Manufacturer : 4Gamers

This is the second wireless controller we've been lucky enough to review and right away it's got to be said that even though the Duke and 'S' controller cables are long enough, no cables are definitely better than any cable!

The Xbox controllers have the great little break away part and should easily reach back to the couches of most gamers (something my N64 and Dreamcast controllers never did), but the benefits of having no cables is a luxury that if you can afford it, is certainly the way to go if you have your Xbox in a high traffic area. Myself, I have a 4 year old boy running riot around the house as well as an 8 month old boy learning to crawl and grab hold of any cable he sees and it definitely keeps me on my toes.

I could just learn to pack up after myself, but hey' those precious seconds it takes to open the drawer, plug in the controller.. well it's time I could be gaming.

The layout of the wireless 4Gamers controller is almost identical to the X-Control one we reviewed back in August. Size wise it's the same and the only major difference is the on/off switch under the 'back' and 'start' buttons that sit in the middle between the d-pad and right analog stick. 4 AAA batteries go underneath and while it didn't make the controller weigh as much as I thought it would, it certainly does add some extra weight to the unit though the upside of this is that it gives it a slightly more 'solid' feel. The controller also features the rubberized 'soft touch' grips of the 'X-Control' pad which definately helps keep it in your hands and a fantastic feature is that you can switch the controller between 4 different frequencies to allow more multiplayer wireless action without extra controllers conflicting with each other.

The analog sticks, triggers and d-pad feel as good as the 'X-Control' model and I particularly liked the d-pad. I just picked up a copy of Soul Calibur II and compared to the normal 'Duke' controller it is a lot more accurate. My only main complaint is that the normal action buttons don't feel as sensitive as I like. Where the 'X-Control' Duke and 'S' controllers have that feeling of pressure sensitivity, the 4Gamers wireless controller feels more like it only has 'on and off' either 'up or down' with no in between. This was noticeable in NFL2K3 where you use 'B' to switch between players. When you are on defense with any other controller I can lightly tap 'B' to switch players but with the wireless 4Gamers controller, you really have to give it a definite push all the way in to make your selection.

The only other complaint, and this is something the Logitech model suffers from as well is that due to the space needed by batteries, there are no memory slots on the controller, rather they live in the receiver which has to reside next to your Xbox. This isn't a problem for normal gaming but it makes the controller unusable for Xbox Live! as you wont be able to use the headset communicator. There are Bluetooth headsets available now so that's always one option if your budget can stretch that far.