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The most important aspect with first person shooter games is your proficiency with a mouse.
A great mouse won't suddenly make you a great player, but it will help, especially if you're
willing to learn to use it. I myself am still using a Logitech MX518.
I've worn out countless mice in my time and believe that I'm in a good position to advise
you on what to look for in a mouse. My friend asked me which mouse he should get
that's good for gaming, is wireless, and is reasonably cheap. I advised him that he should
get himself a cheap wireless mouse and another, wired gaming one. I have only had experience
with cheap wireless mice. I have been majorly impressed by how their batteries can last
for years, but have always been let down a bit by their response times. There's a small
amount of lag between moving the mouse and having it move on-screen, and as we all know,
the right mouse in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world in a cut-throat
battle against mature CS:GO players, so for me, it's a no-go.
That's why I have myself a cheap wireless mouse. It's a bit like having a laptop. It
makes using a computer from the comfort of your bed or car-seat possible, but is absolutely
no substitute for using the real thing. And I mean this. You may think that somehow your
bed covers or hairy, bloated belly will serve as a great mouse mat and that you'll somehow
be able to lug your bed to a LAN party, but you'll be bitterly disappointed. Real men
game using a desktop-based PC and wired mouse. Anybody thinking they'll stand a chance with
the delay and inconsistency of a wireless mouse or LAPTOP for that matter should give
up PC gaming and go find themselves a nice console. At least then everybody's handicapped
by horribly nerfed controls. Seriously, why do people think that a controller is good
for a shooter game? HOW IS IT? It can't be! I refuse to accept it.
In my opinion, the most important thing is to get a mouse without any acceleration. To
test yours for it, try putting it on the side of a table and slide off the side. No, you've
got to still hold on to it. Idiot. The mouse cursor should stop straight away on-screen.
If it grinds to a halt then it's NOT GOOD. You've stopped moving the mouse! Why is it
still moving on-screen? That's not going to help your accuracy.
The whole point of getting good with a mouse is that you know how far you must move it
for your character's aim to move a certain distance on-screen. This is why mouse smoothing
or acceleration is BAD. It makes it impossible to learn flick-shots and things built into
your muscle memory. Urgh. I hate those phrases. I might as well say that it promotes synergy
as well. I've heard that a lot of mice have a problem
with mouse acceleration and that older, lower DPI ones tend to be better, like the old Razer
Diamondback (Mine broke) and my Logitech MX518. However, I also had a newer 5700 DPI Corsair
M60 for a while which wasn't bad. If you want a cheaper one, my sister's Sharkoon Fireglider
is very decent- it's practically a Razer mouse but without the price tag, and I can testify
that it's withstood years of punishment from my sister who games.
One that I was very disappointed with was the Anker 8200. It looks too good to be true,
and it is. It gets fantastic reviews and has all of the features you could ever want in
a mouse. It felt very expensive to me. However, it has appalling mouse acceleration. Anker
has great customer service and sent me a replacement mouse which suffered from the same thing.
I think it's just the laser used in the model. Ultimately you've got to try the mice out
and see how they feel for yourself. I've never used a mouse-mat myself as every
mouse I've had has worked perfectly on my wooden desk. That being said, my Corsair M60
had this cool function where it would 'rate' how good the surface was. It would only give
my table a middle score and would give my Mum's steelseries mouse mat the highest rating.
That being said, it also liked my face. Whatever. It's all down to your individual situation
and what you game on, but I do see the appeal of the texture of a proper gaming mouse-mat.
It's also fun to flop about if you get bored. I guess that I should mention the size of
the mouse or the way you grip it. I would say that this is down to personal preference.
With my old razer mice I had a high sensitivity and could spin all the way round without moving
my arm, and would hold them in a claw-fashion, where occasionally the mouse wouldn't even
be touching the table. I've toned down my sensitivity a bit since then, but I still
prefer moving with just my wrist, since I find it more responsive than having to move
your entire arm about. But then... look at my desk. It's not as if I have much of a say
in the matter! Sensitivity and DPI is a massive topic that
has raged for ages. It almost seems as though it goes through 'fashions', and high sensitivity
is due for a come-back if my tea-leaves are to be believed. Once again, I'll say that
this is down to personal preference. The pro players seem to use a low DPI, or a very low
sensitivity. Don't assume that higher DPI is always better. I'm currently playing on
1,800 DPI and it's more than enough for my needs. Most mice now come with more than that.
I really think it's a number that's thrown about but doesn't mean that much. Just don't
get one of those old 400 DPI mice or anything like that. There IS a limit. As long as you
can move one pixel at a time in-game and can spin about quickly enough to shoot people
behind you, you're okay. I think that the most important thing is to
find a setting that you like, where you can easily turn 180 degrees in either direction
in a battle without having to pick your mouse up to reposition it, and to practice on this
setting. I would be VERY wary of changing the sensitivity while playing. My Corsair
M60 had a 'sniper' button which would lower the sensitivity if pressed, and most mice
have an on-the-fly sensitivity change button. I found myself always holding down the sniper
button, suggesting that perhaps I had my sensitivity up too high normally. But also, it's something
else you have to fiddle about with in the middle of a battle. Stick to one and master
it, rather than trying to learn two or even more. Your brain will punish you for being
indecisive. I'm almost happy not to have a mouse with a distracting 'sniper' button.
It really became a bad habit and stops you from mastering flick-shots with your mouse.
Now onto the buttons. How many do you need? I'm quite content with the usual 2 fire buttons
and a scroll wheel. I try to keep mouse buttons to a minimum and let that hand focus on aiming
and shooting for first-person games. That being said, I find navigating the internet
frustrating without those side buttons, so it's useful to have them there for that, but
in-game I hardly use them. I currently have them set to chat so I can talk to my team-mates,
but since it's on the same thing that I use to shoot people, it jogs my aim if I have
to press them in-game. Fortunately I hardly ever talk when alive in-game, and generally
use it to shout abuse once I'm dead, so it doesn't affect me at all.
I don't see the point of mice with buttons on the other side, unless you're left-handed.
In which case, buttons on the right are pointless. Nobody's got time for that when fighting angry
13 year-olds on CS:GO! If I scroll down then I jump, this was great
in Counter Strike Source since it almost guaranteed that you'll jump the moment you hit the floor,
letting you bunny-hop across the map at great speed. I used to have the scroll click set
to my secondary weapon so that I could quickly change in a fight, but once again I think
the keyboard does a better job. I like to keep the mouse simple for FPSes, but feel
free to experiment and to see what works well for you.
As for weights, I never bother with them. It's a marketing gimmick and most mice are
a decent weight to start with. In fact, I started becoming paranoid and dissatisfied
that my mouse never felt the right weight when I was burdened with the important task
of choosing the correct one. I just put a certain amount of weight in, then lost the
rest in a drawer somewhere and never thought about it again. I think it's there to make
people feel really pro for having a completely customised mouse but it makes absolutely no
difference in-game, unless moving your mouse is your sole source of exercise.
Don't even get me started on flashing lights. My Copperhead had a pulsating icon that you
couldn't disable and it got me into all kinds of weird and OCD-like habits that psychologists
would likely deem highly interesting. For the day or so that I had the Anker and its
replacement, I set both mice to bright pink for a joke then returned them. They're probably
still at Anker's head-office somewhere. That being said, I was grenading people for weeks
after CS:GO released the secondary grenade-throw button, seems I've been ritualistically tapping
it for no reason for years. If you're that kind of person, steer well clear of mice with
LEDs. One thing to look out for is how close to
the desk the laser can operate. Some mice can be adjusted in this regard, but I know
that it can be frustrating where, if you were to pick your mouse up and to place it down
again, your aim flies all over the place. I'd blame this partially on a high sensitivity,
but be on the lookout for this when buying a mouse. You don't want to be accused of hacking
because your aim shakes about occasionally. It probably isn't that big a deal if you're
still playing well enough to be accused in the first place.
Some mice, like my sister's Sharkoon, come with an auto-fire button, though in all honesty
most mice have software that enables you to do this any way. Here is what the pistols
in CSGO look like when using an autofire button. The great thing is, you can focus on the aiming
instead of having to bash a fire button repeatedly which can make you less accurate in a fire-fight.
Much easier. Perhaps this is considered cheating. My friend has the most ridiculous controls
in the world, using RDFG instead of WASD so that there are 'more keys nearby to use'.
He also has spacebar as fire, since it gives him more accuracy in a button-mashing battle.
It seems to work. I collected all of the mice in the house and
conducted a face-off between them. On a normal 60 Hz setting, there was no difference between
the three wired mice. Once I set my monitor to 120 Hz, however, my Logitech MX518 became
less precise than the other two, skipping out frames several times a second. I am assuming
that this is because it's limited to 125 Hz, as opposed to the Corsair which was set to
1 ms / 1000 Hz. I don't know what the Sharkoon was, once again it performed brilliantly.
And finally, reliability. Something nobody wants to talk about since it's boring, but
it means SO much to me, since I've spent a small fortune over the years on a number of
mice. My Razer Diamondback and Copperhead mice have all developed squeaking buttons
and one's cable got bent too many times and became unresponsive, which is odd since it
comes with a protector where it connects with a mouse. My Corsair M60's scroll-button stopped
working, which was FAR MORE ANNOYING than I could have imagined. It made Operation Flashpoint
impossible. I'd avoid any ball mice. I think the Razer Boomslang was the last one to have
it as some kind of retro feature but it still underperformed VS a laser.
Ultimately, I've loved the feel of Razer mice. They glide beautifully, are great to hold
and have all of these fancy features that make you feel special. However, it's my no-frills
Logitech MX518 that has stood the test of time best. It's covered in finger-sludge,
has an old-fashioned visible laser, occasionally has a stiff or imprecise scroll wheel, has
perished and easily scratchable rubber on one side and makes a high-pitched squeaking
sound, but it's the closest thing to an indestructible mouse that I've ever encountered.