I'm a fairly heavy gamer and have used this joystick for one to two hours every night since I bought it a month ago. Overall so far I am impressed with this joystick. It is very accurate and responsive, the buttons are good and the whole thing feels comfortable and I think it's a great buy.

Pros: usb connector and that's it, no extra power adaptor needed. Has Twist for rudder control and throttle both responsive and accurate. Lots of buttons you can configure for single key presses. Flush thumb button is great. Small/non existent dead zone, as soon as you start moving the joystick it responds.

Cons: Buttons only do single key presses no macro's. it seems to be developing a dead spot as one of the springs has loosened slightly (I guess I turn right more than left) but this hasn't effected it's accuracy. No trim function (not that I've needed one so far). The two top buttons near the hat switch are a fraction too small and you have to stretch with your thumb to press them.

I wanted to go for a non force feedback joystick this time and springs did feel a little strange to me initially as I was used to the resistance building up as I moved the joystick further, whereas the springs have a more constant force (which I guess is good) at all angles.

The micro switches on all of the buttons feel good and hopefully they won't wear out as fast as the ones on other joysticks I've had.

I got this control stick about 4 years ago and I've never had a problem with it, though I use it infrequently I find that each time I come back to it, it provides all the necessary buttons and binding options for whatever sim game I'm running. The positioning of the buttons on the left hand side on the base of the unit could have had a little more thought put in to their placement, but it is an obstacle soon over come and doesn't interfere with game play.

The cost of this control stick is it well worth it, it might not be as flash as the Cyborg control stick or have the options of countless adjustments available to the position of the grip etc. But from experience I found those features on other models to be not worth the extra cost, further more I only got myself this control stick to replace a Cyborg model that broke because of the ability to be adjusted.

I've been using this joystick on Flight Simulator X for about five months or so. And for that period of time, I couldn't fault it. The throttle response was very accurate - even to the slightest touch - and the same applied for the rudder and aileron controls. There are plenty of buttons on the base of the controller too, that you can customize using the provided software, which is also very useful.

So having got used to the controller, I decided to let my six year old nephew have a go with it for about an hour. He said that he had no problems with it and he also said that he hadn't broken it. Which made me think that something was wrong with it. So I tried it myself. And sure enough there was. Once I was ready to take off from a runway, I notice that when I pulled the joystick towards me to lift off from the runway, nothing happened. And then a few seconds later, it would mimic my last movements. The problem progressed when I eventually got in the air, and for no apparent reason, the plane I was flying would plummet back down to the ground - me having no say in what it was doing of course. This has gradually got worse to the point where it is pointless trying to use it.

I don't know myself what has caused the problem, but I'm currently looking on the Internet for similar problems and a possible solution. It's a shame really because it was a very good joystick, but perhaps there is an issue over the reliability/quality of the product.

I bought this joystick thinking it would be excellent, and it looked pretty too. Thats all it does. Mine has serious calibration issues, the buttons are poorly placed and it's just not worth it. This joystick is barley an improvement on the Attack 3 Joystick I was using.

Im sending this one back and buying a Saitek joystick, I suggest anybody else thinking of buying this spends that [..] more to get a Cyborg EVO joystick.

I have had this joystick for a year now and it is simply brilliant.

The controls dont get stuck and the throttle has pinpoint accuracy. I use for IL-2 sturmovik (Highly recommended PC game) and it is perfect. It really helps give a sense of realism to all flight sims and is superb value for money.