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Great controller for your game systems
Thrustmaster's Run 'N Drive PS2/PS3/PC controller is not only a versatile controller, but quite comfortable to hold. The quality of the wireless controller is- in most areas- much better than your average third party controller.
They made the controller to allow you to remap any analog button on the controller (be it X, O, L2, R2, L1, etc. . .) to the triggers or to any other input button/analog stick/d-pad. If you are playing a game that has you pressing up on the right stick to accelerate, you can map that direction of the stick to be the right analog trigger. Works like a charm, and it works on PS2 games that are in my PS3 when plugged in to my Radio Shack PSX-to-USB controller adapter (which is what I was hoping for).
If you are frustrated that in Burnout Paradise (PS3) the programmers didn't give you the option to press up on the right stick for gas and down on the right stick for brake, this controller will solve that problem. Just remap your controls (which is a pretty quick process if you read the manual).
Here are the upsides to the controller:
1) Quite comfortable to hold for those long sessions with your first person shooters and racing games. I like the extended handles that it has.
2) Stick tension is just right, not too loose.
3) Analog "wheel" attachment around the D-pad can give you a little more control over your vehicle than the thumbstick, and it's made out of a very grippy rubber. Note: The wired version of this controller has a smoother feel to the wheel movement than the wireless version does, but it's not a major difference between the two versions.
4) Analog triggers have good travel, are concave, and made out of a grippy rubber. The triggers have just the right amount of tension on the wireless controller, but are definitely more firm to press in on the wired version of the controller-- which is one aspect that makes the wireless version superior.
5) Thumbstick pads are also made out of a grippy rubber.
6) Programmable and versatile (in fact, it stores one preset that you've entered into the controller for each game system even when it's off.) It worked great for my PC racing game.
7) Reasonable cost-- though the wired version is less costly.
8) Wireless
9) I have a Radio Shack PS1-USB controller adapter which allows me to use this controller to play PS2 games on my PS3 which is great because of two reasons: A) It lets you control your PS2 racing games gas and brake functions with push-in analog triggers (or remapped analog face buttons on the controller). The Push-in analog triggers experience for PS2 games is one I'd never had before, & it's great-- especially when you couple that with the fact that it supports PS2 game controller-vibration. B) Up to this point, all my PS2 games when plugged in to the Radio Shack PS1-to-USB controller adapter had digital buttons not analog. This is no longer the case. I now have the ability to map the right thumbstick actions (which are registered as analog movements in that RS controller adapter) to any of the analog buttons or analog triggers on the controller.
10) There is a one-of-a-kind PS2-to-PS3 controller adapter made by Dragonplus which allows this controllers rumble motors to be active in PS3 games (the ones which offer the feature anyway). It also has full analog button support which is unusual for these kind of adapters. The box it comes packaged in calls it the "P2 Controller to P3/PC System Convert-- V.2". If you own the R&D controller and a PS3 this is a must-have adapter. At first I didn't think the two were compatible, but then I hit the "home" button on the controller and it was all good.
11) The wireless Run 'n Drive controller has a Playstation 3 "home" button, while the one with a cord doesn't have a "home" button.
Downsides:
1) Takes awhile to get used to the "wheel" attachment. There may be some people who won't like it at all (but don't worry, you can just ignore it if you want to and use the high-quality analog stick). As I mentioned before, the wireless version's wheel slides around a little less smoothly than the wired version's wheel.
2) Thumbstick pads are convex, and I would have preferred them to be concave.
3) L2 and R2 buttons are on the underside of the controller and certain people might feel that it's a little inconvenient to have to map those buttons to the triggers (which aren't on the underside of the controller). To me this just is no big deal at all.
4) D-pad is significantly small, so may not be the ideal means to control your fighting games.
5) The controller is a tiny bit smaller than I would have preferred, and the right and left thumbsticks are closer to one another than the thumbsticks on the official Sony Sixaxis controller. This close proximity might result in thumbs bumping together when doing certain things in first person shooter games (strafing right while turning left), but this all depends on where you are placing your thumbs when using the controller. I've never encountered thumb collisions while playing Resistance, but I suppose it's possible if your thumbs are bigger than mine.
6) No PS3 sixaxis function (but you can buy a PS2 tilt sensor accessory along with a PS2->PS3 controller adapter which would bring that PS3 function to the controller- albeit with a wire connected to it.)
7) Doesn't have the innate ability to rumble in PS3 games unless you use a proper PS2-to-PS3 controller adapter.
8) I like the way the Xbox 360 and Gamecube controllers have the left analog stick on the left side of the gamepad, but this controller puts the sticks in the same position as the Sony controller, which- to me- isn't quite as good.
9) It doesn't have bluetooth, and requires a special usb connector.
I love this controller because of the upsides, and all the downsides are things that most people can adapt to without much trouble. This is now my controller of choice for PS2 and PS3 games. Don't hesitate to pick one up!
Could've Been So Much Better
I bought this unit to replace my otherwise excellent corded 360-style PC controller and PS3 pad. unfortunately I should've listened to another reviewer who mentioned the same problem I found with this thing.....the thumb-sticks are too close to one another.
its a responsive and very well made pad for sure but the niggling design flaws make it unacceptable for full time use IMO. The other glaring flaw is the "steering" tabs found around the D-Pad. The spring is far tighter than in needs to be and it causes your thumb to fatigue quickly. This has the effect of not being able to make fine little adjustments as you play. After 5 minutes of use I re-bound the accelerator back to one of the thumbsticks and forgot about ever using that feature again.
The last issue is the right trigger button is misaligned causing it to rub against the housing and stick occasionally.
hopefully Thrustmaster will get the next iteration of this pad right
dissapointed
the unit is small, in in big hands the 2 center joysticks feel too close together as others have noted, but the real disappointment comes with what does work with it, or more like what does not work with it. Windows XP does see it, but most games do not support it, unless you run some 2rd party software to get it to work. I got it to work with Rainbow Six Vegas, via 3rd party config software that fools Rainbow Six into thinking it's keyboard control, since RB6V work with the MS Xbox controller, but not this one, and I have yet to figure how to get the controller to emulate that one. So it's a it's a bit of a disappointment since none of my installed games support it. So I am back to keyboard and mouse for control of first person shooter games.
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