Customer Reviews

Saitek Cyborg Command Unit

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I have purchased numerous gamepads in the past, and have eventually returned or sold them, as I could never get the buttons programmed to all the key features I needed. With this pad, I am pleased. The buttons can be programmed to any keystrike you like, and there is even a shift button, just under the base of the thumb, which essentially doubles all the buttons. It does take a little while to get the hang of the program software, but once learned, it is seamless. I have played Half-Life 2:episode one and Darwinia, freed of the key board. Each game has a different profile which is easily loaded prior to starting the games. Of note, this keypad only works with the left hand, leaving the right to drive the mouse. Not a problem for me, but I know some people shop at the Leftorium, and this may not accomodate them. Also, tho it looks like the distance from the handrest to the keys may be adjusted, they are actually fixed. The thumb dongle, however, may be tilted and slid in an out. The silver knob on the side tightens and loosens the bar which lets it slide.

I play World of Warcraft and tried the N52 before, but returned it. I figured I would give this one a try and I admit I really like it. The buttons have the right press depth for me, my reaction is faster than clicking on the UI, the programming software is straight-forward and the device is ergonomically designed for comfort. No more losing in PvP while making sure I am clicking the right button, I can use my mouse for movement and use the Gamer Pad for using my abilities. You'll wonder how the heck you ever played w/o it.

Cons:
1. The feet slip, you'll need to buy no slip pads for the bottom.
2. You have to load the profile everytime you start the game. Unlike the N52 which loaded the profile whenever the game started.

My history with these gaming keypads began when I was frustrated and fed up with losing in various PC games, especially first person shooters. My deaths have been facilitated for my opponents due to a syndrome I labeled "command paralysis." Command paralysis is when a player (1) presses too many keys on his keyboard, thus jamming the keyboard, (2) has too many fingers locked down on many vital keys and is unable to sacrifice one more finger to complete the sequence of actions that will save the player from humiliating death, or (3) has several fingers occupied with one section of the keyboard and cannot press keys to activate commands located on the other side.

I credit the main cause of command paralysis to the WASD control scheme. Because WASD dictates orthogonal directions, at least four separate buttons/keys are required to control the movements of an in-game character. Too many fingers can get tied up when pressing these keys, limiting the number of actions per time unit while in motion. I'm of the strong opinion that the keyboard is best used for typing, not gaming.

In order to find a gaming device to wholly replace my keyboard, I had purchased a Belkin n52 Nostromo. It's a fairly competent device. It had increased my survivability rates in various competitive multiplayer titles. However, the controller's D-pad was inadequate as a WASD replacement. It required a rather excessive firm grip to use it consistently and effectively for movement commands. Still, it certainly was better than using a keyboard.

Not sufficiently satisfied, I purchased a Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit to compare and contrast with my n52 Nostromo. I must say that after trying out the Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit, I immediately placed my old Belkin N52 Nostromo up for auction on eBay. This thing blows the n52 out of the water based on its analog stick design alone. I mapped the stick to WASD-movement commands in all my favorite first person shooters and now instead of tying three separate fingers to dictate four keys, I just have to use a single thumb to operate a single stick. It feels incredibly natural and intuitive when using this device. The amount of available fingers I now have when playing games make me feel absolutely unrestricted.

The only fault with the Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit was its quantity of shift states and the method of switching between them. The n52 supports three different shift states and the user can define which keys can toggle between these shift states. The Saitek PGCU, however, was only limited to one immutable shift button, plus these "modes" which can only be accessed using an awkward and unintuitive sliding switch. However, with Saitek's release of new drivers (now Vista-compatible), users can now define as many shift states as they desire and can define their own shift button toggles.

The Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit is highly recommended to anyone who is looking for different but equally effective replacement for the keyboard. It is quite simply the best gaming keypad out on the market. It's unfathomable that no one else has thought about designing gaming keypads like it.

I've been a n52 "padder" since the unit came out, and I love it. However, it leaves little the imagination as far as looks are concerned, and seeing as how I just purchased a Saitek X52 joystick, and a Logitech G15 gaming keyboard, with all their blue glowy goodness, decided to pick up the Pro Gamer Command to match my desktop.

And it looked great! However....

I decided to set up my pad with the software included, and since it was already installed with my Saitek X52 (all Saitek products use the same software to keymap) I immediately knew how to program the keys. The software found the Gamepad immediately, and after a few minutes to tweaking the keys, off I go to play Battlefield 2. Now mind you, the Pro Gamer Command has a few more keys than the n52. However, where you normally have the thumbpad, it is now replaced with an analog stick. Getting the software to recognize a simple UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT keys for gaming was as simple as....well, it wasn't that simple. You have to set the software to deadzones, etc. since the software sees the mini thumbstick as a joystick of sorts. The biggest problem with this gamepad however, is the "lag" of the keys. As a FPS gamer, and if you also play FPS games you'd understand, that fast keypresses are not uncommon. In Battlefield 2, switching from your Shock Paddles to your gun then going prone all in the spawn of 3 seconds happens all the time. And this is where the gamepad failed. Horribly. If you try to strafe left and hit prone, it'll happen as you want it to %70 of the time. You'll either go prone. Or you'll strafe. I even had the problem with moving forward, and going prone, that my guy would still be moving forward while prone even after I let the key go. I had to repress the forward key again to make it stop. And this is not user error folks. Say what you will, but I know how to use the software to set the keys up from using my X52 joystick (GREAT joystick btw).

All in all, it looks great on the desk, and more than likely will play well with RTS games and the like, but for FPS games, stay away. Stick with the Nostromo n52 instead. It's cheaper to buy, and is rock solid.

It just doesn't look nice.

I have to say this has instantly become my favorite gamepad that i own. (i have had a lot and currently own 3) Anyways, this gamepad is perfect! I now can put commands into this and not have to tinker around with controls in game and worry about messing something up. Now for instance if you decided *oh i dont like using my gamepad with this game* Now besides your being COMPLETELY INSANE (lol) you only have to turn off the software and away you go.

Now i was torn between whether or not to get this or the n52. Buy this. It merges perfectly with your system and i can say that i will never play without it! A previous reviewer noted problems with the hat. I have had no problems with it at all.

In game now you can have 3 modes EACH with a shift button. So for each mode you have every key doubled up. With the software you are able to create separate profiles. Now if you wish you can have 144 commands for each game! Just load the profile up and away you go! (while 144 commands is a bit much its a cool idea isn't it?) Or have 3 different game setting on 1 profile! Just switch the mode.

The software while a little difficult to understand but it becomes a breeze in no time at all!

Note: If you are having recogniztion problems just go to system-device managers-right click the Saitek device and click scan for hardware.

I have been using this product for about 2 weeks now and am very happy with it. It is a very sturdy, well built unit. A previous reviewer mentioned he had some difficulty getting it to work in Vista. I didn't find this to be the case. The Saitek website has 32/64bit Vista drivers as well as the profile editor available for download. I suggest you download and install these BEFORE plugging the unit in. The profile editor allows you to program each key on the command pad to issue one to many keystrokes and/or mouse button clicks. There are three types of commands you can choose from for each key on the command pad:

1. keystroke: This just issues one to many keyboard key presses and/or mouse clicks when ever you hit the corresponding button on the Command Pad. You can also set the delay between keystrokes from 0 to 20 or more seconds in increments of .001 seconds.
2. Macro: Similar to keystroke but the entire sequence will be sent even if you release the command unit key before the sequence is complete.
3. Advanced command: The advanced command is probably the most powerful programming function on this unit. When the key is pressed on the command pad you can tell it: 1. Which keyboard and/or mouse clicks to send, 2. An optional series of keystrokes and/or mouse clicks to be repeated while the command pad key is held down, and 3. An optional series of keystrokes and/or mouse clicks to send when you release the command pad key. Example: One of the FPS games I play requires you to hit the Z key on the keyboard to use a health pack. I used the advanced command to automatically press and release the Z key repeatedly whenever the W, A, S or D keys are held down. Now I don't have to remember to do this anymore, I automatically heal as soon as I pickup a health pack. Awesome!

This is probably the best gaming accessory I have purchased. I can't imagine playing my FPS games without it. Great product Saitek!

This is a nicely made control pad for gaming and can be programmed for shortcut tasks as well for applications. The pad is illuminated and indicates the unit is on and which set of macros are currently being used. It looks cool on the desk too.

How does it look? The illumination of the blue light is harder to see the keys, the green lighting is the best, and the red is in between. Green is the default setting for FPS,First Person Shooters and Red for RTS,Real Time Strategy games. The blue indicates custom programming

The thumb controls are adjustable with a slider bar.

Since I am female and my hands are smaller I will note that I wished the pad had more adjustments to accomodate a smaller hand. The other thing I think that would improve this is a riser or a snap on block to level the gaming pad up, I use a small box about an inch to level it to my liking.

I like this pad as a replacement for my old Nostromo 50.

I've had 2 of these. TWO. I loved the first one so much that when it broke after only a few months of use, I had to buy another. Well the second one just broke - almost on cue, actually.

This is a great unit when it works. The buttons are nice, the positions is good, and I found that it really helped me play better as I wasn't alwsays looking for buttons and finger positioning.

The problem is that it's made VERY cheaply. The software itself is very poorly designed; it's a pain to use with Vista, it doesn't take advantage of certain key possibilities, and other nuances that, while individually small, make the software look and feel like a high schooler designed it. The unit is also made of very cheap plastic. The thumbcontroller gets dirty too easily (I'm not a messy person ordinarily), the buttons stick over time, and other obvious things that just scream "I'm made very cheaply by the lowest bidder using the cheapest materials and no QC".

If you're a casual gamer, maybe this will be OK as you won't use it enough to wear it down; but if you're a casual user you probably don't need something like this.

But if you really want a great tool that makes playing easier, I'd suggest looking at something with a little better quality manufacture.

Easy setup in XP, as I understand there is no easy setup of anything in Vista but thats M$'s problem, by Vista SP2 maybe things will work as designed.
The programming software took hours, not because it's hard,but there are so many options.
One complaint, they do not specially mention this unit in the instructions, so you are jumping back and forth between joysticks to decide what type the little thumb switch is.
Mine is set for movement, WASD on X and Y axis bands, I had to set them 67% - 100% and that left 132%(2 x 66% of center to max out) as dead, or it would be too jumpy while keying during combat.
I do not use but the one set, for any one class in wow, but can switch from the druid to the rogue at the mode switch easily, just hard to switch the mental processes that go with it. 3 weeks leveling the rogue and I have no recall at all of what a druid is supposed to do, oops.

I bought this game pad so I could keep my main KB right in the middle of my desk so I could type messages easily while playing games.. this pad is very good for the most part and packs a lot of key function into a small device. The keys are back lighted which rocks, there are three modes you can choose, each one with a different fresh key-map and back lighted color, so you have three profiles of each of the keys you see.. but the keys stick a little! (grr) well, I say a ~little~, as in once in a while one of the keys I have my WASD controls on sticks.. but does seem to be getting better as I use the pad more. Though it was a bit annoying at first!

Also, the top of the unit needs much better "feet" so when you press the buttons in the heat of battle the back end of it doesn't bounce up. I had to butcher and old foam rubber wrist rest and make a solid part for the front area so I can hit those top keys hard and it doesn't move. So, seems like the guys at Saitek should have thought of that and given the top part a much better "foot" given the placement of the buttons. Also the rubber feet it came with don't hold it well, so it constantly scooted up my desk.. I had to get new stickier rubber feet for it.

Now, these gripes aside, I searched long and hard for the perfect PC gaming pad, and this one really is as close as it gets IMO. I was so temped with the Wolf pad, but no back lighting and it's just too big.. I also considered the Nostromo, but it's lacking in keys, even with the profile changer.. Then I looked at the Z-board, but it's... well, "hokey" looking, to me. So this Saitek, although it does have some short comings, has more of the best of eveything when it comes to a highly versitile PC gaming pad.. small, has a lot of keys, back lighting, feels good on the hand, but could stand to have some improvements in staying put on the desk. So 4 stars.

edit: I continue to have problems with the keys sticking and I have never spilled anything near or gotten food around this pad. So I am thinking slight design flaw here or cheap build.. or perhaps this pad is a bad egg of the batch? never the less, I am reducing my review to 3 stars. YMMV on this one, but I have to give it up in favor of another game pad because the random key sticking is very bothersome.