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Tuesday November 21, 2006
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The newly launched Microsoft Games for Windows team stopped by last Thursday to stir things up a bit during a month filled with gaming madness. They showed off some titles, Vista's gaming features, and left us with a little treat: the upcoming Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows. The USB receiver allows you to use up to four 360 wireless controllers and four wireless Xbox wireless headsets in Windows, and boasts a range of 30 feet. Since the 360's launch, the wired controllers worked in Windows. Now they are showing the wireless controllers some love, and it's about time. Expect this puppy to go on sale in late December for about 20 bucks. Nitpicking suggestion: If the wireless controllers were originally Bluetooth, then we wouldn't have had to wait a year for the adapter to come out, right?
Installation is pretty straightforward. Just plug in the USB receiver, point the wizard to the directory with the drivers, and the adapter will be identified and installed. Getting the receiver to see the control is similar to the way the controller works with the 360: Tap the button on the receiver and then tap the Xbox button on the controller and voila, the controller will light up one of the numbers 1 through 4 (depending on how many Xbox controllers are connected). Finally, load Lego Star Wars II, ignore all phone calls, and enjoy the rest of the day.
Post by PJ Jacobowitz
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November 21, 2006 1:27 PM
Now that's pretty damned cool. I like the XBox 360 controller design, I wonder if it can be used in other games that are joystick/controller compatible as well? I remember back when I was still playing FFXI, my roommates at the time and I had it rigged so we could use external controllers. We were geeks though, so we took SNES controllers and modded them to attach to our Parallel ports, but it worked! This, on the other hand, would save us the trouble! ;)
November 21, 2006 5:35 PM
It makes sense now, with the recent announcement of PC users connecting to xbox live and playing against xbox users in the future this would allow for both xbox and PC users to play at the same level.
November 21, 2006 10:57 PM
Phoenix - yes you can use the 360 controllers as a "standard" joystick. I will say though that while they work as well as any PC joystick I've used (which is to say, not great) with generic joystick games, these controllers are REALLY nice with games that are actually made with them in mind (like Dungeons & Dragons Online for example). I haven't tried the wireless version on the PC yet but have been using a wired version for about a year with extremely good results. Now that we can use the wireless headsets too (which are the best headsets I've used hands down) we'll finally have some good controls on the PC. Took long enough!
June 11, 2007 1:02 AM
i have the wireless receiver and a controller. how do i know if the controller is compatible with playing FFXI on PC?