Usually third party controllers released for consoles come in the form of turbo controllers which use the turbo fire option and for some games it’s very handy. Power A on the other hand releases a third party controller that doesn’t use any kind of turbo functionality and instead uses a cooling fan, lights and a familiar controller layout to create a controller that is very unique called the AirFlo controller for the PlayStation 3 as well as the XBox 360. For this review I will be covering the controller for the PlayStation 3.
The PS3 version of the controller it has the main face buttons of any PlayStation controller, Triangle, X, Circle and Square. It also has the two main Analog Sticks, Start and Select, the two L and R shoulder and trigger buttons, the L3, R3 commands on the Analog Sticks and also a home button as well as the light which shows what player are you. There are two unique buttons on the controller, the first button is the light button which makes the controller emit a blue light which looks nice. The other button releases a fan which feels rather nice. It has two levels, one where it blows at a slow pace while the next level makes the fans blow harder. It helps to make your hands cooler when playing hardcore games since it prevents the sweating when in the heat of gameplay.
The buttons on the controller work really well and there is no delay between pressing the button and the action performed on screen which makes gaming with it very playable. The way you hold the controller to access the buttons feels rather nice especially on the trigger buttons. The handle grips feel nice especially around the light and fan areas and also the handle is bigger then the standard Dual Shock 3 controller. The biggest main feature of the controller is the Analog Stick layout. On standard PlayStation controllers the Analog Sticks are placed close by to each other on the AirFlo the Analog Sticks are placed in a format very similar to an XBox controller which makes controlling First Person Shooters much like an XBox Game which is very cool.
As far as the controller’s functionality and performance I actually like it very well. It works reasonably better then most other cheap third party controllers for the PlayStation systems, the Analog Stick layout makes it look like an XBox pad, the D-Pad is much better then the D-Pad on the XBox 360 controller and plus it lights up and has a fan on it. It’s even a wired controller with a reasonable cable length. It’s hard to find legitimate complaints about the controller cause even though I bought mine second hand it has worked well for me without any issues. I suppose that the only issue I can think of is the vibration function which is a little weak as compared to the other controllers. It may not be a big deal but otherwise if you really like the vibrations in game controllers then you’ll be disappointed at the vibration levels.
The other issue is that if you are going to be using it for First Person Shooter games on the PS3 it will work perfectly with all of the Call of Duty titles as well as Destiny, Borderlands, the Classic Doom games and Resistance. However not every First Person Shooter game on the PS3 uses the most comfortable control scheme that everyone is familiar with. There are some First Person Shooter titles like Battlefield and Pay Day 2 where they use the R1 button for firing instead of the R2 Button which can make the controller a little uncomfortable for lengthy gameplay.
It is worth mentioning that this is a third party controller that has some missing features of a standard Dual Shock 3 controller. Namely the Six-Axis Motions which for the majority of PlayStation 3 users won’t care about all that much but however some titles like Killzone 2 & 3 have sections where you do need to use the Six-Axis Motions to pass them so this controller may not be best for those games.
Overall it’s a fantastic controller that works well and it is really good for a very low price compared to the prices for a standard controller. Thankfully second hand places charge very low prices so if you have a PS3, play first person shooter games and is looking for a controller that has that XBox controller look then I strongly recommend the AirFlo and also the Venom Wired Controller if you can find it cheap and in excellent condition. Hopefully you’ll have some entertaining time playing PS3 FPS games with an XBox like pad as long as the game has R2 for shooting instead of R1. If you are playing an FPS game that decides to have R1 be the shoot button then you’ll might not be comfortable with it unless you decide to get used to it. At least you can treat your PS3 games like an XBox game.
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Accessory: Power A AirFlo Controller
Console: PlayStation 3
Year: 23rd December 2011
Developer: Power A
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Review Score: 9.0/10
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The Goods
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Has the control layout of an XBox 360 controller
It has cooling fans
It lights up
The Bads
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Weak vibration
Might not be comfortable with some PS3 First Person Shooter games that use R1 to shoot instead of R2.
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