Features:
- Force feedback enhances your desktop and Web experience
- Comes with powerful WingMan Profiler software
- Enjoy force feedback in a wide variety of mouse-controlled games
- Joystick-emulation mode works with many force-feedback titles designed for joysticks and wheels
- For Windows 98 USB-enabled computers
Description:
Logitech's WingMan Force Feedback Mouse is one of those peculiar products whose secondary use is more compelling than its primary one. Designed to complement gameplay, the mouse aims to give mouse-controlled games a jolt, but we found its nongaming uses even more interesting in the long run. The Force Feedback Mouse ships with full versions of three games: Activision's Heavy Gear II, Railroad Tycoon II from PopTop Software, and Gruntz from Monolith. Each game shows off how the mouse can be used to enhance gameplay across a variety of genres. In Heavy Gear II for instance, machine gun fire caused the mouse to vibrate like a jackhammer run amok. Also, finding one's self on the bad end of a guided missile likewise was a shock. In less action-oriented games like Railroad Tycoon II, it was interesting to feel a train rumble by as well as see it. But the games that the Force Feedback Mouse is bundled with aren't the only ones that support its technology. In fact, any game that boasts force feedback support should work with this mouse. If the Force Feedback Mouse only had gaming applications, it'd be difficult to fully endorse it. But its practical, nongaming uses are the reason we continue to use it. Utilizing what Logitech calls FEELit technology, in Windows the Force Feedback Mouse allows you "feel" items that are being displayed on your screen as the cursor passes over them. For instance, as your cursor scrolls around your desktop, you'll feel it lock on to icons and toolbar items. Within applications, menus and buttons can likewise be felt. Where its uses really shine are in Web browsing. If you've surfed a page with hyperlinks that were difficult to discern, then your troubles are over. Similar to the way the Force Feedback Mouse locks on to desktop and menu items, it likewise locks on to hyperlinks, radio buttons, and the like. The Force Feedback Mouse has a USB interface, so it's simple to connect and configure, but it also requires an external power supply. Furthermore, while the Force Feedback Mouse is fun to use, we found it bulky compared to other mouse/mouse-pad combinations. So if your desktop space is limited or you're already in the midst of a brutal battle with a desktop-cable octopus, you may want to pass on this one. We enjoyed using the Force Feedback Mouse in nearly every game we played, but its limited range of movement--it's attached to the mouse pad/base--made it difficult to use when things got crazy in more frenetic games like Quake 3: Arena and Unreal Tournament. All in all, it's a fun, gimmicky device for gaming, but its real usefulness comes into play when you're not even gaming. Being able to feel the desktop and Web pages is enough to keep this mouse on our desktop for a while to come. --Julian Strate Pros:
- Easier to navigate desktop and Web pages with FEELit technology
- USB interface means you can use it with a regular PS2 mouse at the same time
- Sports 3 customizable buttons
Cons:
- Limited range of movement
- External power supply adds more clutter to desktop
- Bulky compared to other mouse/mouse pad combinations
- Lacks a scroll wheel, which is handy for gaming
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