Not long ago I took a look at the Saitek Cyborg P3600 Gamepad and I found it to be an excellent choice if you were in the market for a new pad, not only is it compatible with any game, but it featured the Cyborg Module that allowed the user to switch the positions of the d-pad and the left analog stick.
Today for review I have another Saitek Rumble Gampad, the P3200. The P3200 is essentially a stripped down version of the P3600 Cyborg, but it still offers the same Saitek quality and can be used with pretty much any game out there. The P3200 is a very capable rumble enabled gamepad that most anyone would be happy with.
Review: Saitek P3200 Rumble Gamepad
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor: Saitek
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Saitek P3200 Force Rumble Gamepad
The new standard in PC gamepads with immersive Rumble Force technology
P3200 Rumble Pad
The standard in PC gamepads, the P3200 Rumble Pad features our new ergonomic shape for increased comfort during long gaming sessions. The pad has a button layout to match Microsofts Xbox 360 gamepad, ensuring compatibility with all current and future PC games.
High quality, varied rumble forces make you feel closer to the action. The P3200 uses Immersion patented rumble technology for maximum compatibility with supported games to let you feel every crash, shot and bump.
The P3200 also ships with Saiteks Smart Technology programming software. Instead of being forced to use your keyboard and mouse for certain games, you can use the Saitek Smart Technology software to program any part of the pad with any keyboard or mouse command. This allows you to use the pad in any game, even those that dont support game controllers!
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Features:
-2 quick-fire shoulder buttons
-2 analogue triggers
-8-way d-pad
-6 responsive buttons
-2 analog joysticks
-Fully programmable
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System Requirement:
Connectivity: USB 2.0
Windows XP, XP64 and Windows Vista (all versions)
Price: $24.95
A Better Look at Things
:
The P3200 comes packaged in a colorful and informative box, on it are several pictures of the
gamepad, along with the features and specs listed in color-coded chart.
Included with the P3200 is just a driver/software disc and brief quick start guide.
The P3200 is smaller than the standard Xbox controllers, but laid out almost the same, just the d-pad and left analog stick are in different positions.
Here’s some close-up shots of the buttons, sticks and pad, and of course on the front is where you’ll find the triggers and shoulder buttons:
The P3200 has a texture over most of the shell of the pad to help make sure you keep a good grip on it, it’s also ergonomically styled for comfort.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Before I get into how the P3200 works in games, heres’ a side-by-side comparison of the Xbox controller and the Saitek P3200 controller:
You can see the P3200 has a smaller profile to it, and the analog sticks are side-by-side, which is something I prefer but if you are accustomed to the Xbox configuration you might not like it much. Of course you could get the Saitek Cyborg Gamepad, the P3600 that I recently reviewed which allows you to switch the positions of the d-pad and the left analog stick.
I couldn’t get the Rumble feature to really work with any games I had installed so I got old an older one, Commanche4, which I know supports rumble. I played through a few missions to get the feel for the rumble effects and they’re pretty good but not very ‘rumbly’ they’re subtle but you know they’re there. Of course using a gamepad to play a flight sim like Commanche4 is a bit difficult but it was still fun.
I used the P3200 in a few other games as well, first person shooters like BF2142 and Unreal3 Demo. I tried using it with Gears of War and Halo2 but they specifically support the official Xbox controller only so I had to go in using the Saitek SST programming software to program the functions of the controller to be compatible with the games. Essentially what you do is assign keyboard keys to the controller using the software and this does work.
Trying to use the programming software was the same as for the Cyborg Gamepad, the help file didn’t work, but as Saitek tech support told me a few early units shipped with incorrect software, or software missing the instructions. There are instructions that can be downloaded from the Saitek site though, and once you play with it you can figure it out fairly easy.
Like the Saitek Cyborg Gamepad, the P3200 comes with the same configuration software, exactly the same, but of course with some of the features disabled. Using the configuration software you can go in and fine tune most of the settings of the P3200 to your own preferences, including the sensitivities of the analog sticks, and it allows you to ‘demo’ the rumble effects of the P3200.
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Using the SST programming software will allow you to use the Saitek P3200 with any game, but I find it’s quite a bit of trouble honestly to go through all of that just top play a game with the gamepad. To make it work you either have to know all of the keys from the game to program into the software or alternately you can program the pad and then configure the game to use those commands. It just seems like a lot of extra work to me, but if you are accustomed to using a gamepad then it might be worth the extra effort to you. You can of course save different ‘profiles’ into the software for each game you play, you can just select the profile to load and you’re ready to go.
Summary:
The P3200 is like the little brother of the P3600 Cyborg, while it’s nice overall I just don’t really care for it. The P3600 is a vastly superior pad that has numerous features that I believe everyone can and will appreciate.
I guess the P3200 does have it’s place though as a budget type controller. It is inexpensive, it works great and it’s the same high quality that you come to expect from Saitek.
DragonSteelMods gives the P3200 Force Rumble Gamepad a 4.5 out of 5 score.
Pros:
-Inexpensive
-Works great
-Programmable
-Rumble force feedback
Cons:
-Lack of support on Saitek site
-Personally it seems like a lot of extra work to use it with incompatible games
I would like to thank Saitek for the chance to review the P3200 Force Rumble Gamepad and for their continued support of DSM.
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