Before requesting this product for review, I had seen a plethora of posts on various console forums about this device along with the similar ones for the Original Xbox. Many people were interested in the device as they have come from a PC user / Gamer background and therefore are already well attuned to wielding a mouse and keyboard in combat.

The people more familar with console gaming didn't seem to mind the joypad for first person shooters and actually saw any attempt to use a keyboard and mouse as 'cheating' since most PC gamers say that the keyboard and mouse combination is more accurate and intuitive.

With this in mind we decided to review the 'XFPS 360' to ascertain if it would make a worthwhile purchase for a PC gamer using a 360 and perhaps see if it could offer anything to the people already used to playing with a joypad.

The XFPS arrived in a rather sturdy plain brown cardboard box with the XFSP 360 logo on the front. On opening the box inside I found two items. A compact instruction manual and the device itsself.

IThe XFPS is rather substantial, around the size of a regular 360 console joypad, and appears to be very well constructed of tough black plastic. I think it looks similar to a stingray…

The XFPS 360 has 5 input ports on the front, In the middle there is a PS 2 port used for connecting a Playstation joypad should you wish to do so. Each side of that is a USB 2 port and a PS2 port. The Left side is for connecting the PC keyboard and the Right side for connecting a mouse.

On top of the device you get a bank of switches for turbo fire and a little switch and button for redefining the keys and mouse buttons to your own play style. Finally there are 4 lights to denote which one of the 4 360 console joypads your device is assigned to.

I'm not sure why they went for a black device casing instead of white to match the rest of your 360 Peripherals but it's no major show stopper and will no doubt be handy for people who have painted their 360 black.

OK now that the box is open and the contents are inspected it's time to set it up and take it for a test drive!

Firstly its worth pointing out that a 360 pad needs to be plugged into the device first so that the console recognises the device and will assign it one of the 4 joypad inputs. After this step you can unplug the joypad and then plug in your keyboard and mouse, via either USB or PS2 connectors. If you use either a PS2 mouse or keyboard that means you can keep the 360 wired joypad connected should you wish. I should mention that you can put the mouse and keyboard in either of the USB ports (since USB doesn't mind where you connect a device) but I kept it the same way as the little diagrams on the front suggest.

During set up I found my Saitek Eclipse USB keyboard didn’t work with the XFPS 360, this is not really surprising to me as the keyboard is rather temperamental on the PC as you have to disable functionality in the Windows device manager so specific games don’t end up with control issues. The Saitek also uses a lot of power as it can be set to light up in the dark. Luckily I had a spare PS2 keyboard laying around gathering rather a large amount of dust so could proceed with the rest of the setup.

The XFPS 360 cant be used with a wireless joypad, since the device has to “pretend” its a joypad, as far as the 360 console is concerned. It needs to be connected to the console via one of the USB ports at the front or back. Microsoft don't allow 3rd party devices to use their wireless technology unfortunately so it cannot pretend to be a wireless device and needs the help of a wired pad to fool the console into thinking its a valid joypad. This shouldn't be a problem for any Xbox 360 Core pack users as they got a wireless pad by default along with the console.

I quite liked the default button layout myself but its easy enough to change. Connect your wired joypad and then you move the 'default / set' button to 'set' and then press the P button top of the device along with whichever button on the joypad you want to define and then finally the button on the keyboard or mouse you want it to relate to.

So you are probably wondering how you would set the controls if you are using both a USB mouse and keyboard since the console joypad is plugged in and there are only 2 USB ports. Well you just have to unplug the mouse while setting up the keyboard and vice versa.

There is no way to alter the WASD keys which correspond to the left analogue stick (usually movement in games) in the device, but it would be safe to say that most people are used to this layout.

Once the XFPS is programmed the way you like it, it then stores the settings even when the console is turned off saving any future hassle.

The Playstation joypad requires no button might configuration as the pad has enough buttons to do everything the regular 360 joypad does, with the exception of the big “guide” button. All in all a painless experience if you happen to be an ex PS2 gamer.

My mouse of choice is a Logitech MX510 which has buttons to change the movement sensitivity.

Phew after all that we are finally ready to test some games.

Crackdown:
I found using the XFPS 360 in Crackdown rather enjoyable, the only bad point being that it was slower to turn around than using the regular thumbstick, even when altering the movement sensitivity via the controls on my mouse. I did find it easier to aim at the gang members and take them out however, so there are definite positive points with regards to accuracy.

Lost Planet:
No issues with this game, other than the same as Crackdown initially however Lost Planet allows for thumbstick acceleration sensitivity changes. It is safe to say that Lost Planet is perfectly playable with the mouse.

Halo 2:
First let it be said that I'm not the best Halo 2 player in the world, but no major complaints with this game on the XFPS 360 once I had changed the thumbstick sensitivity in game. A good experience overall and the additional feeling of control certainly increased my enjoyment of the game.

Gears of War:
You can change the sensitivity a bit, but not as much as I would like. That said, it is quite accurate while aiming and the only real issue I encountered was when changing your viewpoint very fast. The zoomed in view of the gun sight seems about the same speed.

Call of Duty 3:
You can set the horizontal and vertical sensitivity and this game improved dramatically for my own personal tastes with using the XFPS 360 system. Again, full marks for the usability with this title.

Battlestations Midway:
I found trying to aim the ship guns with the mouse very hard to do accurately as you needed exceptionally small movements and the manner in which the dead zones were set in the game were not helping with mouse control. I would revert to pad control with this particular game.

Worms:
No problems aiming and shooting in this game at all and I played as well as I would with a regular joypad.

Street Fighter 2:
OK so why am I trying this game when it didn’t even use a mouse when it was released eons ago? I wanted to see if the keyboard input would make the control any easier. The Microsoft standard 360 joypad has a truly horrible D-pad and it is very hard to use for these sorts of games, especially with some of the fluid movements required. The result? Surprisingly it is much easier to use the keyboard in this game than the regular joypad for special moves. The ideal control system would still be one of the arcade sticks released specifically for this genre.

Geometry Wars:
This game isn't really intended for use on the XFPS 360 as it requires the right thumbstick to be held in the direction of fire constantly and a mouse cant do that without keeping it moving in the given direction all the time, meaning eventually you run out of space.

Games in general:
The keyboard is not an analogue device so games that require low levels of input to move slowly (such as Splinter Cell Double Agent or Ghost Recon) are going to be more of a pain to play with the keyboard but that's not really the fault of this device.

Some games do allow you to adjust the sensitivity of the input so it really depends on the options the designers give you within the specific title.

Autofire buttons:
These can be used in a variety of games and is a very useful addition.

Final thoughts:
I feel that on the whole this was a good attempt to give PC gamers what they want in a input method, however without a way to make the mouse sensitivity adjustable its not suitable for competitive play against someone using a regular joypad. On the whole it is good enough for single player use and maybe co-op with friends.

Good Points:

Excellent if you want to use a Playstation 2 pad on your 360
Can redefine nearly all the keyboard keys and mouse buttons to your own play style
Great to use the keyboard instead of the joypad for arcade games which need the D-pad
Handy if you are left handed as you can set things up much better.
Good autofire feature.

Bad points: (or things I would change for the next version of the device):

Allow some system to adjust the mouse sensitivity as not every 360 game lets you change the thumbstick sensitivity, this can cause issues with games requiring fast 360 degree movement. Offering the device in different shell colours would be a welcome addition also.

Available from Divineo.net for around £50.
Special thanks to www.xcmlive.com for supplying the product for review

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