bit-tech Shopping: Logitech Chillstream Controller (PS3)

Rating: 8

Time with product: 10 Days

Strengths: good cooling, Buttons and fan work great.

Weaknesses: none

Summary: This gamepad looked pretty sweet.It is working great, easy to set up,the fan is quiet, its feel and the response of the controls are both nice.I haven't had any problems with it at all, and I've used it quite intensively.I have played with tons of different controllers,and well this is one of the best in my opinion.

Rating: 4

Time with product: 2

Strengths: The hand-cooling feature does work, and it works with PC's (I think)

Weaknesses: No tilt motion sensors and no Playstation button; sometimes the shoulder buttons stick

Summary: This controller plugs into a USB port on the PS3 and is recognized by the system. It has a hand-cooling feature where a fan inside the controller blows air into your hands to control palm sweat. This fan feature has three settings: off, intermittent and continuous. This works surprisingly well. All the buttons that it has do work generally well, though I've found the R1 trigger on mine can get stuck sometimes. The problems lie in what it's missing. The new PS button is missing on this controller. This isn't too terrible because all it does right now on a real Sony PS3 controller is bring up the wireless controller menu, exit game option and turn off PS3 option. The button is not important in-game right now. However this controller also lacks the new tilt sensor controls which are in Sony's SIXAXIS, and these new controls *are* being used in some games. Games like Lair which don't let you switch off motion controls are not playable with this controller. In the end, I ended up getting a second Sony SIXAXIS controller anyway, because not having motion controls on this one was a dealbreaker. I've heard though that this should plug into a PC's USB port and work for PC games. (FYI, I've also heard the same thing about Sony's SIXAXIS if you keep it attached via the USB charging cable.) Right now, this is acting as my player three controller with real Sony SIXAXIS controllers being the main controller and for player two. Eventually I'll probably try migrating this for use on my PC instead.