Epsom Salts! Stat! Our feet are tired and worn but our hearts were warmed by what we saw today. ThrustMaster's Cougar HOTAS is AMAZING, as were IL-2 Sturmovik, Destroyer Command, and Silent Hunter II.

That was one of the best reviews of the Cougar I have seen. A couple of questions;

1)Did you get a chance to use it on a flight sim and if so how was the "feel" compared to a F16/F22 stick?

2) Any info on the "replacement" sticks? What types, when, cost, etc?

Thanks for a fantastic review and some great pics.

By any chance there wasn't any samples available was there?

--------------------

Check six & aim for the cockpit.

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. ."-- Edward R. Murrow

He who sacrifices freedom for security is neither free nor secure" - Ben Franklin

--------------------

Jeezuz!! How cool is that stick? That thing puts all other sticks to shame, my SFS Talon and throttle included. << "I have felt a new disturbance in the force". "I have felt it, my master." >> Time to bow down to the new Master. It is coming soon and I can't wait. Shame it would cost me something like $600 to $700 to buy them. After exchange rate, retail and posting costs are factored in. Thems the breaks.

As for IL2. Is this going to be the greatest flight simulation EVER or what? Although fighting in the semi-dynamic campaign will be awesome, many of us will also enjoy just flying around, exploring the scenery, blowing up hapless non-combatants, buzzing the tower, flying down city streets, and other fun miscellaneous pranks and such. Without doubt, this game is at the top of my gaming priorities. I cannot wait until the end of this year. Bring it on!

Thanks for those previews, Doug. Your a dead-set legend of the sim community. Hoped you enjoyed your trip to LA. Cheers.

A big CHEERS to the Foxy man, Dr James. This guy keeps giving and giving to the flight sim community, and gets so little in return. He is just the most generous, giving and good natured person I have heard of. It is good to see Dr James is getting the attention and recognition that he so richly deserves from TM. Your a dead-set legend also.

LD.

--------------------

They stand poised to open up a realm which many of us simmers have as yet only been able to dream of.

The ability to take on a variety of roles within a large contained environment, such as a capital ship, and pit the skills of the individuals against a similar combined team in another large vehicle has long been a dream of many combat-oriented sim fanatics.

The fact that both Silent Hunter and Destroyer Command will (reportedly) be inter-operable in multiplay only adds further to the spectacular achievement that they stand poised to (possibly) achieve.

There have been promisies of similar capabilities with titles like M1 & Gunship, and even BattleCruiser Millenium is trying to come close to the mark.

How long will it be before there are full battle-groups in either naval or space simulation, combining multiplayer numbers into the hundreds in a variety of roles ranging from command of a large ship to the piloting of individual intercept craft and everything in-between?

As the power of machines and the internet improves yearly, we are coming ever-closer to this holy grail of simulation, and each step like this one, small as it may be, is helping to open the door to such future possibilities.

To this end, have any of you guys seen anything of the multi-player capabilities of either title, or any sign of their supposed inter-operativity?

I know quite a few would-be captains who are waiting for these titles to live up to their potential.

Was Mr. Norman up to some skullduggery?

Cheers

I then handed out the third award to the ThrustMaster Cougar HOTAS. I then traipsed back to the UbiSoft booth and gave Destroyer Command and Silent Hunter II "Best of Show" awards for their interoperability. I never did get back to Codemaster's "booth" to award Operation Flashpoint their award, but they got one too.

Finally, NVIDIA's GeForce3 got Best of Show for video cards.

There's still a few more awards to be mentioned, but I have to talk to Groucho and Twitch before I post that final list.

"Best of Show" awards aren't a one-off sort of award, like say, "Best Actor" Oscars. I was waiting until we had finished posting all our E3 reports to post the list, but since you asked I thought I'd clear up the confusion.

--------------------

Cheers