PowerA Pro Elite XBox Style Wireless Controller For PS3
It’s not often that one starts a review for a PS3 controller with the following statement; “I love my girlfriend!â€
Well… I do… For my birthday she bought me a PS3, how cool is that? Bet you’re jealous now eh!?
Anyway. The subsequent playing on PS3 highlighted me to the various PS3 vs XBox controller arguments scattered around the internet. Having used an XBox controller already I knew I liked it and although at first the curious arrangement of analogue sticks seemed odd, I soon realised how much sense it made for modern gaming with you left thumb settling on the Analogue stick and right thumb on the buttons. So here I stand, firmly on the XBox controller fence, and clearly I’m not alone.
So, having now dismissed the PS3 controller as a bit pants I went searching for an XBox like controller for the PS3 and found the Power A Pro Elite Wireless Controller.
So how does it compare to the XBox controller? It’s roughly the same size and shape. It has a nice rubberised feel and the underside is rippled (apparently to reduce sweat) which is actually better. The triggers feel a little more squashy and less accurate than their XBox counterparts. The analogue sticks lack a bit of weight by comparison, but not bad. It’s boasts wireless, dual rumble motors and also the sixaxis control.
Sounds good so far, lets get down to the details then; The wireless means it has a dongle and every time you want to use it you need to sync it, this means you can’t switch the console on from the controller like you can with any official controller on the PS3 or XBox. Other reviews have talked how it loses connection, this happened once to me whilst I changing game, aside from that it appears pretty reliable.
The sixaxis control is spot on, equally the rumble motors are good.
Now to an issue described in other reviews have mentioned: the dead zone on the analogue sticks. I should add to this the accuracy of the triggers too. And yes, it’s not great, if you want any kind of accuracy it’s more or less unusable for driving games or FPSs. However, for some of my favourite games at the moment, LBP2, Alien Breed and Tomb Raider Guardian of Light, it is fantastic, mainly because you use the controls pretty much as 100% or 0% and it performs incredibly well.
So, would I (if I knew then what I know now) buy one over an additional sixaxis dual shock?… Well… No, it’s good, just not good enough. It’s certainly a more comfortable (and logical) controller to hold than the Sony, however, unfortunately it’s short falls do not make it a viable alternative to the Sony sixaxis dual shock.
-Rob Farley
