Wednesday, December 28, 2005

On my Belkin Nostromo N52 Speedpad

I purchased a Belkin Nostromo N52 SpeedPad over a month ago at Best Buy for around 40 bucks. I meant to provide a review at some point.

One disclaimer : I gather the SpeedPad is more geared towards First Person Shooters. I'm out of the shooter scene right now, so I just tried it with an MMO (WoW) and an RTS (Dawn of War).

The Good

I liked the hard feel of the keys (if there's a display model in a store I'd suggest trying it out, it's awesome) The accompanying software was also well done.

But the best part of the device is a D-Pad that sits under your thumb. Brilliant.

The Bad

It took nearly half an hour to set up the SpeedPad for each game. Not that it's difficult to set up -- there are just so many key assignments to consider that it takes a while. It would have been nice to start with a game-specific default, but Belkin's website only had premade configurations for a handful of games.

The SpeedPad also provides a "shifting" mechanic that allows you to change key mappings. I didn't care for it. I like the idea, but the only obvious "shifting" key is a small red button that is by your thumb -- a small red button that you have to press so hard it actually moves the whole device sideways. Without the shifting mechanic, I never seemed to have enough keys.

The Ugly

To top it all off, mine was broken. The wheel only worked sporadically. For something that's supposed to be a 'premium gamer item' that was offputting. I returned my SpeedPad and asked for my money back.


With all that said, I would probably check out the successor if/when it gets made (The N52 was the successor to the N50), provided there are more keys or the shifting mechanic becomes easier to use.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Videogames Are Not Art

I'm back, finally.

I actually hit 60 a week ago but I'm a slacker.

While I was on hiatus, the thing that I most missed writing about was the words of Roger Ebert (movie critic), concerning video games.

[T]he nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship [however elegant or sophisticated] to the stature of art.

I have to say to Mr. Ebert : you are 100% correct.

Videogames are fun. They provide enjoyment to common people. They are relevant. They survive by being asthetically pleasing, instead of surviving because they have a massive industry that insists they are asthetically pleasing.

All of those things are completely contrary to what art is all about. Art typically requires some sort of welfare to survive. It is generally inaccessible to those who are not disciples of that particular type of art. It survives by leeching from the powerful (who are leeching from the proles).

Videogames are not art, and I'm not sure why anybody would want them to be. If videogames were art they would be extinct or irrelevant.