The SIXAXIS motion controls in Rockstar Games' sublime opus Grand Theft Auto IV feels like a last minute appendage, and not a particularly useful one. It's like the game's third nipple, you know it's there, and maybe you can't resist a fiddle, but no good will come of it.

When Mike told me that he didn't like the SIXAXIS controls for the game, and wasn't even able to complete the tutorial, I chalked it up to some innate hatred of the PS3's motion controls on his part. In fact he did admit that he doesn't really like the PS3 games that use SIXAXIS motion sensing, but there are several that I quite like (Warhawk comes to mind), so I decided to give it a whirl.

After playing through GTA4 on the Xbox 360, I swapped seats with Mike and settled down to get to the bottom of his SIXAXIS hatred. A few minutes into the tutorial I figured out what the problem was. The special SIXAXIS controls for this particular game suck, they're absolutely abysmal.

I suppose with some time I could master using the bike, in fact it wasn't that hard, and maybe one day I would fly the helicopter, but that's not the point, the point is there's no benefit using the motion sensing in Grand Theft Auto IV.

The in-game tutorial for the controller, which is an annoyingly permanent option on your in-game cell phone, walks you through the four ways you use the special controller in the game. Here's the break down and my thoughts:

We all pretty much figured that the SIXAXIS was on its last legs now that the DualShock 3 is hitting shelves. And today a Sony rep has confirmed with MTV that this is indeed the case. The SIXAXIS is not more.

Sixaxis will no longer be offered after it's completely sold through at retail (likely by the summer timeframe).

While the PS3 is already pretty friendly to most mouse and keyboard setups, the XFPS Rate Up Adapter (formerly just for the Xbox 360) is a peripheral that allows you to remap SIXAXIS controls to your stubborn PC ways of old and control any game as you would a computer title. It's completely plug and play and supports 95% of keyboards and mice on the market. Wait, we just read this thing is $100. Seriously? Maybe you could justify the purchase when combined with a backward compatible PS3 that could add mouse control to PS2 titles. But we're betting that $100 would probably look better sitting somewhere inside your PC.

XFPS RATEUP for PS3 [TotalConsole]

Wandering the aisles of foreign OEM companies at CES, you can come across some strange finds. I was fairly proud of spotting the knock-off Boomerang controller, but I also dig this alligator-skinned Dual Shock knock-off. Adding a bit of class to an otherwise dodgy product, like my mom always said, a little faux alligator never hurt anyone.

Sony, the world is now looking at you to produce a reptilian PS3 to match. Don't let us down.

Don't tell my boss, but I've been playing video games all day. The UPS man rang the bell at Kotaku's west coast home office today with a copy of the PlayStation 3 edition of The Orange Box. You know what this is right? The collection of Half-Life 2, a pair of Half-Life 2 episodes, Portal and Team Fortress 2 that everyone's gone gaga over. Unfortunately for Valve and publisher EA, 1UP wrote a disheartening preview of the PS3 version calling it, at times, "downright unplayable" and devolving into a "slideshow" at times. This resulted in a bit of a tizzy. Sister sites IGN and Gamespy were less harsh, but I've spent about five hours with the game today to form my own opinion of the final retail copy.

After a quick look around, ducking into Team Fortress 2—which I was able to play momentarily and only in a solitary sense—and working through the first hour of Half-Life 2, I decided to check out what was being billed as the main offender—Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Within the first few minutes, my fears were confirmed. Right off the bat, Episode Two started to chug.

Sony Computer Entertainment today confirmed news that we first broke back at E3, rumble is indeed returning to the Playstation in the form of a SIXAXIS rumble stick.

Kaz Hirai formerly announced the DualShock 3 during his keynote Thursday morning. There will be no other changes to the outward appearance of the new controller.

The new DualShock 3 is planned to ship in Japan this November, US and Europe in Spring 2008. No price is available today, but the new controller will be on hand, playable in echochrome, Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted, Devil May Cry 4, Toy Home, Metal Gear Online and more. In total, ten titles currently support the DualShock 3.

Hirai also said that dozens of other titles will support the DualShock 3, including just about everything going forward. It also appears some older titles might game support.

If you were to engage in a round of word association with Julian Eggebrecht of Factor 5 and you were to mention, say, Warhawk's in-flight SIXAXIS motion controls, he might respond with "Eurgh!" Actually, that's exactly what he did when speaking to Games Radar recently, telling the pub that he sees motion control as a "complimentary, additional new step in terms of controls and where it fits you should use it and where it doesn't fit, don't force it."

Wait. What? Seriously. What?

Mr Lair says: "Warhawk's controls are... eurgh!" [Games Radar]