If
you are a regular reader of this site, then you won’t be
a stranger to the name Flexiglow.
We have reviewed a few of their Mice, Keyboards and Mouse Pads,
finding them to be flashy, fun and of course, most importantly,
usable. Now if you personally found them to be too flashy, you
might be interested in a new line of peripherals from Flexiglow;
the Cyber
Snipa products. The Cyber
Snipa items have been designed with gamers in mind, and feature
(currently) a gamer's Gamepad, Mousepad and a Keyboard. Naturally
of course, we just had to get a look for ourselves.
Cyber
Snipa GamePad
•
Designed to improve game control, speed and accuracy
• No learning curve for experienced FPS gamers
• USB device that will operate alongside your keyboard.
• Ergonomically designed navigation and function keys
• Optimally engineered tactile key feedback
• Can be used with any FPS game that allows programmable
key mappings
• Built in volume control
• Removable non-slip palm wrest
• 1.8m (6ft) USB power cord
The
packaging for the Cyber Snipa Gamepad is unfortunately one of
those “I feel like a 5 year old, mummy can you open this
for me please?” boxes, which while keeping everything
secure, does take you a while to get into. Once inside, you
find the gamepad itself and little else. The main reason for
the lack of extras is quite simple; it is a USB device and is
totally plug and play. No drivers are needed so no CD is supplied.
The Cyber Snipa GamePad mimics the functions of a keyboard but
in a more ‘gamer’ orientated layout so no instructions
are really needed either.
The
bottom half of the pad has this removable wrist rest made from
neoprene which is quite comfortable and large enough for you
to move your hand around into different positions during long
game sessions.
The
keys themselves are no different from a keyboard, which makes
it completely universal and compatible with any game that can
be controlled by keyboard. The only difference is that the keys
themselves, rather than being laid out and shaped like a keyboard,
have been shaped and laid out to further enhance your gaming
control. The most dominant keys are the direction keys, in blue,
set to mimic the functions of the WASD and QE keys on your keyboard.
The keys on the gamepad are larger than those of a standard
keyboard, which during intense button bashing is good in that
you won’t be accidentally pressing the wrong button, although
I did personally find it a little uncomfortable at first due
to the extra stretching out of the fingers.
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Another
key that is often used in FPS games is the R key; often set
for Reload, the Cyber Snipa GamePad even marks the R key as
such. We also have an F 'use' key and TG keys which you can
obviously bind to whatever you need. Left of the direction keys
we find the TAB or ‘goal’ key. The TAB key is obviously
a lot smaller than that of a keyboard which does help to provide
more room for extra keys, but the downside is you will have
a small learning curve while you get used to it being smaller.
We also have access to the H key here, and while it is obviously
on the wrong side of the ‘keyboard’, for a gamepad
it is good that you have easy access to an extra key. Left of
these keys are two keys to be used for volume control and they
will lower or raise the system volume. I would have preferred
it if they were also bindable to a key function, so that for
example one could use them to control the sound volume of Teamspeak
while maintain the volume of the game, but they will only control
the system Master Volume.
Directly
below the TAB key area is the Shift/Control keys. I personally
use Shift as my Crouch key and while the Cyber Snipa GamePad has
the Shift key labeled as Run/Walk, there is nothing stopping you
binding this to anything you wish. We also have the Z key sitting
next to the shift key. Big deal I hear most of you say, but those
of us with a British keyboard layout have an extra key (the \
and | key) between the Shift and Z keys on a keyboard. This means
we have to twist our hands around more to keep our fingertips
on the WASD keys while pressing the Z key. More often than not
I don’t use this key with a keyboard, but it certainly a
possibility on the gamepad. Below these is the large CTRL key,
a key I personally use for Zoom in many FPS games.
Below
the Direction keys and central with the pad are the ALT and N
keys, which basically suffer from the same problem the Z and X
keys do on a keyboard; being below the direction keys, it’s
almost impossible to press them without lifting your fingers off
the direction keys. They could obviously be bound to a non-critical
function such as perhaps a ‘say’ bind, something you
wouldn’t do while moving.
Moving
right we have the XCB and Space keys. Like the Z key, the X key
on a keyboard is usually difficult to get to but it is directly
below the D direction key on the gamepad making it very usable.
The C key is labeled as crouch which is quite a common binding
in games. The B key is moved closer to the C than you would find
on a keyboard, so why not use the V key? We’ll get to that
in a bit.
Moving
to top left we have the ESC key, something you obviously need
to access the menus in most games. The Cyber Snipa GamePad has
numerical keys 1-7 which should be enough for most games weapon
binds, but if not then I’d suggest using the T and G keys
as well since they are nearly the same distance away as the
numerical keys from the direction keys. We also have access
to the Function keys; F1 through to F4.
Top
right on the Cyber Snipa GamePad has the V key, labeled as the
Voice key, which you could perhaps bind as a ‘Push to Talk’
key in Teamspeak or similar software, or just as the text ‘chat’
key many FPS games have.
On
the left side of the gamepad we find a push button to control
the blue LED under lighting. There is also a blue LED on top
of the gamepad, which sits central between the Function keys
and the Numerical keys; this one acts a bit like a Power indicator
and can’t be turned off.
In
use, I found the gamepad to have a slight learning curve or perhaps
an adjustment period would be a better way of putting it. I can’t
say it improved my game, but having the extra keys within easy
reach was certainly nice and if you push the keyboard out of the
way you do get a lot more room on your desk for your mouse. LAN
goers will certainly benefit from the use of one of these pads,
since you could get a decent laptop, a USB mouse and one of these
gamepad's in one shoulder bag/laptop bag, and still maintain the
‘keyboard left, mouse right’ position afforded from
a tower/monitor/keyboard setup.
One
thing I would like to have seen is the same lattice work foam
backing as used on the mousepad on the gamepad. The gamepad does
move around more freely than the mousepad. I’m not saying
it slips everywhere when you use it (far from it) but it is easy
enough to push it around with the heel of your hand.
I
would personally prefer to game using this pad than a laptop keyboard
although that is going to be subjective. Do I prefer it over a
normal keyboard setup? Yes and No. It’s cheap enough that
I do like the extra buttons afforded from the layout, but the
rest of the functions can be found on a keyboard. I’m really
of two minds about this. It would all depend on the game. If you
have a game that you think to yourself “hey, if only these
keys here were accessible more easily” than you will likely
find the Cyber Snipa GamePad something you like. If you are happy
with your current keyboard layout then you probably won’t
find it offers much to you.
