Another racing wheel

Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel - Drive away today, no strings (wires) attached! by Beefysworld
Click here for the article.

JCal: Here is our second review of the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel. This one is more straight forward and normal than the first review which isn't a bad thing per se; it's still highly detailed and well organized. It's just that I will likely remember OldFriend's review of the same hardware more than this one because of his different take on the product. Still this review is quite solid and would be right at home on this web site.


Playing your G5 to the Max! by Droniac
Click here for the article.

JCal: Here's an unusual benchmarking article; one that takes on the performance of games with a Logitech G5 mouse as well as ways to tweak it. This article is written clearly with the pro gamer in mind who wants to get every last bit of an avantage in multiplayer matches. As a result, this feature is not going to be of interest to every one of our readers. Having said that, it's still got some facinating data and experience in getting the most out of your G5 mouse even if you are not going into competition.

Jakub: Brilliant! It’s totally subjective and wacky and yet so true. Testing a mouse based on actual in-game performance, subjective as it may be, is perfect. Only someone who can’t be hassled by accusations of bias because of advertising or free hardware can write an article like this, but maybe that’s what’s needed. Good choice on using UT2004 Team Arena Masters for its stat-tracking. You do write in first-person and generally this is not something you’d want in a hardware review, but since this is a guide that’s not an issue.


The Novint Falcon: 3D Tactile-feedback Input by Kristopher
Click here for the article.

JCal: This feature is unusual in that its actually a preview article of a product that hasn't been released yet. Thankfully I'm highly familiar with the Novint Falcon so I pretty much am in agreement with the author's take on the device based on my own hands-on experience. The author writes about the the device as I would; cautious and hopefully but also skeptical and that's pretty much what you need to have from any preview article. It's well written and gives the audience a general feel of what the device can do and what it may be able to do if things go well.


3rd Party Optimized; ATI Driver Roundup by kevinSpiess
Click here for the article.

JCal: This is perhaps the hardest review to write for me since I don't know nearly as much about third party graphics drivers as the author does. However its clear that he has done his homework evaluating all of these ATI third party drivers and has examined not just their benchmarks but their reliablity as well. If you are interested in dealing with graphics drivers for your ATI based card that's not made by the official programmers this feature is certainly a good introduction to this field.



Stranger in a Strange Land by suibhne
Click here for the article.

JCal: One of the few non-hardware specific features, this look at comparing console and PC ports is quite extensive. The organization and format of the article could be better handled (it seems to meander all over the place at times) but I admire its ambition and its different viewpoint of not only the console-PC game debate but also the gamepad vs mouse-keyboard debate.

Jakub: A good summary of the console/PC-port issue with a wide variety of examples that are explored in depth. I’m a little concerned about the simplicity of the subject though – this is nothing that most readers of FiringSquad aren’t already aware of. Most of the merit in your article is the decent formatting and the in-depth examples.