Another thing to adjust to is having to deal with wires again.  In between the Wii, Xbox360 and third-party contollers for the PS2 I've gotten comfortably used to the wireless lifestyle, and the EdgeFX is an unwelcome blast from the past.  A long wire connects the left controller to the PS2, and another shorter one connects the left bit and the mouse; in fact, you may find yourself fighting for slack mouse cord in the midst of frantic firefights, as it slips down and gets caught under thighs or the gaming board.  Speaking of which, this is at once an ingenious and awkward solution.  It consists of a flat piece of plastic with built-in mousepad, along with an adjustable rest for the left-hand piece.  Theoretically you can hold and support the entire thing with your left hand, but I had visions of extreme cramps and carpal tunnel and chose to use my lap for support and have my left hand waving free.

After cleaning the mouse portion (it arrived with suspicious black smudges all over), I plugged it into my PS2 and had a go.  I tried the EdgeFX with several shooter games in my collection: Star Wars: Battlefront, Destroy All Humans 2, Darkwatch, and Timesplitters: Future Perfect.  In Darkwatch, I had issues with the left mouse button (R1) intermittently not working, which is rather a big deal since that's the gun trigger.  Similarly, in Timesplitters R2 didn't always work.  Worse, the reticule got really jumpy when zoomed in, making headshots nearly impossible.  Rather than slowing down aim, the vaunted Focus button froze it entirely.  not exactly helpful.  The Focus button worked surprisingly well in Battlefront, but once again the gun trigger (R1) was rather finnicky.  Destroy All Humans 2 suffered from a very jumpy reticule, an issue present to a greater or lesser degree in all the games I tried.  Summary: every game had me iching for my Logitech wireless gamepad within minutes.

In life you pretty much always get what you pay for.  Right now you can pick up the EdgeFX from GameStop for $29.99.  That's less than a very cheap gaming mouse (such as the Razer Krait for $39.99) which has a precision laser rather than the comparitively less accurate optical components of regular mice.  Now consider that the EdgeFX is a custom-designed piece of hardware.  Splitfish may have saved money by not having it officially licensed by Sony, but they certainly didn't invest those savings in quality components.  On top of that, the whole setup would be easier to use if it were supported by a desk, at which point you have to wonder "Why don't I just play a PC shooter?"

The EdgeFX is unfortunately one of those "might have been" products.  It's a great concept controller for the PS2, released months after the PS3 launch.  Forget the fact that the PS2 is fading into the twilight;  developers have had years to improve aiming with the analog sticks, so this feels like a giant step backwards rather than forwards.  Overall the design is solid, but Splitfish ruined it with shoddy parts and manufacturing.  Still, if you have a solid lap, small hands, and you're not upgrading to the PS3 anytime soon, you just might get some use out of the EdgeFX.