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Mt. Tiburon Testing Labs

Sandio’s Game O 3D mouse

The Sandio Game O 3D gaming mouse is a well-designed device that incorporates three mini-joysticks for either six degrees of freedom in 3D applications, or whatever the user custom-programs them to do. Other features of the mouse include a removable palm rest base and two additional programmable buttons, which when pressed in unison cycle the mouse on the fly through four dpi settings ranging from 400 to 2000.

The software is quite easy to use and installed without a hitch. I created a profile for web use where I programmed the joysticks to page up and down, home, end, bookmark, print, find, tab, and enter. It was nice to be able to sit back and accomplish regular navigation functions without having to lean forward to the keyboard as much.

Sandio Game O 3D gaming mouse. (Source: JPR)

I next used the mouse for its main marketing thrust—games. Having played FPS games for 15 years, I tried, but there was no way I could change the WASD movement from the keyboard to the mouse. It was like trying to switch from right- to left-handed guitar playing. However, for newer gamers who don’t have the years of ingrained muscle memory, having navigation via the mouse frees up the keyboard hand for other commands. Even though I could not use the mouse as a replacement for WASD I did find the ability to program melée and weapon sight commands a nice feature. It will be interesting to see if any professional FPS gamers adopt this mouse.

Where this thing could really shine, though I’m not currently a player of these games, is in MMOs, RPGs, and RTSs, examples being “Eve Online,” the Total War series, upcoming “Spore,” “Second Life,” “The Sims,” etc. The mouse is also effective in 3D applications like Google Earth and design software.

What do we think?

In conclusion, for me it’s a great mouse for anything that does not involve millisecond response times as FPSs do, simply because it’s too shocking an adjustment. That being said, if the user commits to changing his or her style or learns to play FPSs with this mouse it may offer an advantage for these games as well.

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