THRUSTMASTER Thrustmaster FireStorm Dual Power Gamepad

Rating:
Summary: Solid, comfortable, dependable.
Review: After my old Gravis Gamepad died on me after 2 years of service, I was looking for a nice replacement with some modern features. When I was controller shopping I looked for 3 things - first, I wanted a controller that felt solid in my hands. This one fit the bill perfectly. It is heavy enough to fill your hands and not rattle, but light enough that it doesn't cause any fatigue after playing for hours. Second, I wanted a controller with responsive buttons that were within easy reach. Again after trying all the controllers on display at my local computer store, this one worked perfectly. There aren't any extraneous buttons and they fit into the highly recognizeable dual shock configuration - with the addition of two extra trigger buttons on the back. In addition I wanted a d-pad that was responsive to all 8 directions without sticking to any of the 2 major axis'.
Finally, I wanted one with two heavy duty motors. From my explorations inside the various controllers, these seemed to be the most reliable, best mounted motors in the same price range.

The only problems I had with this controller was due to the dated drivers shipped with the joypad. Just don't install the drivers off the CD. Rather go to Thrustmaster's website and download the most recent drivers right off the bat.

All in all, as I'm not one to vent my frustration on my controllers...(ie leaning on the analog sticks), I see this to be the controller to last me until I decide to go wireless.

Rating:
Summary: great gamepad, software needs a little help
Review: I did extensive research on gamepads before finally buying this one. Excluding wireless controllers because I was not interested in buying/recharging batteries time after time, I found the best 3 gamepads were the Belkin Nostromo N45, the Saitek P2500, and this one, which, by the way, is the Thrustmaster Firestorm Dual Power 3. I point out that it is the 3rd revision of Firestorm Dual Power series because many retailers fail to distinguish one from the others, and the newest controller is usually going to be the best due to corrections of errors in past versions. You can make sure the product you are buying is the Dual Power 3 by checking the Manufacturer's ID number, which is 2960630. Unfortunately, I couldn't even find that number on Thrustmaster's site. I just happened to get lucky finding a retailer with the number and with a picture of the box big enough for me to read "Dual Power 3" on the side. Anyway, on with the review.

Many reviews have noted and praised the soft material that this gamepad is made of, and I have to say I prefer it as well instead of a smooth plastic that can get slippery. Another feature that adds to one's ability to grip the controller is the addition of 2 trigger buttons on the underside of the controller. I guess the best comparison of these would be the trigger on the N64 standard controller, but the N64's trigger doesn't fit your hand like this one does. The controller fit my hands very well, and I didn't experience notable cramping during extended gameplay. The buttons are just the right size. All of them are as responsive as I would like. The Dpad is probably the best you can get for an 8 way pad, and the analog sticks have the right tension and are accurate. The rumble also felt good, and while it doesn't work in all games, it goes well in the games that do support it. Though I've only had mine for a day, I can only assume by the feel of it that if you aren't an intense gamer that slams the dpad and analog sticks around during play, this controller should last you a while.

As for the software, it was a bit tricky getting it all to work at first, but it wasn't impossible. I believe the instructions say install the programming software, Thrustmapper, first, then install the drivers. Well, before you do anything, go to Thrustmaster's site and get the latest versions of everything (drivers, software, help file, etc.) because from what I've read the software and drivers contained on the CD are outdated. Once you have all that stuff, I found that it only worked when I did the opposite of what it said: install the driver first, then install the software so that the software can recognize the existence of the controller. I was sure not to plug the controller in until after everything was done installing and rebooting. After that, the software has worked fine. It is still a bit confusing due to no documentation, but I think most of us can make it. By the way, while it isn't advertised as much as it is for other pads, this one can also assign control of mouse axes in games. Another thing not advertised much is that the profiles you make for each game can be activated automatically (when you start the games .exe) or manually. If done manually, you can actually navigate windows with the controller, but I just don't see a need to do so. My only gripe with the software so far is that I haven't found a way to map the simultaneous pressing of two keys to one button. For instance, on the dpad if the up arrow is mapped to
'w' (the forward key in most first person shooters) and the right arrow is mapped to 'd'(the strafe right key in most first person shooters), i haven't found a way to map the diagonal arrow going up to the right to 'w' + 'd'. This, while annoying, isn't a major problem for me since most games I play can make use of the left analog stick for movement instead of the dpad, but I will continue to look for the solution in any case. Other than that everthing has worked fine. I have played a few games already and it has performed how I would expect it to.

Obviously I cannot vouch for the long term durability of the controller, I can only speculate that its strong feel will last a long enough time for newer, better controllers to come out.

Overall, I'll give it a 4 because of the minor confusions in installation and the mapping problem. To be honest, from what I have read in all the reading on gamepads I have done, no one gamepad for sale today is without its flaws, and every pad I've seen will have some reviewers who praise the pad without much reason or thought, or who bash the pad because of unique problems (big hands, small hands, rough play which breaks the controller). So, take all reviews with a grain of salt. In my opinion, however, I felt this was the best I could get for the price.

Rating:
Summary: Snap!!!
Review: The d-pad on this thing broke off after 3 months. This thing is fairly useless.