facebook rss twitter

Review: Game Controller Roundup

by David Ross on 1 March 2003, 00:00

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qapv

Add to My Vault: x

Introduction



The humble keyboard has been the gamers’ trusty friend for many years now. When used in conjunction with a mouse it makes for the ultimate FPS controller, it even works alongside a joystick in flight simulators for all those ultra fiddly switches and dials needed to keep the aircraft flying. An experienced gamer can even set up his own binds and macros to perform complex tasks at the click of a button.

Unfortunately the keyboard suffers from a few minor problems that have dogged it for all of its life. The QWERTY style layout was created to slow down typists using typewriters and minimise the use of letters with their printing arms side by side which could lead to jammed typewriters. This is no longer a problem but the layout continues, this makes it hard for the novice to learn the layout and even experienced users still struggle to find specific keys at times.

The keyboard is also not the most ergonomic of devices and in games there are certain positions your hand has to make that aren’t really ideal. In a perfect world it would be nice to have a smaller device which can perform a range of functions without having to move your hands around much and have all the buttons easily accessible. This brings me neatly to the reasoning behind this article, to compare and evaluate 3 controllers that aim to do this from Belkin, Thrustmaster and Ferraro.



I’d also just like to make the point that all three of these controllers are designed to be used with the users’ left hand and so are only suitable for right handed gamers who use their mouse in their right hand. So if you are a left handed gamer then I’m afraid that you may want to consider learning to play with your other hand if you want to use these.