Thrustmaster Hotas Cougar First Look - by Mark "Frugal" Bush
Funny how a piece of hardware can affect you. Over the last 24 hours I've come to the conclusion that there is a lot more to this Cougar than meets the eye. Never before has any hardware generated the kind of emotional response that I find with the Cougar. Pretty hard to explain really but any other hardware I've ever had has been just that, no real emotional tug other than maybe a certain fondness. Even my original F22 was immediately plugged into the machine and my main concern was getting it up and running and flying.
The Cougar on the other hand did not prompt me to install it and fly but rather to sit and admire it. I spent hours on my sofa just holding it, studying it and enjoying it for its form rather than its function. I then discovered later that James Hallows (who received his Cougar at the same time) had done exactly the same as me (spooky). Here we both were with the piece of hardware we had desired for so long and yet neither had bothered to install it. I can only equate it to a fine Brandy that rather than poured into a glass and gulped down, is swirled around in the glass for a while, the aroma is appreciated and then finally the brandy is sipped, savoured and enjoyed.
James and I then sat comparing what we didn't like about the Cougar. This was our way of proving to ourselves that it was real, - like pinching ourselves! If this was a woman, you'd want it to have at least one fault if not more, just to make it real, because in all other respects, it's heaven on earth. If I felt the Cougar was perfect, I wouldn't be capable of giving it the honest appraisal it deserved. So even though we went fault finding, I really had to be quite picky because it is so easy to fall in love with this work of art.. Today I even found myself detatching the handle so that I could watch TV with my comforter in hand. I also find myself polishing it before leaving my seat for any length of time (hehe I have since discovered that James also does this, spooky again). The feeling of the smooth cold steel in your hand really cannot be described. I can honestly say that I would love this as much if it had no function. Considering the fact that I had never seen or felt the metal one and originally fell in love with the Cougar purely because of its functionality. This after seeing the beta which was a butchered F22pro with the Cougars circuitry. I don't think I was prepared for the impact of it's beauty and function combined.
Now I know that when you saw the title of first impressions your were expecting a mini review rather than Frugal getting all teary eyed but my first impressions really were purely on an emotional level. Ultimately any appraisal I give of the Cougar is going to be heavily influenced by those emotions and so it is only fair that I share them you so that you can take them into account when weighing up my eventual full review of the Cougar. The truth is that any review of the Cougar I write will have a bias towards my own feelings about the Cougar no matter how hard I try to be impartial. The product itself has earned my bias by its quality and other intangibles and so I don't feel that this bias is a bad thing but I felt it only fair to lay it out on the table and into the open.
Before sharing more of the emotional impressions I will get down to the nitty gritty that you were originally expecting. The box itself contains the Stick, throttle, 183 page manual, Software CD and 2 copies of the Quick install guide. Both copies of the quick install guide appear identical and I first thought that the second one was a happy accident but they are clearly labeled Quick Install Guide 1, and Quick Install Guide 2. I guess TM want to double check that you follow the instructions :-) I'm going to start with the dislikes, I haven't been using it long enough to identify any real problems but James and I did work quite hard to come up with these gripes.
My biggest gripe is the manual. Now I can hear you saying "Hold up Frug, I downloaded that manual and it was the best damn Joystick manual on the planet, you bash that and we are gonna fall out". Well for the most part I would agree that it is the best damn Joystick manual on the planet, the info can't be faulted. My complaint here is that the manual is arse about face. The manual opens up with advanced topics like axis curves and the first section is very heavy going. This was almost enough to scare me off so I dread to think how a newbie would react. In my professional opinion (I feel qualified on this because my regular job involves writing training manuals), the manual should have started simple and eased the user in with basic calibration and operation in Windows mode, moving on to using the wizards and supplied profiles, then on to simple, intermediate then advanced programming and saving the advanced topics for later in the manual or better still the appendices. The programming section does follow this philosophy but I fear newbies to this kind of set up may already have given up before reaching that section. My advice would be to follow the included Quick Install Guide, or better still the excellent guide on Cougar World HERE Then skip straight to page 32 of the manual and work through from there and finally read the first section of the manual when you are ready to learn the advanced axis mapping functions.
The next gripe is that there is a very slight amount of travel in the center of the stick, maybe a millimetre or so in each direction. It certainly does not bother me but is worth being aware of. All of the other gripes are based on comparison to the F22. The trigger action is softer than on the F22 and the second stage does not click but rather has a sort of spongy feel. Not really bad just wierd after the F22. The dog fight switch also does not have a well defined click as it moves into position either.
Installation was very simple, just install the Cougar Control Panel (CCP), install Foxy, then plug in the stick. I didn't even have to reboot. The stick can auto calibrate or can be calibrated manually. I went for the manual calibration out of habit and a personal distrust of auto calibration, for the full review I'll test the auto calibration. The stick started out in windows mode which was fine for IL2 because I use my F22 in windows mode for IL2 so I was flying withing minutes. The first thing that struck me was how smooth and precise it was. I already knew that it was precise from the interview and James demonstration with the beta. It still surprised me though and required me to adjust my flying style slightly. Initially I had a tendency to over-control because I was used to using more effort. Movement with the stick is silky smooth. Personally I found the stick tension perfect. It is similar to the F22 but at the same time not stiff, the extra weight of the handle makes it much easier to move than the F22 whilst still giving comfortable resistance. I spent quite a bit of time performing snap rolls. The hats are easier to use because they have more travel than those of the F22 and a nice springy feeling to them. The throttle is awesome, the original tqs was light and felt somewhat cheap compared to the F22. That is no longer the case, the Cougar throttle is fantastic. The solid clicks of the detents really add immensly to the immersion. That ker-chunk really does give me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Next I jumped into the foxy software for a quick look. Anyone familiar with Fox 2 or Fox 2 pro will feel instantly at home. It has gone way beyond the original Foxy though. The best way I can describe it based on my brief look is try and imagine Foxy XP. All of the original features, a little glitz, lots of wizards and designed to make it user friendly and simple for the newbie whilst allowing the advanced users to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty under the hood. When starting Foxy it asks which type of user you are and then offers assistance based on your level.
Time was pressing on (after 3am with work the next day) so I decided to leave a detailed exploration for another day and load up one of the provided profiles. This couldn't be much easier, I had selected beginner to see how easy it was and Foxy suggested I try loading up a profile by selecting my Sim from the favourites menu. Not wanting to argue with Foxy I selected favourites and looked through the multitude of listed profiles which included several for F4 including RP5 and eFalcon specific and also one to match the real F16 hotas. I selected the IL2 version, then hit the download button. This was downloaded in less than a second and Foxy told me what percentage of the Cougars memory had been used by the profile. I then checked the graphical layout to find out which button did what. Then it was back into IL2 to try it out. Having not written the profile myself I can't say how easy it was to program, there isn't much to say about it at this point other than it included all the major IL2 commands and would be fine for a newbie to use for IL2 or as a starting point to be edited for your own profile. In many ways the only difference between this simple profile and windows mode is that the buttons do different things. In reality programmed mode allows you to do some pretty complex and wonderful things. This IL2 profile had no need to show those features off. The one significant difference here was that this was my first opportunity to use the microstick on the throttle and I was very impressed. The profile had assigned the microstick to control the view panning. This felt odd at first because I'm used to using the standard POV Hat 1 on the stick. The fluid way I was able to look around was impressive though so I would definitely recommend using the microstick for the views.
I'm going to break with tradition and put my initial conclusion (is that an oxymoron?) here instead of at the end so that you don't have to read on if you don't want to read the sentimental gushing that will follow. Based on the time I have spent with the Cougar I can honestly say that it has surpassed my very high expectations. I don't really like to form conclusions in a first look article because I am a firm believer in spending a lot of time getting to know the product first. I have broken with my normal tradition due to public demand for info on this product. I personally love the Cougar even more than my unashamed enthusiasm is able to convey, probably more than is normal for a grown man to love what is essentially a toy albeit and incredibly well crafted toy. I may find more gripes but I honestly cannot see my overall appreciation of the Cougar changing. It's hard to explain but it's very presence either side of my chair even as I type this brings me joy. If you have pre-ordered you are really in for a treat. If you are unsure, at your earliest opportunity after its release find someone that has one and give it a try. No review or words can convey the actual feel of the cougar, it is something you have to experience.
Cougar TQS & Real F16 TQS
Now back to the gushing, and I'll let you into a secret, I didn't set out to write this review at this point. In reality I set out to post the following thoughts as a new topic in the Cougar forum to share my feelings and my fingers just got going and I decided to go along for the ride. What prompted the post was that it started to hit me what the Cougar actually represents. There is far more to this than just a hotas, far far more, wrapped up in this is a dream, a dream that as simmer we all share. This may seem a little overboard but it suddenly hit me just how unlikely it's very existence is. Also probably why some have actually questioned its existance. The Cougar was born under such unlikely circumstances that it's amazing to have it in my hands. Everyone was pulling out of the Flight sim market. Even the Falcon series that had been the old stalwart flagship of the genre was formally laid to rest. The other big name series Janes Combat Simulations was being consigned to the realms of nostalgia, A10 and Janes Attack Squadron were dropped and EA's famous Skunk Works studio was closed down. All of the big names in the industry that we had grown to respect were being laid off. Even many members of the sim community were donning shrouds and accepting the death of the sim market and many sim sites fell by the wayside. People wre lining up to hammer the final nail in the Flight Sim Markets coffin.
And yet despite all this Thrustmaster decided to build a high end flight sim controller. But not just any controller, an all metal authentic replica with a functionality far beyond anything that had ever been seen. Considering that we are not exactly a mainstream market this would be a risky project at the best of times. But when the market appeared to all intents and purposes to be in it's death throes the word risky should be replaced with ludicrous. All I can say is that Thrustmaster showed incredible faith in our hobby even when we ourselves were losing faith. This is the realisation that got me all misty, it's almost like a fairy tale. I recommend the Cougar purely of its functionality and quality and not on any loyalty to Thrustmaster themselves, however I will never forget the loyalty to hard core simmers that Thrustmaster have demonstrated by the very existence of the Cougar. Thrustmaster and every member of the Cougar team have earned my gratitude and deepest respect.
