A review of SplitFish Dual SFX Evolution.
The item is:
http://www.splitfish.com/index.php/en/products/dual-sfx-evolution
I had not heard of this item before seeing it as part of a deal bundled with Split/Second for PS3 at gogamer a few weeks ago. It sounded like something I would like so I decided to get it. I will refer to the controller as “Evo.” Basically - from my experience so far, if motion control is something you want to have, and you know what to expect with this, you should enjoy it.
The draw of Evo to me was the motion controlling. You can set the righthand controller to use motion control in place of the right thumbstick.
Cons: You can ONLY do this with the righthand controller – you CANNOT use the lefthand controller motion to mimic a thumbstick. Also, when the righthand controller is in this motion mode, the right thumbstick doesn’t do anything – its “turned off.”
Pros: You can set the sticks to be reversed, which means you can use the righthand motion to control left-stick movement, and left stick to control right-stick movement. Currently you can only switch the sticks, you can’t remap any of the buttons. The company (Splitfish) says that there is supposed to be software coming up in the future on their website to allow you to remap all the regular buttons – hopefully this will be true but it isn’t available yet. Also like I said, when the righthand controller is in this motion mode, the right thumbstick doesn’t do anything – so you can’t use motion for one stick while simultaneously using the right stick for the other stick, if that makes sense. Also, the lefthand controller does have independent sixaxis control, so for example, in Unreal Tournament III – when you use the hoverboard, normally you can steer hoverboard with sixaxis with the regular Dualshock 3, and use the Dualshock 3 right stick to look up/down while riding. With this, I can still steer hoverboard with the lefthand controller (using sixaxis tilting), and use the righthand controller tilting to look up/down (mimicking the right stick).
I have been using it in the following games so far:
Unreal Tournament III
Modern Warfare 2
FEAR 2
All of them first-person shooters. I haven’t tried other types of games yet. In all cases I am using the lefthand controller like the normal left side of Dual Shock 3, and the righthand controller in motion-mode, mimicking the right thumbstick.
The motion control is done by tilting the righthand controller left and right – rotating your wrist – and tilting up/down – tilt wrist up/down (of course you could move your whole arm if you want). When the controller is tilted, that is read as the right stick being held in a direction. You have to return the controller to a level state in order to “release the right stick” to neutral.
For me the motion is too sensitive at normal level – so in each game I have set the controller sensitivity to the lowest or almost-lowest level, in the particular game’s options menu. The controller has its own sensitivity adjustment for motion, which I have also set to low. Since I have the sensitivity lower I can’t turn my character as fast, so far that hasn’t been a problem though.
I have been playing these games on easy/normal difficulty, because aiming is less precise with motion control; the harder difficulties would be that much harder. I don’t mean that the aiming is wrong – it does what it is supposed to do – but the nature of aiming in this way is less precise compared to thumbs. For me it takes some getting used to with a game, but now I have fun with it, in the games I have played so far it takes me a bit longer to point at the enemy’s body/head, and I waste some bullets, but eventually I hit them and it works (Modern Warfare 2 does have the “tap R1 to auto-lock on” aiming, and when I do that, I auto-lock to their body like I normally would, so that’s an instant hit as normal). You will probably consider your seating position – in order to freely move your wrist. One way I do it is sitting in a way with right elbow rested on something, and moving right hand/arm with rested elbow. But that’s not the only way I play, other ways work too.
The three games I’ve tried have some method of auto-aim turned on and I believe that has helped me as well, in a game without auto-aim I believe my accuracy of shots would be further reduced a bit.
It has a noticeable dead zone – if you tilt it only a bit, nothing will happen.
It does not have any rumble.
The placement of “X O Triangle Square” is weird – look at the pictures of it – but, after I have been playing a game for several minutes I get used to it, its not something that has bothered me.
I have read other people say it feels big – for me I didn’t notice a problem except that the spacing of the sticks IS different compared to Dualshock 3, I don’t know if it is farther apart, but your exact thumb movements will be different, I think I noticed this more when using the right thumbstick – however this still isn’t anything that really bothered me. For reference, I am about average size, I’m 5’10.
It uses 6 AAA batteries, 3 per controller. I am using rechargeable AAA’s, and the controllers each can act as a battery recharger – they plug into the USB cable onto PS3, just like Dualshock 3. I have recharged them several times so far, seems to work fine. The battery life doesn’t seem to last as long as Dualshock 3.
It is compatible with PC, however the motion controlling is NOT compatible with PC, so no motion control in PC games. I am using Windows XP. I have used the controller in normal mode (so far only in the first FEAR game) on PC, it seems to work fine.
It has macro function and rapid-fire, I have not yet tried either of these features.
So:
I won’t be throwing away my Dualshock 3, I’m using Evo as a novelty controller; I probably won’t use Evo for other than First-Person games; I will use Dualshock 3 when I want to play on hardest difficulties; but, its fun and I’m glad I got it, and if you want to have a motion-control option for aiming and you think this method might work, I would recommend it.
The item is:
http://www.splitfish.com/index.php/en/products/dual-sfx-evolution
I had not heard of this item before seeing it as part of a deal bundled with Split/Second for PS3 at gogamer a few weeks ago. It sounded like something I would like so I decided to get it. I will refer to the controller as “Evo.” Basically - from my experience so far, if motion control is something you want to have, and you know what to expect with this, you should enjoy it.
The draw of Evo to me was the motion controlling. You can set the righthand controller to use motion control in place of the right thumbstick.
Cons: You can ONLY do this with the righthand controller – you CANNOT use the lefthand controller motion to mimic a thumbstick. Also, when the righthand controller is in this motion mode, the right thumbstick doesn’t do anything – its “turned off.”
Pros: You can set the sticks to be reversed, which means you can use the righthand motion to control left-stick movement, and left stick to control right-stick movement. Currently you can only switch the sticks, you can’t remap any of the buttons. The company (Splitfish) says that there is supposed to be software coming up in the future on their website to allow you to remap all the regular buttons – hopefully this will be true but it isn’t available yet. Also like I said, when the righthand controller is in this motion mode, the right thumbstick doesn’t do anything – so you can’t use motion for one stick while simultaneously using the right stick for the other stick, if that makes sense. Also, the lefthand controller does have independent sixaxis control, so for example, in Unreal Tournament III – when you use the hoverboard, normally you can steer hoverboard with sixaxis with the regular Dualshock 3, and use the Dualshock 3 right stick to look up/down while riding. With this, I can still steer hoverboard with the lefthand controller (using sixaxis tilting), and use the righthand controller tilting to look up/down (mimicking the right stick).
I have been using it in the following games so far:
Unreal Tournament III
Modern Warfare 2
FEAR 2
All of them first-person shooters. I haven’t tried other types of games yet. In all cases I am using the lefthand controller like the normal left side of Dual Shock 3, and the righthand controller in motion-mode, mimicking the right thumbstick.
The motion control is done by tilting the righthand controller left and right – rotating your wrist – and tilting up/down – tilt wrist up/down (of course you could move your whole arm if you want). When the controller is tilted, that is read as the right stick being held in a direction. You have to return the controller to a level state in order to “release the right stick” to neutral.
For me the motion is too sensitive at normal level – so in each game I have set the controller sensitivity to the lowest or almost-lowest level, in the particular game’s options menu. The controller has its own sensitivity adjustment for motion, which I have also set to low. Since I have the sensitivity lower I can’t turn my character as fast, so far that hasn’t been a problem though.
I have been playing these games on easy/normal difficulty, because aiming is less precise with motion control; the harder difficulties would be that much harder. I don’t mean that the aiming is wrong – it does what it is supposed to do – but the nature of aiming in this way is less precise compared to thumbs. For me it takes some getting used to with a game, but now I have fun with it, in the games I have played so far it takes me a bit longer to point at the enemy’s body/head, and I waste some bullets, but eventually I hit them and it works (Modern Warfare 2 does have the “tap R1 to auto-lock on” aiming, and when I do that, I auto-lock to their body like I normally would, so that’s an instant hit as normal). You will probably consider your seating position – in order to freely move your wrist. One way I do it is sitting in a way with right elbow rested on something, and moving right hand/arm with rested elbow. But that’s not the only way I play, other ways work too.
The three games I’ve tried have some method of auto-aim turned on and I believe that has helped me as well, in a game without auto-aim I believe my accuracy of shots would be further reduced a bit.
It has a noticeable dead zone – if you tilt it only a bit, nothing will happen.
It does not have any rumble.
The placement of “X O Triangle Square” is weird – look at the pictures of it – but, after I have been playing a game for several minutes I get used to it, its not something that has bothered me.
I have read other people say it feels big – for me I didn’t notice a problem except that the spacing of the sticks IS different compared to Dualshock 3, I don’t know if it is farther apart, but your exact thumb movements will be different, I think I noticed this more when using the right thumbstick – however this still isn’t anything that really bothered me. For reference, I am about average size, I’m 5’10.
It uses 6 AAA batteries, 3 per controller. I am using rechargeable AAA’s, and the controllers each can act as a battery recharger – they plug into the USB cable onto PS3, just like Dualshock 3. I have recharged them several times so far, seems to work fine. The battery life doesn’t seem to last as long as Dualshock 3.
It is compatible with PC, however the motion controlling is NOT compatible with PC, so no motion control in PC games. I am using Windows XP. I have used the controller in normal mode (so far only in the first FEAR game) on PC, it seems to work fine.
It has macro function and rapid-fire, I have not yet tried either of these features.
So:
I won’t be throwing away my Dualshock 3, I’m using Evo as a novelty controller; I probably won’t use Evo for other than First-Person games; I will use Dualshock 3 when I want to play on hardest difficulties; but, its fun and I’m glad I got it, and if you want to have a motion-control option for aiming and you think this method might work, I would recommend it.
