
CH Products Flightstick Pro 3DO
Recently released to the 3DO community, CH Product's Flightstick Pro probably takes the cake for the 3DO Gee-Whiz award. Its big, its  heavy, has lots of buttons and is a lot of fun to just move around. List price is about 130 bucks, but street price takes it down to a much more manageable $70, or so.
	So, do you really get that bang for your buck with the Pro?
	After extensive playtesting with the stick, I can say, without hesitation, a big resounding "Yes." It does take some practice to get used to the FS Pro, however. Practice and a sensitive touch. The first thing about the Pro that you'll notice is how sensitive it seems when you are used to the stock 3DO controller. Until you gain proficiency with the stick it can be hard to feel when you're over reacting. Of course, the main determining factor in how well the stick feels is in the software. A game has to be able to competently utilize the stick. Earlier games released prior to the flightstick may not feel as improved with the stick as they should be. Super Wing Commander controls considerably better with the Pro than the standard controller, but Wing Commander 3 plays so much more smoothly with the flightstick that it makes SWC feel like a dinosaur. 
	Flight sim controls in particular are much easier to utilize with the Pro. Games like the Wing Commander series and VR Stalker have flightstick configurations that make it much easier to access complex commands (especially the Wing Commander games). The Flightstick will not work at all for games that weren't designed with it in mind--remember that. The 3DO won't even acknowledge its existence if the game you're playing does not support the Pro. So, no Total Eclipse, no Shock Wave (it does support JumpGate), no Burning Soldier, Crash 'n Burn or even Off World Interceptor. It's a shame, but there it is.
	Currently, the Pro supports: Super Wing Commander, Wing Commander 3, VR Stalker, Flying Nightmares, Mega Race, Need For Speed, Return Fire, Rebel Assault and Shock Wave: Operation JumpGate. Plenty of new and upcoming titles will be utilizing the Pro as well (Studio 3DO's Killing Time and Bladeforce and hopefully Doom and PO'ed as well).
	Early titles like Super Wing Commander, VR Stalker, JumpGate and Rebel Assault all tended to control a bit too loosely, though this flaw disappears with practice (for most games, anyway). With the Wing Commander games especially, you'll soon be wondering how you could have ever played the game with a normal controller--the flightstick almost starts to feel like an extension of your arm. Non-flightsims like Need for Speed and Return Fire work fantastically with the Pro. The Flightstick is the next best thing to an actual steering wheel for Need for Speed. However, Need for Speed's touchy chase view control was still sometimes troublesome with the Flightstick, so stick with the driver's seat view and go all out. 
	The Flightstick Pro is a very welcome addition to the 3DO family. This is a great piece of equipment that goes one step further to making the player "one with the game." It may seem strange to use at first, but with a game that really uses the stick properly (SWC, WC3, NFS and Return Fire are the best at the current time) there's no substitute for the kind of response gain you'll get. Note, however, that the Flightstick Pro is not equipped with either a headphone jack or a joystick passthrough port. It does have a 10 foot long cord.
