What is the prefered Joystick to play Flight Sim games?

[Soontir C'boath]

When the tax rebate check come in July, my mother will give me all 400(?) dollars to spend.
I plan to buy some flight simulator games such as Sturmovik, Flight Simulator 2004 and Lock On. (and perhaps other good ones I never heard)

With all that in mind, I need a new joystick for them games to play. My current one is an old sidewinder and it is a bit broken; it will not stay in the rest position.

I'm just too anxious to wait and ask then.

[Shaidar Haran]

I've still got my Logitech Wingman. It works fine for and I've had it for four years, give or take. It's a good flight stick and pretty reliable.

[Gerard_Paloma]

I've got the Saitek X45. Bought it about a year ago and it's great. It doesn't have force-feedback, but I don't like that shit anyway. It's a HOTAS system, so no more using the keyboard, and you can buy it straight from Saitek for a mere 80 dollars, which is a steal compared to other similar sticks.

[Admiral Valdemar]

My trusty Thrustmaster Top Gun edition stick does me well.

[Alyeska]

The Logitec Extreme 3d Pro is a sweet joystick. It has 12 buttons plus a throttle and 4 button hatswitch. That might seem like a lot, but its easy to get used to and you can set each button as you wish. Being able to do much of the control from the stick itself is very nice. You have 6 buttons on the stick (trigger, side button, 4 on top) along with the hatswitch. You have 6 more buttons on the side. The equal division of buttons means you aren't overwhelmed either. The stick itself is also very comfortable to hold and is quite accurate at play.

[darthdavid]

My logitech wingman extreme works well. It's not force feedback but if you wan't that they make a model with that.

[Soontir C'boath]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I am really torned between Alyeska's many buttoned Extreme 3D Pro and Saitek X45 with the awesome double handed feature.
I'll most likely go with Alyeska's though; cheaper and all.

Thanks, it's on my wishlist.

[darthdavid]

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... &c=us&l=en

[Temjin]

The Logitec Extreme 3d Pro is a sweet joystick. It has 12 buttons plus a throttle and 4 button hatswitch. That might seem like a lot, but its easy to get used to and you can set each button as you wish. Being able to do much of the control from the stick itself is very nice. You have 6 buttons on the stick (trigger, side button, 4 on top) along with the hatswitch. You have 6 more buttons on the side. The equal division of buttons means you aren't overwhelmed either. The stick itself is also very comfortable to hold and is quite accurate at play.

I second this. I bought the same joystick a few months ago and I love it. It also comes with an easy to use profiler.

[phongn]

The Saitek X45 is probably your best bet as you probably don't want to spend it all on a HOTAS

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Like hell! Only the mighty HOTAS Cougar deserves to be played with Lock On and IL2 Sturmovik. Can anything else match this:

Replica US. Air Force F-16 block 52 controller (Stick and Throttle)

Full metal casing including base, handle, and buttons

28 programmable buttons

Multiple programmable hat switches

5 to 10 axes

Adjustable resistance for throttle, afterburner, and idle detent

Long travel coolie hat

18 pound springs for solid resistance

Easy to use Foxy programming software with pre-programmed functions

Full speed USB connection delivering responses 8x faster than classical USB plugs

16k of internal memory for quick access to programming files

Flash upgradeable hardware to ensure long term compatibility

High definition digital axes for gaming graphics at high resolutions

Compatible with standard analog rudder pedals

I think not! And who knows, if you're lucky you might actually have cash left to buy a game or two!

[RogueIce]

The Logitec Extreme 3d Pro is a sweet joystick. It has 12 buttons plus a throttle and 4 button hatswitch. That might seem like a lot, but its easy to get used to and you can set each button as you wish. Being able to do much of the control from the stick itself is very nice. You have 6 buttons on the stick (trigger, side button, 4 on top) along with the hatswitch. You have 6 more buttons on the side. The equal division of buttons means you aren't overwhelmed either. The stick itself is also very comfortable to hold and is quite accurate at play.

Indeed, truely a wonderful joystick, and I got it for something less than 60 bucks, because that was my limit at the time.

My only real complaint is the second button, for me, seems a little too easy to hit when I don't want it to (it being right where my thumb rests and all) when I get really involved and pull up sharply or something to that effect. Still, it's not a big deal and I've largely gotten used to it, though I still sometimes manage to hit it when I don't want to on accident.

But, that's fairly minor and something I'm sure can be overcome with experience, alas, all I have to really "test" it on are my old Jane's USAF and F/A-18 games, which weren't exactly meant for XP and thus, kinda annoying to try to play.

Oh, and I wasn't a huge fan of the throttle either...I'm sure it allows for good control and everything, but the actual range of motion is pretty small. Still, I got used to it, and I'm sure if I had some flight sims meant to work on my XP machine, it wouldn't be so bad. *shrug*

Now, if I had 400 bucks to spend soley on games( )...but I don't.

[Alyeska]

I will never support a force feedback stick because they never center themselves properly and moving in a straight line is not easy and it makes aiming harder.

[Soontir C'boath]

Like hell! Only the mighty HOTAS Cougar deserves to be played with Lock On and IL2 Sturmovik. Can anything else match this:

Bloody Christ! It cost almost 300 dollars! It looks damn good too.

Great, my list of what to buy with my first paycheck is growing again.