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[Stinkles]

Care to name a few? I want to try it out for myself.

Quake, Half-Life, Crysis, Daikatana.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Quake, Half-Life, Crysis, Daikatana.

There you go.

 

[charsace]

Quake, Half-Life, Crysis, Daikatana.

 

[Cynar]

When are people going to realize that these 360 mice are just emulating a thumbstick and will feel awkward as hell?

yup, kinda sad that people don't think about that the games need to be coded with this peripheral in mind

 

[Sew]

Ausgaf: $90AUD shipped from Melbourne. http://www.staticmammal.com/#scorch

 

[Pho Antagonist]

Yeah, the only problem with this is their site states the following regarding mouse pads - "the best pads to use have a very fine texture and that fine texture is what gives you the fine movements." This leads me to believe that not only is using a mouse pad important, but also the quality of said mouse pad. I already find it a pain enough to use my laser mouse on my couch...

Are you actually placing the mouse on the couch? If so, you should get a folding laptop tray like this.



I have one that looks just like this, but it's black plastic and has a mouse pad built in. I use it for my laptop all the time. Saves my legs from burning. Found it at Wally world for $25.

 

[user_nat]

I actually use my 360 controller on the PC whenever possible, so this doesn't really interest me.

I wonder how well it would work with games that actually have a mouse cursor, like the map in Oblivion.

 

[Agyar]

I can understand people being excited about using a mouse on a console but all the "now we just need a keyboard" comments have me stumped. Why do you want a typing device so badly? What is a keyboard going to give you that an analogue stick (paired with a few buttons/trigger, like the "other half" of these Splitfish/Fragnstein combos) won't? Is it just because it's what you're used to it or is there something I've forgotten about playing games on PCs that everyone else is aware of?

 

[Sew]

Well I took the plunge. Review next week.

 

[Minotauro]

Has anyone ever used this or something similar on PC for the movement part of an FPS? That's my biggest problem with PC FPS games...the WASD digital movement.

 

[Safe Bet]

Gears, and Mass Effect all work better with a mouse and keyboard. You aim better, you move better, and you access any button you need without fumbling over the small ass controller.

Your hatred for the greatest of all phallic symbols, the joystick, disgusts me.

 

[basis]

Well I took the plunge. Review next week.

can't wait! woohoo!

 

[Sew]

I'm fully prepared for the possibility that it'll be a letdown. I do know that it won't be at its full potential yet, because they're using an early one-size-fits-all firmware. Down the track they'll be releasing "expert" firmwares tuned for specific games. The Fragnstein for example already has expert firmware for MAG, BFBC2, COD, KZ2 and Resistance 2.

It'll probably be some months before the Scorch firmware really hits its stride. Should be interesting anyway.

 

[Sew]

Here we go then with my Scorch 360 impressions. Bear in mind that this is a first look, not a final judgement. These things always take some time to tune (I used to own a XIM2, arrgh!), and so far it's only had a few minutes gameplay.

If you hate all this first impression crap, jump to "FIRST RUN" below.

Included in the box are the two halves of the Scorch, USB dongle, microUSB to USB adapter lead (to plug your wired 360 controller into the dongle), a quick start card, and a spare set of teflon feet for the mouse.

Build quality is decent. Having followed the eternally late Pandora project for so long, I tend to take notice of plastic moulding quality these days. It's all quite nice, with just one sharpish edge at the "arse end" of the mouse where the top curves down. No drama really. They've had plenty of experience refining this with the Fragnstein. The button action (d-pad, ABXY etc) is a little squidgey. I do like the Playstation style analogue stick on the "Left Grip" (a.k.a. nunchuck, which I will call it from here on.)

First thing I did was insert some batteries into the mouse & nunchuck (1xAA each), and plug the dongle into my PC. I'm running Ubuntu, and the mouse worked straight away. If nothing else this will make it a passable PC gaming mouse for the price. If you're running Windows you can take advantage of every button on the mouse & nunchuck, which could be fun. All I need though, are some games for Linux. Moving on...

Now, they recommend that you do a firmware update as soon as you get it (requires Windows). They also recommend that you set up your sensitivity settings etc when you first plug it into the Xbox. But this is science and I need a control test, so I'm doing none of that. "Why not marry safe science if you love it so much."

To the Xbox then. The procedure is this:

- Plug dongle into USB port
- Plug a wired Xbox controller into the dongle
- Turn on the mouse & nunchuck.

The only wired Xbox controller I have on hand is my Saitek Aviator. It's been hacked to pieces and was only just put back together last night. It did the job fine (the job being, make the Xbox think you're using a real controller), and within seconds I was navigating NXE with the nunchuck d-pad.

I don't have all my games here with me, and I'm not a hugely hardcore FPS player anyway so I don't own Halo*, COD*, anything like that. I do have Perfect Dark XBLA and the Orange Box on hand. I decided to do my initial test on Perfect Dark, because it's a very forgiving game in terms of control & aim.

FIRST RUN

I kicked things off at the first level, Datadyne Defection on Agent (easy). Straight away I headed off the edge of the platform to nail the guard below. The whole thing felt really natural. Strafe, spin, fire off two shots. PD's auto aim was a big help of course. Then it was through the doors and down the ramps - and this is where I started to feel the "weight" (slowness) of the mouse. I knew this wasn't going to be a twitch experience, and I got what I expected. A long sweep of mouse was required for a 180 spin, and I ended up look at the ceiling. Only a minute into the game, I'm calling that a PEBKAC issue.

Next I brought up the sights (Falcon pistol) for some manual targeting. If you've played PD XBLA you'll know there's a bit of deadzone here as it is, and the Scorch is certainly no cure for that. In fact the sights were so jittery they were unusable. However, this issue is reported by many first time users, and it's what you should expect when you plug, pray and ignore the effing manual. Which is the exact procedure I followed.

I'll have to do more playing & tweaking before going any further with this. But I have to say that manual aiming aside, it was a pleasant surprise.

It might be a few days before I report back with anything useful, so these are just initial impressions. Don't be too quick to judge the product based on this. Here are the things I was supposed to do, but didn't:

- Upgrade the firmware
- Tweak the sensitivity
- RTFM
- Use a mouse mat suited to a high DPI mouse (I used an old newspaper ^_^)

Also, this is bog standard firmware as described in my previous post. Game specific firmware will be released along the way (I think BFBC2 firmware is out this week).

ps.

Oops.

Official forums: http://www.bannco.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=29&func=showcat&catid=3

 

[fappenmeister]

$78.69

http://www.taobaodao.com/goods-3002.html

I have not personally used this site. They accept PayPal so you should be protected...

EDIT: this place has good Reseller Ratings and it is $79.99:
http://www.svc.com/scorch.html

The Bannco forums had posts stating that taobaodao.com sold bootlegs of the Fragnstein, which had the controller packaged differently to the official product. Not sure if there was any truth to it but it may be best to avoid if you're buying the Scorch.

 

[Sew]

FYI for Aussies, mine came from http://www.staticmammal.com/

They have Scorch & Fragnstein in stock, express posted out of Melbourne. Very friendly service and quick email replies.

 

[Always-honest]

Something similar was around ages ago. THE XFPS SNIPER Though it was converter to actually put a normal keyboard(USB) and mouse on it. You actually put a wired 360 controller in it as well. So that the console recognizes it as 360 controller. It can also use the Dual shock 2.

It is cheating, it should be banned, but is there really a way to know?

Halo 3 with the XFPS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9fzM6FlZRM

nothing will help HIM

 

[Label]

My brother has been using the XIM2 (and other things) for a couple of years now, it is pretty awesome, but it also feels a little odd at the same time. I consider it cheating though so I never use it. :lol

(Not that I like playing FPS's on consoles anyway)