I am currently playing two MMO's (WoW and Rift). I play one FPS which is Left for Dead 2. I have not used this Gameboard with LFD2 but I do not except any problems. This is the first Gameboard type device I have used.
I bought this Gameboard due to the amount of repeated key spamming in both WoW and Rift. What a pain. In Rift certain characters require multiple macros in which... yes, you have to spam (1111111 yes! time to hit that 2 for my special 2. 1111111.. you get the idea). I was also running out of reasonably located keys to assign on my keyboard, so it was time to try a Gameboard.
When I first got the Gameboard I had no real troubles in setting it up. I did not read the documentation and pretty much watched the tutorial and played around with things until I got them to work. When I first starting using it, I will be honest... I hated it. Make note that there are no keys above the WASD (specifically the W key) as you find on a normal keyboard. So if you are used to using 1,2,3,4,5,6 for various abilities in game this omission will torture you for a couple of weeks. At least it did me. I paid far too much to give up so I trudged on. It took me about three weeks to get comfortable with the Gameboard, your mileage may vary. I first started using it for doing quests.. moving my character around and playing with various key assignments (while getting used to the keys). I found myself reverting back to my regular keyboard when PVP'ing. I knew there was no way I was going to try it in my FPS game until I was completely comfortable with it.
I am happy to say that there is no way I would give this Gameboard up now. I am very comfortable with using it. Instead of spamming the 1,2,3, etc keys I simply hold them down due to the built in ability to "repeat a key". Certain macros such as self buffing now with a press of a single key target me then my pet and delivers the correct buffs(the Gameboard allows you to record macros, complete with delays in between key presses for those annoying global cool downs). Instead of worrying about the keys that I used to use above my WASD I primarily use the keys keys to the right and left of the WASD on the game board while keeping my fingers on the WASD more often (achieved by assigning any type of key press to a single button such a CTRL-1 being assigned to say key G13). For multiple characters you can set up multiple profiles (The M keys, I believe there are like 4?, You could also create another Game profile if you need more.. IE. Rift2) For Rift, this is a must since the varying macros/keys needed for each toon seems to be dramatic.
The LCD screen is not simply cool but I would completely miss it if I didn't have it. You can display various third party programs and in other games you do not need a third party program it simply supports the game you are playing (IE. WoW). For me, I use Teamspeak in Rift. I can see who is talking.. latency etc. In WoW I use Vent.. same features since both programs support the LCD. I use Advanced Combat Tracker for Rift and when tracking my DPS in groups I pop it up on the LCD.. it's sweet. Out of the box you can use it to view RSS feeds, see the music you are playing.. countdown (count up) timers.. Etc.. I could go on, but the LCD to me is now a must have. It allows me to not have to hook up a second monitor.
Pros:
Ease of set up: Without pouring through documentation or long hours of playing around I believe I had it set up for Rift in about an hour. Obviously it takes time for each game and where you want certain key presses/macros to be on the Gameboard but outside of that, easy.
Programmable: Very flexible with many options to choose from. You can change the colors of the keyboard for each profile as well. Nice visual reminder of what profile you are using or if you are on the right profile for the game you are playing.
Comfort: Wont slide around on your desk. Lays solid. The WASD keys have a concave dip to them which allows you to find your normal hand position without having to look. The tilt to the Gameboard also keeps your wrist comfortable. The "ramp" on the Gameboard is very comfortable as well, the material used is a nice addition. The keys have a pleasant feel to them. I don't care for the keys that are around the joystick portion or for that matter they way the joystick feels but the rest is ok by me.
LCD: As mentioned above, it's icing on the cake for me. I am surprised how many third party programs support it. If they support the G15 they also support this G13.
Construction: This thing feels like it is meant to take abuse. It certainly doesn't seem to be cheaply made.
Performance: I haven't had any issues with the Gameboard after many hours of gaming and using various functions of the Gameboard.
Price: I thought the price was high for what I considered at the time a "would be nice to have" but now, I believe the price is spot on for a quality product. It seems so many items now-a-days are made cheap and you can tell, but not this bad boy.
Cons: There was a recent hardware/software update that added the ability to lock your profile. Before the Gameboard simply selected your profile when you started the game. Now, I find myself scrolling on the LCD and locking my game in. Minor annoyance and it could be me not looking for a way to leave it on "auto"? I continue to refuse to read the documentation so this is on me of course.
Learning curve: Another minor ding.. This will vary by person but with the keys missing above WASD I would be willing to bet most gamers will hate this Gameboard at first.
Joystick: This may be a personal thing but I find it to be sluggish when trying to use it to move your character. That is unacceptable in an FPS or when MMO PVP'ing. I use the joystick to view my character and to escape whatever screen is open. The buttons around the joystick open up the map and view my inventory. Works nice and I turned this in to a positive. I love using the joystick and its buttons to perform character functions.
Final thoughts: I don't think you can go wrong with this Gameboard. I also believe the hardest part to get used to is lack of the keys above WASD but once you do get used to it you wont care and if you are like me, you prefer not to remove your hand to use the old 1,2,3,4... and like not having them. You will have to be willing to spend the time to get used to it which can be frustrating but with it in the end. LCD.. Again, SWEEEET addition. Another interesting note is now when I try to use my regular keyboard for gaming I feel cramped--as if my fingers are much too close together, I have all but given up on using the regular keyboard now. Now that I am dexterous with my Gameboard (I am one of those FPS players that jumps all over/around/atop of things in my MMOS due to being twitchy), I am looking forward to rolling players in my FPS' with this bad boy. I will have to report back.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2009
To start off with, it's a lot bigger than the n53te, so make sure you have enough room for it. With my mouse, keyboard, and the G13 all taking up space on the slide-out keyboard shelf of my computer desk, I find that the G13 and keyboard have to fight for their turn to have focus. There's simply not enough room to have them all laid out next to one another. The nice thing about this, though, is that other than typing out text, the G13 replaces every single keystroke I'd ever use on the keyboard for controlling games.
Speaking of games, I am an avid MMORPG junkie. I play Warhammer Online (my MMORPG de jour for now) every chance I get and for many hours at a time. That's what lead me on my journey to find a better way of rapidly executing the various abilities my characters have. A simple game controller wouldn't suffice, since there are simply way too many abilities that need to be mapped to buttons. I found out about these gamepads almost a year ago and bought the n52te after a little research. After reading a thread in a forum that discussed the G13, it sounded like it had all the features I felt were missing from the n52te, so I bought it.
The packaging it arrived in was secure, so nobody should have to worry about damage during transit. As I unboxed it the reality of how monstrous this thing is really hit home. It was huge, and I was unsure whether it would fit on my slide-out tray with the keyboard & mouse. I was able to squeeze it in after pushing the keyboard back a bit (keyboard is a Saitek Gamer's keyboard, mouse is a Razer Death Adder.) As usual I didn't bother installing the software from the box, and went to the website instead. Finding a driver was a snap, and I downloaded and installed the latest drivers.
There are, oddly enough, two separate programs that run in the tray for the G13. One is the LCD screen management app, and the other is the gameboard programming app. I'm not quite sure why these couldn't be integrated with one another. I'll get into the programming app later in the review.
Hand placement felt good. The buttons are nice and large, and their surface is concave, allowing the user to feel where their fingers are at without any danger of them sliding off and losing track of which keys they're on. It sounds silly, but after you have a gameboard with flat buttons you'll really appreciate this. The gameboard keys are also laid out on a surface that curves in towards the center, allowing for more comfortable operation as opposed to a flat surface which forces the user to rotate their fingers in ways they really aren't meant to. The only drawback is there is no way to adjust for larger or smaller hands. One size fits all. The n52te was somewhat adjustable.
Keys? Wow are there a lot of them! There's so many that unfortunately my fingers can't stretch far enough to hit them all comfortably. However, I don't think of this as a problem. I would MUCH rather have too many keys than too little. I still use the fringe keys infrequently for character abilities that don't need to be accessed very often. Also, the only keys that are really able to be accessed rapidly without having to curl your fingers up are the top two rows. I occasionally press one of the third row buttons, but it's rare. Maybe I just need to adapt more? Only time will tell I suppose.
The analog thumbstick is both a blessing and a curse, and really the only thing I have a problem with. I say it's a blessing because a digital thumbstick (like the one on the n52te) is just horrible. I found myself stuck in limbo frequently with the n52te because I was moving the thumbstick from the North to West position, and the thumbstick would stop sending a signal as I moved it between these states. Also, one of the big things I wished for on the n52te was that the thumbstick act as a button if you push down on it. This was all solved with the G13. The thumbstick is analog, allowing for a full range of motion without that "clicky" feel as you maneuver it. The thumbstick also acts as an additional button when you depress it. The curse is that the thumbstick itself feels awful. The hat on it is way too small, leaving the user to feel like they're trying to use the eraser end of a pencil to move around. It's a real shame too, because everything else about this gameboard is absolutely terrific.
The gameboard lighting is also really cool. There are 3 modes that can be cycled through, so all of the keys you see are effectively TRIPLED. Yeah. This thing is *insane* with the coverage it has when it comes to duplicating everything you can assign to a standard keyboard. Anyway, each mode has its own color of light, and the color can be selected using the gameboard editor. There are a lot of different colors to choose from also, so you're not pigeon-holed into only a handful of choices.
The LCD screen is a very nice touch. It can report all sorts of in-game statistics, and can be set to receive RSS feeds from the news, display computer info such as CPU load, the time & date, and all sorts of other statistics. The LCD screen can apparently be programmed by anyone, so you can write your own custom G13 LCD screen plug-in to display literally anything you want. Unfortunately as of this writing Warhammer Online only displays its icon, and I've seen it sometimes display a message stating that I'm not queued for any scenarios (you have to play Warhammer Online to know what I'm talking about here.)
The gameboard programming software is simple and easy to use. Making macros is a breeze. One of the other big gripes I had about the n52te was with programming simple keyboard combinations. You want to assign a button on the gameboard to Ctrl+1? Sorry, the n52te software will only recognize the first button you press, so you only get Ctrl. To assign combinations you have to create a macro. Ugh! Not with the G13. It easily recognizes Ctrl/Alt/Shift modifiers, and even goes so far as to recognize *which* one you've pressed, whether it's right or left. Making a macro is nice and easy too, and you can copy & paste them between different modes to set up the device fairly rapidly.
So to sum up...
Pros:
- LCD screen is fantastic and provides a great means to display information
- TONS of keys that are tripled via mode switching
- Concave keys and surface which creates a comfortable surface for the hand
- Analog thumbstick as opposed to digital
- Many lighting color schemes to choose from
- Easy to use programming software
Cons:
- It's HUGE
- The analog thumbstick's surface is too small
- Not adjustable to accommodate small or large hands
- Since there are so many keys, some are simply impractical for frequent use since they're so far apart
The pros so overwhelmingly make up for the trivial cons that I cannot emphasize enough how great this gameboard is. It's just one of those things you must try to truly appreciate. I will also give a disclaimer that there is *always* a learning curve when it comes to these devices. If you have never used a gameboard before, you will find yourself lost until your hand can seek out the buttons and operate the thumbstick without having to think about it. Once it becomes natural for you to use it, that's when the lightbulb will come on over your head and you'll wonder how you ever played games without one.
Excellent controller with outstanding software, just wish the thumbstick felt better
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2009
I've tried one other gameboard (Belkin n52te), and thought that it was great. The one thing I didn't like about it was the digital thumbstick and the fact that it didn't depress to act as a button. Enter the Logitech G13. This thing pretty much saved the day, once I got my hand(s) on it.Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2009
To start off with, it's a lot bigger than the n53te, so make sure you have enough room for it. With my mouse, keyboard, and the G13 all taking up space on the slide-out keyboard shelf of my computer desk, I find that the G13 and keyboard have to fight for their turn to have focus. There's simply not enough room to have them all laid out next to one another. The nice thing about this, though, is that other than typing out text, the G13 replaces every single keystroke I'd ever use on the keyboard for controlling games.
Speaking of games, I am an avid MMORPG junkie. I play Warhammer Online (my MMORPG de jour for now) every chance I get and for many hours at a time. That's what lead me on my journey to find a better way of rapidly executing the various abilities my characters have. A simple game controller wouldn't suffice, since there are simply way too many abilities that need to be mapped to buttons. I found out about these gamepads almost a year ago and bought the n52te after a little research. After reading a thread in a forum that discussed the G13, it sounded like it had all the features I felt were missing from the n52te, so I bought it.
The packaging it arrived in was secure, so nobody should have to worry about damage during transit. As I unboxed it the reality of how monstrous this thing is really hit home. It was huge, and I was unsure whether it would fit on my slide-out tray with the keyboard & mouse. I was able to squeeze it in after pushing the keyboard back a bit (keyboard is a Saitek Gamer's keyboard, mouse is a Razer Death Adder.) As usual I didn't bother installing the software from the box, and went to the website instead. Finding a driver was a snap, and I downloaded and installed the latest drivers.
There are, oddly enough, two separate programs that run in the tray for the G13. One is the LCD screen management app, and the other is the gameboard programming app. I'm not quite sure why these couldn't be integrated with one another. I'll get into the programming app later in the review.
Hand placement felt good. The buttons are nice and large, and their surface is concave, allowing the user to feel where their fingers are at without any danger of them sliding off and losing track of which keys they're on. It sounds silly, but after you have a gameboard with flat buttons you'll really appreciate this. The gameboard keys are also laid out on a surface that curves in towards the center, allowing for more comfortable operation as opposed to a flat surface which forces the user to rotate their fingers in ways they really aren't meant to. The only drawback is there is no way to adjust for larger or smaller hands. One size fits all. The n52te was somewhat adjustable.
Keys? Wow are there a lot of them! There's so many that unfortunately my fingers can't stretch far enough to hit them all comfortably. However, I don't think of this as a problem. I would MUCH rather have too many keys than too little. I still use the fringe keys infrequently for character abilities that don't need to be accessed very often. Also, the only keys that are really able to be accessed rapidly without having to curl your fingers up are the top two rows. I occasionally press one of the third row buttons, but it's rare. Maybe I just need to adapt more? Only time will tell I suppose.
The analog thumbstick is both a blessing and a curse, and really the only thing I have a problem with. I say it's a blessing because a digital thumbstick (like the one on the n52te) is just horrible. I found myself stuck in limbo frequently with the n52te because I was moving the thumbstick from the North to West position, and the thumbstick would stop sending a signal as I moved it between these states. Also, one of the big things I wished for on the n52te was that the thumbstick act as a button if you push down on it. This was all solved with the G13. The thumbstick is analog, allowing for a full range of motion without that "clicky" feel as you maneuver it. The thumbstick also acts as an additional button when you depress it. The curse is that the thumbstick itself feels awful. The hat on it is way too small, leaving the user to feel like they're trying to use the eraser end of a pencil to move around. It's a real shame too, because everything else about this gameboard is absolutely terrific.
The gameboard lighting is also really cool. There are 3 modes that can be cycled through, so all of the keys you see are effectively TRIPLED. Yeah. This thing is *insane* with the coverage it has when it comes to duplicating everything you can assign to a standard keyboard. Anyway, each mode has its own color of light, and the color can be selected using the gameboard editor. There are a lot of different colors to choose from also, so you're not pigeon-holed into only a handful of choices.
The LCD screen is a very nice touch. It can report all sorts of in-game statistics, and can be set to receive RSS feeds from the news, display computer info such as CPU load, the time & date, and all sorts of other statistics. The LCD screen can apparently be programmed by anyone, so you can write your own custom G13 LCD screen plug-in to display literally anything you want. Unfortunately as of this writing Warhammer Online only displays its icon, and I've seen it sometimes display a message stating that I'm not queued for any scenarios (you have to play Warhammer Online to know what I'm talking about here.)
The gameboard programming software is simple and easy to use. Making macros is a breeze. One of the other big gripes I had about the n52te was with programming simple keyboard combinations. You want to assign a button on the gameboard to Ctrl+1? Sorry, the n52te software will only recognize the first button you press, so you only get Ctrl. To assign combinations you have to create a macro. Ugh! Not with the G13. It easily recognizes Ctrl/Alt/Shift modifiers, and even goes so far as to recognize *which* one you've pressed, whether it's right or left. Making a macro is nice and easy too, and you can copy & paste them between different modes to set up the device fairly rapidly.
So to sum up...
Pros:
- LCD screen is fantastic and provides a great means to display information
- TONS of keys that are tripled via mode switching
- Concave keys and surface which creates a comfortable surface for the hand
- Analog thumbstick as opposed to digital
- Many lighting color schemes to choose from
- Easy to use programming software
Cons:
- It's HUGE
- The analog thumbstick's surface is too small
- Not adjustable to accommodate small or large hands
- Since there are so many keys, some are simply impractical for frequent use since they're so far apart
The pros so overwhelmingly make up for the trivial cons that I cannot emphasize enough how great this gameboard is. It's just one of those things you must try to truly appreciate. I will also give a disclaimer that there is *always* a learning curve when it comes to these devices. If you have never used a gameboard before, you will find yourself lost until your hand can seek out the buttons and operate the thumbstick without having to think about it. Once it becomes natural for you to use it, that's when the lightbulb will come on over your head and you'll wonder how you ever played games without one.
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