Push my buttons....
In use the XFX Gear Gamepad does exactly what is says on the box. The three directional functions can be used either as directional, analogue sticks or as buttons, making the pad usable in pretty much any game you fancy. Whether or not the game is suited to a pad is a totally different matter, but if you really fancy punishing yourself and trying to fly MS Flight Simulator with the gamepad, you can.
The solid, chunky design of the gamepad comes to the fore here, though some might say that the XFX Gear Gamepad is bigger than an X-Box controller, for me it’s a lot more comfortable to hold for extended play sessions than the X-Box controller. The non-slip rubber is a big help, so sweaty palms and fingers aren’t an issue. Though the controller looks large, the heavy sculpting underneath for the handgrips give a nice comfortable position for your fingers and even the wireless version, with four AA batteries tucked away inside, felt nicely balanced though obviously heavier than it’s corded counterpart.
My one worry before actually using the gamepad and just having had a fiddle with it was of the response from the buttons and sticks. The buttons felt a tad woolly with a less than positive click to them whilst both the D-Pad and sticks felt very light with little resistance. For this I’d say it’s a question of what you’re used to and after half an hour’s play I was quite happy with the way the pad performed. Even though the sticks felt light, their movement was accurate and responsive and diagonal movement was easy to achieve, even when mapping buttons to the left stick for movement in-game. Sadly, unlike an X-Box controller, there’s no analogue function on the shoulder buttons, so using these fro gradual control is out… it’s either on or off, I’m afraid.
Response of the wireless pad compared to the wired version is as good as to be indistinguishable from each other. I was expecting lag or some sort or other to rear its head when using the wireless version, but there was none that I could see, even when I got up and walked into the kitchen. The range is quite surprising, with me being able to stand in the doorway of my office and pretend to be interested in my wife’s conversation whilst secretly screaming around a sprint course in NFS:U2, a good 4 meters away.
