Which Joystick would you recommend?
 

Sure this has been asked quite a bit already.

Back when I played IL-2 I had a microsoft sidewinder FFB1, it worked great for me. However with windows 7 it doesn't really work well (nor the FFB) because of the lack of supported drivers and things.

So I recently got rise of flight to tide me over til CoD is out here in the states and I REALLY am going to have to get a joystick for both games, just no question about it.

I was looking around searching for them. I'd like to get a FFB that works under Win7, but it seems that there's not any that really competes in terms of the price that the sidewinder was. All of the current ones that offer it are pretty expensive.

So scratching that I was first looking at Saitek's x52, but heard a lot of people complain that the precison was off a bit in the middle and the quality is a bit lacking.

Then comes the two i'm stuck at right now. The CH Fighterstick, and the TM Cougar.

Which one of these would you suggest? I heard something about needing to mod cougars or do something? don't really have the time or patience for it, are they not good out of the box?

CH seems to be good quality (lot of people saying they last forever without breaking/problems) but the design looks a little old, but I don't care if it's a good stick and works fine with everything.

So, can't decide lol.

look on ebay for a good used "Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 USB"

i use Mircosoft FFB2 and love it had it since 2000 in my days of CFS and IL2 works fine on Win7 64, But i did just buy the x52 just waiting for it to get here and i can give you feedback on it by the weekend.

CH all the way, work straight out of the box, precise accurate and SMOOTH control, virtually indestructible , built like brick outhouses, (CH make all sorts of military control systems for weapons manufacturers and it shows in the engineering of these controllers).
I have had all 3 Fighterstick-Pro-Throttle-Pro-Pedals for over eight years and they have never missed a beat and are as smooth and accurate now as the day they were taken out of the box, HIGHLY reccomended. :-)

They'll still be going strong when all the Saitek/Logitech/Thrustmaster stuff is in land-fill ;)


MS FFB2 is a good buy too....just watch for faulty switches (weak point).

CH fighterstick
(with modified springs as explained here)

I still haven't gotten a joystick to work. Neither my Logitech nor Saitek will function. I have updated software, disabled the HID option in control panel, unplugged, replugged, etc, etc....Does anyone have the same problem??

Disable ALL the HID options(for the keyboard), you must remove any virtual device drivers, for my keyboard alone there were maybe 4 or 5 that I needed to disable.

I have 6 HID interfaces, two each for my throttle, pedals, stick; there was nothing for the k/b.... :(

This only refers to Saitek Gaming keyboard drivers....not your controller drivers.
The common factor for people was they all had Saitek Gaming Keyboards.

Joystick Configuration
 

I have a Saitek AV8R-01 Joystick. Will the "Cliffs of Dover" allow me to set up it up? Can it be set up like CFS2,CFS3.

What I am asking is it "Joystick Friendly?"