Reviews / previews
To nongamers, ThrustMaster may sound more
like a character from Boogie Nights than a
gaming peripherals company, but its
well-designed input devices-especially its flight
controls-have made ThrustMaster a household
name in the gaming world. Its latest gamepad
continues this tradition.
The Rage 3D digital gamepad is one of the most
comfortable gaming devices I've ever used. It's
light, so it's easy to hold, but also sturdy, without
any protrusions that could break off in the
intensity of the gaming moment. The left hand
controls the D-Pad, the motion-controlling device
that can be set in either eight-direction 2D mode
or omnidirectional 3D. The right hand accesses
the six buttons that can be programmed with the
ThrustMapper software for any gaming function.
There are right and left triggers both on the top
and bottom of the Rage for handheld or tabletop
play. It was nice to see tabletop play a feature in
a gamepad, but it's nowhere near as good as
using a joystick on a flat surface.
Still, as an in-hand gaming device, the Rage is
hard to beat. It's preconfigured for a couple dozen
of the latest games, and the command scripts
can be easily adapted for a game that's missing
from the list. For example, it was all ready to go
for Duke Nukem 3D, but I had to tweak Duke's
script settings a bit for Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.
The Rage 3D was a breeze to install and
configure with the provided software. True
plug-and-play is getting closer every day. And
speaking of plug-and-play, the Rage 3D allows up
to three other game pads to be plugged in
daisy-chain style for some serious multiplay.-- Danny W. Lam / GamePro
Got an opinion about Rage 3D? Or maybe know a good cheat or strategy? Share it with the world!