[ Home | About Us | Games | Software | News | Playstation | Hardware | Charts ]
PRODUCT REVIEWED: Raptor 3D
RELEASED BY: Primax
PRICE: £29.99
REVIEWED BY: G-String
REVIEW: -
The Raptor 3D boasts a lot of features. So without any further ado I'll give you the list.
It's got autolock firing buttons and a 3D, 40º-rotation angle grip. It's got four of these autolock firing buttons on the grip itself and has another four on the base. It's also got an adjustable throttle and a 360º hat switch. A hat switch is like a little miniature teeny weeny joystick on the handle that's controlled by your thumb. This can allow you to look up and down, left and right in many flying games, while still flying the aircraft. It's also got a turbo button.
The gamestick is accompanied by GameSuite 98 software which gives you lots of programming possibilities.
What this means is that there are four buttons on the grip and four buttons on the base. The four buttons on the base determine whether your four buttons on the grip are autofire or single fire. The hat switch is handy for 'checking your six' (looking behind you) or for watching bogies at 3 and 9 o'clock. The throttle simply controls your speed.
The joystick has a pleasant design and shape. the base is like a curvy triangle shape (almost). This grip is excellently designed, with a ledge to rest your wrist on and another for you thumb. They were the perfect size and shape for my hands, so I never got any aches or pains through using it. On the ledge where you can rest your thumb is a button (no. 4) and this is quite annoying at times. When doing evasive manoeuvres, you tend to grip the joystick more firmly, in which case, I press the button with my thumb, unintentionally releasing a few bombs or firing a missile. While on the subject of the buttons, they do have an annoying clicking sound. This isn't as bad as the really cheap joysticks, but it is not as good as other joysticks I've encountered.
I didn't particularly like the throttle. I found it hard to control and too small. It's only about 2.5cm long. This means that if you shudder or twitch while moving it, you could change your speed dramatically, which is not good. Not good at all. The response of the joystick was incredible. I found myself veering off to the right all the time, and was calibrating the joystick over and over again, only to find that it was me resting too much pressure on the right side of the stick. This shows how responsive it is. The Gamesuite 98 software just installs the drivers for you - that's all.
So, all in all this joystick is very responsive and accurate. But, it does have a small throttle and annoying, clicking buttons. A fair enough joystick from Primax, maybe a Raptor 3D Pro in the future?
SCORE:
82%
LINKS: www.primax.co.uk