Best joystick: The top flightsticks for your home cockpit

Soon. Soon we will have all the space sims of which our childhood selves could only dream.

Back when I was Wing Commanding with my QuickShot Pro on my faithful old Amiga, I could scarcely imagine the wonders that would be coming the way of my grown up self. Even a few years ago we probably wouldn't have imagined it because the space sim was effectively dead.

Maybe you had the odd decent real-time strategy spacer, but it seemed unlikely we'd ever jump into the cockpit of a single-seater fighter and battle it out in the stars with a joystick fiercely gripped in hand.

Yet now there are a couple of massive space sims on the horizon. First, we've got the recently-released Elite: Dangerous delivering delicious shooty-tradey space fun, and we've still got the promise of Star Citizen's massive-o-universe sim to come.

But because the flight and space sim genre has been away for so long, we'd bet that most of you no longer own a joystick.

A lot of folks might have a gamepad, but that's a very different vibe. Having a proper flightstick offers a much greater level of immersion, especially if you can pair it with a throttle too.

The thought of splashing out on another expensive peripheral might well give you pause for thought, but you can pick up some great value options as well as some incredible – but incredibly pricey – options too.

So what's the best joystick around?