Okay, this is my first post but I just bought this joystick for the game and wanted to respond. But first, I have to digress for a moment because I am so freaking excited to find this game is still alive. Let me just say I cannot believe that Descent still has a following and is still being played - multiplayer even! I remember back to my law school days staying up until all hours playing Descent 2 on a freaking modem. Also, looking at other posts referring to Kali just made me smile. God, it's fun to have memories like this for a game.
As many other have expressed, this Descent series was/is simply amazing. There was nothing truly like it, and to be honest, I haven't played anything similar since. The look, the feel, the sounds - pure joy.
It's funny, but I actually lost interest after D3 came out. It just didn't feel the same as the original two versions. The storyline was more complex, but on many of the levels I found myself just following the guide bot around not knowing what I was doing or why - just tying to beat the game.
My fondest memories are of playing D2 on Kali. I remember going from playing modem games with my friends to multiplayer online through Kali. Wow, was the level of play different. I spent an entire summer playing on Kali while I was doing an internship. I got back to law school with an entirely different skill set for playing the game. I understood the basic things so much better - most importantly the concept of leading your shots a good two or three ship lengths in the direction you thought they would be heading in order to land the gauss cannon (lag was your friend when you finally figured it out but the other guys had no clue). My friends swore I had to be cheating. It was hilarious. I bought a huge monitor (weighed about a hundred pounds back then, lol) and the MS Sidewinder joystick just because of this one game.
So, on to the joystick review. Although my prior Descent experience was over a decade ago, I still wanted to use something similar to the old Sidewinder now, and I picked up the Logitech Extreme two days ago. I use the joystick for almost everything in Descent. I always used the HAT for sliding - all directions, so that is what I do know. The joystick is used for pitch up and down and steering left and right. I go forward and reverse with the two farthest buttons on the bottom of the joystick (like the old A and Z keys I used on the keyboard in the early days). The flare is the thumb button, and the lower left button on the top of the stick is my secondary.
Right now, I am torn between using the twist of the joystick for banking versus just using two of the buttons on top of the joystick. Twisting just seems a little cumbersome and results in some unwanted flares as well due to the thumb button. It just isn't comfortable. I never used the twist on the Sidewinder, so that is probably another thing causing my reluctance. Having said that, keeping track of the four buttons up top is taking some getting used to. There are plenty of other buttons for dropping bombs, map, headlight, rearview, etc. Oh, and the ever important afterburner has to be somewhere handy. For me, it's the bottom right button on the top of the joystick.
Regardless, man I love this game!!! Going to try the Rebirth and 2XL versions (most like going with the nostalgia option) tonight or tomorrow. If anyone has some suggested configurations, I am all ears. But you need to hurry, because if you give me a week to get the game juices flowing again, it's going to be hard to change the configurations which become engrained fairly quickly!!
P.S. The pissing match between the two versions and the flamewars are actually kind of funny. I wouldn't sweat that Future Pilot. Heck, it happens almost everywhere. But some of the arguments on here remind me of law school - albeit law school was about case law, and this is about "Why are you forcing donations to download what is supposed to be a free program?? You LIAR!! No, YOU are the LIAR!! You said this, and PM'ed me this, see? And you violated copyright laws! NO I DIDN'T! But fine, tell anyone you want. Good luck with that! I deleted you from my forum, so take that!"
LOL
I think you just have to laugh at that stuff. Yes, this forum gets filled with babble, but I have never seen one that doesn't.
Cheers and Happy Descenting!
Post edited July 14, 2011 by kc_bandit
