The PlayStation 3 is home to many great first-person-shooter titles. Admittedly, the PS3’s DualShock 3 isn’t the best gamepad for these games. I would rather play them with my PlayStation Move controller to replicate a mouse-like precision aiming experience. Or I’ll play using my Xbox 360 wired controller using the XCM Cross Battle Adapte. (That’s right! You can use Xbox 360 controllers with the PS3).

That’s why I was so excited when I found and purchased the NYKO Raven “Alternate” controller for the PS3. It had the same control and button layout and feel as the Xbox 360 controller. The left thumbstick is now located on top of the directional buttons and triggers have replaced the traditional R2 and L2 shoulder buttons.

In addition to that, there’s a switch that toggles/switches L1 and R1 functionalities to the triggers themselves, adding to that Xbox 360 controller feel. It has an internal rechargeable battery like the Dualshock that lasts about 20 to 25 hours. With all these features, the NYKO Raven controller sounds like a dream come true for PS3 owners right?

Right?

Unfortunately the controller is hampered by a number of glaring issues; the biggest being its horrible deadzone. Playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with the NYKO Raven was an exercise in patience since the Raven’s right thumbstick deadzone was imprecise; most of my shots ended up missing its target. With the DualShock 3, I never had any issues getting headshots in BF:BC 2, yet with the Raven, I could barely even keep the weapons aimed at my opponents long enough to make any shots count. And not only that, I had to spend almost 15 minutes just to tweak the sensitivity in-game just to be able to find a barely-acceptable aiming function for the battlefield.

What irked me more was that I had to do the same advanced tweaking for every one of my games just to make the controller work (barely) with them. And it’s not only that; moving the thumbsticks did not feel natural at all; whenever I would move them, I heard this squeaking sound from within the controller; and this was the same on a different NYKO Raven controller I tried. It just made the overall product feel amateurish and difficult to use.

To add insult to injury, almost all of the face buttons, directional buttons, and bumpers feel weird when pressed. And most of the time, button presses don’t necessarily translate to character actions on the screen. I can’t even remember how many times I missed jumps when the controller didn’t recognize and respond whenever I pressed the X (or any other) button the wrong way. And I still don’t even know what the wrong way is! I hated that I had to push hard on the face and directional buttons for them to work properly in the game.

Thankfully, the Raven does have some redeeming features such as its rumble and motion-sensing functionalities (a la SIXAXIS). These features replicate the same experience as with the DualShock 3. It was fairly easy to set up and install, and the matte finish felt really nice and comfortable in my hands.

Overall, I thought that the NYKO Raven was not a suitable controller for most first- and third-person-shooters on the PS3. The thumbsticks did not move naturally like the Xbox 360’s or the DualShock 3’s thumbsticks, and the buttons were too unresponsive to be effective in any kind of competitive games as it’s easy to make mistakes when the controller does not recognize button presses unless pressed the right way. These issues along with its SUB dongle monopolizing a USB port (since the controller does not support bluetooth tech) make the Raven a cheap imitation of Microsoft’s 360 controller for the PlayStation 3.

NOT RECOMMENDED
(Instead, I recommend getting the XCM Cross Battle Adapter and use your Xbox 360 controller on your PS3)