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Wingman Force 3D
By Robert MitchellArticle Type: Hardware
Article Date: November 09, 2001
Installation
I opened the box and I was pleasantly surprised at the weight of it, as well as its appearance. It’s identical to the Wingman Extreme Digital reviewed here in both its appearance and its button/hatswitch/throttle lever layout. The difference in the two sticks being the Force Feedback function, and the Wingman Force 3D that I used is a USB only connection.
Wingman Force 3D
The stick sports the following features:Installation was a breeze; I simply put the CD in the tray and followed the directions that appeared onscreen. After installing the drivers and a quick reboot, Windows recognized the stick immediately. Calibration was a snap, however the twist handle rudder showed a tendency to stay slightly out of center. After updating the drivers from Logitech’s website to version 4.11, that problem disappeared.
- 7 easily programmable buttons
- Rapid-fire trigger
- 8-way hat switch
- Twist handle (This can be locked)
- Throttle
- Force Feedback
- USB connection
- Heavy base with no-slip rubber feet
I decided to dive in right away and see what force feedback was all about. I fired up MiG Alley, turned on the Force Feedback effects in the game settings menu, and went on a quick ‘hot shot’ mission.
In-Game Experience
Wow! I quickly found that it was one thing to see the buffeting effect from pulling high G’s in my F-86, and hearing the buffeting and structural creaking sound effects. But it’s quite another to actually feel it in your hand. This was going to take some getting used to, but it really did make it feel more immersive and cued me to what my aircraft was doing much sooner than I’d have known from video and sound effects alone. The stick I used made an annoying buzzing sound at times, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t live with.
In addition to the force feedback effects I found that axis input is very sensitive, much more sensitive than I’m used to, but very exact too. I can definitely see the benefits to digital joysticks, despite my being an old-school-analog-take-the-jittery-pots-out-and-clean-them kinda guy. The twist handle for the rudder worked much better in actual practice than I expected. It’s not so easy to twist that you’ll accidentally apply rudder, but it’s not so stiff that you’ll get a sore wrist from using a lot of rudder in long dogfights either.
Look and Feel
I went into the Wingman Profiler tools and turned down the sensitivity settings for the X and Y axes considerably to make the feel more to my liking. I also increased the spring tension percentage to its maximum. The availability of these options is a very nice touch, and something that I’m definitely not used to.
Turning the spring tension effect up to its max (150 percent) made it feel “notchy” somehow, as though I were pulling and pushing the stick through a series of gears, which I may well be doing, but you don’t feel that sensation when the tension is turned down to around 125 percent or below.
Adjustable options
The button layout was very well done. The placement of them in two sets of two on either side of the 8-way hat is excellent, and you’ll be able to find them with ease in the heat of battle. The two on the base are large and easy to find by feel. But I found that I’d accidently press button #6 more often than I’d have cared for. I’m pretty sure that with more time spent with this stick that won’t be a problem though.
Logitech's Wingman Profiler
Programming
I was very impressed with the Wingman Profiler software. You can quite easily assign functions to the buttons, hatswitch, and the trigger by either writing your own profile from scratch or by downloading pre-written profiles from the internet and loading them into your stick. Either way, as much as I love my Thrustmaster gear, the Wingman Profiler software makes it a whole lot easier to configure your joystick for your favorite games than old-school users like me are used to.
Overall Impressions
For a price of $59.99 The Wingman Force 3D is the cheapest Force Feedback joystick on the market. With it’s easy installation, clean, good looks, easy to use profiling software, plus the very immersive force feedback effects, this stick is a sure winner for someone wanting a comfortable feeling and very functional force feedback for a reasonable price.
Wingman Force 3D
