In recent years new HOTAS systems have been few and far between. Logitech have made their entry with the Logitech G940 that provides features that no other HOTAS offers.

Once you've been bitten by the simming bug, purchased your HOTAS, gotten your desk set up and laid everything out you'll look at your keyboard and frown - and probably wish you could replace it with another controller of some sort.

Over the years there's been a few items that have attempted to address this need with varying degrees of success. Users have bought programmable keyboards such as x-keys, built their own panels using EPIC programmable cards and soldered their 'cockpit' together. Various other controllers have been shoe-horned into this role but no product was truly intergrated. The CH MFP is the first piece of hardware that is.

When people ask on forums for the best controllers for simming the answers are invariably CH HOTAS and a Modded Cougar. An apples to oranges comparison.

If you asked 'what are the best controllers for simming out of the box?' the answer is CH.

The original Steel Beasts garnered critical acclaim with it's blend of realism, stability, depth and gameplay. Very much an 'old school' simulation that put realism first. This realism was recognized with many of the worlds' armed forces using the original product as a training tool for their military students.

The armed forces started demanding enhancements - and were willing to pay for their development. As time passed more vehicles were added, more features appeared, accuracy improved and an excellent new graphics engine was added.

The result is Steel Beasts Professional and Steel Beasts Professional PE

Tank Sims are a small niche in the already niche market of simulation games and this is the first one released since e-sim games' superlative Steel Beasts. So how does it stack up? While not without it's share of issues, T-72 is a brilliant game in a genre that hasn't seen a new release since 2001.

In 1987 I recall seeing a brown and black box with a picture of a Falcon swooping onto a Mig-21 as I walked past a Tandy electronics store. I'd been playing computer sims on the commodore 64 - almost all exclusively Microprose products - for about 4 years. I didn't have a computer that could run it at the time but it stuck in my head. Now almost 2 decades later the latest incarnation of this product has been released and it stays true to it's pedigree.

Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands.

The Natural Point TrackIR3 Vector Expansion adds what Natural Point calls 6DOF, or Six Degrees of Freedom to games that support it. 6DOF is, in essence, full 3D head movement within the game, tracking not only where you’re looking, but also where your virtual head is within the cockpit.

CH Products recently celebrated their 25th Anniversary, and that alone begins to tell you the story of a highly regarded game controller manufacturer. CH Products has long been producing OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) joysticks and trackballs for industrial and commercial industries; where the working environments require precise and accurate inputs. They have also been producing precise gaming joysticks and controllers since the mid 1980's. Not surprisingly, the growth of the CH Products Gaming Division has coincided with the growth of the PC and Flight Simulations market.

Chunk and Cephas both take a look at CH's newest piece of kit.

Pacific fighters continues what has become the long life of IL2 Sturmovik - the best world war 2 air combat flight sim yet seen. While not perfect, it is definitely the closest we've come in terms of both functionality and execution. Review