Best PC Game Joysticks
T.16000M fcs (flight control system) flight stick featuring H.e.A.R.T magnetic precision technology + twcs (Thrust master weapon control system) throttle featuring s.M.A.R.T technology. 14 action buttons + 8-way POV hat: two 4-Way switches + 3 buttons + one 2-position Slider + 1 push mini-stick + one 8-way point of view hat switch.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"You can buy the Thrustmaster Warthog and a set of high quality pedals for over $400 but the jump in price doesn’t justify the difference you get IMO but you could go that route. For the longest time there weren’t any new HOTAS setups on the market because there were no games to warrant the investment by the companies that make them. I put CH products in this category as well after seeing a teardown of their HOTAS; it’s higher quality than Saitek but still overpriced."
"I've been an avid space sim fan for years, and have owned and flown Elite Dangerous since it was in Beta. The button placement and switches are sufficient and well placed, but after just a couple of weeks the use of the throttle during acceleration and deceleration began sticking and wasn't smooth at all. I found it difficult to make slight adjustments because of this issue, and sometimes have to apply more downward pressure than I feel necessary in order to get smoother movement."
"I'll NEVER buy from Saitek again after using this."
"Right off the bat, there is no detent for 50% on the throttle, so if you use full range, you have to set a large dead spot to find zero with any kind of accuracy. Again, combined with the precision sensing, it's probably fantastic for regular flight sims, but once you start trying to poke a boosted Orca through the mailslot, all that travel has the joystick flying all over the place. Which brings up another issue; the lovely rounded top and edges won't hurt your hands, but they do make it impossible to securely clamp to a surface."
Whether youre dropping bombs at a distance or firing guns in a dog fight, the stable and precise Extreme 3D Pro will have you dominating the enemy in no time. Whether you're dropping bombs at a distance or firing guns in a dog fight, the stable and precise Extreme 3D Pro will have you dominating the enemy in no time. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This review compares the "Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick" and the "Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick" specifically in the context of Star Citizen: Arena Commander. At this point in the development of Star Citizen I don't recommend buying any kind of stick or HOTAS (hands on throttle and stick). Beyond that I really only need full throttle and full stop, which I can get with voice command or a quick double tap of W or S. There are a lot of buttons on the throttle which is nice, but there's a lot of buttons on my keyboard too. Basically if you're not going to get something with toggle switches and double thruster control like the "Mad Catz Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino H.O.T.A.S." or the "Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog Joystick" (and there may never be a reason to) then save $15 and go with the Logitech you'll be happy."
"But I needed a stop-gap unit for X-Plane and the upcoming Descent remakes to tide me over until I could justify a more expensive solution. It has a tighter feel and shorter throw than the CH Flightstick, which I don't mind. Pilots will typically control the aircraft with their left hand on the yoke or stick and right hand on the throttle(s)."
"I suppose my only complaint is that the stick feels a little bit too high at times. It just dawned on me that this thing wouldn't work well for left handed players."
"It's kinda garbage, really unresponsive and super easy to hit the wrong button."
"Up, down, left, right axes are all programed into the unit when using the controls with my specific application, Google Earth flight simulator."
"A very sturdy and reliable joystick."
-Supports the XINPUT and DINPUT when being used on PC. -Supports the Turbo functions with different speed settings you can toy with. -The D-Pad and X/Y Analog Axis mode can be exchanged. -A SONY PS4 Controller is required when using on a PS4 Game Console, and a Microsoft XBOX 360 or XBOX ONE Controller is required when using on a XBOX 360 or XBOX ONE Game Console. Compatible with PS4,PS3,XBOX ONE,XBOX360 and PC,Android, Switch. Microsoft XBOX 360 or XBOX ONE Controller is required when using on a XBOX 360 or XBOX ONE Console.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Like others have stated the stock joystick and buttons that the F300 comes with are fine and responsive, but as for how durable they are that I don't know since I modded mine almost immediately. Here's a list of parts that I switched out the stock ones for: Sanwa Joystick (comes w/ octagonal gate) & Buttons (30mm). 4lbs Tension Spring. Oversized Actuator (1mm). Circular Gate. 5-PIn Female Harness For Zero Delay USB Encoder PCB. Ball-top. My only gripes with the F300 is that I have larger than normal hands and my joystick hand at times rest over the side of the top and slips at times during certain engagements. My overall impression of the F300 is limited to a month of hands on experience backed by thousands of hours using quality parts in cabinets."
"I've never used a fightstick before so i'm not sure what high end fightsticks feel like with Sanwa or Seimitsu parts. The size is perfect for me because I am short and I have small hands(its about the same size as a Madcatz Street Fighter 4 SE Fightstick). Pros: Easily modifiable, good size for people with small hands, nice weight, responsive buttons and stick, usable on basically every platform. Cons: You need a 1st party controller plugged in at all times when using on consoles(for Xbox 360, you need a WIRED 360 controller), the buttons and stick might feel very lacking to someone who has used a high end fightstick, might be too small for people with big hands."
"For the PS3 and PC it plugs right in and plays as long as you hit the switch at the top and for the XBOX ONE you will need the original controller and cable provided.No big deal and better than buying a new stick. The mods took about 20 minutes very easy to do and you will need a 5Pin 2.54mm Pitch Female to Female JST XH Adapter Cable 30cm for the Sanwa stick."
Best PlayStation 3 Game Joysticks
-Supports the XINPUT and DINPUT when being used on PC. -Supports the Turbo functions with different speed settings you can toy with. -The D-Pad and X/Y Analog Axis mode can be exchanged. -A SONY PS4 Controller is required when using on a PS4 Game Console, and a Microsoft XBOX 360 or XBOX ONE Controller is required when using on a XBOX 360 or XBOX ONE Game Console. Compatible with PS4,PS3,XBOX ONE,XBOX360 and PC,Android, Switch. Microsoft XBOX 360 or XBOX ONE Controller is required when using on a XBOX 360 or XBOX ONE Console.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Like others have stated the stock joystick and buttons that the F300 comes with are fine and responsive, but as for how durable they are that I don't know since I modded mine almost immediately. Here's a list of parts that I switched out the stock ones for: Sanwa Joystick (comes w/ octagonal gate) & Buttons (30mm). 4lbs Tension Spring. Oversized Actuator (1mm). Circular Gate. 5-PIn Female Harness For Zero Delay USB Encoder PCB. Ball-top. My only gripes with the F300 is that I have larger than normal hands and my joystick hand at times rest over the side of the top and slips at times during certain engagements. My overall impression of the F300 is limited to a month of hands on experience backed by thousands of hours using quality parts in cabinets."
"I've never used a fightstick before so i'm not sure what high end fightsticks feel like with Sanwa or Seimitsu parts. The size is perfect for me because I am short and I have small hands(its about the same size as a Madcatz Street Fighter 4 SE Fightstick). Pros: Easily modifiable, good size for people with small hands, nice weight, responsive buttons and stick, usable on basically every platform. Cons: You need a 1st party controller plugged in at all times when using on consoles(for Xbox 360, you need a WIRED 360 controller), the buttons and stick might feel very lacking to someone who has used a high end fightstick, might be too small for people with big hands."
"I picked up this arcade stick because I wanted to be able to play older fighting games on last generation consoles like p4au and sf4ultra (now somewhat available on xbox one) and it works great for those as well as Blazblue chronophantasma on xbox one."
"I actually had to open it up and swap wires on 4 buttons to get it to map perfectly to my MAME config."
"When sitting it on your lap, the controller chord coming toward you is a problem (Dreamcast lessons not learned)."
Best Xbox Accessories
ORIGINAL MICROSOFT WIRELESS GAMING RECEIVER FOR WINDOWS. Brand new original Microsoft Wireless PC Gaming Receiver for Windows. Easily integrates with PC gaming scenarios and utilizes the same binding technology as Xbox 360.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"if you are like and you use the xbox 360 controllers to play games on the pc then you know the problem with finding the wired controllers."
"then my oldest wanted to use her controllers over at her moms house, so, i bought a third."
"It took only a couple of minutes to get it to sink up with my new Xbox 360 wireless controller (it helps to read the instructions first, kids!)."
"I made the mistake of assuming an XBOX 360 wireless controller would connect to a PC without a receiver because I didn't know they even required one, and so after buying my controller I realized that Microsoft's official page only sells controller+receiver combination packages."
"Just plug it in, pair it with your xbox 360 controller and away you go, I recommend the charging packs, this way you charge when not using and then disconnect to play."
"Needed a controller for the addicting as hell Rocket League bandwagon I somehow found myself on and even though I could use my Dual Shock 4 via USB, I just didn't wanna deal with another dangling wiring on my desk and seeings how I already had 2 360 controllers from my Halo Reach Xbox, I figured I might as well put them to use."
"Seems legit, bulk packaging as the description said."
"Works fine for about an hour then randomly disconnects controllers or lags horribly."
Best PC Game Light Guns
Simply mount the LED receivers on your TV or display (with included easy-to remove putty), connect the blue-tooth wireless adapter into an available USB port, install the drivers and calibrate your gun! This gun is PERFECT for arcade classics like Lethal Enforcers, Area 51, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park as well as modern console games like Time Crisis 3, Starsky & Hutch, Ninja Assult and more! 100% MAME® (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) Compatible. Also compatible with PC lightgun games as well as PS2, PS3 and Xbox (compatible only with Guncon2 games on PS2/PS3).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"After setting it up for my PlayStation 2 and getting the IR receivers in place, I calibrated the device and soon after I was playing some good old Time Crisis 2. It worked great with 100% accuracy and I was reliving my nostalgic days of old when I used to go to the arcade and spend my lunch money from school on this amazing game. My only guess as to how this could have happened would be the built in recoil system that probably knocked it loose or something."
"The gun is great but note that it is a bit fragile so I would try not to drop it at all and ask anyone who uses it to pull the trigger softly as there is a known issue about some triggers not working after some time (on the older model like the one I have, which does not have the red tip on the barrel)."
"Nice product, little bit of trouble with drivers (if you are not good with PCs do not buy)."
"pretty cool, works well with mame emulator."
"They have poor driver support for this light gun."
"Often after entering calibration mode, it will not recoil / register after shooting the first led. I believe it's a driver problem because I moved the equipment to another pc and it worked fine."
"It only worked briefly on all my Playstation 2 Time Crisis games."
Best PC Game Racing Wheels
Logitech Gaming Headset G330 With its adjustable, behind-the-head design, pressure-relieving silicone lining, and pivoting ear pads, the Logitech Gaming Headset G330 delivers comfort that won't quit. The powerful, dual-motor force feedback mechanism with helical gearing smoothly and accurately simulates traction loss.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The force feedback makes it so much more real (although it can be slightly jerky sometimes - I guess its tough to approximate the differential resistance that the tires would give). The quality of the build is fantastic, and everything works as its supposed to. But the tightening screws have a 'pop-out spring' mechanism where the tightening knob pops out a bit to give you more grip length, you tighten it hand tight, then when you push it back in, a spring tightens it just a sinch more to be sure its super snug and doesn't move."
"I have raced cars on closed course circuits and it's very similar in Gran Turismo. Also if there would be a way to give feedback through the clutch, brake and gas petals, it would make shifting feel a lot more realistic. I screwed the pedals into the hard plastic floor mat that covers the carpet in our office and this worked perfectly in my situation."
"I just received this package yesterday and I must say after a month of playing F1 2012 and other racing sims with a wireless controller, it was a welcomed relief. This wheel/pedal combo is smooth, precise, feels great as far as force feedback, and has worked flawlessly on every sim I have from NASCAR Racing Season 2003, Grid, DIRT, and F1 2012."
Best PC Game Flight Controls
Configurations by default: PC : Flight Simulator X (**) Microsoft PS3 & PC : Tom Clancy’s HawX (**) Ubisoft PS3 : IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of prey (**) 505 Games. Trigger for brakes (civil flight) or for rapid fire (military flight) + multi-directional hat (panoramic view). Dual-system aerodynamic control: by rotating handle (with integrated blocking system) or by progressive tilting lever. Unique: Plug & Play for ultra-simple and fast installation with all functions pre-configured for immediate takeoff (without worrying about configuration).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought this to use in Elite Dangerous and it's freaking amazing."
"As an example, the joystick trigger for me fires my primary weapon; if I hold Button 5, it performs a boost; if I hold Button 6, it targets my wingman's target; if I hold Button 7, it locks me onto my wingman's navigation target. There's plenty of buttons, and with modifiers, you'll only rarely need to use the keyboard, and then only for the less common functions. Mapping it to the throttle AXIS will cause it to behave like a real throttle—nudging it halfway forward causes the ship to increase speed to 50% engines, and pulling it back to zero stops the ship."
"You can get used to it enough to have fun though, but it is very dependent on the game. In space sims, you don't need to worry about your ship stalling or going into a spin because you were too erratic with the controls, but in a ww1 or ww2 game, planes can stall out very easily so you will find yourself becoming very frustrated using this HOTAS."
"You can also detach the throttle form the flight stick, however I had to return this item because the cable in which you seperated the two is just to short from reaching around my keyboard, (a normal keyboard should be ok, however i have a Logitech with g keys on the side, making it a little longer size then your standard keyboard). Pros. + For the price this will prolly the best you can get. + Flight stick and throttle. + Flight stick is very smooth and adjustable. + Setup is easy. + great button layout. Cons. - Detaching the throttle from the flight stick , the cable is very short and can not extend. - Not enough buttons for you hardcore people and some games. All in All this is a great Hotas, Specially for the price, If i had a larger desk and could place my keyboard off to the left side and still have access to it as well as this on my right, or the cable between the flight stick and throttle was longer i could have my keyboard in the middle (which was more ideal for me) I would be still using this today, and give it a 5 stars ."
"Excellent for beginners and for the price, however after some time with the game and the controllers I was left wanting more."
"What I mean by that is that I feel like I can go from 0% thrust to 100% thrust in to short of a time, without really feeling somewhere in between."
Best PC Game Music Controllers
Quick view: This is a wonderful combo, 2.4GHz Mini Wireless QWERTY keyboard, TouchPad combo, with USB interface adapter for the lecture, sales manager, presenter and others, from within a 15' radius make a presentation and operate PC wirelessly. Build-in removable rechargeable Li-ion battery that has longer standby time. Specification: Operating range: 15 meters(MAX), without signal disturbance and no direction limit. 25V. Modulation: GFSK. Channel: 78 channels TX. Power: less than +5dBm Transmission rate: 1M bit/sec. Frequency tolerance: +/-30ppm. Power consumption: 55mA(on), 1mA(sleep). Color: Black. Battery Type: Built-in lithium-ion battery. Notice: After 3 minutes without any operating will into sleep mode, press any key about 1s to wake up. Innovative shape, portable, elegant, perfect for PC, Android TV box, Google TV box, Xbox 360. Ideal for devices such as PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Google Android TV Box, HTPC, IPTV.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The only downsides are the touch pad which is overly sensitive and sometimes skips a beat or lags a bit and the unit is very light weight (feels kinda cheap)."
"As a specific example, prior to this update if you wanted to launch an app from the "Make" menu, you had to use the OUYA controller, now this is no longer the case, you can fully navigate and select apps using the arrow keys and OK button. As for my durability concerns, the keyboard is still holding up, but it gets a little creaky if you squeeze it with even a small amount of force. On the OUYA, I had to power the system off and on to get it to recognize the H7 for the first time, but it's worked fine ever since then. The device is incredibly light, with some more heft and higher quality materials I'd be more confident in its prospects of surviving a long time. The only other negative thing I have to say is that on VERY rare occasion so far its seemed a key has repeated a little faster than desired when pressed. However, using this makes web browsing and navigating non-game apps much more smooth and efficient than with the OUYA controller and I still highly recommend it."
"PROS: Nice touch intuitive and well laid out keyboard you mostly do not need to look at to use. Rechargeable battery lasts forever and I never turn it off. Touch pad is pretty precise and also works as a left mouse click when tapped. Nice to have the media and directional controls as separate keypads up top. Nice to have the touch pad in the middle up top vs it being on one side or another. CONS: Slightly mushy key press feeling despite the soft click. No back-lit keyboard. miniUSB charging port and not microUSB."
"Since it turns itself off if it hasn't been used for a while, and then takes a few seconds to turn itself back on after you press some key, I found it a good idea to turn the keyboard off after I was done using it, then turn it back on when I was ready to use it again."
Best PC Gamepads & Standard Controllers
Edition: Controller. The Steam Controller lets you play your entire collection of Steam games on your TV-even the ones designed without controller support in mind.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"* Program any button to any xbox 360, keyboard, or mouse functions (including multiple, e.g. Alt+Tab). * Program independent (horizontal / vertical) (sensitivity / axis inversion). * Select commonly used community created layouts for Steam Games (and tweak them yourself!). * Configure your controller for non-Steam games. * Grab buttons (Ring Finger / Pinky Finger). * 2 Touchpads (can be mouse, joystick, anything in between, as well as DPads, WASD / other key configurations, screen area selection (e.g. minimap), hotkeys (up to a 4x4 grid, I believe), /and more/! * Standard xbox-feeling layout (left / right movement, joystick below, grips, and gyro may take some learning, and ABXY buttons are considered small by many). * Haptics! Want to make that gyro function control a mouse? Or, the right trigger soft pull change your mouse sensitivity to low while changing your scope button to your fire button, while enabling gyro and turning the mouse trackpad into a dpad on full pull, with your melee button becoming a quick unscope button... Or however you'd like. You can make any button on the controller switch the mode of the trackpad to the hotkey selection. The possibilities are endless, and all you need is to program it once in Big Picture; no, you don't have to use big picture to play your games, only to program the controller. Well, the Gyro function, the Hotkey Trackpad function, and the Area Selection function... Those are all new in the last update from a few days ago."
"What an incredibly versatile controller! -Those wacky buttons on the bottom of the controller. I honestly have been hoping controllers from every console would implement snappy paddles for a long time. ("Dual-Stage Triggers"). The Game-cube controller was the best feeling triggers before the Steam controller because of this feature. The Steam Controller has really, really clean and snappy feeling triggers. I just discovered today that you can assign haptic feeling to the triggers too, so if you just bind a button or a key to a soft-pull, you can have the whole controller 'thunk' when you pull it in slightly. In Counter-Strike, I do most of my aiming with the touch-pad because it feels intuitive, but when I want to aim just a tad right, I just keep my finger on the touch-pad, and move my controller a smidge towards the right. The gyro controls are so accurate and intuitive, I can control my automatic fire-spread, which is a level of precision that I can't achieve with anything else other than a mouse. The controller gives me tactile feedback on how much I'm adjusting my aim using the gyro controls. You're going to have to get used to it, just like any other controller. Or, if you're playing a flight game, you can set the gyro controls to pitch/yaw/roll control your plane while based tilt the controller (if you want). Summary: It takes getting used to, but after day five, you'll be complaining about how the Xbox controller has soggy-feeling triggers and doesn't let you aim right. I was vexxed at first by my thumbs going to the wrong place thanks to using an xbox controller, I was concerned by how different the inputs felt, but after going though the menus and making my own controller configurations for games, I don't think I can go back to any other controller. After I get a game all set up, I finally feel like I can forget that I'm using a controller, and really play the game, not fight with the controls."