FPS Freek wins "Best Peripheral of 2009"

Trevor Roppolo — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Just when we thought the New Year couldn’t get any brighter, our friends over at Pads and Panels released their “Best of 2009” list. Well, it seems that our little piece-of-plastic-that-could has done it again. Padsandpanels.com has named the FPS Freek their “Best Peripheral of 2009.” Thanks guys!

Here is padsandpanels.com's original review of the FPS Freek!

Tested with: Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 & World at War, Gears of War 2 and more

MSRP: $9.99

Review by: John Gustafson

The world of gaming peripherals has been a mixed bag over the years for home consoles, with promises of revolution and new experiences only to leave gamers skeptical and mistrusting of any product that doesn’t come straight from the big three.

Luckily a diamond in the rough has revealed itself that not only does what it claims, but exceeded expectations. The FPS Freek, from Kontrol Freek, is an analog stick enhancement designed to offer gamers a greater degree of control and motion sensitivity to improve a player’s accuracy. Sitting atop the standard analog sticks for either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, the adaptor snaps into place with a bit of pressure minus awkward or obtrusive changes to the appearance of the controller.

At the most basic level the controller has taller analog sticks. With this simple adjustment the controller has more sensitive analog sticks that either lessen or remove many of the complaints commonly levied against first person shooters on console. The extra height decreases the amount of force a player uses to push the sticks, thereby limiting the amount of overthrow a player could experience in a heated firefight. The greater degree of accuracy can be appreci ated by any serious first-person shooter player, but the improvements aren’t exclusive to that genre alone; FPS Freek also works well with any game that makes use of the right analog stick.

Due to added height the FPS Freek adds to the controller there is a definite learning curve players will experience when they first adopt the product. It took about three hours before we really became comfortable using the device and another three to when shots had markedly improved and surpassed prior FPS prowess. This becomes all the more evident when the FPS Freek is removed. There was an immediate decrease in performance. Shots were less accurate and we regularly overthrew our reticles and required quick adjustments. The Freek was quickly snapped back on.

Players looking to step-up their performance quickly and efficiently need look no further than Kontrol Freeks’s FPS Freek add-on.

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FPS Freek wins "Best Peripheral of 2009"