First off this is not a stick for just any casual gamer. I've read many reports of people who are put off by the fact that it has too many buttons, too difficult to program etc etc.

Well the news is it's more of a gadget than a toy and like most of these things the gadget requires a certain amount of patience to master. The Saitek X52 is aimed at the casual to serious flight sim market so we're not talking Halo here. No point and shoot and wake up with a hole in your head. These are serious gamers who believe in a cause. That cause being the non-dumbing down of games. These simmers are serious about their games -- and even more serious about their equipment. And let's face it, if you can fly an F16 Fighting Falcon, engage multiple bogeys beyond visual range while avoiding SAMs intent on blowing you out of the sky AND still get back to base in time to smoke a kipper for breakfast, then you really should be able to program a joystick.

"If you can't program a joystick, stick to Halo" is the unspoken motto of the flight sim community. However I digress. This is about the Saitek X52 HOTAS (hands On Throttle And Stick for all you Halo players).

So it arrives on your doorstep one day and you think "Hell, I just spent $100 on a joystick -- I hope it's worth it"

You go inside with a smaller box than you imagined -- also a little surprised at how light it is. Maybe they ship the stick and throttle seperately? Nope -- it's just well packaged. However the unit is light, so all those used to the weight of a cougar are going to be a little disappointed.

So it's out of the box. What do you get? Well, obviously there's the stick and the throttle. There's also a connecting cable to join the stick to the throttle (the joystick connects to the throttle via a 5pin connectore, and then the throttle connects to your PC via a USB plug. This seems a little backward to me because if the stick connected to the PC you could probably use it as a standalone joystick if you wanted, but this is no biggie).

Also in the box is the driver cd which also contains the SST software and the manual. There was no printed manual it's a PDF on the CD.That's a real pet peeve of mine, especially on a piece of kit that costs $100. But I can live with it. I've had Saitek products before and know what to expect from the software so I don't need a manual. It would have been nice though.

And you also get a bag of rubber suction cups.

Well, the rubber suction cups are about as much use as a chocolate teapot. My desk isn't smooth so the won't stick. And also when you put them in the base of the stick and throttle they have a tendancy to fall out. Well, no worries, both the units have little rubber feet so that should be ok.

And it also means I have a little bag of little rubber suction cups to play with. Bonus!

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