Review: XCM Bestilt Controller Mod

XCM Bestilt Controller Mod
Manufacturer: XCM
Site: Buy from TotalConsole (white) / Buy from TotalConsole (black)
Price: $37.99


Overview : 360 Elite has a HDMI port, its only missing motion sensing. XCM Bestilt is a simple to solder, bottom half of the 360 controller pad shell with a MOTION SENSING feature built-in. You can turn the tilt feature ON or OFF. See the video for a preview.

With an easy installation that requires only 5 wires, and a supplied bottom wireless controller plate, you will be able to enjoy motion sensitivity gameplay for a new sensation on Xbox 360.

• Available in Black or White color
• On/Off Switch to enable/disable the tilt function
• Bottom wireless controller faceplate included

Quality/Usability : The Xbox 360 came out a year before the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3. With the release of the Wii and PS3, both nex-gen consoles feature motion sensing controllers except for the Xbox 360. Microsoft has not addressed this issue but 3rd party peripheral manufacturers have and have stepped up to fill in the void.

Team Xtender aka XCM is first out of the gate with their Bestilt. It is available in two colors, white and black to match whatever colored controller you own. Each Bestilt includes a Xbox 360 backplate with the chip already on the backplate with wires attached. It would have been nice if they had included a torx screwdriver to help assist with opening the back of the Xbox 360 backplate.

Performing this modification will require some soldering experience. If you do not have any experience with using a soldering iron, its best to have someone who does help you. That is of course, unless you dont care on spending additional money on another controller if you mess up. Hey, at least its a $50 or so controller rather then a $400 system.

The Bestilt requires you to solder 5 wires to 5 points on the Xbox 360 PCB board on the controller. Of the 5 points that needs to be soldered, 3 of them are fairly easy as they big enough to solder to. The other 2 however are fairly small and near each other. I actually have no experience with soldering so I took a shot at this. I messed up my controller when I went to solder the two small points. So I went out and bought another controller in hopes that I wont mess this controller up as well. Being more careful the second time around, I was able to soldering the wires successfully. Once the wires have been soldered on, its smoother sailing from here.

After closing up the controller, its time to test out the Bestilt. The switch to turn ON and OFF the motion sensing is located on the case but where the battery is located. Honestly, this is a very bad location. Each time you want to turn it ON or OFF to switch between motion sensing and analog, you must take the battery out. Of course, if you're using a wired controller, you do not have to deal with the battery. Trying to access the switch will require a pen or something sturdy to be able to flip the switch unless you have long nails or very skinny fingers.

Having tested the Bestilt with Blazing Angels, the controlling was smooth and pretty accurate. It may take a little practice getting use to the motion sensing controller as pressing a button to fire will cause the controller to move which in turn, moves your character or vehicle. I also tested the controller mod with Project Gotham Racing 3. Again, the controller faired well and the game responded very well with the controller.

You can view a video of the Bestilt in action:


Conclusion : Overall, the Team Xtender Bestilt Controller Mod is a very unique product. Xbox 360 owners can no longer be felt left out when it comes to motion sensing. Unfortunately, since this is not an Official Microsoft product, developers do not have plans of developing games that uses motion sensing like the PlayStation 3 or the Nintendo Wii. The procedure to get the Bestilt working can be troublesome to those who do not have the soldering experience. What would of been nice was the ability to customize settings on the Bestilt such as instead of having to press a button in PGR3 to accelerate, just tilting the controller forward to accelerate or tilting the controller back would brake would of been great.

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