Hello everyone! I am extremely new to fighting games and come from a extensive background of casual console and selective FPS PC games ever since I was a kid. I want to make the transition to fighting games for a few reasons, one being the huge skill ceiling and another being because they just look so darn fun!
Here’s my dilemma: I have been looking for the right fight stick for a while now and I need some advice before I finally buy one. I would like one that works on the PC because I can’t bring my PS3 to college and the only fighting game I own right now is the SSF4:AE PC version. However, I would prefer not to buy an Xbox 360 stick because even though I know that will work flawlessly on a PC no doubt, if I do want to start playing fighting games on the console for some reason I’ll be out of luck because I have no plans of buying a 360 in the near or distant future.
Right now there is a great sale on Amazon for a Madcatz TE stick for $110. I would buy this, but after reading around I heard the PS3 version of most Madcatz sticks requires a specific USB port to operate correctly with the PC (I don’t want to use Motionjoy, it bluescreens my computer). I also read that Hori brand sticks do not have this problem, but they seem to be overall a little more expensive than the Madcatz ones, not to mention the TE has authentic Sanwa parts built in and other Madcatz sticks like the cheaper WWE brawlstick are very easily modable with Sanwa parts.
Are Hori sticks just as easily modable? Are the cheaper Hori sticks good enough quality to justify buying? Are there any other alternatives? Should I just forget about the PS3 thing and spring for an Xbox version?
Look into a Hori HRAP V3-SA. It’s a pretty beast stick. Opens from the bottom and has QD’s but the form of the stick isn’t exactly art friendly says a lot of people. Or if you don’t really mind not using Sanwa then the Hori Fighting Stick V3 is a viable option. Soldering skills are needed though to switch the buttons out. Also I prefer the FSV3 just because it’s smaller. It’s also a 6 button layout. I’m pretty biased towards Hori but haven’t actually owned a TE so I couldn’t say anything about those. Eightarcs are pretty cool too if you don’t want to hassle with dualmodding your stick.
I’d recommend a Qanba Q4RAF. They cost a little bit more, but they’re compatible with everything so you won’t need to mod your stick or get a second one.
I have tasted these on my ps3 and PC without any aditional hardware, software update or driver, just running Windows 7:
MadCatz Tournament Edition Round 1
MadCatz Tournament Edition Round 2
Hori Real Arcade Pro 3
Qanba Q4raf
Those sticks can be used on pc and ps3, great performance on both platforms.
Sorry for the Necromance - but I was wondering - as the Tournament Editions are cross-platform compatible, would I be right in assuming the MadCatz PS3 brawl stick would work on PC out-of-the-box too?
Generally yes, though a few main board chipsets don’t make nice with them. The guys in tech talk can probably give you a better answer than I.
Check the stick review thread in tech talk. It lists more or less all of your options.
One thing to consider, madcatz usually offers a big promo code on big tournament weekends. If you watch streams at all you’ll probably bump into a good deal.