Unboxing And Testing
The Precision Shot 3 is securely packaged in a standard box with a plastic mold that fits the accessory nicely. Included is the main accessory as well as the optional fore-grip handle that can hold the Navigation controller if you so choose. There is also a single page manual that tells you how to put the controller together, although it’s very easy to do.
The Remote slides into the top part of the gun. Simply flip up the plastic orange restraining piece and slide the Remote in. The wrist strap slides easily through a hole on the backside of the gun. The key here of course is to get the T button, or Trigger, aligned with the trigger button actuator of the accessory. This mechanism is attached to the trigger of the Precision Shot 3, so when you pull it, it simultaneously actuates a small plastic piece that presses the T button on your Remote for you. As long as you pass the wrist strap through the hole on the back of the gun, you won’t have any trouble getting this setup.
I took my Navigation controller next and popped it into the optional fore-grip. Once in, the fore-grip fits quickly and securely into the lower portion of the gun’s exaggerated barrel. With those two pieces in place, it was time to play test some shooters.
Well, as of right now, only demos for both Sony’s The Shoot and Namco’s Time Crisis: Razing Storm are available to test out Move functionality (I don’t have MAG readily available). The future for such an accessory is definitely bright though, with a variety of FPS games on the horizon that will support the Move.
I tried out Time Crisis: Razing Storm first. The in game menu allowed me to calibrate the controller which was no problem. The accessory worked fine, my only complaint was that in the game, you have to press the Move button on the Remote to have your player lower his shield so you can shoot. The demo doesn’t allow you to remap the controls, but I hope the full version does. As it stands, I had to use my left hand to reach on top of the accessory to press and hold the Move button to pop out of coverage. Only then could I use the trigger to fire. Playing the game this way was not fun, but this is a problem with Time Crisis, not the accessory. Presuming controller-remapping is added, or, better yet, making it so where a single player can use both the Navigation Controller and the Remote at the same time, all should be well. For The Shoot, the experience was more straight-forward as it’s a simpler game in terms of controls. I didn’t experience any problems in this game and the Precision Shot 3 did a nice job.
The overall appearance and weight of the accessory is very good, being neither too ‘showy’ nor too dull and neither too light nor too heavy. It works as expected and you can’t ask for much more than that. My only complaint would be the noise you hear with each trigger pull. It’s hard to describe, but expect to hear the sound of a plastic-on-metal spring, if you know what I mean. It’s not something you may notice while focused on a game, but I readily noticed it during testing which is too bad. I’m not opposed to a gun controller or accessory making some kind of noise for a trigger pull, but it shouldn’t be one that clearly reminds you that ‘hey, this is just a plastic toy.’
With that, let’s get to the summary…