Video Game News - Max Shooter
Max Shooter XBOX & PS2 Keyboard & Mouse Adapter
Review
by Jeromy
The third and latest XBOX/PS2 keyboard & mouse adapter
to hit the market is the Max Shooter. Before this adapter
was released there was a good chance that the guy destroying
you in Halo 2 was using a regular XBOX controller and
not one of the previously released keyboard & mouse
adapters. Enter Max Shooter stage right. Now you should
be afraid, very afraid, as the Max Shooter basically turns
the console FPS into a PC FPS with all the accuracy that
that entails. After spending a good few days playing Halo
2, Socom II, and Unreal Championship 2 there is little
doubt that FPS games were mostly made to be played with
a mouse and keyboard.
What’s In The Package
The Max Shooter, both the XBOX and PS2 versions, come
in a small package that holds the actual hardware and
an instruction manual. The adapter only accepts PS/2 compatible
keyboards and mice so if you have USB peripherals you’ll
need to get an adapter or head over to the old used PC
shop and pickup an old keyboard and mouse combo.
The actual adapter is small in size and doesn’t hog
any serious amount of extra space. The XBOX version features
an extra slot on the backside of the adapter for a memory
card to plug in.
Features
The Max Shooter, both for XBOX and PS2, is packed with
a wide array of functionality which can be accessed by
using certain keyboard key combinations listed in the
manual. It is fully programmable and also comes with game
presets for many titles. The XBOX and PS2 presets are
listed below.
XBOX Game Presets
* Halo
* Medal of Honor: Frontline
* The Chronicles of Riddick
* Counter Strike
* James Bond 007: Nightfire
* Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3
* Return to Castle Wolfenstein
* Unreal Championship
PS2 Game Presets
* Socom II
* Medal of Honor: Frontline
* Time Splitters 2
* James Bond 007: Nightfire
* Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3
* Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm
* Return to Castle Wolfenstein
* REZ
If your favorite shooter isn’t listed above, the
Max Shooter also has three programmable controller setups
to fill your needs. The variables that can be adjusted
include key assignment, deadzone adjustment, mouse speed,
and mouse inversion. Most seasoned gamers know about all
these terms but might not be familiar with the deadzone.
The manual describes the deadzone as the zone within an
axis range that is interpreted as being at rest.
Along with the game presets, the factory default preset
automatically assigns keys in the following way.
The selection of game presets and programming for custom
games is all very straightforward, if not time consuming,
and is well explained within the manual.
All these features are great but what really matters is
how it holds up in the games. So without further ado let
us jump in to our first game.
Halo 2
My first experience with the Max Shooter and Halo 2 was
less than stellar, but that was completely my fault. Like
most gamers I know I jumped in head first without reading
a single page of the instruction manual which was a really
bad move. The factory default setup is pretty much only
suited for menu navigation.
So I popped open the manual and found out about the presets,
sadly no Halo 2, and decided to try out the Halo 1 preset
so I could get a quick start. Everything worked ok but
it wasn’t better than the XBOX controller I had become
so accustomed to. In fact, it was much worse. The mouse
sensitivity was horrible and the keys were mapped semi-incorrectly.
But again this was my entire fault and I dove back into
the manual to see how to fix my problems.
An hour and a half later I had finished tweaking one of
the user programmable presets included in the Max Shooter
and things were starting to feel much much better. The
mouse responded close to what I would expect from a PC
FPS and the keys were all mapped to my liking, but I was
still sprawled out on the floor in an awkward position.
I wasn’t quite in FPS bliss.
Another thirty minutes later I had a table setup with
the TV, mouse, and keyboard in the regular PC positions
and things were feeling even better. The Halo 2 bots didn’t
know what hit them, but the mouse movement was still a
bit off. Then I noticed in the manual that this is one
of the biggest issues that needs to be resolved when setting
up the Max Shooter and that I should max out the sensitivity
settings within the game for optimal “PC Like”
results. So I did that and it proved to be the one tweak
that turned Halo 2 into my first PC FPS on a console.
The controls are that good.
I finally decided my setup was ready for prime time and
I headed online to face the masses. I must note that my
ranking in Halo 2 was quite low before I got the Max Shooter
and that the PC FPS setup has always been better for me
than any console controller. So with that said, I jumped
into an online match and low and behold I got my rear
end handed to me like always, but it was just the first
match so I pushed on.
I changed my weapon setup from what I usually used to
what I thought would be great for accuracy based shots
and wow did that make a difference. Now all I use is the
Battle Rifle. Four hours later I emerged with a better
ranking and an awesome kill to death ratio. My hit rate
and shooting speed went way up with my new found accuracy
and the competition was destroyed because of it.
Once the Max Shooter is tweaked to a gamers liking, it
is an incredibly deadly controller for Halo 2. But Halo
2 is just one of the FPS games out there so lets see how
it holds up with the others.Unreal Championship 2
I confess this is my favorite all time XBOX game, so I
was extremely excited to see how it would hold up with
a mouse and keyboard. I once again tried out a preset
which didn’t hold up so well and then went on to
create my own setup. Once the setup was done I headed
online for a FPS shocker.
I used the same mentality I had in Halo 2; go for the
accuracy based weapons. I loaded up the sniper rifle,
headed to a dark corner, and started sniping. My TV echoed
“Headshot” many times before the match was over,
but that was mostly because no one ever found me. The
next match was much different.
The rest of the matches I played online with the Max Shooter
were populated with very good players. They would find
me sniping and then destroy me. It seems the problem with
Unreal Championship 2 is that it was designed to only
be a console FPS. Much of the gameplay really relies on
the button configuration on the controller. Thus I couldn’t
bounce around the walls, dodge, and reflect as well as
I could with the controller. This could be because I have
spent so much time with the controller that I couldn’t
break my habits, but I believe this is one case where
the Max Shooter isn’t superior.
So one game is completely changed by the adapter and one
is built too much around a standard controller to benefit
from it. Next up is the PS2 and Socom II; let’s see
how the PS2 version of Max Shooter fairs.
Socom II
Once again I connected the keyboard and mouse to the adapter,
plugged it into the PS2, and immediately got a good connection.
I surfed through the menus with ease and entered an online
game. This time around there is a preset available for
the actual game I’m playing. I loaded up the preset
and was pleasantly surprised to find the preset layout
to be perfect for Socom gameplay.
It felt good and worked just as well as it did in Halo
2. I don’t play a lot of Socom but I found myself
playing quite a bit in this setup as I could never get
into using the PS2 controller for FPS gameplay.
With the large amount of customization, the ease of use,
and the low price this adapter is really worth every penny.
If you really want an advantage in games like Halo 2 or
just want to try a new controller setup I would definitely
recommend picking the Max Shooter.
Pros
* Plug and Play
* Customization and presets
* Low price
Cons
* Lack of new title presets
Overall Score
9.5
About the Author
Jeromy is the webmaster of http://www.gamebrink.com/ GameBrink.Com
Import Video Game Compare. |
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XBOX 360 vs. PS3: An In Depth Look
by Tony James
All gamers are awaiting the release of the Xbox 360 and
the PS3. This article takes an in depth look at how the
two systems compare.
Graphics:
Everyone has seen an Xbox and a PS2 in action and we are
all waiting to see which of the two next generation consoles
for the two systems will have the edge when it comes to
graphics. We have all seen the screenshots of the games
on the two systems but what about actual gameplay graphics.
Despite the hot debate, when you look at the numbers the
two systems use a different but equally effective method
of delivering graphics processing power. The XBOX uses
a custom ATI processor with 48 graphics pipelines and
the PS2 has a custom NVIDA graphics processor with an
estimated 24 pipelines. The numbers are misleading because
the PS2 piplines are more powerful than the XBOX pipelines.
In the end the two different graphics processors will
deliver about the same amount of power, we can expect
to see impressive results from both sides.
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