Happy Happy Joy Stick

One of my favorite games in the last few years is Elite Dangerous; a boring space trucking simulator which to some is going to be about as fun as filling in an Excel spreadsheet. To ??me though, it's a kind of magic, spacefar??ing bliss, a relaxing way to get away from the world and pretend I am a daring Commander at the far reaches of the galaxy...one who needs to bring a supply of tobacco from one planet to another in record time.

Seriously, I have spent well over 150 hours playing Elite. And I couldn't actually tell you what kind of "progress" I have made. I buy lots of different ships, try out lots of professions, but I woul??dn't call myself "hardcore." Still, I don't seem to get tired of it, and still haven't nailed down exactly what I want to excel in. I just enjoy the second life it provides, and while I have fiddled with plenty of control schemes, nothing has been able to beat the cheap Hotas joystick I borrowed off a friend to play it with.

Until, that is, I got a slightly-more-expensive joystick, the T.16000M FCS Hotas by Thrustmaster, which is practically made for Elite, and shows in every possible way, with a few head-scratching nitpic??ks.

T.16000M FCS HOTAS
Manufacturer: Thrustmaster
MSRP: $149.99

The one thing my old setup lacked was a few key buttons. Elite has a ton of controls. Many of them you won't use frequently enough for them to matter, but learning Elite and its function buttons on a standard controller is an absolute nightmare in the beginning. So the first and most immediate quality-of-life funct??ion this setup provided me was an absolute slew of buttons, with a bunch of them not preset to anything in particular. Immediately, I was unsatisfied with the default settings for this stick and wanted to customize it. But this can't be leveraged as a complaint; everyone plays their flight sims differently, and for the most part, Thrustmaster's defaults are not bad. But I can't imagine anyone getting one of these and NOT wanting to change it to some degree.

And there are tons of options here. The stick itself - which was a standalone product as evidenced by its slider which is practically useless when paired with the throttle since it serves the same function - has enough buttons to do practically anything. The hat switch is used by default for both navigational/menu settings, as well as to control power distribution between engines, weapons, and shields in Elite, and it feels extremely natural. Firegroups are controlled wit?h one of the buttons on the top of the stick, as are secondary weapons, and of course, the trigger is your pri??mary fire button, and also selects items in the menu. As such, you can perform the most basic functions with just the stick, and theoretically, you could play the game entirely that way if you were comfortable navigating the keyboard.

For VR players, this is probably not going to be a great option, and that's where the throttle comes into play. It has several buttons, toggles, hat switches, and even a fully analog stick on the back end, which can be used reasonably comfortably to handle left and right, as well as up and down thrusting. The toggle on the back end is tied to Supercruise and your Frame Shift Drive, and the back "pedal" ??buttons, a gigantic trigger on a pivot is used for...menu navigation?

Why? I couldn't really tell you. It feels like it would be better for left and right thrust, but coupled with the analog stick, it would be very awkward. It seems lik??e these triggers are wasted space for me so far, and are ultimately sort of awkward. Considering you have two hat switches that are entirely free on the throttle to allocate to whichever functions you wish, at the very least you do have plenty of ways to play with this, but that was the most awkward part of the whole thing for sure.

The thruster is set at zero when at its lowest position. Elite has reverse thrusting, and on the other stick I used, the thruster being at the middle position was actually zero, and pulling it back further meant the ship going into reverse thrust. Here, you have a button to toggle reverse thrust, which ?I also found a bit awkward initially, ?but kinda got used to.

The stick feels absolutely fantastic. Yaw controls, and stick controls in general, were incredibly? smooth, responsive, and 1:1 for what was happening on-screen. I was incredibly pleased by the way the stick felt, and the fact?? that it has removable hand rests to allow for lefties to have a better time is a nice accessibility feature. It's a very plastic stick, but these lighter materials allow for a reduced overall cost.

For me, this is the absolute perfect, pinnacle way to play Elite. Although in my time with the T.16000M I never tested any other software, even the orange lighting and color scheme suggests very clearly what this unit was designed to do best. And I will shamelessly tout it as the best, most reasonably priced way to play Elite without any major concessions. Just let it be known that you will spend some time in the configuration menu - but it's Elite Dangerous. You are doomed to do that regardless of what control method you choose. I personally can't imagine playing Elite any other way at this point.

_{[This assessment is based on a retail build?? of the hardware provided by the manufacturer.]}

The post Review: T.16000M FCS Hotas appeared first on Destructoid.

Better late than never

Razer (popular PC peripheral maker) and Capcom are teaming up to create the official Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite arcade stick. Priced at $219.99/€239.99, this PS4 exclusive piece of tech will be based on the Razer Panthera and include premium Sanwa hardware. Much like the old MadCatz sticks of the last generation, this stick has been tested by eSports ??legends and will be fully customizable.

Here are t??he ?official specifications of what the stick is made with:

• 10 tournament-grade Sanwa™ Denshi buttons
• Authentic Sanwa joystick with ball top
• Easy one-touch access to internals and storage
• Fully accessible internals and storage compartments for easy modding
• Honeycomb structure on the inside for easy screw mounting
• Storage room for alternative bat top joystick (not included) and more
• 9.8 ft. / 3 m detachable screw-lock USB cable for secure connection
• Screwdriver included for modding

The stick should currently be available in Europe from the official MadCatz website and will be heading to North and South America next month. I would link to the website, but that just redirects to a 404 error. I'm guessing the excitement of something actually happening with MvC: I took down Razer's servers.

The post Razer is making so??me Marvel vs. Capcom: Inf??inite arcade sticks appeared first on Destructoid.

Stick a pin in Chun's knee

Mad Catz' first Street Fighter V fight stick is up for pre-order. The Tournament Edition 2 FightStick works with?? PS4 and PS3, has "Sanwa joystick and buttons, the very same parts found i??n Japanese arcade cabinets," and will run you $230.

For the aesthetically-minded, you can change the artwork -- here, featuring Chun-Li -- without?? fussing with any of the innards and wires. Maybe a tasteful Monet, or pigpoopbuttballs.

It also works with, "all major fighting games," not just Street Fighter V, so I'm buying this to up my Bushido Blade game.

The post Chun-Li graces Mad Catz’ first Street Fighter V stick appeared first on Destructoid.

And you thought eyesight was a requirement

In a cooperative effort between Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, researchers have produced a new way to help the blind get around better: videogames. You may be scratching your head, as the two main components of playing most games requires the use of?? the hands and eyes, but head scientist Dr. Lotfi Merabet found a?? way.

Forced to rely on tactile and auditory cues, individuals without eyesight face more difficulty traversing unfamiliar environments. The Audio-Based Environment Simulator or AbES mimics real-world ??navigation by creating a virtual setting based off of computer-generated layouts of public buildings. Armed wit??h headphones and a keyboard, participants were charged with finding specific items, namely jewels, and successfully exiting the building without getting caught by roaming guards.

While the scenario sounds like any mainstream videogame, rather?? than relying on sight to find a way through the environment, the user is able to utilize auditory cues to help spatially orient them to the world around them or paint a mental picture of their surroundings. Participants in the virtual test showed marked improvements in real-world navigation and were able to decrease the amount of time it took to traverse unfamiliar buildings.

Although this system sounds promising for the blind and visually impaired, it's hard to imagine what the process entails and how it actually works. In an effort to showcase the project in action, the Journal of Visualized Experiments or JoVE have produced a video that you can take a look at here??. As a warning, the vid??eo is a tad dry and educational.

Dr. Merabet explains: "It is conceptually difficult for a sighted person to understand 'a video game for blind people.' What JoVE allows us to do is break down layouts of the gam?e and strategy, show how the auditory cues can be used and how we quantify performance going from the virtual game to the physical world."

Beyond training with a keyboard, the head researchers are looking into a??pplications for a Wii Remote and joystick as well. As it stands now, virtual navigation training is useful to over six million people in the U.S. and 285 mi?llion worldwide. The technology will have applications for not only the blind, but also those with cognitive deficits, people recovering from brain injuries, and visual impairments.

The next step after navigation, in my mind, is training the blind in the art of stealth. As the legend goes, missing one sensory outlet heightens the others to superhuman levels. Talk about an army of ninjas. All joking aside, it's great to se??e practical, real-world applications for gaming and it'll be interesting to see how other p??eripheral tools are incorporated in the future.

Virtual Games ??Help the Blind Navigate Unknown Territory [Scientist Daily]

The post New game helps improve na??vigational skills for the b??lind appeared first on Destructoid.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the Persona 4 merchandise that's been stacking up on Japanese shelves? Well, Hori has figured out another way to drain your MegaTen loving wallet in August with a new arcade style joystick. At least you can tell yourself that you're a making a functional purchase, instead of another sexy Persona figma for your shelves.

Amazon.com's Japanese shop just listed the lovely yellow beast, as well as a tentative image, giving it a launchdate of August 2nd. It just so happens that Persona 4: Arena will be making the transition from the arcades to consoles at the same time, and likely into my home. Anyone interested in dropping ¥10,800 for the stylish six button piece of hardware, or is the extra decore not reason enough for you to? existing set up?

Hori To Release Persona 4: Arena Arcade Stick [Siliconera]

The post More Persona 4 gear than you can shake a stick at appeared first on Destructoid.

Space sims aren't where they used to be. Once the peak of triple-A development, today the genre's torch is carried mostly by outfits catering to hardcore, nostalgia-seeped joystick-grippers. And while that approach has proved profitable for independents and niche publishers (and gamers still willing to consult printed control reference charts), it hasn't exactly lit up the lase?rs of the main stream.

Seamless Entertainment has attempted to change that with SOL: Exodus, trying to translate the thrill of space-based shooting ??for a generation steeped in more ground-bound warfare.

Wh??ile it's still too early to tell whether or?? not their efforts will pay off, I am happy to report that they've succeeded in creating the accessible, exciting spacefighter sim they aimed to deliver.

SOL: Exodus (PC)
Developer: Seamless Entertainment
Publisher: Seamless Entertainment
Released: January 26, 2012
MSRP: $9.99
Rig: Intel Core i7 920 @2.66Ghz, 6GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti GPU

SOL's premise will be familiar to most anyone with a cursory interest in sci-fi. The solar system is dying, and humanity has sent out countless expeditions to find new worlds fit for colonization. The UCS Atlas has finally found a suitable planet, but is attacked by the Children of Dawn, a cult of sun-worshiping fanatics intent on keeping humanity in the solar system until the final day of supernova-borne rapture. And by "rapture" they mean "extinction." Now the Atlas must race home to spread the word while fighting off the fait??hful.

The plot draws heavily from Battlestar Galactica, with its hook of a lone ship journeying h??ome whilst battling an implacable foe. One mission even lifts its setup from a particular episode of Ron Moore's 2??004 remake.

The familiarity extends to the game's music, as well. Heavy on tribal-sounding drumbeats and strings, SOL's soundtrack is like a mash-up of Homeworld's and Galactica's aural aesthetic. The plot isn't quite as complex or self-serious as either of those two productions though, opting to st??rike a pleasantly campy tone. The main antagonist in particular deserves praise for hamming it up in the best traditions of Khan or Emperor Palpatine.

Early on, Seamless Entertainment billed SOL as merely the "first half" of the Atlas' saga, prompting worries that the game would be an incomplete experience. No need not fret, though, because SOL's relatively short seven-mission campaign (which I completed over the course of a weekend) wraps up neatly, while leaving room to anticipate a sequel or expansion. Thus, even if SOL's second half never materializes, playe??rs won't be left w??anting.

They also won't be left wanting for a good weekend's worth of shooting things among the stars. SOL's combat is fast and hectic, with your tiny spaceship flying into veritable clouds of flying fanatics, firing noisy machine guns and fiery homing missiles. Larger bombers and? gunships can be dispatched using a heavy Arc Cannon, which fires off ??with a hearty electrical crackle.

The thing that might disappoint gamers looking for the next Freespace, Freelancer, or Elite is the fact that SOL: Exodus isn't quite those things. It's much more "space shooter" than "space sim." You won't be rerouting power to shields -- there are no shields, for one -- or launching countermeasures or buying and selling space commodities. For that matter, the weapon selection I've outlined above is the weapon selection. Besides a basic upgrade sy??stem (players can allocate points to boost their weapons, health ??or speed between missions).

Then again, the pace of combat is too fast to allow for such distractions. A "slide" button can be held down to keep the ship moving in one direction and facing another, but that's pretty much the extent of advanced tactics in SOL, with one exception.

That exception is, of all things, a hacking mini-game. That's not as bad as it sounds. In fact, it's actually pretty novel, and the main way by which players will deal with big, otherwise invincible capital ships. At points in each mission, various communication relays on each capi?tal ship can be targeted and hacked in real time. The minigame itself is simple, just involving picking a password that briefly flashes on screen. The results, though, can be dramatic.

Hacking a target will allow pilots to get up to all ?manner of hi-jinks, including sabotaging a ship's engines (to keep it from closing with the Atlas), turning its missiles or turrets friendly (thus significantly thinning the opposition??), and eventually highlighting weak points that can be attacked with the Arc Cannon, destroying the enemy in dramatic fashion.

Speaking of dramatic fashion, SOL's graphics are high-tier. Surfaces are shiny, the blackness of space is overflowing with color, and particle and smoke effects fill even the most mundane scenes with activity and detail. Combined with the quick action and flashy special effects, every SOL dogfight feels like a whirling storm of bullets, lasers, bright target? brackets, and raining space debris.

The game supports keyboard-and-mouse controls, gamepad controls, and traditional joysticks, with all ??options available for simultaneous use. Given the pace of combat, I preferred to use a mouse for extra precision it affords. Chasing lead indicators at those speeds isn't as easy on a joystick or gamepad.

It's fortunate that SOL is as short as it is, because it tips its hand a bit early, revealing a disappointing lack in variety. The Hades fighter's three weapons are all the weapons players will ever get, and the Children of Dawn only ever field a handful of enemy types. Capital ship engagements, a hallmark of classic space shooters, never approach a significant scale, and mission types skew in favor of simply defending the Atlas or some civilian craft from waves of enem??ies flying in from opposite sides of the map. There is also no multiplayer option, with the game more bent on inspiring competition via online leaderboards for the existing campaign missions.

A few missions do stand out as beacons of originality, and are among the more memorable incidents I've played. I shan't spoil them here, but other, grander space games (or perhaps SOL's sequel) would do well to us?e such experienc??es as inspiration.

Further still, Seamless has demonstrated an impressive amount of post-release support. Within days of release several design decisions I would have complained about in this very review were fixed, and one rather unenjoyable mission was rewritten and rescripted completely, with Seamless stopping short of generating entirely new assets. SOL has definitely not been a "ship-it-and-forget-it" release for them.

I try to avoid taking price into account when reviewing games, especially with pricing as fluid as it is in the age of Steam sales. One person's $60 game could be another person's torrented g?ame, and "I'll wait until it's [x amount of money]" is one of the most discouraging comments a gamer can make, whether they know it or not.

That said, SOL: Exodus is being sold for a paltry $9.99 on Steam, before sales. It's a superlative amount of content and refinem?ent compared to many so-called "triple-A" productions that sell for six times that amount. Anyone looking for a good space dogfight should feel obliged to give it a try. It's even got a demo!

The post Review: SOL: Exodus appeared first on Destructoid.

[The Destructoid Show gives a rundown of all the top news from Destructoid.com every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Subscribe to us on YouTube, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.]

First, Nintendo introduces a great new expansion pack for the 3DS, which lets you play with a second circle-pad. Then there's a list of new games for the Playstation Vita. The initial PC release of Dead Island was a console dev port, which Techland is fixing. Also, this lady walks like an orangutan. The PSN Play thingy is still happening, and this week sees the release of Bloodrayne: Betrayal, which looks to be a hit among Castlevania fans. Batman: Arkham City has a new game plus mode, but who cares about that? Chris Daughtry is on the soundtrack, watch me make fun of him!

Spoiler Alert: The Destructoid Show is about video game news, and I managed to steer the discussion to my favori??te R&B song from 1995. Give me my Pulitzers right now, give me all the Pulitzers.

Also, Tara's going to be on our dear friend Anthony Carboni's new show, New Challenger. You should g?o watch it, because his set ?is much cooler than ours.

The post The DTOID Show: A Kiss From The Nubs & New Vita Games appeared first on Destructoid.

Wait what? You read that correctly, Mad Catz -- grown into the biggest peripheral maker in recent years -- has announced the formation of ThunderHa?wk Studios, a studio focused on developing a series of MMO flight simulator games to be published by Mad Catz. The first game is expected to launch in 2012.

Flight simulators are one of the most peripheral-intensive genres out there, especially now that the music game genre has lost the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero franchises. And there's not much point in a Dance Central peripheral, is there? So it makes perfect sense for them to get into flight simulators and popularize the genre to sell more joysticks, although the announcement of a development studio comes ??as a surprise. 

Mad Catz also owns Saitek, considered by many to be the creators of some of the finest joysticks out there. At least, back in the late '90s when I still kept track of them. Maybe they can fill the void left by the popular era of Jane's combat flight sims, F-22: Air Dominance Fighter, F-22: Total Air War, Falcon 4.0, X-Wing Alliance and Freespace 2? Good luck to them if their first game is a World World II game that has to compete with the IL-2 Sturmovic series or Cliffs of Dover though.

Pssst ThunderHawk Studios, we could use a new F29 Retaliator. Zulu Alert! And set ??it in space while you're at it. Pretty please?

The post Mad Catz forms flight simulator MMO development st?udio appeared first on Destructoid.

Despite many thinking that Japan only produces rape? games, there was once ??another product that would shock and awe western gamers: the Hori Real Arcade Pro series of joysticks.

Having recently had their supremacy challenged by the likes of Mad Catz, the boys at Hori stayed up drinking Boss coffee and came up with a plan to retake the crown. That plan was to exactly replicate the Japanese arcade experience at home, establish absolute supremacy in the joystick field, and cramp all but the largest Tokyo apartments. Available only on Hori’s Japan website, the Real Arcade Pro 3 Premium V?LX shipped ??out March 26, and the beast arrived at my home just yesterday.

Does it Ultra Combo the Mad Ca?tz Tournament sticks?? Hit the jump to find out. 

Huge is the first word that comes to mind when you open the massive box that the poor Yamato guy delivered in the rain, and it will stick with you as you use this monolithic peripheral. See, the VLX in the product name is short for VIEWLIX, i.e. the Taito arcade cabinets that are standard across Japan.

While the Tournament Edition Fightsticks were content to style themselves after those cabinets, the Hori version might as well BE the arcade cabinet. It’s just as wide and sturdy as the arcade cabinet, and if you didn’t know any better, you’d think they just ripped off the front of the machine and threw it in a box. Even the bay provided to store your cable ?when not using the thing is gigantic. You could easily store a cat in there.

But how does it play? This, my friends, is the most important question to any true joystic??k aficionado, and the biggest concern you’d?? have when forking over the equivalently massive price tag of 30,000 yen.  Well, fear not!  If my short time with this beauty is any indication, it is money well spent.

Because of an uns??cheduled ninja assault on Destructoid Tokyo, and h?aving to sleep to go to my real job (Yakuza tout), I only had about an hour to lay hands on my new baby. And I can’t stop thinking about touching her again. It’s that good.

I tested it out with Street Fighter IV and I wa??s popping off cancels, combos, and ultra moves like I was Daigo himself. It just feels better than my TE Fightstick. Not having the time to take the cover off (which enthusiasts can do to modify layout and parts at their whim), I can’t comment on the parts used in each. However, above and beyond the Tournament Edition sticks (wh??ich you can see comparison shots of below) the extra weight and size of the Premium VLX creates a genuine feeling of stability. 

I’ve always been a bit of a "leaner," throwing my whole body into the joystick input, and this stick can take it with nary a slip of the base. The start button is placed on the face of the body, as opposed to the Mad Catz sticks where it’s on the back, but it’s located far enough that you don’t hit it accidentally. If, like me, you grew up in dimly-lit arcades with Street Fighter II, Darkstalkers, and the like, playing with this stick will feel like co??ming home after a long trip.

Sadly, both the PS3 (tested) and the 360 versions are sold out at the moment, and as the initial sale of the item was limited the Hori Japan website preorders, this is going to be a hard item to find. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to go for on eBay. Not that I’m selling mine. Oh, no. I am going to?? cherish?? this beauty for a long time to come.

It’s going to take up a huge chunk of my apartment, bu??t I consider the tradeoff worth it. At least I can u?se the box to hide from ninjas. 

The post Hori Real Arcade Pro ?3 VLX Edit??ion will eat your soul appeared first on Destructoid.

PC gamers, get ready to bust out your old joystick...y'know, the one you've secretly kept in good condition, waiting on the announcement of Freespace 3, that joystick. MekTek.net may be rereleasing MechWarrior 4 and all its expansion packs for the low low price of absolutely nothing, within the next co?uple of weeks.

Mektek had earlier been authorized by the current MechWarrior rights holder Smith & Tinker to redistribute the old game, perhaps to hype up the upcoming franchise reboot, and to remind people that yes, MechWarrior is stil??l a thing that exists. Not that people who've been keeping the joystick aro??und have forgotten, oh no.

In any case, an update on MekTek's forums noted that the final mee?tings with Smith & Tinker were set around the Thanksgiving holiday period, with the "big shiny green release bu??tton" waiting to be pressed.

I encourage anyone looking for some lumbering metal tank-with-legs action try the gam?e out. It's old enough that almost any laptop can rock its settings, and it's playable even without a joystick. In the meantime, check out the teaser for that reboot game below.

Here's a trivia question: What is the name of the 'mech being piloted in the trailer, and what Japanese show was it ripped off licensed from?

[Thanks for the tip, Mikey!]

The post Get M?echWarrior 4 for free maybe around Thanksgiving appeared first on Destructoid.

I've always wanted to make my own joystick. I'll be at an event or convention, and I'll see some guy who has his own handmade rig, and I'll think to myself damn, that guy is for real. And while it's always gratifying?? to lay the smackdo??wn on another with the standard controller, it has got to feel much better doing so with something you made by your own hand.

With some of these custom sticks I've seen lately, I?'ve been motivated to create my own. More on that l?ater. For now, check out these:

The first comes from jbsgame.community member CAVE. His custom Ikaruga stick looks great. His blog says that it took two weeks of building and even more planning to put this sweet stick together. For those down with the lingo, it uses Seimitsu buttons and joystick, and Toodle's Cthulhu PCB for both PC and PS3 compatibility.

Destructoid's very own nilcam has modded what he calls The Zero Stick, and the end result looks fantastic. A hardcore Mega Man fan, nilcam chose Zero for the art for his custom rig, a mod of the Hori Real Arcade Pro 3. Blog entries detail the full progress, but there's no denying that the end result is sweet.

The final comes from PS3Maven, and is a Chun-Li Street Fighter IV in-tray kind of affair.&n?bsp; It looks like a lot of work went into this. It'?s cool that the same device you play your games on could also hold a beer.

The post Roll your own: 3 badass custom joysticks appeared first on Destructoid.

Following our controller episode of RetroforceGO!, I have received a surprising number of emails and messages regarding the Xbox 360 Dpad and the cou??ntless mods, DIY fixes, and third-party alternatives that exist to solve the problem. Shockingly enough, I've even heard from a few slobbering brain cancer victims who find nothing wrong with it.

Given the amount of feedback on this issue, I thought I'd take some time to address it further. Bear in mind that what you're about to read is not whining. Perhaps you mistake me for the average review reader. Instead, what lies after the jump is a wholly dissatisfied consumer -- someone who knows as much about gaming hardware as a good mechanic knows about internal combus?tion engines -- pointing a finger in the face of the big M and saying, "You f*cked up."  

To understand what makes this component of the 360 controller so thoroughly useless, one needs to have some basic knowledge of how a controller works. I'm not going to go too far in depth on that, because you don't want to read a long post, and chances are you don't really care anyway. Go here if you're really interested.

To keep it simple, let's suffice it to say that most Dpads, as well as most controller buttons in general, pretty much work on the same principle. Push the button, complete the circuit, things happen on your TV screen. This?? is almost always achieved in the same manner:

Trust me, I've seen the inside of just about every controller you could name, and ?they're all more or less the same in this respect. Push the button, button pushes down rubber membrane with metal disc in it, life goes on. This rubber membrane is also what makes the button pop back up after you've pressed it. It's not exactly fascinating. The membrane is your Dpad, and?? the button is really only there to make it durable, pretty, etc. 

Want to see how the 360 Dpad is different?

Um ... excuse me, WTF R U doi??n? What's this supposed to be? Instead of the button contacting the membran?e directly, you've given us this barbell-type thing, essentially a middleman between our thumb and the circuitboard? Again, dear reader, I'm not going to bore you with the details. When you chuck your 360 controller across the room in frustration while trying to play something that uses the Dpad, you can peek inside its shattered remains and see for yourself.

Form should follow function, Microsoft. I d??on't care how nice you think it looks; if it doesn't work, then what's the point? Your engineering department needs some serious help. Feel free to fax me a job application. Better yet, maybe you should just fly me in for a visit so I can slap a few people around for a while.??  

However, des??pite the evidence, some people still make attempts to defend this abomination against God and gamer. They set the Internet ablaze, blinded by their fanboyism, with arguments like:

"It's not that bad. Mine works just fine."
Really? Tell us where you got it, because it's obviously not the same model that came with the other 99.997% of Xbox 360s on the market.?? You m??ust know where to buy this special "doesn't suck" package. 

"It's easy to fix. There are a bunch of simple mods you can do."
I know. Everybody knows. If you Google "360 controller fix," you'll find 307,000 results. Why do you think that might be? Maybe because sensible people are all in agreement that it's a miserable?? piece of shit?

Tell you what. I'd like? to sell you a car. It's a great car. Oh, but the gas pedal is kind of iffy. Sometimes it makes the car go, but other times it's a brake pedal. Sometimes it makes the car go into reverse, sometimes it turns on the air conditioner. It usually does okay as a gas pedal, though. If you don't like it, you can rip the car apart and fix it yourse??lf. Dumbass.

"Nobody really uses Dpads anymore anyway."
Wow. Do you really only play a couple different kinds of games?  Sure, I guess if I were content with nothing but Geometry Wars and [insert FPS] for the rest of my life, I wouldn't care, either. Ho?wever, it just so hap??pens that I like lots of different kinds of games, many of which use a Dpad.

If we're not supposed to use it, why did Microsoft put it there? If it's unnecessary, why is there one on every other controller on the market? One that works?

"Just use the analog stick."
Fuck you. No, no, really. Fuck you. I get that some of you whippersnappers cut your teeth on the N64's analog stick and don't really understand why your controller has a plus sign on it, but as long as there are games like Pac-Man CE, Street Fighter, 2D shooters, puzzle games, or? anything remotely similar to those games coming out on any system in my console cabinet, the controller damn well better have a Dpad on it. 

I don't eat my cereal with a snow shovel, and ??I don't play shmups and puzzle games with an analog stick??. 

"...But you're old. Isn't the analog stick more like an old arcade joystick?"
LOL. No.

"Nintendo owns the patent on the Dpad, so Microsoft couldn't give it a good one."
Bullshit. I'm no expert on what Nintendo does or does not hold the rights to, but maybe you should take a look through your controller drawer. See all those Dp?ads? Yeah, they're all the same on the inside. Refer to the above picture. That's basically how it works. Even on the shitty third-party ones. If Nintendo owns that design, they're sharing it with everyone on the planet but Microsoft.

"Stop bitching and use a third-party controller."
You know what's really sad? When the p??iece of shit, $20, GameStop-brand, no-name knockoff, made-in-Taiwan-and-sold??-on-Canal-Street controller works ten times better than the one that came with your $400 system. Where is your god now?

It's sad that the controller I believe to otherwise be the best in history can't be used to play some of my favorite games. That Dpad is useless. You know it, I know it, and Microsoft knows it. So what do we do? Hope for a revision like we got with the original Xbox controller? Write them angry letters? Scream at the TV until our throats fall numb every time we lose a round of Puzzle Fighter ??for lack of decent control over the pieces? 

I'm going to make fun of it in a post on Destructo??id, that's what I'm gonna do. Talk shit about it o?n my podcast and hope someone at Microsoft hears me. Chances are they won't, but in the unlikely case that they do, I would encourage them to write me at topher-at-destructoid-dot-com and explain their fuckuppery once and for all.

So what's it?? going to be, Microsoft? Nintendo replaced countless Wiimote straps even though? there was nothing wrong with them. Sony put rumble in the Sixaxis. It's your turn, fuckers. Hop to.

The post Undeniable fa??ilure: An open letter to Microsoft on the Xbox 360 Dpad appeared first on Destructoid.

After 30 years or so of videogame history, we've seen any number of ways to connect ourselves with the virtual worlds we love to visit. Dials, knobs, sticks, button pads; we've seen it all. As the games we play have changed and mutated, so has the way?? we control those games.

Tonight we'll be discussing the best and worst controllers over the years, and the evolution from joystick to Dpad to motion control and beyond. From the finest triumphs in controller engineering, to the miserable, buttf*cking failures, we're ready to talk shop in the first of several hardware episodes we'll be bringing you this year. Hit the com?ments with your faves, and any questions you might ha??ve for us. 

The post RetroforceGO! recording episode 41 tonight: Hardware?? spec??ial #1: Controllers appeared first on Destructoid.

Joystiq has finally coaxed some words out of Jeff Gerstmann, the now notorious Gamespot editor who found himself fired after angering Eidos with the "tone" used to review Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. While he is still unable to directly talk about his firing thanks to legal issues, the reviewer-turned-martyr?? still had a few things to say about his review, about his future and about games journali?sm as a whole.

"I stand behind my work, regardless of where I do it. If there was content that I felt I ??couldn't support, it wouldn't see the light of day," Gerstmann proclaimed, before talking about the editing process. "If factual errors are made, I have no ?problem owning up to that error, correcting it, noting that a correction has been made, and feeling like an idiot for making the mistake in the first place."

Jeff touched on his future options, saying that he wasn't sure what he'd be doing next. While he's interested in games development, he feels that he still has "mor?e to say and do" on the editorial side of the industry. 

Finally, Gerstmann said that he doesn't feel games journalism is morally bankrupt, despite what the r??umors are leading people to be??lieve. All I know is that wherever Gertsmann goes next, his employers will be very, very lucky. Controversial or not, that man has become hot property right now.

The post Gerstmann still likes videogame journalism: Sp??eaks with Joystiq appeared first on Destructoid.

You've been waiting anxiously to hear this news, and we here at Destructoid are p??roud to finally break it. Originally code-named Black Belt, the Sega Dreamcast will be the first 128-bit console to hit the market, and features the NEC CLX2 processor, a 56kbps modem, and produces a mind-blowing 3 million polygons per second.

If that isn't enough to get your tongues wagging, how about 640x480 screen resolution? A game library of over 250 t??itles? A $199.99 price point? Console production coming to a screeching halt in March of 2001? If your hands are bigger than those of a four-year-old, you'll also get the added pleasure of the m??ost uncomfortable controller you've ever held in your life. Regardless, I anticipate liking this console enough to still have it as part of my gaming rig in the distant future, say 2007 or so. 

[Via a certain other gaming blog, known for "spinning?? you right round" with the? latest news.]

The post Sega Dreamcast scheduled for American releas??e in fall 1998 appeared first on Destructoid.

...well, you know the rest. Mad gamer scientist Alcaron gives us an excellent step by step on how to create this cool little Xbox controller mod. Not only is it cool, but it's cheap -- only $5 to make! I love seeing mods like this keeping consoles and accessories fun. It doesn't quite outcool the Triforce Wii mod, but for those of you still grumpy that the ?360 wasn't ?black in the first place, this ought to silence the little violins playing in your soul.

The post Once you go black… appeared first on Destructoid.

CheapyD, my favorite video game-based Web site operator (Oh god, don't tell Niero! He'll beat me!), has yet another hilarious sto?ry about the Wiimote going on a rampage and smashing high-end electronics to bits.

This time, instead of a fancy television, the vi??ctim was a laptop, in the prime of its life. It is survived by two kids, and a USB thumb drive.

The incident went down almost exactly like the other one; stupid guy thinks he's too cool for proper Wiimote strap usage, Wiimote disagrees, Wiimote smashes his stuff. I can only imagine the geniuses at Fox News are busily writing up a report on how the Wiimote is a menace and kills 15 kids every week, and if we don't stop this menace, the terrorists have already won somehow!

The DToid staff has already had our Wiimotes surgically implanted in our forearms to prevent slippage, but what about you guys? Do you actually use the stra?p, or are you a moron only moments away from the loss of a beloved display unit? 

The post Wiimote strikes again! appeared first on Destructoid.