Review by:
Blood
September 2, 2001
There comes a
time in every young boy's life when he must take
that final step and become a man. This time is
usually when he gets his first force feedback
joystick. I have long been a proponent of force
feedback technology. I started with a force
feedback joystick, then moved on to a force
feedback mouse. With these hefty credentials
behind me I was ready to test the Gravis Destroyer
Aftershock.
Let's start on
the outside and work our way in. The Aftershock
Destroyer is a beautiful joystick. The four
buttons are well placed, with one trigger and
three top buttons. The throttle and the eight-way POV hat are also well placed for easy and quick
use. I wrapped my hand around the joystick and was
pleased to see it fit very well, and was
comfortable in my grip.
The manual
that comes with the joystick is in depth and
contains ample information that's easy to find. This is a
boon to those who would really like to learn more
about a product, and to those experts who just
need a quick question answered.
I then moved
on to the installation. The Xperience software
from Gravis was the first driver software that
actually had a little face talking to me guiding
me through every step of the installation process.
Being a veteran at installing stuff, I found it
novel but nothing to get excited about. However, if
you are new to installing things on a computer it
would be extremely helpful.
The software
allows users to load and use settings for many of
the popular games on the market, and to program
and create your own settings for other games. This
feature allows you to switch games on the fly
without having to spend a lot of time
reprogramming buttons if you want to change games.
After the
software installation I plugged the joystick into
the USB port. I opened the joystick software to
see what the Gravis Aftershock Destroyer had to
offer. The software allows users to program any of
the buttons to conform to the commands of any
game, the joystick also allows the user to program
forces into the joystick for games that don't
support force feedback. The joystick has a
Precision button on' the back base of the
joystick. This button allows the original four
buttons to be programmed for additional uses
effectively making this an eight button joystick.
The precision button also gives the user fine
control for those stick moments when a little
finesse is needed.
After playing
with the software a little bit and programming my
buttons, I loaded up a few force feedback games I
had. As I ran through my cadre of games I began to
notice a common theme that disturbed me a little
bit. Don't get me wrong, the joystick handled
beautifully, but what I noticed was that the forces from
the force feedback weren't as strong as I wish
they could have been. Since the joystick wasn't
self powered, and relied on the USB port for power
the forces were a bit weak for my taste. Aside
from that minor drawback, the forces from the games
were everything I could have hoped for. The
missiles felt like missiles, the guns felt like
guns, and all the little extras anyone would
expect from a good force feedback joystick.
The real
selling point for me however was the price.
Searching around the internet I noticed the common
price for the Destroyer Aftershock Rumble Joystick
was a paltry $29.99, finally putting force feedback
technology at a reasonable price range.
PROs
-
Excellent
software suite that gives the user control over
nearly every aspect of the joystick.
-
Well
designed, ergonomic stick, allowing the user to
have a comfortable gaming session.
-
Excellent
Force Feedback, the forces feel real.
-
Very
affordable.
CONs
Looking at all
the factors to consider, this is an excellent
joystick at an excellent price. Go out and buy
yours today!
Available at
Kensington.com and
Yahoo! Shopping.
You can also
checkout Gravis'
official website.
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