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Although consoles have taken the limelight with regards to gaming, the PC still has its avid followers, though evidently not in my local game shops where the racks of PC games have been steadily diminished to either half of one stand or even moved to the downstairs of the store.

Saitek however have stuck by PC gamers for years (my first joystick for playing Flight Simulator with was a Saitek one, and it still works) and their latest peripheral is the Cyborg Rumble Pad. Evidently styled after the Xbox 360 controller, the pad sits comfortably in my hands and feels very sturdy, if a little lightweight at first. The buttons are responsive and have a good weight to them and there are even parts that light up. It was easy to install, just plug-in and go with software provided on a disc to unlock all the features.

The magic feature of this pad is Saitek’s ‘Cyborg’ module, which allows the D-pad and left thumbstick to be interchanged depending on your preferred style of controller (Playstation or Xbox style). There’s even a little ‘cyborg’ head on the module that lights up green for Xbox-style or red for PS-style. The Cyborg module is a great little feature that is very useful, I tended to keep it in Xbox-mode most of the time, but found that switching it was no trouble, for example in fighting games, and even changing it during gameplay didn’t cause it to throw a hissy-fit as you might expect.

The D-pad itself is a double-edged sword as it is very responsive in the basic four directions (up, down, left, right) but the diagonals left a lot to be desired. When using the pad in fighting games it sometimes failed to recognise them correctly when I pressed them which is unfortunate.

My only major problem was nothing to do with the pad itself, rather the compatibility with the games themselves. I found that most FPS games on the PC don’t support gamepads, however the pad has a button marked ‘FPS’ for just such occasions. Pressing this button tricks the game into thinking that the pad is a keyboard-mouse combination with the buttons mapped to the most useful FPS keys instantly. In this mode, the pad worked really well in Half-Life 2 and Unreal Tournament 3 without any remapping of keys and was fairly successful in playing Oblivion. Bioshock was a bit of an odd one because the only pad it supports is the official Microsoft 360 controller, even though the Cyborg pad is pretty much identical, but again by using FPS mode the controller coped superbly.

The pad has another function called Precision mode where you assign a button to activate the mode and it sharpens the controls to give you more precision, like when using a sniper rifle in an FPS. The settings can also be modified with the software provided so it’s just the way you like it.

Having said this, for FPS games, I (and presumably many others) still prefer the classic mouse-keyboard combination. The pad really came into its element when playing the demo for Lego Indiana Jones, as I was finding it downright annoying using the keyboard to navigate Lego-rope bridges and jump across gaps. Playing Need For Speed was also a joy with the Cyborg Pad, so far this is the only game that I have found that supports all the features of the pad. After getting over the initial shock of the thing vibrating furiously in my hands, when navigating seemingly flat roads, it seemed to settle down and worked very well.

So even though, in my mind, the Saitek Cyborg Rumble Pad will not replace the mouse-keyboard controls for FPS games it really brings the fun back into PC gaming for other genres, especially driving and adventure games. Above all, it’s a well designed piece of kit and the Cyborg module helps you to play any game you want in whatever way you want.

Christ! We’ve done another one. This time, it’s the incredible Fighting Angels on the PS2, kindly purchased and unwittingly donated by Andi.

This one’s probably not safe for work. It’s not obscene, or anything. It’s just weird.

Remember that Greg Hastings video we did about a month back? Well, it got a pretty warm reception, so we’ve decided to make it a regular thing, with a regular name: DoubleTap. Because there’s two of us, see. We wanted to call it Double Penetration, but we realised no-one would ever find us on Google without sifting through a great deal of harrowing imagery.

So, here’s the new one: Fairies and Dragons for the PC. We hope you enjoy it, because we sure as hell didn’t enjoy making it.

What gives, Japan? What did we lowly Westerners do to you? Did we offend you in some way?

I am quickly becoming sick and tired with the incredible gulf of time that forces its way inbetween release dates worldwide like the weird person who hangs out with you and your friends, y’know, the one who nobody really likes? No-one knows how they got there but damnit, they’re gonna get in your way anyway.

It all comes down to compatibility issues, apparently. But, seeing as how all of our equipment usually comes from Japanese companies in the first place, why do they deliberately give us different versions of things? Why are our games consoles PAL? Why, for the love of all that is good and holy, can they not simply be a games console, not discriminated like some bad form of racism?! I have a dream… I dream that no gamer should have to sit and wait for half a year just to see their much hyped new release finally become available in their region. I dream that all of my freaking Virtual Console games will work on my damned component cable. Thats right, I currently have 5 VC games that I can’t play without faffing around with the bloody wire. For you figures fans, thats £30 or 4000 Wii Points worth… wasted.

And it’s all because of this personal vendetta Japan has against us Westerners. Giving us inferior equipment. Well, you know what? Screw you Japan! I’ll build my OWN damn TV.

When he’s not out loitering, Alasdair likes to write his random thoughts down.
He’s told it’s called a ‘Blog’

P.S: Before anyone comes up offering an actual reason why we get different versions of stuff, I don’t want to hear it. Being British, complaining about stuff is the only enjoyment I get, leave me be!

P.P.S: I actually don’t have anything against Japan, or Japanese people. Nor does DarkZero. Or Britain. Or anyone else you think I represent.

People say GTA IV is bad for kids. I disagree.

There’s been less of a GTA uproar than I expected this time around, probably because the critical acclaim it’s received puts those who openly slate it in a far less comfortable position than that of the cushy high-horse many have been sitting on for years. Despite this there are still some that feel the content of the game is inappropriate, which seems quite reasonable to an extent even if you’re not a conservative Luddite. But when you boil down to it, what actually makes a game like GTA IV inappropriate?

The game’s protagonist Niko can be a rough character at times, but his actions are driven very much by his personal history and subsequent sense of character. He’s not a bad man, but he’s not a good man either. Some of the things Niko must do throughout the story are unpleasant, but they don’t seem out of context. The violence carried out on others throughout often feels unhinged and unnecessary, but that doesn’t make the sense of causality behind it all feel any less real.

All in all, if you’re playing GTA IV as if you are Niko then there’s no problem. It’s violent and crude at times, but in a considerably more intelligent manner than most action films manage to be. You might do some bad things playing as Niko, but if you’re a level minded individual then you’ll probably feel pretty guilty about it afterwards. In the hands of someone sensible GTA IV is gripping and thought-provoking. And this is where the problems begin…

In the context of the game there’s never any reason to go on a rampage. Sure, you can go cave that hooker’s head in, but what’s the point? You can go around beating up old ladies, but why would you want to? It’s not in Niko’s nature, and it’s not rewarded- so technically it’s really not fair to blame the game for the way that mindless idiots choose to use it. GTA IV gives you a vast amount of personal choice regarding how you behave, but makes it very clear in what context you’re supposed to be playing it. So if it’s not the motivation of the game’s character taking control, then who’s motivation is it? If you’re put within a brilliantly realistic version of New York and your first instinct is to cause harm to civilians… what kind of a person are you?

Just as Niko’s actions are dictated by context, so are ours when playing games. The mainstream media are obsessed with the idea that playing realistic games affects the way we behave in real life. There’s some truth to this, but it’s not a one-way door: The way we behave in real life also affects the way we play games.

The way in which people respond to the situations which GTA IV puts you in will depend on what kind of person you’ve become, a cumulative mish-mash of things you’ve seen, done, and experienced. One person might relish in the power of a brutal execution, another might feel slightly sickened by the situation they’ve been forced into. Very young children aside, I fail to see how age plays a part in this sense of judgment. If by the time you’re 16 you’re still not interested in doing anything other than running people over when playing games then chances are you’re a lost cause… GTA IV in the wrong hands could easily be a playground for murderers to rehearse in, but then again so could kitchens- and I can’t hear anyone talking about banning knives, can you?

Kids need to be exposed to bad things. It’s how you learn, it’s how you grow. Good videogames are perfect for learning; they put you in uncomfortable positions and force you to make decisions that you might not be comfortable with. They’ll help them develop their own sense of right and wrong, in a way that linear media like TV or film can’t quite manage. Parents are afraid of children becoming desensitized to violence and because of this avoid exposing their kids to it at all costs. But if you don’t introduce them to it, then who will? Little Jimmy from down the road, that’s who. Do you know what they’ll choose to play? Gears of War. Will they think about morality as they gun down swarms of chunky aliens in a haze of gore? Will they f**k.

GTA IV isn’t bad for kids, it’s bad for stupid people. How the hell are you going to fix that though, eh?