There are some games where a keyboard and mouse combination just doesn't cut it as a control system. In the early days of Quake and, to a lesser extent, Doom, you were automatically at a disadvantage if you used only the keyboard sans mouse to control things. Moving your crosshair in any direction via a keyboard would be slow and inaccurate compared to a mouse user, and on most servers you'd quickly be picked out as a "keyboard lamer" and probably be called such.

Then came Descent where none of the better players used a mouse or a keyboard. If you tried to take them on with a mouse and keyboard they'd quickly fly circles round you and blast you to smithereens. The controller of choice for this Descent gaming elite? The joystick. Over time, the joystick has become an increasingly useful piece of gaming kit to have around for titles such as Freespace 1 and 2, Independence War, fighter plane sims such as Falcon 4.0, and the various games from the MechWarrior series. If you want to make the grade in any of these titles, you want to have a joystick. To help you decide which to get,I've tested the top joystick from most of the joystick manufacturers out there, giving each one a thorough workout in games such as Motocross Madness 2, Freespace 2 and Tachyon: The Fringe. Here's how they stack up.