MadCatz Cyborg MMO 7
The most expensive mouse in this review sure looks like it's worth my hard earned currency, super cool packaging and unique design are always going to catch my attention. Inside the box there's more goodies in the form of a mini spares kit, so I can customise constituent hardware parts for comfort. The Allen key, that is actually part of the mouse, allows me to add my pinkie and textured palm rest. The DPI knocker below the scroll wheel took me up to an impressive 6400 DPI. A pre-configured MMO profile pack made casting spells a breeze – I categorically owned at PVP.
Retrieving the dedicated WoW add-on left me chuffed when I saw it only had 128 other downloads. My guess is that I should have a pretty good advantage over the other 29 million WoW players then. I am not a fan of the orange used to highlight the new features on the MMO 7 but have to admit it does co-ordinate well with some of my WoW Cataclysm goodies.
Reg Rating 90%
Price £100
More info MadCatz
MadCatz Cyborg R.A.T 7 – the Albino
It is not often you see a white gaming mouse and it certainly grabs your attention. The Albino has the same unique customisable construction of the MMO7 and the same impressive 6400dpi. But unlike the MMO7, it has a precision aim button for sniping that allows you to slow down for pin point targeting. It was hard to get used to, but worth persevering with as it increased my accuracy by at least 10 per cent.
The second scroll wheel for my thumb not only looks great but was really useful for scrolling through weapons. Downloadable profiles or specific games are really useful to save time programming yourself. Where this mouse gets let down for the price is the software, which, unlike Roccat's Kone [+], doesn't come close to being as customisable as the mouse itself.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £90
More info MadCatz
Next page: Razer Imperator 2012
COMMENTS
Think of the lefties!
So, any recommendations for a semi-decent FPS mouse for us deviant lefties? I physically can't use alot of the mice you feature here!
Re: Is it me......
If I got a girlfriend, my wife would divorce me, and then I wouldn't see my son as much and my business would suffer.
But why
Are most of them so fugly and un-ergonomic? Swear I have RSI just from looking at them.
Am I the only one who appreciates function over pointless styling?
Honestly it looks like decided that the rodents only function was to match an Alienware box or laptop.
Two things:
First, why doesn't anybody talk about latency? There's an obsessive focus on accuracy (which is #2) but no mention of click-to-fire time, where an extra millisecond or so can make a huge difference. In the world of PC game controllers, FFB steering wheels come in with horrid results, often having 300, 400ms of lag (my company having built our own, I'm not sure how they manage it really, but I'm still not entirely happy with the performance of ours).
Second, 6400dpi?! What the? If you've got your mouse set to do a slow 360 degree rotation in, say, 3" (it's been a while since I've played an FPS, but that seems about right from feel), you'd have, what, 50 counts per degree? With a horizontal FOV of 120 degrees you'd be looking at 6000 counts left-to-right onscreen.
Is there anybody who's positioning himself within 1/3rd of a pixel (on a 19x10 screen)? Is there any game that would understand that? I mean, maybe now games are doing subpixel rotations and there are supreme badasses out there who can discern that enough to be useful. But it seems like they'd be few and far between.
Even without all of that, I defy anybody to say they can position that fucker within 1/6400th of an inch, with their hand. The stickslip from the mouse to the pad will defy that, no matter what kind of space-age material your mouse pad is made of. And 1/6400th of an inch is a very, very, VERY small amount. I build motion platforms and the requisite servo systems, and am broadly familiar with CNC machining gear, and half a thousandth is getting pretty fine. Thinking your hand is going to reliably, and with any meaningful result, match that performance while holding onto a little brick sitting on a piece of fabric / plastic, when what you're seeing is delayed by several milliseconds *anyway*...
If you ask me, you'd be better off getting a CRT projector or a CRT monitor, which will lop at a minimum several ms off your visual latency. It's bad enough with even a fast LCD monitor (gray-to-gray is pointless; I'm talking *latency*), but with a TV you can usually go get a cup of coffee between the arrival of a bit at the HDMI port and its eventual display on the screen. The Sonys we use are, at 720p in 3D mode, with 'gaming' on, barely, barely acceptable for driving sims. For FPSes it'd be utterly hopeless.
So, on the assumption that (shudder) I'm wrong - what is there to justify that number, aside from marketing? Is effective resolution really 1/5th of that number due to noise or jitter, or due to inaccuracies in manufacturing the hardware?
Also, what the hell is up with that Mad Catz Cyborg monstrosity? Even if it was the best mouse in the world, I'd keep it in my drawer when I wasn't using it in case someone saw it. It's like they took a graphite shell shaped like a mouse, filled it orange jell-o, and hit it with a hammer until the marketing guys said to stop. Eruughh.
