Joystiq impressions: HORI VF5 joystick for 360

At Sega's Virtua Fighter 5 360 demo station at E3, there were two shiny HORI joysticks, which are being released alongside the 360 release of VF5. While we were (barely) bested by Sega's employee in our matches, we definitely enjoyed the hardware on which we played. The buttons and joystick have a nice, durable feel to them. The joystick has a definite tactile click to it, and it's not too loud either, which is nice. The buttons click solidly and the joystick inputs seemed spot on. We managed some nice body checks with Akira with no problem at all, and diagonal inputs were easily recognized too. The Sega rep informed us that the stick should retail for around $50 or so, which seems fairly standard. Considering the DOA4 stick is now nearly impossible to find (and damned expensive if you do), you'll definitely want to pick up the HORI stick if you're serious about your virtual fighting.