When I decided to set up a second system at home for some LAN gaming, I knew that a second gamepad wasn't far away. I don't use joysticks because I could never get used to handling them, they just felt awkward.

I got this one at a bargain, about $15 from Onvia with free shipping. The first thing I noticed was how big it was. Compared to my Microsoft Sidewinder, the Logitech has a noticeably wider grip. The D-pad is also oddly positioned. Playing Need For Speed High Stakes is no fun with this pad because the D-pad is not centered around the natural position of my thumb when holding the pad, rather it is angled to the right. This makes right-turns and going forward an unnecessary hassle. In MDK 2 however, these quirks were less annoying. I also didn't quite like the tactile response of the buttons. Whereas the Sidewinder has soft-touch, quite, responsive buttons, the Wingman's were slightly resistive and mildly noisy.

The good thing about this pad is that it offers you the option to install it as a USB device or connect it to the sound card's gameport. Unfortunately, the USB feature still forces you to restart during the installation and I just couldn't get it to work on my K6-2 system, though it worked flawlessly on my Athlon system. But like I said, I had the option of using it as a gameport device and in that mode it worked on the K6-2. The pad is also much lighter than the sidewinder, and the bundled drivers are the most polished and feature-rich I've seen for a 'plain' gamepad. It also features 11 customisable buttons (one more than the Sidewinder).

Despite the shortcomings the pad works well. And unlike the Sidewinder, which would disconnect in the middle of a game if you accidentally pressed the mode button, the Wingman was always detected by the system. But to be honest, if I could have got a Sidewinder from Onvia for the same price, I probably would've taken it.



Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 15