BEWARE: Cheap construction.
Written: May 14 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great contour and feel. Excellent button positioning and D-pad is unmatched.
Cons: Worst construction of any $40 controller I have ever seen.
The Bottom Line: The BEST controller on the market in terms of playability and control. But very poorly constructed buttons and D-pads.
|
|
|
| badhmash's Full Review: Gravis Xterminator Digital Game GamePad |
I am a die-hard fan of the National Hockey League. I love hockey and everything associated with it. AS a result, I have played every single NHL series video game that EA Sports has released since 1991-1992 on both Nintendo and the PC. As you might guess, the problem with playing on the PC used to be that there were no adequate game controllers. All we had access to were joysticks that could be used in flight sims.
Eventually, Gravis came out with the original gamepad, which mimmicked the Super NES controller. It was a welcomed addition to the PC but it had many problems. It was very poorly constructed and it was analog so you really could not do what you wanted to when you wanted to because of a lack of precision.
I knew then that I needed a gamepad for the NHL games and soon Gravis came out with the Xterminator.
This gamepad fit into my hands just perfectly. It is very well contoured and the buttons are well placed. It takes some getting used to because it is slightly bigger than most controllers out there but once you get the hang of it you will never turn back to that crusty joystick.
It has 13 buttons, a throttle control, an 3 directional pads. It comes in both serial and USB configurations and of course comes with the Xperience software which allows you to program every single button and even program macros (for special moves and things of that nature).
The pad also comes with Madden 2000 (full version) which is really nice. To top it off, Gravis technical support is an absolute gem. They are very courteous and helped me every time I called.
Now why would I give it only 3 stars? Well, because I was forced to use that tech support line far too often.
It seems that although the Xterminator is a great gamepad that offers excellent control in games, the problem is that it is made of cheap plastic and quite frankly, the buttons are very flimsy.
I went through FOUR of these things in about 1 year and I am about to lose my last one. My two roommates each have gone through 2 as well.
It is unfortunate that I have finally found a product that I really have no problems with and it ends up being a negatively rated item because of its construction.
I cannot recommend the Xterminator based on the fact that if you are a hardcore gamer, you will go through these things like crazy.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 39.00
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
badhmash
|
|
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 12 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.