Recommend a joystick

[GNEP]

Thanks Gurm, but I don't think you'd be willing to sell me THAT one

[az]

Would you want to PLAY with it, or even experience its FORCE FEEDBACK?

AZ

[Umfriend]

I had a Logitech Wingman Digital Extreme once, lasted about 4 months. Then I got a MS Sidewinder Precision Pro (1), which lasted around 3 years. Having said that, it did develop a rudder problem in tahrt it did not center easily (no resistance between -5 and +20 degrees ruddr), which is a pain in dogfighting. This started pretty soon, I'd say after little over 1 year.

I tried to repair it about 4 months ago, but totally destroyed that stick. He, no better excuse for getting a new one, MS Sidewinder Pre Pro FFB 2. Love the stick, FFB really is the way to go for flightsims, and it is a very precise (accurate?) stick. Sofar, no ruddr problems, but time will tell...

[Umfriend]

Oh, and it has 8 buttons, which is good. I can't see why 4 four buttons are enough. I actually miss the shift button of the MS SW PPro 1.....

[GNEP]

Well, I've just been and picked up a Sidewinder Precision Pro 2 and a copy of IL2 Forgotten Battles. And I have a free evening tonight to settle in and have a bit of surround-sim action

Also picked up a 2nd hand copy of Bandits: Phoenix Rising 'cos it was dirt cheap and the demo was fun in surround...

And no, I wouldn't want to experience Gurm's Force Feedback

[Umfriend]

Is that a FFB stick? And pls also relate on perofmrance of the P. with IL2 FB. That was a question I had posted about 3 weeks ago here actually
Umf

[fleabus2]

I use Logitech. All connected via 2 powered USB hubs. No problems with any of their devices and happy with the performance ... including the joystick.

Logitech Freedom 2.4GHz Cordless USB Joystick
Logitech Freedom 2.4GHz Cordless Game/Rumblepad
Logitech M700 Cordless optcal/rechargeable mouse
Logitech Cordless Keyboard

WinXP HE SP1 full/clean
P4 2.8GHz/533MHz FSB retail
1GB (4x256MB) Samsung PC1066 RIMMs
Asus P4T533-C s478/i850e
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB AGP retail
VGA1: ViewSonic P817 21” shadow mask
VGA2: ViewSonic P225f 22” AG
TV OUT: S-video to 36” Sony Wega XBR-400 NTSC
TerraTec DMX 6fire LT sound card to Denon AVR-3802 7x110W based HT system

I also have a Logitech WingMan Strike Force 3D USB joystick that I connect from time to time but I don't care for force-feedback much and the cordless model's grip just suits me better.

Happy trails,

[CHHAS]

One of my friends who's really into flight sims has been drooling over this http://europe.thrustmaster.com/produ...hp?p=T84&fam=6 for a long time, his wife has finally agreed to buy him one for his upcoming birthday so he's pretty happy

[GNEP]

Umf, I'll let you know about performance in triplehead and singlehead hopefully tonight.

I didn't get the force feedback one - just the "normal" one... to be quite honest I am happy enough without .

[Admiral]

I have a USB Logitech WingMan Attack 2 (no force feedback) and I can't say that I use it much. Not that I dislike it or it doesn't do the job, I just find the mouse to be more precise when tracking a target and keeping fire on it while it moves.
Not talking flight simulators here, just spaceshooters and other type of "simulators" (Mech Warrior, Aquanox...).
I tryed IL2 briefly and it seemed nice with the joystick, though.

What I'm trying to say here is that you might not find the joystick to be so pleasant once you got used to the mouse.
(or maybe I don't have the best of joysticks )

[GNEP]

I am won't be switching away from the mouse for much more than flight sims I think...

[az]

I took a wingman cordless joystick into my hand today, and I must admit, I want one. It's the only good looking stick there is (especially the base), fire button and throttle are metal, and I can reach almost all buttons easily (I have small hands). It's too expensive to justify buying it, though, especially since I have no game I'd want to play right now that required a joystick Now if privateer 3 came out that'd change

AZ

[Admiral]

Now if privateer 3 came out that'd change

You can fool yourself with Freelancer by then
What ever happened to Origin after EA took over ?

[az]

fl any good?

I heard it's not played with a joystick...

AZ

[GNEP]

Well,

So far so good.

Installation was OK-ish (the -ish because despite being a microshaft product, it doesn't get along if I'm logged in as anything other than administrator to win2kpro... grrr)

IL2FB is running v. nicely indeed - performance is excellent in stretched OR multiviewport mode at 3x800x600, so I am thinking of going up to 3x1024x768. Will experiment further. Only problem is with FAA, which is doing that "lines along the poly edges through fog" thing (ie the landscape in the distance is "outlined"). So probably no FAA and 3x1024 is the way to go.

Joystick is the only way to play this game

And finally: Bandits: Phoenix Rising is an absolute blast (it's an "i've got 25 minutes to kill" type of game...) and has out-of-the-box great support for surround gaming - just choose the res, and select you aspect ratio, (it even supports widescreen 16:9 natively), and away you go. A great implementation of surround there.

I'm happy now.