Performance:
Like its little brother, The Force 3D, the Strike Force is an accurate and
versatile controller. The Strike Force 3D was put to work with a
variety of games and sims for the testing period. I suggest reading
the Force 3D review also.
The Strike Force 3D was
used for a few flight sims including: MS FlightSim 2000, MS Combat Sim 2,
MS Crimson Skies, Fly 2K and Flight Unlimited 3. Each has sufficient
in game setup of the controller and the profiler was not used. Force
feedback was enabled in each. The rudder was used in each sim for
more control. The only place where the stick delivered problems was
in controlling the helicopter in MS FlightSim 2000. The twist stick
rudder did not offer the fine control of the rudder a helicopter
requires. Unfortunately, the ability to use external rudder devices
is absent from the current driver set.
The many buttons of the
stick were great for all of the sims. The additional hat switch was
used to control weapon systems. I used the 3 way wheel button to
control important but less often used features such as flaps, gear and
hook controls. The additional hat switch also functioned well for
communication features where needed. The force feedback effects were
good and added to the experience.
Racing games also played
well with the stick. Using a stick for racing games may seem strange
at first but if offers decent control. I prefer to use the stick for
steering, the throttle for acceleration and braking, the trigger as a hand
brake and the other buttons and hat switches for other features of the
racing game. Motocross Madness 2, Midtown Madness, Need for Speed
and the like were played. The force effects were great and not a
burden to gameplay. No framerate loss was apparent although if you
own a slower system you may need to disable the effects or decrease the
image quality for sufficient play.
The final type of game I
threw at the stick were the space sims. I lump mech style games and
space shooters into this category. They included Descent Freespace
(included demo), Descent 3, Mechwarrior 3 and games from the Star Wars
series. Again the additional hat switch and 3 way wheel button
provided additional control for weapons, commands and other actions.
The force effects in these games were well implemented. You were
able to detect where the attacks were coming from and when collisions occurred.
Overall performance of the
stick is stellar. The force effects are smooth and don't seem to
effect game performance thanks to the efficient I-Force 2.0 API. The
stick is very comfortable and laid out well. Every button is within
reach of one of your fingers and shaped different enough that you will not
launch a missile when you meant to call the mother ship. The second
8 way hat offers 8 more functions on the stick in the most efficient
manner. Still, you do need to take care not to assign critical
functions next to each other unless you master each of the directions with
100% accuracy.
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