For PC gamers, playing video games on any of the next gen consoles, you have to deal with those annoying, complicated dual analog stick layouts in order to aim and fire. It’s a big difference. Also throw in the fact that each game has slightly different button layouts to reload, pick up, and interact with the characters and you’ve got yourself a sticky situation (and also a complicated one to learn).

Aiming (gotta throw aiming in there) to help those PC gamers is the all new Penguin United Eagle Eye “Controller” for the PS3. It’s not really a controller per se, but it’s more of a USB hub you can plug your USB keyboard and USB mouse into and turn your PS3 into a PC. Read on for the full review.

 The Eagle Eye controller is advertised on Penguin United’s website as being able to help you move faster, aim better, and own noobs easier than ever before. I’m here to say it’s mostly true, with a few kinks happening in the install process.

The first thing you’ll want to do when you receive the Eagle Eye is simply to plug it into your PS3 and get to gaming. Hold on there hotshot. There’s a configuration process that needs to be done. Now while the install is relatively easy, I did have a few problems getting the keyboard layout to “take” on the Eagle Eye hub.

The unit comes with it’s own custom built software CD to import your button assignments. It took two or three times for the controller to accept my custom layout, but I’m still unsure if this was user error and if I had everything ready. I thought I was following the instructions to the “T” (plus, their not that hard). Also it could be that I was just getting frustrated having to install and de-install the Eagle Eye a few times from my computer room to my gaming room to see if things worked. It’s a slight hiccup, but I’m sure after you get things the way you want them, you’ll be just fine.

Another little quirk I ran into was actually hooking it up to the PS3. Now, while you might still think this is simply a plug-n-play process, finding out it isn’t is quite the shocker. In order for the Eagle Eye to be recognized by the PS3, you have to be patient. Power on your PS3, hook in the USB cord for the Eagle Eye, and THEN hook up your keyboard and mouse after a few minutes to let the PS3 recognize the Eagle Eye unit by itself. Once again, small deterrents from what is an awesome gaming experience (that I’ll get to in just a moment).

One of the great things about this unit is the infinitely customizable button layout. We don’t have to settle anymore for the in-game button layout that the game designers WANT you to play with. You simply come up with your own. It’s just like the PC experience you used to have with Half-Life and Doom before that. You tell the computer (or in this case the Eagle Eye hub) what you want and it does it. Your button layout for Call of Duty: World At War will be completely different than any of your friends, but it will be completely custom tailored to your liking. This is just what you need to get the upper hand in online matches.

The Eagle Eye is capable of saving two custom button layouts, as well as button combos that you can assign to a single button and even turn any PS3 button into turbo mode. Turbo mode repeats that single button press 3 times per second that you hold it down. I didn’t really notice a difference in my playtime while reloading or shooting in turbo, but maybe this might come in handy with those all too familiar “tapping moments” where you need to tap furiously in order to save a teammate.

Now, onto the meat and potatoes. Gaming with the Eagle Eye Converter is a dream (if you have the right aiming sensitivity settings). Now, while this unit is custom-tailored for games with Call of Duty in the name, I proceeded to play all first person shooters with it. Older games like FarCry 2, semi-cover based games like Killzone 2, and then topped it off with Call of Duty: World At War (I don’t have Modern Warfare 2 for the PS3). Killzone 2 aiming was slow and muddy, with me even going into the controller options and completely maxing out the sensitivity. FarCry 2 was better, but only because I was given more aiming freedom in the sensitivity settings of the game. World At War was absolutely incredible to play with (because it has custom levels of sensitivity for aiming). I was pulling off shots and moving around like I was a cracked out spider monkey. I feel sorry for all of those Japs I killed, but I was on a WWII Rambo mission from hell (with a kill count to go with it).

The infomercial speech for the Eagle Eye says zero lag, no dead-zone, and infinite customization. That’s right, but there’s a few asterisks there in that speech concerning some small naggy footnotes to go with the controller (sensitivity levels and playing around with settings for quite some time). In order to get everything out of the Eagle Eye controller you’ll need to put in some time. Is it worth your time to play one game great? I just don’t see myself putting in the effort that the Eagle Eye needs. If you’re willing to put forth the effort to map out, configure, and setup the Eagle Eye controller, then this is probably for you. If you play that one game online for a long time (*cough* Call of Duty *cough*) and you want the PC experience on your PS3? There is absolutely no other way to do it. Get the Eagle Eye.

A unit was shipped to us by Penguin United for review purposes.

The Eagle Eye controller is available now from their website for $59.99.