Monday, January 30, 2006
In Control
Here's a bit of a review of some toys new & old that I've been playing BF2 with.
Cybersnipa Gamepad
Picked this up at HN about a fortnight ago. EB Games were all sold out & the kids there didn't know if they were getting any more in.
The theory behind the purchase was that I could arrange my desk more ergonomically and hopefully get a better game in. Turns out that the pad wasn't really ergonomic for my hand and the keys had more resistance than I like. It went back into it's original packaging after one afternoon of use & when I dig out the original receipt I'll be offering it for sale. Yes I could have pushed myself to adapt, but it just didn't feel right for me.
Wolfclaw Type II Keyboard
Ordered from dstore.com.au at below RRP and was delivered in a few days - very happy.*
Much more suited to my hand than the Cybersnipa Gamepad and the key response is exactly the way I like it. I believe it was designed with Counterstrike in mind, so I've had to remap some of the default keys in BF2 to accommodate the way I play (for example - I remapped the space key to sprint as I run more than jump and on the Wolfclaw's gamepad there's a verticle space bar right where my thumb sits - very handy) and had a few games getting completely owned before I found the right config for me, but now it's second-nature and I'm a lot more comfortable playing than with a standard keyboard**. The weapons select number keys are curved across the top of the gamepad, which makes it really easy to switch weapons quickly if the mouse scrollwheel thing isn't to your taste (I alternate, but lean towards the mouse wheel). The standard keyboard layout's a little different, but I've found that easy to adapt to. Two USB ports in the top of the keyboard are handy too, but XP might start complaining if you plug high-power things into 'em. But all in all a great bit of kit.
* - I have no financial or other interest in dstore whatsoever.
** - discomfort was probably a good sign that I'd been playing too long but it's so damn addictive.
Playstation 1 Controller & USB Converter
It occurred to me on the weekend to dig out the PS1 controller and USB adapter that I used to play GTA with and give that a go. Unfortunately I couldn't get the contoller to work properly. I could map the most used keys to controller buttons, and I assigned directional movement to the let thumb joystick (the analogue controller) but there's no way in BF2 to assign mouse controls to anything other than a mouse, so you can't set the right thumb joystick to act as the mouse in terms of looking around, at least I couldn't. I suspect a proper PC gamepad with drivers and customisable controls would let you map mouse movement to a control and then BF2 might just treat it like a mouse. Anyone done this?
An Extra Gb of RAM
It wasn't just for gaming, but I put a second Gb of RAM into the desktop system over the weekend and BF2's a lot happier now. I still suspect there's a memory hole in the latest patch, but the second Gb seems to be compensating nicely; hopefully that'll get fixed with the new patch. When is that new patch due?
Now on to mice - what do y'all use? Those wireless laser ones look good but are they better or worse for gaming?
[ Tags : Games , Battlefield 2 , BF2 ]
Labels: Play
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