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Hardware Review by Downtown Jimmy
Oct 6th, 2004
Afterglow Pro: The Pelican Afterglow Pro has to be the most noticeable Xbox controller on the market. If you seen the display in stores you'll know why! They light up like Christmas lights in the dark. The Xbox controller illuminates a bright soft green glow which will become a focal point of conversation. It might not be intended but if you power up your console in the dark, the Afterglow Pro illuminated lights sure make it simple to find the controller. No more fumbling around in the dark, if you of the vamperic in nature. I am impressed in how bright and vivid the controller glows, its like magic.
Pelican doesn't just stop with the glowing green admittance from the clear plastic of the controller they added a little sparkle to their logo. They call it the kaleidoscope logo effect, I call it trippy. I'll explain. The little pelican logo located in the center of the controller constantly fades to different colours, from red to purple, and green to blue. It's actually pretty cool, and I think it's a nice little touch. If you think this controller takes batteries well think again. The Afterglow Pro is powered by the controllers USB cable which draws its power from the Xbox.
The Afterglow Pro isn't all flash and magical wizardry, it performers as a controller as well. Like the Pelican Eclipse 2 controller the after glow features the same ergonomic black and white button layout as well as the different placement for the 'back' and 'start' button. As I stated above, I really love the new position of the buttons 'black' and 'white' buttons and I rather have the original placement of the 'back' and 'start' buttons. The Afterglow Pro doesn't need a power button like the Eclipse 2, so having those buttons in the middle of the controller won't cause any problems.
The controller handles fairly well and I didn't discover any major flaws. At first the action buttons sticked a bit, but have improved over a little use. The depressed analog sticks are great and you really hear the click letting you know you hit the button. Although they don't have the same smooth feeling as the S controller, I loved the hard sound. Overall the controller seemed to handle as well as the S controller, if only humbled by a little.
Do you need a glowing controller? Sure! Who doesn't?! The Afterglow Pro from Pelican is one of those controllers I would have never picked up for myself, but would make a great gift. After using the controller for some time, I definitely would pick one up for myself if not for the novelty of the glow, for the ergonomically placement of the black and white buttons. The Afterglow Pro proves its glow can go.
Downtown Approved?: Highly Recommended
Cobra TT Racing Wheel:"Come to papa!" those words came out of my mouth as I removed Pelicans racing wheel from its packaging. First off Downtown loves racing games and driving wheels are the best accessories to compliment them. The Cobra TT Racing Wheel right off the bat looks pretty cool with the lime green rubber grip that surrounds the steering wheel.
The Cobra TT comes complete with a lap mount, and active tension racing pedals attached to the steering wheel and boasts features such as analog buttons, dual twin shifters and dual vibration motors for that real engine shake. I'm glad to see the inclusion of the lap mount since not all wheels support them. The only feature which could push up the wheels demand is an analog gear shift.
The construction of the Cobra TT is very sturdy and took a fair amount of abuse for this review. The suction cup design is great considering the wheel has a little nudge out of the front where it can sit perfectly against a table and with the help of the four suction cup pads you won't experience many 'wheel flying off table' moments. The rubberized grip also helps keep your hand on the wheel to make a more enjoyable playing experience without worrying about slipping or the whole unit shifting.
So far we have a very solid design, which is essential, but more importantly, how does the Pelican racing wheel handle? After a few hours of testing with every racing game I could muster (Midtown Madness, ToCA2, and Project Gotham & Rallisport Challenge) I found the racing wheel to be a little above average. The major problems I found were in the responsiveness of the foot pedals which I feel could use a little tweaking. I would add a little more weight in the base to make it more stable and increase the tension in the pedals so they don't feel so "plastic". The Cobra TT also has a larger than normal area in the middle of the wheel where there is dead space, I wish you calibrate the wheel somehow to suit each players style. Other than that I felt the wheel handles the corners well enough for price set compared to other overly expensive models.
For the price of the Pelican Cobra TT Racing Wheel you can't really go wrong. I would suggest shopping around, but unless you want to spend well over a hundred dollars you'll going to have to settle for a product which isn't 100% perfect.
Downtown Approved?: Recommended
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