Xpadder 5.7 Released

The fantastic gamepad utility has been updated to 5.7 and you may have wondered what had happened to it since it's can't live without days. Primarily the switch from free to payware made this once must have utility a $10, are you kidding me? search for something else. A shame really as it's progression from 5.3 freeware to 5.7 payware is really worthwhile and if you are sick of games like Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2 not having gamepad support then this is a solution.

Having used the freeware version since, oh forever, I had thought that Xpadder pretty much had everything under wraps and the payware version was more of a donation version of the same software. No, and whats worse is that you'll never know what you're missing without buying it due to the lack of a demo. True, the free 5.3 version is still available on other websites (Xpadder.com no longer has it listed) but none of the new features are present. Worse still, the homepage tells you little of what you are missing aside from a boring version history text box. The site needs a flash visual walkthrough of the new features that people like myself didn't know they were missing.

First off, you can now have a button do more that one action depending on how long you hold it. An example would be Bioshock where holding the use button down played the last audio log. Another fantastic idea is the addition of distance zones that press a key depending on how far you move a joystick or how far you pull in the trigger. This can simulate analog movement by allowing you to map the walk key for less than 40% movement while mapping the run key to the additional 60%. Once you have experienced these features first hand, it's impossible to imagine how you got along without them.

Yes, it's a $10 purchase and yes it was once free, but giving the author incentive to keep working on the app is what made these changes happen. If you're not a gamepad gamer then xpadder is not for you. If you are however, that $10 purchase gets you updates for life and access to the development zone on the forums where xpadder is switching from milestone releases to constant (1-3 day) updates.
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