Self Kontrol

Self Kontrol

Besides playing alot of Battlefield 3, I spend a lot of my time watching other people play Battlefield. Twitch TV live streams and Youtube give me inspiration and keep me coming back to the 2011 DICE first person shooter, even after my total clock time of 178 hours. A recurring theme of most channels is the advantages that are gained when using a mouse over a console controller. 

A mouse and keyboard is more accurate. No contest. Analogue sticks have a tendency to sway too far side to side, and you end up with a grey section between points that you can't aim at easily. 

I had a quick search, and without modding my controller or hacking a keys and mouse add on to my Playstation, the best bet seemed to be extending my analogue sticks.

I purchased a set of KontrolFreek's FPSFREEK ULTRA analogue stick add ons.

The science behind it is very simple. The longer the stick, the easier it is to make incremental changes to the analogue sticks, which means you can cancel out the grey spot between crosshair points. 

I was thinking of ways to describe it, but if you get a piece of string and hang something from it, the longer the string the more it the object swings side to side. The shorter the string the less it swings side to side, while the piece you are holding is covering the same number of degrees. 

Living in the UK, I placed my order through LIME, a UK based video game accessories company. After getting a confirmation that the original product I ordered was not  in stock (limited edition, BOMBSHELLS), I chose to get the ULTRAs as a second choice. The next day they were in sitting on my front door.

As soon as I opened them, I grabbed my controller and had a shot at fitting them, which means pushing them over the existing stick. Both were fitted in under a minute and I was ready to play.

The first thing I noticed was how smooth it made the game look. My jagged running and aiming had been replaced with some sort of buttery goodness that pleased the eyes. After playing with the sensitivity I found my sweet spot, which involved turning it up to point that I am able to turn 90 degrees with a flick, but still be able to aim at close quarters (something not previously possible). 

Both my long distance aiming and CQC aiming have improved, and I'm adjusting my play styles accordingly. The only drawback I found was that I had to remove the left stick FREEK, which was in the way of the 'select' button, used for spotting enemy soldiers for your teammates.

Are the FPSFREEKS going to make me as accurate as a mouse?

Maybe not. 

Is it going to get me as close as I can? 

Looks like it. 

Do I recommend them? 

If you play first person shooters on console, Yes.

KONTROLFREEKS website can be seen here

Check out Lime UK here