Speedpad n52, and where are the singers?
Well, I haven’t had much to say lately. This is partly because I’m too lazy to get out the camera and type up a blog entry, but also partly because there haven’t been that many “gaming experiences” in my life at all. Heck, I’ll bet I’m not even gaming more than 30 hours a week. And most of that has been racing games, and nobody really needs to hear how “Fatal Inertia” is about as disappointing as it is cool, or how I’ve been trying to finish Wipeout 3 (yes, for PS One). Man, that’s one hard game! And, yet, still somehow more fun than any of the racing games I’ve found for X360. Odd, that.
And then there’s adventure games. I’ve almost finished Sam and Max season 1 :luv:, and followed the simply amazing transformation of Tabula Rasa into a playable product, and gone back to City of Heroes (it’s more fun than I remembered), and cancelled my WoW account, run around in Dungeon Runners, and still found time to get started on Half Life Ep 2 from the orange box (surprisingly un-innovative and at the same time tons of fun, can they do that?). So, I guess I haven’t been idle.
And at some time during this stultifying period of almost total non-gaming, I bought a new “accessory controller thingumie” that has captured my heart, or at least captured a few dollars, which is pretty
darn close. I know I’ve been cruel to a few peripherals in past blogs. (Sorry, Razer, but your products aren’t nearly as cool as they look.) So, let me take this opportunity to spread love liberally all over my now-favorite toy, the place my hand rests for hours on end, don’t look at me like that, the Nostromo n52 speedpad thingy. (I’m too lazy to take a picture of it, just look at the stupid pictures on their product page if you really must know.) It has almost three rows of keys, a bunch of stuff for your thumb to play with, and a mouse wheel. Even better: its software is high on function and low on flash, which automatically (and consistently) selects the correct configuration for my games. Even better, it supports four different keymaps per game configuration, or “loadout”, which can of course be toggled on the fly using any button, and so on and so forth. It’s functional, with little or no bling. Oh, there’s a new version coming out that has lit keys, which is very dumb–the whole point of the thing is that you never have to look down!
I feel like I got cheated for not checking this thing out earlier. I guess that’s because it’s such a plain jane controller–it looks just like my keyboard. Hey, I already have one of those…but I’m glad I tried it anyway (well, I was drunk). That d-pad controller under the thumb and instant access to three (red/green/blue) alternative keymaps means I never get lost on the keyboard. I really can’t gush enough about how great it is, so I’ll shut up. But if you are perfectly satisfied using wasd on the keyboard, you’ll be even more satisfied with this thingumie.
Now, it’s not a perfect relationship. The “spacebar” thumb button is a bit of a stretch, and that big yellow button above the d-pad takes about 80 pounds of force to engage. But I don’t care. I love it, flaws and all.
UPDATE! I haven’t really used the speedpad since I wrote this, because the buttons are hard to press and go down at a funny angle, while the quote ergonomic unquote wrist rest is at such an angle that the pad slides away while I’m trying to use it, and the rubber isn’t sticky enough to keep it in one place. This also makes the thumbpad more or less useless. The concept and features are neat, but the execution ius guaranteed to give you tunneling carp syndrome.
In other news, why the heck can’t we find a singer for our band? Argh! When you don’t need one, they’re everywhere…
