“Cideko Air Keyboard Conqueror” is a long and confusing name for a controller. Nowhere in the four-word-title is there anything alluding to the fact that it’s a sweet multiplatform gaming controller. So, just to make sure we’re clear: It’s a controller. It’s sweet. And you can use it for the PS3 and PC. We’ll get back to the gaming thing in a bit.

At its very core, the “Conqueror” (that’s what I’m unofficially, officially renaming it to) is a wireless keyboard/mouse combo. The USB AIR dongle—which stores within the controller body quite awesomely—just plugs into your PS3 or PC for easy setup and use. The full QWERTY keyboard, complete with function keys and everything else you’ll ever need, works great for web browsing and other light-to-medium typing duties. The motion sensing gyro mouse also works really well and completes a perfect setup for those with HTPC’s or those who like to kick back on the couch while browsing.

For gaming, the Conqueror worked better than expected. Playing through some of the more casual games in my Steam library, like Beat Hazard and Super Meat Boy, the dual analog stick controls, d-pad and face buttons all seemed responsive and even let me beat a few times in SMB—not saying it was the controller, but it surely didn’t hurt me. Not wanting to solely base my review on casual games, I switched over to my PS3 to try out some Battlefield.

You’ll all be very excited to learn (as I was) that the Cideko Air Keyboard Conqueror is compatible with KontrolFreek’s entire range of gaming products. This is good news, of course, and it’s been added to our controller compatibility guide which makes it official.

Things on the Battlefield went well. I was doing my thing and the controller didn’t miss a beat. The build quality and battery life is excellent and it feels really good in the hands. My only (minor) complaint is that the triggers aren’t perfectly positioned—but hey, neither are the DualShock3’s triggers and no one seems to care about that. I didn’t expect it to necessarily be a “performance” controller anyway; so I was pleasantly surprised it performed as well as it did.

For $99.99 the price of the Conqueror may induce some sticker shock at first—but once you take in to account that it’s replacing a mouse, keyboard and video game controller for PC and PS3, it all of the sudden doesn’t seem so high. Combine that with the fact that you can use your existing collection of FPS Freeks, and you’ve got yourself a winner.

We often get questions about third-party controllers and their compatibility with our products. With a ton of these controllers on the market today, things can get confusing. Don't worry—we've got you covered. Our products were designed for OEM Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers but do fit many third-party versions. Here is a list of known controllers and their compatibility:

PS3 DualShock 3 OEM – YES

Xbox 360 OEM – YES

Xbox 360 (New D-Pad) -- YES

Razer Onza -- YES

Razer Onza TE -- YES

Power A Pro EX/Elite – YES

Evil Controllers Evil Sticks – YES

PDP AfterGlow PS3 – NO

PDP AfterGlow Xbox 360 – YES

Wii Nunchuk -- NO

PS2 DualShock OEM -- YES

Xbox Controller S – YES

MadCatz Call of Duty: Black Ops PrecisionAIM Controller – YES

Datel Turbo Fire 2 Xbox 360 – NO

OnLive Controller – YES

This list is by no means a comprehensive listing of controllers and their compatibility. We try to test all controllers that we get questions about but due to various things we can't test out everything that comes to market. If you know the compatibility of a controller and would like to share your knowledge with us and the community, please add it here.

Welcome!

Good afternoon, evening, morning and night! Wherever you are in the world, we’d like to welcome you to the place where time is irrelevant and rare zombie codes wait patiently for redemption. We are pleased to meet all of you new fans from Facebook and we welcome back all you original Freeks who have been with us since the beginning.

What we’ve got here is…

About a month ago we got our hands on a couple of those rare Call of Duty: Black Ops zombie maps and avatar outfit cards that shipped with the Prestige and Hardened editions of the game (thanks, @NuckFuggets!). People went crazy! Over the past few weeks we’ve noticed a bunch of you asking for “moar zombie maps pweez,” “I can haz zombie maps nao,” and “gimme zombie maps kthnxbai.” Silly internet memes aside, we heard you.

Rapid fire!

Here’s how it’s going to work: throughout the day we will be firing codes out at you over Facebook. The first one to redeem each code will be the winner. To make things more challenging, we’ll be replacing one or more of the code characters with a question mark(s) and you’ll need to guess the missing character(s) to win. We have a total of six codes to give out—three map packs and three avatar outfits. Two avatar outfits and two map packs are for Xbox 360 and the other map pack and avatar outfit is for PS3. We’ll say what the code is for when we post it. Good luck!

FAQ

Q: Where do I redeem the code?

A: For Xbox 360 or Xbox.com. While signed into Xbox LIVE, go to the Marketplace blade, then select “Redeem Code.” From there, use the keyboard to type in the code. On Xbox.com, go to this page (after you sign in) and enter the code. Hint: Pasting the code will work with some browsers.

A: For PS3. Go to the PlayStation Network tab, select “Account Management” and then “Redeem Codes.” You can also redeem codes while accessing the PlayStation Store.

Q: What are the question marks (?) I see in the codes?

A: To make it more challenging we have replaced one (or more) of the code characters with a question mark. You need to guess the missing character(s) to win.

Q: I entered the code, but I get an error that the code is not valid! I know I entered it correctly.

A: You probably did enter the code correctly, but someone has already redeemed the code.

Q: What do you mean someone entered the code already?

A: Each code is only good ONCE. That means that the first person to correctly enter the code will get the item for free.

Q: How do people enter the code so quickly!

A: They may own a chat pad, or be using a USB Keyboard. It is much quicker to enter codes using one of these methods.

Q: I was working / sleeping/ eating/ taking a test/ stuck in traffic when you posted the code. Can you send me one?

A: No. Sorry.

Q: It’s my birthday! Can you send me a code?

A: No. Happy Birthday though!

Q: When will you give them out? Is it a certain time?

A: Nope. Your best option is to keep checking Facebook throughout the day.

Q: Are the codes good where I live?

A: Probably. There may be some restrictions but we’re not aware of them.

Q: I live in (insert country here) can I participate in your code give away?

A: Sure. Anyone can participate.

Q: Do you have any more codes once these are gone?

A: Nope.

Earlier today, publisher Paramount Digital Entertainment confirmed that Star Trek will be coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in the summer of 2012. The plainly titled “Star Trek” will be the first Trek game to ever embrace J.J. Abrams' vision of the franchise—which is fantastic news because of how awesome 2009's Star Trek movie was!

The completely original story penned by God of War writer, Marianne Krawczyk and Star Trek (2009) film writers, Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman will cast players as Kirk and Spock in a stand alone adventure battling a legendary foe hellbent on ruling the galaxy.

“Star Trek challenges the boundaries of co-op gameplay with a galactic adventure that gamers and fans have never experienced,” said Tom Lesinski, President of Paramount Digital Entertainment. “Working closely with the Star Trek filmmaking team throughout development, the game is sure to deliver AAA production values, a wide variety of gameplay and all the action you would expect from the hit franchise. This will be the definitive Star Trek gaming experience.”

Development duties for Star Trek will be handled by the very exceptional Digital Extremes, who's previous works include Unreal Tournament, Dark Sector and Bioshock 2.

With as much as Star Trek the game has going for it, it would be a tragedy if it didn't deliver. Here's hoping that this is the game that Star Trek fans (like me) have been waiting for!

Like a bunch of people, I got really excited about Homefront.  The marketing surrounding the game was great and the premise of battling the Koreans in an alternate reality San Francisco sounded outstanding.  The fact that the makers of the above-average Frontlines: Fuel of War were handling development duties didn’t hurt either.  Yes, Homefront had a lot going for it.

Well, we all know how that turned out.  A little over a week has passed since its release and the overall response has been pretty “meh” at best.

The very average (and that’s being nice) Homefront raises a much more important question, though, about the video game industry and our buying habits: why do they continue to make average games, and why do we keep buying them?

My short answer is, “hope.”  Yes, Obama used it, and yes, it’s a bit cliché—just work with me.  It’s the only explanation that makes any sense.  No one sets out to make an average game—just like nobody sets out to buy one—it just happens.  Developers hope their final product is a good one and we hope our $60 purchase gives us hours of quality entertainment.  But, developers run in to deadlines and certain features need to be axed and quality issues don’t get the time they deserve to be fixed.  And I’m sure it’s just as annoying to the people that pour their hearts in to game development as it is for the end user.  But, it’s a shame that the developers and publishers know about a game’s shortcomings prior to release and ignore them.  I get it; they have made a large investment and must stay the course that their game is good.  So they leave it to us and our $60 to find out of the disappointing dysfunction that lies ahead—and that can leave quite a bad aftertaste.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  Three more months of development could have really helped a game with as much potential as Homefront and Kaos and THQ could have saved some serious face.  Also, a $60 price tag on a budget title like Homefront is crazy.  Yes, I called it a budget title.  You can fool yourself all you want and try to justify your purchase of Homefront—but deep down you know it’s trash.  The campaign is short (not that it bothered me because I prayed for it to end), the graphics are ugly, the server issues are infuriating and the fact that when I sell or trade it without that multiplayer code that shipped in the box, the next guy will have to suffer too is insulting.  At $40, Homefront would be looking a whole lot better.

So, now I’m scared.  I’m definitely venting about Homefront, since it was the last game I had this experience with, but it’s certainly not an isolated incident.  There are so many shooters released every year and I keep waiting for that “next great shooter” to come along but continue to be disappointed.  Will somebody please step up and dethrone Call of Duty sometime soon?  I’m counting on you Battlefield.

The opinions reflected here are those of one Freek and KontrolFreek.com is not responsible for the things he says.  In fact, no one here even likes him.

A couple months after teasing the video game community at large, Bethesda has finally released the first in-game trailer for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim today.

The new trailer comes alongside the launch of the newly redesigned ElderScrolls.com, which features news, support and updates from the Bethesda team. There is also a link to join “The Elder Council” on Facebook, which gives you access to all kinds of cool goodies like wallpapers and videos from the Elder Scrolls universe.

Bethesda is claiming that the entire trailer is in-game footage, a pretty impressive statement considering how spectacular it looks.  I, for one, can not wait until November 11, 2011—when the game finally drops for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC!

You Freeks have been busy! We’ve had an overwhelming response to our Sony NGP giveaway over the past week. We suppose that means that you like the sweet, free stuff we give you the opportunity to win—and that’s a good thing, ‘cause we like giving you the hookup (holler if you hear us)!

Before we post the winners, though, we’d like to thank all of you for your interest in our products and encourage you to browse our site and check out some of the new stuff that you may not know about. For example: did you know that we have special edition sticks for Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops?

Now, here are the winners:

Trudie F.

Robert M.

Alex H.

Todd W.

Jimmy R.

All of our winners have already been notified via email and know who they are. If you didn’t win this time, stay tuned. We have more cool stuff coming soon!

Peace, love and headshots y’all!