Joystick for flying

[Laeritides]

Do any of you use a joystick to fly with? How well do they work? What is a good one to purchase?

[Glaynor]

The joystick doesn't work well at all. The mouse and keyboard are definitely the way to go. There was actually a problem a while ago with the joystick working correctly. To be honest, I think that 100% of the players use mouse and keyboard.

[Jagd]

Mapping joystick buttons is buggy as hell, and the way the controls work is kind of like a chopper in that you have to "cancel" turns by moving the mouse the other direction to negate your last turn. This is completely anti-intuitive for a joystick, because it is already designed to center itself (pull to the middle) and it gets really disorienting to use it on PS aircraft where you have to manually do this yourself. You turn right, then the joystick centres itself but the aircraft doesn't so then you have to steer hard left again... It just goes against the physics in every single other game you've played with a joystick so yeah, stick with the mouse.

[Happy lil Elf]

Joystick support for PS, to put it mildly, blows. If you want to play some fun games with a joystick go check out the Mechwarrior series or an actual Flight sim.

As far as what is good I personally look for something with a large base and a decent amount of weight so I can set it on my knee. So once my Sidewinder finally crapped out on me I did a little research and the bes thing I found was the Sidewinder Force Feedback 2. I didn't really want a force feedback joystick, but nearly all of the reviews I had read stated it was a very durable stick and had a long lifetime but it was also a bit more than I had planned to pay (I think it was around $80ish). Well I bought it anyways since I was currently playing both X-Wing Alliance and Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries and both of those are a tad gay without a joystick. Definately not sorry I bought it. It sits perfectly in my lap or on a knee, the weight of the thing keeps the base from slipping or anything and the control on it has been very precise.

[Hamma]

Someday they will build in full joystick support, until then keyboard it is.

[I Hate Pants]

Another game for joystick support is BF1942. Flying the planes with a joystick is the best!