DualShock 3

Another fairly obvious quirk that Sony has failed to fix with the DualShock 3 is the absence of any kind of discernible power-saving measures. Unlike the Wii remote or 360 pad, neither the Sixaxis or the new DualShock 3 will turn themselves off when left idle, meaning the pad's constantly draining its power at all times.

Equally irritating is the lack of a built-in synchronisation button - again, standard on the Wii and 360 controllers, but mystifyingly absent on both the Sixaxis and now the DualShock 3. If, like me, you're always misplacing USB cables (or taking them to work, breaking them, or casually lending them out), sometimes you find yourself completely unable to use the PS3 until you do find one in some dark corner of your cable breeding ground. Given the PS3's remote control can be easily synched wirelessly, why the heck can't the machine's own joypad?

With the various moans and niggles dispensed with, the actual in-game performance varies from very good to very poor, demonstrating, if anything, that much of the pad's potential is wrapped up in what individual developers want to get out of it. As you'll note from Wikipedia's handy list, there are an awful lot of existing games which already support rumble - many as a consequence of the pad having been released so long ago in other territories.

Recently, I actually reviewed Overlord on PS3 using the DualShock 3 and was pleasantly surprised with how strong the vibration was, exploding my own myth that the pad didn't really have the same assured presence that the 360 frequently displays so ably. However, for whatever reason, several other developers have taken a completely contrary approach, with games such as MotorStorm featuring bizarrely weak effects which do very little to enhance the sense of immersion, and, in fact, draw attention to the weedy feedback transmitted to your palms. Some of this might be an attempt to conserve battery, of course, but it's not something that has ever stopped any 360 developer from transmitting road drill levels of vibration willy nilly.

Happily, for those of you lucky enough to own a backwardly compatible PS3, the added bonus of owning a DualShock 3 is its uniform vibration compatibility with all PS2 titles - particularly crucial for certain games that rely on vibration, like Splinter Cell with its lock-picking. In case you were wondering, yes, Sixaxis tilt functionality remains, but whether you'll make much use of it is another matter entirely.

All told, vibration is one of those undervalued background effects that you never really notice until it's taken away, and Sony completely misjudged the mood of gamers by dismissing it as a last-generation feature. Thankfully, the company has seen the error of its ways and put the feature back in - but at a substantial premium that many gamers will balk at paying.