Logitech Wingman Force 3D
by Logitech
|
List Price: Our Price: $34.99 You Save: $15.00 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Wingman Force 3D
Customer Review: Force Feedback is Spooky!
Summary: 4 Stars
Usually, features of game controllers are intended to make games easier to play. Force Feedback effects, however, are there to give the player a hard time - make his life difficult by applying countering forces to aileron movement, and shaking like a jackhammer when you fire your machine guns.My ol' faithful stick is a Saitek Cyborg 3d.. a very sturdy, non FF piece of kit with a good strong snap to center. I fancied a change of scene, without losing much money, and the Wingman Force 3d seemed to fit the bill. Fortunately, my fears of RSI and sprained wrists were allayed when, whilst using the test program during installation, I found out that the forces the stick can generate were actually fairly moderate. Whilst its certainly strong enough to give you a good feedback, its no arm wrestler.
After being used to the Saitek, the 'slack' feel of the un-forced Wingman was a bit of a shock. The default 'return to center' forces dont work anywhere near as well as a good old fashioned spring, especially near the center point, where the motors seem to have less leverage. The result is that the joystick doesn't always snap to center too well. Its fairly easy to 'feel' the center of the joystick whilst playing though, so once your used to it, you actually feel the benefit of a much lighter stickload.
My main critisism of the Force effects is that they tend to be a little bit 'clunky' in feel.. the action is perhaps not as smooth as a sprung stick. This is something of a feature of FF joysticks though.. they can never compete with the 'smoothness' of a mechanical spring. Its something you soon get fairly used to, and in fact tend to forget about once your having fun wrestling the stick forces around.
So far, I've tested the stick with Edge of Chaos, Starlancer, Il2 Sturmovik, CFS3 and the Freespace2 game that was packaged with the stick (not the retail version I might add). Once a few settings are tweaked, the stick works well with the 'space' sim games, where there is little need for proper force feedback until you fire your guns or crash into something. It certainly adds to the excitement and immersion to 'feel' when something explodes nearby. Sturmovik also performed well, with stalls and takeoffs/landings feeling very realistic and firing cannons gets very satisfying indeed. CFS3 however, has issues; there seems to be a half second delay in the feedback forces, so if you let go of the stick after a roll it will oscillate indefinately hard left and hard right.. not good for the stick OR your virtual airplane. Being a generally buggy, resource hungry peice of software, CFS3 is probably at fault here though, not the Wingman.
Setting up the stick was painless, quick and easy. The aforementioned test program is an excellent idea too. Ive not used the programming software yet, but I tend to stick with the default in-game setup anyway (I prefer to take the programming software off the task bar for a few extra fps). There aren't as many buttons on the WMF3D as many joysticks.. but theres all you need for most flight sims. The throttle is OK too, but doesn't really offer as fine a control as the one on the Saitek, so formation flying/inflight refuelling might cause some problems.
I worry about durability and longevity.. its not as well made as my Saitek, but if it lasts 12 months it will probably have been worth it.
To summarize, if you want force-feedback at a resonable price.. the WingMan Force is a good solution. Its pretty obvious though that with current technology Force Feedback comes at a cost in precision. I'll certainly be keeping my old Saitek stick nearby for playing non-Force games, but where its available FF is such great fun I'll certainly use the Wingman.
Customer Review: Check Out the Enclosed Software!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first joystick, so I don't have any way to compare it to others. It's hard for me to precisely control sometimes in FreeSpace, and when I try to take off in Airfix Dogfighter, sometimes the aircraft veers right and I can't bring it back straight. On the other hand, it gets good reviews and it's fun to play with. I have mixed feelings about the force feedback. It distracts alot of the time. On the other hand, in FreeSpace I was diddling along and then something shot me from behind and there was a big jerk on the stick that, added with the sound and screen, gave me the distinctive feeling that I'd just been blasted. It was quite something! One thing about this joystick that surprised and delighted me is that there's a CD packed with it that has FreeSpace Colossus. I'd heard about FreeSpace, which is supposed to be the greatest space simulation/battle ever, and is hard to find now. Colossus is a sort of limited version of it, but still seems to have about a third of the features and missions. It's a great bonus.Customer Review: Good for MFS 2004 & better than using the keyboard
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm a real flight-simulator enthusiast & Logitech Wingman Force 3D is a good buy for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.
The fine points are the esay accessibility to all the buttons, easy grip, 8 direction panning & a very good force feedback system that makes the take-offs & landings seem "as real as it gets".
But I'l have to agree on the other reveiwers on the centering issue. In MFS 2004 even with low sensitivity, slight twists & turns on the stick causes the plane to veer a lot on the sides. It requires a lot of mental concentration & hand stability to keep the plane centered until autopilot takes over.
Its a bit expensive but certainly better than using the keyboard for MFS.
Customer Review: great while it lasted!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an awesome stick,good FF,good layout,good overall feel.however,it crapped out after 4 months,and i wasnt rough with it.But-customer support was fantastic,we went through a few tests over the phone and it was determined that I indeed had a faulty stick.they are currently sending a new one,should take about a week they say,well see,and i didnt even have to send the old one back,glad i dont have to hassle with shipping! guess my stick was a fluke from the other reveiws. I would recomend buying,if you have trouble they will take care of you!Customer Review: Cheap + Fun
Summary: 4 Stars
If you havent tried a force-feedback joystick before, this is a good one to start with. The effects are nice, but check out whether your favourite games actually support Force Feedback before buying - as Freespace2 is one of the few games that I own that supports it. The Logitech joystick is much cheaper than the microsoft versions, but it's a bit flimsy too. There's also a big dead-spot in the centre of the joystick which can make setting it up for games rather time-consuming.