I'm currently playing 1946 with a pad, and while it's almost certainly nothing like what I'll get out of it once I get a decent HOTAS setup it's certainly functional. Rudder on the triggers, left stick-click to centre view, right stick-click toggles gunsight view, throttles on the shoulder buttons as well as mousewheel so I can use right rudder on takeoff while increasing throttle, and armaments on the A/B/X/Y buttons suits me well.

I have no doubt gamepads work for flight games and FPS. As you point out, it's not the best tool for the job.

I could use a hammer to kill flies, but I'd rather use a fly swatter. It is just that much less frustrating to kill the fly with the proper tool. Plus the hammer leaves holes in the wall - much like a gamepad would if I ever tried to play FPS games with it.

Microsoft, Sony and game developers essentially force me to "kill flies with a hammer" by only giving me the option of using the gamepad for FPS and Birds of Prey (considering the poor flight stick support right now).

I will be shocked and impressed if the patch allows me to use my TM16000 and assign any function to any button/axis. The game may get some play time if that occurs.

omg are there really people who still think fps is only for mouse and keyboard?

grow up
BTW
This game (il2 birds of prey) lacks a good 80 percent of the commands of a full flight sim such as 1946. Thus playing the game with a joystick is not really going to give you any sort of edge , especially when the new patch hits (half trigger will give you cockpit view control)

If we are talking a fully set up flight sim like 1946 , keyboard and joystick would be needed for full simulation of the airplane (fuel mixtures ect.) But this patch is not adding any of those simulation aspects thus the entire point of adding keyboard support is a pretty big waste of time for anyone involved.

like i said earlier , if you can handle controlling a plane with a mixture of key strokes and inputs from a joystick , you should have absolutely no issue with using a controller like everyone else.

Its my opinion that the developers wasted a good amount of time with QA testing and legalities of enabling keyboard and pc flight stick support (every flight stick company would have to be contacted) When all they had to do was test a simple change in some code .

Now the 360 version is completely murdered , i have been attempting to join games nonstop for the past 3 days and have joined 1 room with 1 other player in it.

I dont care what any of you say , i know you love anton and his crew , but there is something disgustingly wrong with having a hugely successful game waiting to get patched for like 3 months because they want to add controllers to 1 version of the game that doesnt even need it. All the while both versions are not functioning properly and people are trading the game in

Are PS3's non-existant in your world or something?

what?

read my post again

Cut the bs. I think almost everyone here have heard your whining of this same thing weeks now. Thats fine if you had said this once or two, but this just makes you sound stupid, i'm sorry. Patch is coming and you cannot do anything about it. I'm gonna enjoy this game with keyboard and stick. And I think i'm not the only one. This game is good with pad, but if they give us opportunity to have more, why not.

Ahh, ur right. I mis-read. My bad.

Actually you need to grow up. If you like to use gamepads, then you should be able to use them. I can't stand playing games with them, so I should have an alternative - such as wheels, flight sticks, and yes - a mouse and keyboard.

And yes, a flight stick gives you an edge if it is properly implemented. A short thumb activated analogue stick is not as precise as a longer stick that you control with your entire hand.

Again, if you like using the gamepad, then YOU keep using it. I refuse to play games that force me to use one unless it makes sense for the game type.

Such great news - thanks guys for listening. I will be back in the skies on the dsay of the patch and pay for the DLC

Does anyone know if a cockpit only option is being added in the patch?