I'm not a great fun of Microsoft but I have to admit that they did a great job with this joystick, just for once. I bought the Saitek Cyborg 3D. Same price. It was horrible. Unstable. It was cool looking but what's the use a  cool joystick when you can't land your plane with it because it sends  random signals to your pc? Sidewinder is precise and reliable.  Also it's  multipurpose. I use it for Falcon 4 and Need for Speed and it's great with  both.