What is this nonsense? A month ago I published an article about how much I suck at using PC Gamepads, and I end up having to review a gamepad? I must have angered the gods somehow, because now I have to not only write about my own personal Kryptonite, I also have to touch it. To inspect it. To actually use it. How did I get roped into something like this? Because I was offered unlimited use of the OCMS company car. How could I possibly turn down a semi-new Datsun?
Saitek has come out with a gamepad supposedly worthy enough to bring a challenge to my distaste. It’s called the Cyborg Force Rumble. It transforms. It rumbles. It has one-touch FPS mode ready to rock. But don’t let my endless rambling give away all the details. Here is some information straight from the digital horse’s mouth.
For a long time, there has been a discussion amongst gamers about which position is best for the left analogue stick on a gamepad. Some prefer the left stick to be level with the right stick, whereas others prefer it offset to the top left corner of the pad. With the Cyborg Rumble Pad, you now have the choice of either position with the revolutionary Cyborg module (Pat. Pending). At the press of a button, you can remove the Cyborg module from the pad and turn it through 180º, instantly changing the configuration of the left stick and d-pad.
The features don’t stop there though; you can also program any button on the pad to become a Precision button. Once programmed, pressing this button can affect the sensitivity of either of the analogue sticks. Having trouble hitting targets through your sniper rifle when using the analogue stick to aim? Hold the Precision button down and the response speed of the stick is reduced, making it much easier to draw a bead on your target.
The Cyborg Rumble Pad also features Saitek’s unique FPS button. We realize that many gamers (especially those used to playing on consoles) like to use their gamepads to control first person shooter games, but the majority of these games on PC do not support gamepads. To make the gamepad work in the game you need to program it using the supplied programming software. Whilst this option is still available to you, you can take all the effort out of this by pressing the FPS button on the pad. This instantly programs the pad with the keyboard and mouse commands typically used in these games, meaning you can start playing your games even quicker.
This isn’t limited just to FPS games. Instead of being forced to use your keyboard and mouse for certain games, you can use the Saitek Smart Technology software to program any part of the pad with any keyboard or mouse command. This allows you to use the pad in any game, even those that don’t support game controllers!
Finally, the Cyborg Rumble Pad also features a driver option called X-Mode. Increasingly, PC games are shipping with support for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gamepad and switching the Cyborg Rumble Pad into X-Mode configures it to work in the same way, meaning that you should have no problems.
- Reversible d-pad and left analogue stick
- FPS button
- Precision mode function
- 2 quick-fire shoulder buttons
- 2 analogue triggers
- 8-way d-pad
- 6 responsive buttons
- 2 analog joysticks
- Fully programmable
- High quality, varied rumble forces so the gamer feels closer to the action – Using Immersion© patented rumble technology for maximum compatibility with supported games.
Okay, enough of their pitch to get you to buy it. Let’s see what it’s made of. I have a couple of games I want to use this on. I was thinking that a racing game as well as an FPS would be perfect for this review, so I’m going to go with Left 4 Dead, PURE and Bioshock for PC. Here is my test machine:
- Radeon 4670 graphics w/ 512MB DDR3
- Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core Processor
- 2GB Samsung PC6400 RAM
- Seagate 320GB 7200RPM SATA HD
- Left 4 Dead
- Bioshock
- Saitek Cyborg Force Rumble PC Gamepad
The overall design of the pad is very nice; it fits nicely in my hands with easy access to all the buttons in both modes. The only thing visual I could find that didn’t tickle my fancy was the large, bright X,Y,A, and B lettering on the buttons. I find this kind of obtrusive for a gaming pad. I would expect this on something from Leapfrog, but not Saitek. Although, I must say it is easy to see them in low light, so I guess there is a rainbow here afterall.
I guess my biggest pet peeve with gamepads is the amount of stress involved with setting them up for games. If this gamepad has any advantage at all, it will be the ability to mimic both the Xbox and PS3 controllers. I’ll begin with loading the pad’s included software and checking out all the setup options included. The first screen is basically to test that your buttons and analog joysticks are working properly. What’s cool about it is that it has the option to test the rumble feature with each button push. There is the sound of a motorcycle driving by, and the rumble fades in and out with it. Footsteps walking away, a machine gun, and the feeling of hitting or being hit. The Cyborg has some pretty nice 3D effect built in, I can’t wait to see what it feels like in a game.
The other screens show your deadzones, gain force, precision mode, analog trigger pressure and precision, as well as the About tab, where you have the option to download the SST programming software for greater programming and usability of your gamepad. Which I opted to download for further testing. They are nice enough to put the link right there in the menu as well. Aren’t they just spiffy? Except that after clicking on the link I was lead to an Error 404, Page Not Found. Further investigation on the official Saitek site lead to no option to download the software for my gamepad. Isn’t that just a bunch of fun? But then when I exited out of the testing software, it gave me the closing option of installing the software from a disc. A little irritating after spending that time looking for it, but whatever. The SST software is fairly straight-forward compared to a few of the profiling wares out there. It comes with many profiles already built in, and you can customize each button or analog to correspond to a mouse button or keyboard key. Easy even for a complete newbie. Okay, enough of the boring stuff. On with the gaming.
Setting up the gamer profile for Left 4 Dead was a bit challenging in the beginning, considering that I only play on PC. It took several accounts of trial and error before I got the controls assigned to buttons that were comfortable enough for me to play. Using the right analog as the mouse freelook and the left analog as movement was alien to me, but once I got the hang of it I was able to make it through the first chapter of NO MERCEY without losing much health. I still didn’t have my normal aiming precision, and i got confused frequently as to which button did what, but that has nothing to do with the pad’s performance. With some practice I could be playing effeciently with this pad on this game. I also figured out that by pressing the FPS button, most of the hard work was done for me. That’s what happens when you don’t read instructions.
Since I’m in the mood to kill stuff, I’m going to continue my escapade o’ slaughter with a little Bioshock. I figure since this game came from the 360 to the PC, it should have better acceptance of the controller. Also, I was able to locate the official Saitek profile for Bioshock on the site. The forums are rumored to have more, but I wasn’t able to gain access due to server problems on their site. So I used the profile editor to load the Bioshock profile, and proceeded to play. Most of the controls were ready and willing, but for some reason I couldn’t get my energy powers to change nor my guns. I seemed to be stuck with what I had. So I went to the options screen, and the option to play with an Xbox controller was grayed out. Apparently, Bioshock doesn’t see this as an Xbox controller and the profiler is what is controlling everything during gameplay. I tried downloading the Xbox 360 PC controller drivers from Microsoft, but this did nothing as well. I could not get the rumble to work for either Bioshock or Left 4 Dead either. This was pretty disappointing considering that is one of the main attractions of this controller.
Since I’m no longer in such a great mood over the Xbox module of this gamepad, I’m going to switch it over to Playstation Dual Shock and give that a try with Pure. Hopefully I get a little more entertainment out of this thing that way.
Upon loading Pure, I found that the game recognized the gamepad and allowed me to configure it right in the menu. This was much more helpful, as it told you what each button and control would do rather than what key each one was matched to. And when I saw support for Rumble, I was excited. I was finally gonna get to feel this gamepad’s power! So I configured everything, and started my game loading. When I got into the laps, I could feel the ATV that my character rides hitting every bump and turn. I could feel the engine as well. Not a constant vibration like the old school PlayStation rumblers, but a vibration that faded in and out as I revved the ATV’s engine. It was awesome. So after being dissapointed at the FPS features, I found that this pad is beautiful when it comes to racing games and the like.
In conclusion, if you know for sure that you can make this thing work with your game, then I highly recommend it. I do, however, feel that the setup is very easy, and the keymapping is a breeze. But if you’ve never played your game before and don’t know what keys to map it to, it can be a pain. I believe that a little more support with pre-made profiles would be a nice touch to their downloads section on the website. Even though I wasn’t able to make the Bioshock profile work in full. But to make up for it, the racing games are brought to full function and playability with this controller. I was not disappointed in the least with this experience, and I recommend that if you have no other use than playing Pure with it, that you should get it.
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