As we mentioned in our February issue, we count the Xbox 360’s excellent wireless controllers among the very best features of the new system. They eliminate the hassle of tripping over your opponents’ cords when you come back from refilling your beverage, and you don’t have to worry about laboriously coiling cords for storage each time you’re done playing, either. But, of course, no cords generally means that you have to have plenty of batteries on hand; nothing kills a marathon Madden NFL or Perfect Dark Zero co-op session like a dead set of controller batteries.
We love the Play & Charge Kit because it eliminates the need for batteries altogether. For 20 bucks you get a rechargeable NiMH battery pack that snaps onto the back of your controller and a USB cable that plugs into the front of the controller. When your battery pack runs down, just plug the cable in and recharge it. The cable even recharges the battery pack while you play, so aside from work, sleep, and a few other minor irritations, there’s no reason you ever have to stop playing.
Buy now Play & Charge Kit Xbox 360
Gaming keyboards tend to be for just that: gaming. In the past we have enjoyed the Ideazon Zboard with interchangeable keysets, but not for everyday use. The Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard with special programmable “G Keys,” folding LCD panel, and backlit keys worked better for daily use but really wasn’t for someone with a penchant for a keyboard as comfortable as the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. And now we have PD Scientific’s Wolf Claw Type II.
Though perhaps not obvious from the photos, the Type II is a very sturdily built unit and exudes the top-notch build quality you expect from similarly priced Logitech and Microsoft offerings. The three-layer silicon under the keys make them silent, but the keys still have confident movement and don’t feel squishy. The keyboard requires a USB port but also features two additional USB 2.0 ports on its side.
Like its predecessor, the Wolf Claw Type II lacks a numeric pad on the right side and shifts some of the keys normally found between the main keyboard set and numeric keypad to right and bottom-right of the keyboard. The II also omits a right CTRL key, which may trouble some in daily use. Above the main keyboard are eight Web-friendly buttons. However, it’s the left side of the keyboard, the “circle of death,” that draws the most attention. This area focuses on bringing the WASD and other FPS-friendly keys to an area easily accessible by your left palm. We played World Of Warcraft, F.E.A.R., and Battlefield 2 without any serious adjustment period. It’s pretty obvious that a good deal of thought went into the placement of keys in the gaming section.
The Wolf Claw II is not revolutionary but happily does what it sets out to do. That still doesn’t make this an ideal product for someone who prefers another keyboard for daily use and does not want two keyboards cluttering up a desktop. Fortunately, that will be rectified by the upcoming Wolf Claw Devour, which features the circle of death as a standalone controller you can use in conjunction with your current keyboard. Watch for the review in these pages.
The PlayStation 3 comes bundled with a Blu-ray drive, which adds to the overall higher cost of the hardware. By contrast, Microsoft’s strategy is to utilize DVD technology to keep the cost of the Xbox 360 down to $300 and $400 for the Core and Pro systems, respectively. Furthermore, those without HDTVs are not required to invest in a technology they may not want or need.
Users with HDTVs that want high-def video can spend $200 for the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player add-on. It’s an external drive that houses a Toshiba HD DVD drive. On the back are two available USB 2.0 jacks, a mini-USB jack (to connect to the 360), and power button. Also, Microsoft conveniently includes in the package an Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote and a movie. To get going, plug the player into the outlet, connect it to the 360 and turn on the console, insert the included driver disc, and you’re ready to watch movies two minutes later. Microsoft also includes a copy of “Peter Jackson’s King Kong” so you can enjoy a high-def film in minutes.
Overall, the installation experience was simple, and the movie playback on our high-def LCD looked stunning at 720p (we used the component cable connection from our 360 to the HDTV). All the heavy work is done by the 360’s processors. The glaring omission here is the missing HDMI support, which would be required to view high-def content on your HDTV without down sampling if content creators opt to include the image constraint token on future high-def movies. That’s not been the case so far and it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. However, the majority of users who want 1080p will also need HDMI support.
Microsoft has stated that the 360 can support digital out, but no announcements have been made regarding HDMI. We love the hardware, but the lack of HDMI support is cause for concern.
Get the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player now at lowest price.
Anyone lucky enough to nab a Nintendo Wii knows how much fun it can be to use the motion sensitive controller to box, golf, strike tennis balls, or just point Link through the brilliant world of Zelda. But it seems that some players are losing their grip on the slick controllers and sending them crashing into TV sets or the heads of nearby pets and family.
Some players even managed to break the wrist strap Nintendo designed to prevent this very issue. Just before Christmas, however, Nintendo launched a wrist strap replacement program at Nintendo.com. The company will mail Wii-sters a sturdier replacement strap free. Wiii!
