A few hours with Sandio's 3D Gaming Mouse. Verdict: Damn, this thing is weird.
It's often the case that we, as tech writers, will accept review gear but be somewhat less than prompt about testing it. The item will sit in a drawer, perhaps, or on the shelf marked "Urgent." It may reside for weeks its anonymous unopened shipping box until everyone forgets what's in the box, or where it came from.
This is usually due to laziness, but in the case of 3D Game O2's 3D Motion Controller with Laser Gaming Mouse, it's fear. I mean, just look at it:
Yes, there's an analog stick on each side and just aft the scrollwheel. It's the strangest and most intimidating mouse I've ever used. Aside from the additional hats, it's otherwise normal, if large, with tracking options up to 2000 DPI and a pair of extra buttons on the left thumb ridge. After months of looking supiciously at it, I finally started using it over the weekend, putting it through its paces on appropriate titles like Total War and UT.
The point, if it isn't obvious, is to make navigation through 3D spaces easier. For example, one could set the top stick to be the movement controls in a first-person shooter, such as would normally be assigned to the WASD keys. Or you could yaw, pitch and tilt with them in a space shooter; or swing the view around in an RTS; or map Cartesian coordinates in a 3D modeling application, and so on.
There's also an attachable wrist-wrest, for those who feel uncomfortable with the thing's huge size.
It doesn't work automatically. It comes with a software app packed with profiles for games and apps: you can't just plug it in and expect it to work magic. Instead, customize bindings and get a handle on how it's going to work in any given program. This can't really be skipped, because when you actually get started with it, you'll be re-learning mousing all over again anyway.
After about 20 minutes, it became clear to me that it's not something you can just think your way through. Learning to manipulate a triplet of extra analog controls on top of the mouse's normal operation is a function of muscle memory. It develops slowly, but steadily — I'm still not sure it makes anything more fun — and the real challenge is to stop yourself ignoring the 3D sticks and treating it like a normal mouse.
I think that 3D artists, who could use it at a less frenetic pace, will get more from it than gamers. If you're a true twitch demon, though, give it a look: it might prove comfortable and useful, though it's hard to imagine it providing any real competitive advantage.
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i can promise you, 3d artists wont get more out of this hideous looking beast. a tablet and a command key is just fine.
Some nasty colours thy picked too!
I think the real power of this in games would not be from using the analog sticks for movement, but using them as 12 extra buttons on the mouse.
My first thought is that this thing would make Google Earth navigation a whole lot easier. But at $80, it's more expensive than the SpaceNavigator.
Time for a Google Earth controller showdown!
I showed this to one of the hardcore gamers in my house, and she summed it up perfectly: They've invented a mouse for "One-Handed" gaming. She suggested that they bundle it with the latest Tomb Raider release.
I've had one of these things for just under a year, and although I play an MMO regularly it just wasn't doing anything for me.
For one, it's *huge*. Perhaps my hands are tiny, but this mouse is one of the biggest I've ever seen. Plus it's deceptively lightweight.
And @2: You can select a combination of joystick movements (such as push the left stick down and pull the right one up, as if twisting the mouse) to get even more than 12 buttons out of it.
I switched to a Razer Diamondback and a 3DConnexion puck a few months ago and I'm quite happy with it. I'd be willing to give the Sandio mouse a try again though.