Annual Review: Six Gamepads

Shoot!

It has to be said the stick travel is long and very precise. Whatever game you are playing, you'll find it performs. You'll also find it rather stiff, which brings us to more subjective matters. Resistance implies greater sensation but you get tired sooner in fast games. Personally, I would have welcomed a little bit more slackness. The opposite applies to the rotating rudder bar. It is very precise but perhaps a bit too slack and the combination of the two, which determines the way the plane trims when it veers, is not that easy to control.

But these are details. They show up in the tests I ran on highly sensitive veteran planes in Flight Sim 2004. In no way do they affect the pleasure and performance you get from a game. The throttle is just perfect with a long firm travel, so you can set the power to a hair's breadth. The buttons and direction hat are intuitive so you don't need to take your eyes off the screen. The overall impression is highly positive and the $47 (40 euros) you will pay for an Extreme 3D Pro are well worth it.