just be that Immersion suit that Sony's been battling. Regardless, there is no shock in this controller, dual or otherwise.
Well, that's not entirely true. For one, the new controller is indeed wireless. It's still Bluetooth-enabled, and up to seven of them can be used at the same time, but the real news is that the sucker has a motion sensor built inside. Sony's happily touting that it affords the system "six degrees of movement" and, well, it's true. The controller can sense movement in 3D on the x, y and z axis and it understands roll, pitch and yaw, so no matter how you twist it in 3D space, game can quickly relate that in-game.
All we saw at Sony's press conference was implementation of it in Warhawk, which, being a flying game, utilizes all six of these directions to control the plane. It was jerky, but then having it be less responsive would mean the game was lagged. The actual implementation will certainly be interesting.
But the controller itself has undergone some important upgrades too. Yes, it's still the DualShock in basic design, but some much-needed upgrades have been made. The shoulder buttons have been made deeper. The L2 and R2 buttons in particular have been made into something of a trigger. They still look and feel uniquely like a Sony controller, but there's some obvious resistance to the buttons. You can now actively feel how much you're pressing down on it, and that’s important as Sony has upgraded the buttons from 8-bit response to 10-bit.
Yes, those are pointless numbers, but all you need to know is that it's more response and your presses make more impact in the game -- which is perfect for racing games. This, combined with the controller's decreased weight (it feels lighter, yet still feels remarkably solid), means the game holds up quite well to free-form movement without getting tiring. It's.. weird using this new controller -- and we're going to seriously miss the vibration, but some of the improvements are certainly welcome.
We'll have way, way more hands-on time with the controller with far more games in the next few months, and we'll happily let you know what works and what doesn't as we do.
Still, the console played second fiddle to the controller. Dubbed "the boomerang" by the internet, it was almost universally rejected as being a bit too different. Luckily it was never a final design and Sony had always insisted it was a prototype. Whether that was a cover for all the bad publicity the game ever got or if it was never really the final design will probably never be known, but the result is the same: the DualShock is dead. Enter the PS3 controller.
The death of the DualShock name is key here; there's no rumble feedback in the PS3 controller. At all. Again, this may be a byproduct of perhaps the PS3 controller's newest innovation -- the fact that it has a motion sensor in it -- or it might just be that Immersion suit that Sony's been battling. Regardless, there is no shock in this controller, dual or otherwise.
Well, that's not entirely true. For one, the new controller is indeed wireless. It's still Bluetooth-enabled, and up to seven of them can be used at the same time, but the real news is that the sucker has a motion sensor built inside. Sony's happily touting that it affords the system "six degrees of movement" and, well, it's true. The controller can sense movement in 3D on the x, y and z axis and it understands roll, pitch and yaw, so no matter how you twist it in 3D space, game can quickly relate that in-game.
All we saw at Sony's press conference was implementation of it in Warhawk, which, being a flying game, utilizes all six of these directions to control the plane. It was jerky, but then having it be less responsive would mean the game was lagged. The actual implementation will certainly be interesting.
But the controller itself has undergone some important upgrades too. Yes, it's still the DualShock in basic design, but some much-needed upgrades have been made. The shoulder buttons have been made deeper. The L2 and R2 buttons in particular have been made into something of a trigger. They still look and feel uniquely like a Sony controller, but there's some obvious resistance to the buttons. You can now actively feel how much you're pressing down on it, and that’s important as Sony has upgraded the buttons from 8-bit response to 10-bit.
Yes, those are pointless numbers, but all you need to know is that it's more response and your presses make more impact in the game -- which is perfect for racing games. This, combined with the controller's decreased weight (it feels lighter, yet still feels remarkably solid), means the game holds up quite well to free-form movement without getting tiring. It's.. weird using this new controller -- and we're going to seriously miss the vibration, but some of the improvements are certainly welcome.
We'll have way, way more hands-on time with the controller with far more games in the next few months, and we'll happily let you know what works and what doesn't as we do.
