November 10, 2007 - Sony's first major PS3 controller redesign hit Japan on Sunday as part of a one-year anniversary festival for the system that also consisted of the 40 gigabyte hardware revision, Ratchet & Clank Future, and Dynasty Warriors 6.
The Dual Shock 3 was in abundant supply when we toured the streets of Tokyo as a light rain began to fall Sunday morning. We were able to pick up a mix of black and white models totaling seven units in all, no questions asked (for hotter product here in Japan, retailers will often limit purchases to one per customer). Total bill: whatever 5,000 yen multiplied by seven plus the 7,800 yen price of Dynasty Warriors 6 is.
We were quick to open up a couple of the controllers to at last get some feedback from our PS3 units. The products ship without charge, so our first few game sessions were wired (using a spare USB cable we had laying around -- the controllers don't include a separate charging cable).
Our full Sunday stash.
Our first target: that fabulous demo of Uncharted, of course! Naughty Dog has apparently had their Dual Shock tools for some time now, as the demo has full support. You can feel every jump, fall, gun shot and punch, with the controller put to particularly good use as Nathan's life level drops and his heart begins to beat.
We also tried out the rumble feature on a few of the latest releases. First up, Ratchet & Clank Future. It took us a while to actually figure out that the game was rumble compatible, as rumble appears to only be used when Ratchet incurs damage, or when giant explosions rock the environment. There's no rumble for when you fire your standard weapons. But maybe this is a good thing considering that you're constantly shooting.
Japanese developers are also incorporating rumble into their titles. Both Dark Mist and Toy Home, PlayStation Network downloadable titles from Game Republic that were released last week, have rumble. The latter title forces you to control your vehicle with the SIXAXIS and still manages to shake when you plow into larger obstacles. Guess those problems with combining rumble and motion sensing that Sony alluded to at the SIXAXIS announcement were overcome.
The best rumble experience so far has to go to the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue demo. As great as the demo is without rumble, it really takes on a new level when you can physically feel your car accelerate. If you do manage to get an import version of the Dual Shock 3, we'd suggest trying out this demo first.
The Dual Shock 3 is available in white and black.
Just to make sure everything really is back to normal as far as the PlayStation controller family is concerned, we also put the Dual Shock 3 to the test on classic PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles. Rumble was functional in our disk copy of Yakuza, and also worked in our downloaded copy of Crash Bandicoot 3. We haven't tried out the full lineup for compatibility, and Sony hasn't actually issued a formal statement on the matter, but this is a good sign.
So rumble is now back with the PlayStation brand. May it never go away again.
I was hoping to have a DS3 by the time Uncharted was out.