Monday 6 December 2010

Video Games - gamepad, game controller


I've had this control for quite a while now and have had no problems with it, and it has been dropped once or twice too. The fan works as advertised and keeps your hands cool, though the only difference between low and high speed fan is that the high speed is just a little louder, with no noticeable air flow difference. The low speed is really all you need anyway.



All the buttons respond nicely. The Dpad probably isn't as precise as the dpads on many controllers for console systems though(the super nintendo controller probably had one of the best Dpads ever). The analog sticks are very good as well (though once again probably not quite as good as some console system's controllers).



The controller is laid out in a similar fasion to the PS2 controller, so users of it should feel right at home with this. Those with smaller hands might find this controller a bit big, but for the large handed individual like me, it's great!



Really good controllers for computers seem to be hard to find. This one is definitely one of the better ones. I play psyconauts with it along with many older emulated games on the computer. It works very well for pretty much anything (first person shooter games are of course best controlled with keyboard and mouse).



In conclusion, if you are looking for a controller for your PC, this is probably a good one to go with (there are certainly far worse ones). The price is nice too. NYKO TECHNOLOGIES 80650 Airflow Ex Pc Game Controller

The main draw of this controller is supposed to be its ventilation for cool hands. The problem is, this seems to be a necessity for using this specific controller. While using it without the fan active my hands get far sweatier than they do using the playstation controllers this product is obviously modeled after.



The analog sticks are plenty responsive and the buttons are good (not too soft or too clicky), and the virtual keyboard emulation is top notch.



However, my biggest gripe about this controller is the cross directional pad is completely worthless. The slightest transverse force on the crosspad results in a diagonal input. You could be pressing left at the very end of the pad without the up portion depressed at all and still be inputting up-left.



Bottom line is this is a fine controller for 3d games, but if your intent is 2d gaming, look elsewhere.

I really like this controller because it is so easy to use. I think the only problem that I've had with this controller is the fact that the rubber on the left joy stick wears out rather quickly. But overall, I would recommend this product for everyone.

It works just as well as any other game controller, but this one is rigged with the sweet air flow control. The user can manually select the air flow from off to medium to high. I personally put it right away on high mode. The air is strong and cool. Windows 7 64bit edition recognized it right away and with in minutes of opening the box I was using it to play games.

The software included in a cd can be used to full customize the controller and also there is a option to use the controller instead of the mouse and keyboard to surf the net.

I purchased this controller back in August 2007. Since then I've used it for several different Mario-like platformers as well as fighting games like Street Fighter 4.



Positives:

- The fans in the controller are really nice and do keep your hands cool.

- It's bulky, but in a good way. Fits to my hands and doesn't break if dropped. (This could be a con if you have smaller hands)

- Cord is long (~10 feet), nice for people with computers hooked up to TVs.

- Cheap. Typically controllers will run you between $30 and $50.



Negatives:

- The fans are pretty noisy on the highest setting. It's as if someone is using a hair dryer in the next room. The low setting gives proper ventilation without all the noise.

- Lousy directional pad. It feels stiff and unresponsive. More often than not, I end up dying in platformers because the D-pad sticks or doesn't register a change in movement as fast as I'd like. Get used to using the analog stick.



All-in-all, this is a pretty decent controller which has held up well over the few years I've had it.

For the price, this really isn't a bad controller. The analog sticks and buttons all work well, and the fan is a nifty feature to have sometimes. I really only have 2 problems with this controller:



1) Compatibility. I can't seem to get this to work with a lot of modern games

2) The D-pad. I configured the movement in Snes9x (a super nintendo emulator) to the D-pad and tried to play super metroid, and it was completely unplayable. It has a ridiculously difficult time correctly reading diagonal D-pad presses. Then I tried to go for something simpler that only used 4-directional D-pad functionality, Megaman X, and it was still unmanageable - even only working with the simple 4 directional commands the D-pad was far too unresponsible to be adequate for gameplay.

3) This could be a problem with the emulator, but in Project64 I'm having an impossible time getting the analog stick's full range to be utilized. There'll be a huge dead zone along the outer edges of the stick's range, meaning that full presses are very easy to do, but gameplay that requires sensitive analog movement (zelda shooting gallery, super mario 64 platforming etc.) becomes ridiculously difficult. I've ordered an xbox 360 controller for windows, so I'll use that and see if the problem persists and update this review with the results.



But, for the most part it's a good controller for the price. If amazon allowed more detailed reviews, I would have given this 3.5 / 5 stars. - Airflo - Nyko - Gamepad - Game Controller'


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