Gioteck’s FPS controller for PS3: HF-1 FTW?

As anybody who owns all three machines knows, Sony’s PS3 DualShock – while a perfectly good joypad – is a few small steps behind the Xbox 360 and Wii controllers in terms of precision. This is only really noticeable when playing FPS games, and as such, various companies offer FPS-specific alternatives. Joe’s already given you the lowdown on the Eagle Eye mouse & keyboard adapter; who’s next?

Wave coyly in greeting at Gioteck’s HF-1 controller for PS3.

Many gamers will fall in love with the HF-1 before they’ve even tried using it. It’s Bluetooth (though you can use it as a wired controller should you so desire)? Ace! Triggers for L2 and R2? A ‘flip switch’ that gives you the option of swapping the L1 & R1 functions with those of L2 & R2 (thereby making the triggers the default fire & aim buttons for most games)? Proper analogue sticks? Oh look, the tops are even shaped like aiming reticules, bless! And it’s been given a lick of camouflage paint. Hmm, the sticks are positioned differently; you know, it kind of looks like…

Yes, the military flavoured elephant in the room here is that the HF-1 seems to have been modelled on the official 360 controller. The fact is however that Gioteck are happy to admit this, as they know full well that even diehard PS3 fans (so long as they aren’t disturbingly zealous) grudgingly admit that the 360 has the better joypad, especially for shooters. However, while the HF-1 certainly looks like a 360 controller – despite the ‘turbo’ button guiltily lurking between Start and Select – it doesn’t feel like one.

Gioteck’s offering is slightly bigger, for one; chunkier than either the official Microsoft or Sony options. If you have freakishly large hands, then a) send us a photo, and b) you’ll find that the HF-1 is more comfortable to hold than the DualShock. It’s been lovingly curved in such a way, however, that it’s still comfortable for those who have no trouble with the standard option. Unfortunately, it’s not quite all smiles and sunshine in terms of comfort.

Looking at the indents on top of the analogue sticks, you’d expect them to soothingly cup the ends of your digits like some kind of thumb bra, wouldn’t you? Okay, so you probably wouldn’t use the thumb bra simile, but anyway. If you have impressively manly thumbs like me, you’ll find that in actual fact, the small nubs that give the reticule appearance to the sticks press into your thumbs most of the time you play. Surprisingly perhaps, this isn’t usually a problem; but if you hold down either L3 or R3 while moving (most likely by running in Call of Duty), it can soon start to become uncomfortable.

I for one was willing to forgive this, because the sticks are otherwise better than those on the DualShock. While not quite as lovely as the 360 pad, the dead zones and general ‘tightness’ of the sticks are noticeably superior to those of Sony’s controller. In fact, such was the difference, I felt confident enough to significantly increase the stick sensitivity for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 from that which I’d settled on since release.

There is, however, a slight issue with the face buttons; which require a little more ‘oomf’ than those on the DualShock. Ninety nine times out of a hundred there’s no problem, as you hit the buttons harder than you might think in the heat of the action anyway. That one time in a hundred however – when you hit the button a millisecond too quickly and/or apply 99.9% of the required pressure – is frustrating. This is most likely to happen for actions where a quick tap is all that’s normally required, for example reloading. You do adapt to this, but you shouldn’t really have to.

Of more concern are the shoulder buttons (L1 and R1 by default, but the flip switch changes that). The angle that they’re set at, and the way that they slope, mean that you need to press them at the outer edges (where they’re raised from the body of the controller the most) to guarantee that your input is registered. In short, they don’t always work, and you can’t just let your finger naturally slide straight back in a straight line and press down as you can with the DualShock.

Now, if you’ve researched the HF-1 elsewhere, you may well have come across a veritable legion of criticism; mostly from consumers, sometimes from site reviewers as well. The vast majority of this criticism is centred on the dead zones and laggy input. After testing the HF-1 at length, I don’t doubt that these people are telling the truth; but I suspect that most – possibly all – of them relied on Black Ops to test the controller.

Black Ops was in fact the first game I tested the HF-1 with. All was fine and dandy to begin with; but after 30-40 minutes, the analogue sticks suddenly decided that they found me terribly boring, and wanted to do their own thing. Input lagged terribly, or didn’t seem to correspond with what I was telling the controller to do. My only choices were to a) turn the controller off then on again to reset the sticks, b) use it as a wired controller, which seems to eradicate the problem, or c) switch back to the DualShock. I encountered this issue every time I played, both online and offline.

I have a 60gb PS3 and so, curious at this bizarre software compatibility issue, I tried a PS2 FPS (No One Lives Forever). Same problem; everything fine for about half an hour, then both analogue sticks became mischievous little scamps.

A few hours after writing what I thought was the final draft of this piece, I experienced exactly the same problems in Modern Warfare 2 – despite several lengthy play sessions where the controller worked perfectly. It would seem that in order to guarantee consistent performance across all games, you’ll need to resign yourself to a USB lead – rendering the wireless option somewhat pointless. Presumably, it’s the fact that the HF-1 uses bluetooth rather than infra-red that’s causing the problems.

Finally, it’s important to note that the HF-1 does not feature sixaxis control, making it unsuitable as a permanent replacement controller for all games. There are thankfully few FPS games at time of writing that force you to make use of sixaxis, and certainly none that I’d urge you to run out and buy. The only two I can think of that I’ve played are Killzone 2 (sorry, I just find the Killzone games boring) and Resistance: Fall of Man, which told me to shake my controller like an angry child when my character was set on fire.

If the DualShock is a dowdy yet reliable & ever-loving lady/man, then the HF-1 is their sexy, flirty sibling. You’ll want to get hands-on with HF-1 as soon as you see it/him/her; but be prepared for this dirty flirt to slap you often – and not always in a nice way.

The HF-1 was tested with PS3 firmware version 3.60. It requires two AA batteries (not included) for wireless play; two mid-range alkaline batteries will last roughly half as long as a fully charged DualShock.