Introduction
I think it's fair to say that in the flight sim community, the Thrustmaster Warthog is deemed to be the defacto sought after HOTAS arrangement. Whether you agree or not, I would expect that a straw poll across the serious simulation fighter pilot community most likely has that as the most wanted stick and throttle hardware. Whether that's the king or not is immaterial, it's the setup that is held up as Pro and has a price tag to match.
Certainly, the Warthog has a certain quality and desirability to it but do a quick scout of the web and you'll find many tales of failure and inability to repair easliy, of poor quality components of the fact that the Warthog for all its marketing, is just a Prince in pauper clothes.
So enter the pretender that is VKB. VKB claims to be a manufacturer of sticks for 'real' professional flight simulator pilots, not just those that think they are. I have just got my hands on the VKB-Sim Gunfighter Joystick and here in part I, I will unveil the pros and cons of ordering via VKB, the packaging, the product itself and it's performance.
Ordering
I'll cut to the chase. Like it or not, if you want something delivered in the early 21st Century the de facto standard is Amazon.
Ordering via VKB is an experience more akin to the 1990s or earlier. Here you're dealing with a setup that is much more small-business feel, perhaps out of a small rented warehouse that constitues VKB's headquarters. If you want a VKB stick tomorrow you're going to have to take a reality check.
My experience of VKB was twofold; a) My order was immediately confirmed via their website via Paypal but then I received a webpage that my payment had not been taken and I still needed to pay. A quick check of Paypal showed that I had paid, so I had to send emails to find out what was going on.
To be fair, VKB can pride themselves on the fact that there is not a faceless AI responding to email but actual people that do their best to respond to your enquiry. Eduard of VKB confirmed that they had received my order and it was in process. What then followed was an anxious wait of over two weeks to receive a VKB Gunfighter including extended delivery times, errors with shipping and a poor automated notification of shipping that did not correctly link to the shipping number. Having said that, I had good response from Eduard of VKB and he was always very helpful and responsive. You can suffer waiting if you feel you get personal service and for that VKB can pride itself.
If you're looking for a quick stick to get up and running tomorrow, the VKB process is not for you. If you're a patient simulation fan that wants to wait and is happy to get responses once or twice a day, you might well suit the VKB customer service process.
The Reveal
Enough words, what does the feckin box and all that look like?
So you can see the box does look very cool, very understated and apparently approved by DCS.
On the side here you can see the features of the solution
and on this side, a more detailed list of components.
Open the box up and you get this view.
On the top you have quite a rudimentary manual (more of shortly), whilst below you have on the left the base unit, with a black protector on top, and on the right a bag of assorted springs, an alan key and some other pieces including a part that helps attach the stick to the joystick unit.
Now open up the top brown box and in there are the following items;
the joystick handle, a joystick cover, leads and even a VKB coaster. The joystick cover and coaster, whilst far from necessary, are nice touches that you simply will not get with other manufacturers - at least not ones that I know of.
The Cover
Ooh eck, the Coaster
The stick
The stick has nowhere near the buttons of my x52 but you only need hold and move it to realise we're talking a quantum leap in quality here. The stick only has one trigger button which has a metal latch that covers it (in the pic it's flipped back on top of the stick). There is a top button, a hat switch on the left hand side and a pinkie finger button on the front. That may put some people off as it's handy having certain functions mapped on the stick itself eg. in my world flaps and undercarriage.
Onto the instructions. Well they are pretty self evident except that when you're excited as a puppy to get the thing up and running, they are not all that clear. To get the joystick mounted you need the part that is actually in step 2 shown in blue. It's also shown in step 1 but in step 2 it's clear when you see the part that this is what you need. What you then need to know is you need to unscrew that part so that the two pieces are separated so you can thread the screw through the joystick and then alan key it in place. Obvious really but then, not so at the time.
Oh, you didn't think to attach the joystick unit to the main base first? Again, that's not made obvious in the instructions (bit of thinking here fellas) and it's a bit finicky to be fair but having said that, it's not going to stretch you. It's just that your excitement can sometimes get in the way of clear headed thinking.
As you can see, the packaging is well done and VKB clearly want to get their product to you in top shape and ready for you to setup and maintain yourself, as there are spare parts shipped from what I can see. Add to that they throw in some nice 'freebies' and you have a package that is worth the wait.
How it plays
That's going to have to come in part II of this review. I setup my stick and have hardly had a moment to try it out (unbelievable but true; try having a baby during all of this). I did quickly give it a go on Sunday before Campaign but I think I need to do some loosening as when I tried to takeoff in DangerDogz, she wouldn't leave the ground.
Anyhow, if anyone is interested to hear how it plays/feels, then post comments and I'll run a follow up on this.
