Thrustmaster FireStorm Dual Power 3 Gamepad (2960630)

List Price: $29.99

Features:

• The two analog mini-stick controllers enable players to control movement along four different axes
• Improved, more responsive 8-way D-pad
• 12 programmable buttons for better gaming and quicker response time
• Twin built-in motors for optimized force feedback sensations
• Rubber-textured gamepad for maximum comfort

Customer Reviews:

Solid, comfortable, dependable. [Posted on 2003-08-19]
After my old Gravis Gamepad died on me after 2 years of service, I was looking for a nice replacement with some modern features. When I was controller shopping I looked for 3 things - first, I wanted a controller that felt solid in my hands. This one fit the bill perfectly. It is heavy enough to fill your hands and not rattle, but light enough that it doesn't cause any fatigue after playing for hours. Second, I wanted a controller with responsive buttons that were within easy reach. Again after trying all the controllers on display at my local computer store, this one worked perfectly. There aren't any extraneous buttons and they fit into the highly recognizeable dual shock configuration - with the addition of two extra trigger buttons on the back. In addition I wanted a d-pad that was responsive to all 8 directions without sticking to any of the 2 major axis'.
Finally, I wanted one with two heavy duty motors. From my explorations inside the various controllers, these seemed to be the most reliable, best mounted motors in the same price range.

The only problems I had with this controller was due to the dated drivers shipped with the joypad. Just don't install the drivers off the CD. Rather go to Thrustmaster's website and download the most recent drivers right off the bat.

All in all, as I'm not one to vent my frustration on my controllers...(ie leaning on the analog sticks), I see this to be the controller to last me until I decide to go wireless.

Solid, comfortable, dependable. [Posted on 2003-08-19]
After my old Gravis Gamepad died on me after 2 years of service, I was looking for a nice replacement with some modern features. When I was controller shopping I looked for 3 things - first, I wanted a controller that felt solid in my hands. This one fit the bill perfectly. It is heavy enough to fill your hands and not rattle, but light enough that it doesn't cause any fatigue after playing for hours. Second, I wanted a controller with responsive buttons that were within easy reach. Again after trying all the controllers on display at my local computer store, this one worked perfectly. There aren't any extraneous buttons and they fit into the highly recognizeable dual shock configuration - with the addition of two extra trigger buttons on the back. In addition I wanted a d-pad that was responsive to all 8 directions without sticking to any of the 2 major axis'.
Finally, I wanted one with two heavy duty motors. From my explorations inside the various controllers, these seemed to be the most reliable, best mounted motors in the same price range.

The only problems I had with this controller was due to the dated drivers shipped with the joypad. Just don't install the drivers off the CD. Rather go to Thrustmaster's website and download the most recent drivers right off the bat.

All in all, as I'm not one to vent my frustration on my controllers...(ie leaning on the analog sticks), I see this to be the controller to last me until I decide to go wireless.

great gamepad, software needs a little help [Posted on 2004-07-08]
I did extensive research on gamepads before finally buying this one. Excluding wireless controllers because I was not interested in buying/recharging batteries time after time, I found the best 3 gamepads were the Belkin Nostromo N45, the Saitek P2500, and this one, which, by the way, is the Thrustmaster Firestorm Dual Power 3. I point out that it is the 3rd revision of Firestorm Dual Power series because many retailers fail to distinguish one from the others, and the newest controller is usually going to be the best due to corrections of errors in past versions. You can make sure the product you are buying is the Dual Power 3 by checking the Manufacturer's ID number, which is 2960630. Unfortunately, I couldn't even find that number on Thrustmaster's site. I just happened to get lucky finding a retailer with the number and with a picture of the box big enough for me to read "Dual Power 3" on the side. Anyway, on with the review.

Many reviews have noted and praised the soft material that this gamepad is made of, and I have to say I prefer it as well instead of a smooth plastic that can get slippery. Another feature that adds to one's ability to grip the controller is the addition of 2 trigger buttons on the underside of the controller. I guess the best comparison of these would be the trigger on the N64 standard controller, but the N64's trigger doesn't fit your hand like this one does. The controller fit my hands very well, and I didn't experience notable cramping during extended gameplay. The buttons are just the right size. All of them are as responsive as I would like. The Dpad is probably the best you can get for an 8 way pad, and the analog sticks have the right tension and are accurate. The rumble also felt good, and while it doesn't work in all games, it goes well in the games that do support it. Though I've only had mine for a day, I can only assume by the feel of it that if you aren't an intense gamer that slams the dpad and analog sticks around during play, this controller should last you a while.

As for the software, it was a bit tricky getting it all to work at first, but it wasn't impossible. I believe the instructions say install the programming software, Thrustmapper, first, then install the drivers. Well, before you do anything, go to Thrustmaster's site and get the latest versions of everything (drivers, software, help file, etc.) because from what I've read the software and drivers contained on the CD are outdated. Once you have all that stuff, I found that it only worked when I did the opposite of what it said: install the driver first, then install the software so that the software can recognize the existence of the controller. I was sure not to plug the controller in until after everything was done installing and rebooting. After that, the software has worked fine. It is still a bit confusing due to no documentation, but I think most of us can make it. By the way, while it isn't advertised as much as it is for other pads, this one can also assign control of mouse axes in games. Another thing not advertised much is that the profiles you make for each game can be activated automatically (when you start the games .exe) or manually. If done manually, you can actually navigate windows with the controller, but I just don't see a need to do so. My only gripe with the software so far is that I haven't found a way to map the simultaneous pressing of two keys to one button. For instance, on the dpad if the up arrow is mapped to
'w' (the forward key in most first person shooters) and the right arrow is mapped to 'd'(the strafe right key in most first person shooters), i haven't found a way to map the diagonal arrow going up to the right to 'w' + 'd'. This, while annoying, isn't a major problem for me since most games I play can make use of the left analog stick for movement instead of the dpad, but I will continue to look for the solution in any case. Other than that everthing has worked fine. I have played a few games already and it has performed how I would expect it to.

Obviously I cannot vouch for the long term durability of the controller, I can only speculate that its strong feel will last a long enough time for newer, better controllers to come out.

Overall, I'll give it a 4 because of the minor confusions in installation and the mapping problem. To be honest, from what I have read in all the reading on gamepads I have done, no one gamepad for sale today is without its flaws, and every pad I've seen will have some reviewers who praise the pad without much reason or thought, or who bash the pad because of unique problems (big hands, small hands, rough play which breaks the controller). So, take all reviews with a grain of salt. In my opinion, however, I felt this was the best I could get for the price.

Not perfect, but the best PC gamepad so far [Posted on 2005-01-26]
I've done extensive testing with many PC gamepads, including the Saitek P2500 Rumble Force Pad, the NYKO "Air Flo EX," Logitech's Dual Action Gamepad (the ubiquitous 20$ everyone seems to get from Best Buy), the Interact Hammerhead FX, and all models of Thrustmaster's Firestorm. I've used all of these pads over an extended period of time with intense use, and I heavily favor and recommend the Thrustmaster Firestorm models. Some controllers simply aren't reliable and break after only a few weeks of use (Logitech Dual Action Gamepad), while others are uncomfortable or have button configurations that, while original, tend not to be as good as the traditional PSX dual analog design (Saitek P2500, Hammerhead FX). The newly released Nyko Air Flo Ex is a nice, large controller with a cooling fan that works; unfortunately, the controller's directional pad is mediocre, the start/select buttons are very difficult to push, and the fan is annoyingly loud.

As for the Thrustmaster Firestorms, they are generally high quality game pads, have the features you'd expect to have, no more and no less, have nice analog sticks and generally nice directional pads. Note that there are many versions of the Firestorm, but I will discuss the models including analog sticks only, as most tend to expect analog stick capabilities in their gamepads. The traditional Firestorm came with a directional pad with a flat surface that the thumb could "press." Refer to the product image here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000056Q1D/

Now, the newer Firestorm models, particularly the Dual Power 3 and the wireless version, have a directional pad that's designed to make your finger lean to the desired direction rather than press it. Refer to the product image here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008ZLHK/

I suppose this makes moving around the pad easier, similar to that of an analog stick, but it makes pressing one single direction, such as "left" error prone -- you often get down-left or up-left. This, subsequently, makes it impossible to "tap" a direction accurately. Keep this in mind when purchasing one of their pads, because if extreme accuracy in the directional pad is a consideration, then you might want to choose an earlier model. To the newer dpad's credit, I have been unable to wear out of one of these dpads, while I was able to wear out one of the older versions.

Also, a warning about the wireless version of the Firestorm: it's behavior is erratic at best. Note that my comments are based on the controller's performance with fully charged batteries and with the controller directly next to its wireless base. There is a slight lag between pressing a button and having it registered by the base; this is probably to be expected, but is unacceptable in some games. The problem is exacerbated if it's the first button you've pressed in awhile, because the controller "powers off" and must "power on" again when you press your next button, which takes a second and sometimes your button press is lost. A better model would be to explicitly set the controller to "on" so that it is always transmitting and doesn't have to detect when the user is no longer using it. This is done by the official Nintendo Gamecube wireless controllers and works quite well. if you must have wireless, I must recommend that you look towards other vendors' wireless models.

Linux: the Firestorm controllers in particular work well in Linux; they have no troublesome features, like shift buttons or turbo switches, that are sometimes not supported in Linux.

The Best PC Joypad I've used!! [Posted on 2005-08-06]
It's probably one of the best joypads periods,including consoles, too. I purchased a FireStorm Dual Power3 Gamepad by a friend's recommendation.
Not only is the joypad quite reasonably priced, the material from which the exterior design, including the buttons and the analogues is extremely polished.

The analogues are clickable. That's a huge plus, as it provides you with two more buttons even if you're playing some classic games. I also like the two L and R buttons. They are quite comfortablly reachable. Although I feel the L2 and R2 feel a little bit loose, they're still responsive.

the D-Pad took some time for me to get used to. Now that I have, it feels very comfortable and provides decent precision. After hours of playing, I'm pleased to say that it didn't give me any blisters, unlike the infamous PS1 and PS2 joypads.

Altogether you have 4 face buttons, two, clickable analogues, similar in placement to those of PS2 but much more comfortable, the traditional D-pad, four shoulder buttons, and also two back buttons that can be very useful-I imagine. I must say I still haven't gotten a game that required those button, though.

In the End, I highly recommend this Joypad.

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