What a disappointment...
Written: Apr 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Rumble support, lots of buttons, three methods of control
Cons: None of them work
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| Seanster's Full Review: Interact HammerHead FX Gamepad |
The Hammerhead FX was supposed to be the first of a new breed of force-feedback gamepads. Before, the force feedback arena was firmly held by joysticks. The Hammerhead is the first gamepad to feature force feedback. But judging from the results of my experience, maybe we are better off without it.
The Hammerhead FX has quite a few buttons. It has dual analog mini-sticks, and a traditional D-Pad. I has 6 standard buttons, two flippers, and two buttons underneath. It also has a rumble On/Off button and a profile editor button. The hardware is good, and it looks like a great gaming experience. The analog sticks are responsive and fast. The pad is nicely contoured for my hand. But everything goes bad from there.
First, of all, the software is horrendous to install. I would install it and it wouldn't detect the joystick. I got it to work, but only after hours of frustrated rebooting. The software installed is extremely buggy, as well. Most of my games just didn't recognize it or recognized it as a standard joystick. The ones that did recognize it had some serious problems. The graphics would be extremely jerky and inconsistent when I used it, but when I used a keyboard, it was fine. The lower right under-button doesn't work very well for most of my games. None of the games recognized the D-Pad.
One of the most serious problems is the problem with the feature that is supposed to be the revolution of gaming: the rumble. If I attempt to turn the rumble off, whether in software or with the On/Off button, the computer no longer recognizes the pad. I have to unplug it and plug it back in before it does. Also, when I do the rumble testing in the GamePads icon in Windows, it rumbles for one second before ceasing to rumble. It doesn't rumble again after that. For the $50 that I spent on this, it should have come with a battery adapter. But, noooo. You have to buy it directly from them. This pad eats batteries faster than my old speakers did.
The software is really bad. The profile editor is next to useless and it causes conflicts when I configure the pad from the game. I have yet to find a game that recognizes the D-Pad. Even the second analog isn't recognized. I can't play anything that doesn't support DirectX. With all the flaws and missing features, it turns this "revolutionary" gamepad into a 10-button joystick.
If you have a lot of patience, a game that needs lots of buttons, and no DOS games, then you might want to cautiously give this a try. Otherwise, don't waste any money on this twisted heap of plastic to store it in the closet.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Seanster
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Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 2 members
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