Mechwarrior 4 joystick recommendations?

[Fausto]

From what I gather, this game is way easier to play with a joystick. Could anyone give me some ideas as to which ones work best and why?

Thanks,
Fausto

 

[Vadatajs]

I don't know about mechwarrior 4, but the others benefit greatly from a z axis. Make sure that the handle twists when you are looking at joysticks.

 

[RudeBoie]

I would use a MS Sidewinder Precision Pro.

Has eveything you need:
Z Axis/rudder- for rotating the turret
Hat- used for looking around
Plenty of buttons
Throttle

also a very comfortable feel for right handers......so if you're left, you can't use it

 

[MustangSVT]

if u want a cheap and pretty good USB joystick, you can get one at office depot. they are selling Gravis, (firesomething i thnk) for $5.

i have one and its an OK normal joystick, and works well on USB.
it has 4 buttons, throttle controls and soemthing called precision button that'll make the movements much slower making it more precise...

but it does NOT have that Z-axis control, you might want to get one of those since it'll be much easier with torso control.

 

[Paladin]

MS Sidewinder Precision Pro is great. That's what I used when I used to play it.

 

[taylor34]

Have you tried the mouse/keyboard combo? That's ten times easier than the joystick in mech 4. Use the arrows to move, mouse to aim the torso. A joystick won't give you the aiming control you need. Just my opinion from someone who's tried both.

Taylor34

 

[bevancoleman]

I used to play MW 3 with a joystick/mouse combo, joystick for moving and weapons selections, etc and mouse for aiming and firing. I found that to be the best for me.

I used a Wingman 3d Extreme, fairly old by todays standards but a very nice feeling joystick. None of the new joysticks I've looked at have had quite the solid feel this one has.

I beleive MS P Pro joysticks are fully digital and don't need adjusting like most other joysticks.

 

[darthur]

I use the MS Precision 2 joystick in MW4&BK.

A big bonus is that you can control almost everything you need to do with the mech from the Joystick. Basically there are 11 different functions that you can have the joystick do.

On the negative side, there have been some issues with broken triggers. I have not had a problem but a couple of my team mates on-line have had to replace the trigger after a relatively short amount of time.

 

[Fausto]

Thanks for the replys guys. I ended up ordering a Logitech Dig Extreme 3D joystick as it has the z-axis function and was fairly cheap. There are just so damn many commands in MW4 (as well as needing to have a finger on the throttle all the time) that a JS seemed like the way to go.

Fausto

 

[Lalakai]

sounds like you've already chosen, but also consider a js that has several programable buttons; makes life alot easier. In past mechwarrior games, I went the same route as Taylor34, using a mouse/js combo which gives you excellent aiming capabilities. Current joy stick is the ms Sidewinder Force Feedback 2, but even with this one, I still use the mouse for torso twist and aiming. but the programable buttons are nice. too bad my F14 js died