Perrix MX-2000 Gaming Mouse Review

When I got into PC gaming, I realized I needed a better mouse for gaming. I usually play Counter Strike: Global Offensive, but I also play RPG games extensively and I wanted a  mouse that would be accurate, and hold up to my abuse. I had been using a cheap IBM mouse up until that point with a scroll wheel that was grounded down so much from usage that it was smoother than the floor! The mouse had a decent back to it and a moderate downward slope to it so I wanted to maintain that shape in the next mouse. I am a person who likes having options, regardless if I decide to take them so I wanted to have a mouse that would have lots of buttons and functions. I  viewed various mice that ranged from the Logitech to Cooler Master and Blue Cobra, but I finally decided on the Perixx MX-2000 gaming mouse with 11 buttons and DPI switch.

 

My old IBM Mouse on the left, the Perrix on the right. 

The mouse itself is really comfortable and economic. I play a claw grip style, which means that I arch my index, middle and ring finger on the left, middle, and right button respectively. The mouse works very well for claw grip players, but I feel it would be perfectly fine for palm grip players, a grip that essentially requires the user to place their palm on the mouse and let their hand naturally grip the mouse. My thumb comfortably rests on the accompanying thumb rest that has a button at the base of the rest. It is placed in such a way that it is easy to click, but only if one wants to. It is tough to 'accidentally' click it.

There are two buttons that are above the thumb rest on the side of the mouse that are traditionally for the "forward" and "backward" commands when in a browser or Windows Explorer to go to a previous page. The right side of the mouse has a button that is placed parallel to the forward button that is easy to reach with my ring finger as a claw grip player. Palm grip players would find it easy to click with their pinky finger when needed, but I have that button programmed to "F5" which is the refresh command when within a browser. The scroll wheel believe or not has 3 button functions. You can click on the scroll wheel for one function, tilt it to the left for another function, and tilt it to the right for the third and final function. At first, I thought the tilt on the scroll wheel would get in the way of me using it,, but it turns out it stays out of the way until only when needed. Last, but not least, the mouse also has DPI adjustment buttons. DPI, which stands for dots per inch, is how many dots the mouse 'understands' per inch the mouse itself moves. A high DPI means the mouse moves fast, whereas a lower DPI means the mouse speed is lower. These buttons are placed in a slightly inconvenient manner behind the scroll wheel. If they were about a millimeter or so closer to the scroll wheel it would be easier to reach. The buttons as is are easy to press, but it would be convenient for the user. Otherwise, all the buttons feel very natural and responsive, all in all making it a great mouse to use physically. Now for the fun stuff, the program.

What makes this mouse so useful to me is the software that comes with it. Each of the 11 buttons on the mouse can be reprogrammed to the users liking. The program lets the user switch out the default functions of the mouse to what the user wants. You can change a button to a basic function such as forwards, backwards, double click, and menu, or you can change it to media hotkey such as play or stop. In addition to that, basic edit functions such as copy and paste, as well as more advanced functions including run, close window, Lock PC and LED Color Switch. Probably most important for gamers is the Single Key and Macro buttons which allow users to create shortcuts that can be bound to their keys. These come in handy for me a lot when I play games such as Magicka, a game that requires you to make spells via key combinations that range across 8 keys on the keyboard. MMO players and MOBA players also benefit from this when they play their respective games because it makes them more efficient as players. The program also lets you change little things as well such as the color of the LED in the mouse, the sensitivity of the scroll wheel and the double click speed.

You will not have to worry about changing the button commands every two seconds since the mouse can handle up to five profiles. This means that you can have a profile just for browsing the internet and casual use, as well as profiles for your favorite games. On last point to touch on is the wire itself. The wire is braided, which means that it cannot get tangled up and wrapped up within itself like most other cables do. This for me is a fantastic feature since it makes it easier to take the mouse places without having to waste time untangling the cable once I reach my destination.

This mouse overall is a great value purchase and it has not failed me so far in the six months I have owned it. It is built to last in my opinion, and although the company is not well known or well advertised, I will be sure to buy more products from this company if the occasion arises. The mouse is quite comfortable and the accompanying program is quite useful and manageable. I would easily recommend this mouse for anyone who is into gaming or wants a comfortable mouse to use for their desktop or laptop.  

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Rush Bros. Game Review

History of Purchase

My roommate picked up this game on the last day of the Steam Summer Sale. He purchased the two pack and gifted me the spare copy cause I've gifted him various games over the months. We were both super excited to play this game because we are huge fans of difficult platformer games like Super Meat Boy, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams etc. We finally got around to playing it, and I invested a good couple of hours in the game. These are my thoughts.

Gameplay
This is essentially a two player game. You can play the game single player if you chose, but you will be provided with the same levels. The levels themselves are colorful, and the obstacles can be difficult t navigate through at times. Throughout the level, there are a couple of power ups such as double jump and speed up. When playing two player, there is an extra power up that flips your opponent's screen horizontally which can disorient them for a short amount of time. I found the power ups to be quite basic, although I will admit I liked the speed up power up because of how fast your character could physically run. The controls were similar to every other platformer I have played using my Xbox 360 Controller, except for the "X" button. In Rush Bros, there are certain switches in game that require the player to press the X button rapidly to activate them. I felt the button placement was awkward, but you can re map the controller in game to your own preferences.

What initially interested me about the game was that the obstacles and items within the game moved in rhythm with the background music. Watching blades move in sync with the in game music is fun to watch, on the rare occasion the blades and obstacles sync with the game's music. It added a sense of change and variety because they were songs that I was not familiar with, therefore the movement of the obstacles were unpredictable.

Will all of that in mind, something about this game feels unpolished, almost to the point where it feels incomplete. Despite the very eccentric colors and oddly shaped weapons in the forefront, the backgrounds of the levels looked out of place, as if they were added last minute. During various playthroughs of the game, I found myself not even touching the spikes or other hazardous obstacles, yet dying and having to restart the full level. Another thing that I noticed, that personally saddened me was how there was no plot. I'm not saying EVERY game has to have a plot, but it would make the overall game so much better. Split screen was a bit disappointing for my roommate and I, but we were unsure as to what made it disappointing. I felt the game kind of threw us into the midst of things without any other information other than "Select a level." The game doesn't even mention any tips or tricks for the game. Within Rush Bros. you are able to slide and do a super jump, but unless you are clicking random buttons in game, you'd never know they existed. It'd help the overall game if the developers gave the option for a tutorial.

The game mentioned nothing about wall jumping, despite it being a feature in the game

The Music:

The music selection process was also a bit iffy. The default soundtrack is very EDM like, and although some tracks stand out, the music gets very dry and repetitive fast. At one point, I just muted the game due to how boring the soundtrack became. The game lets you play the music of your choice by letting you manually select what folder the game can access to play media. Whilst playing the various levels, the music will play. I was playing 60FPS just fine, but the second the song changed, the FPS dropped to 5 for a good five to ten seconds, thus effectively stuttering whatever action I was doing to the point of ruining my flow of movement. Also, if the song ends while you are still playing the level, it will not cycle to the next song. I played around with the settings a bit, but you have to manually change the song in game, thus causing the massive FPS drop I referenced before. Lastly, when you switch to the next level, the next song plays, as opposed to continuing from where the previous song left off. It was these little things that irked me as I played the game.

I would overall rate this game a 4.5/10. There was much to be desired with this game, and this game is not for everyone. It felt very unpolished, and there was so much more the developers could have done with the game to make it better. I felt if they waited on the release of this game, and fine tuned the mechanics of it, it would be a stellar game, but as of now, this game does not stack to any popular platformers out, nor music infused games such as Audiosurf

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10000000

I picked up 10000000 when it was the Amazon free app of the day a few months back. With that being said, it is quite possibly my favorite game to play on my Samsung Galaxy S III. It is an old school RPG styled dungeon crawler where you increase your resources, get new weapons, and level up in order to score ten million points to obtain your freedom. The game opens up with the character jumping out of bed and presented with various doors that are accessible via ladders. Each of the doors, minus the large on at the bottom of the screen, all house different abilities your character can improve upon such as shields, weapons, traits etc. It should be noted that the graphics are not good, but that adds to the game’s charm. It is reminiscent to the old 80’s games that we all love so much.

The gameplay itself though is very Bejeweled which took me by surprise the first time I played it. You are provided with seven different types of tiles: Sword, Shield, Staff, Key, Wood, Stone and Item. Sword and Staff are the offensive tiles that you match up in order to attack the enemies The Shield tiles build up your defensive and the Item tiles help you get items that can help you. These items vary such as scrolls, which changes some of the tiles on the board to a specific tile such as sword or staff, or weapons such as axes and balls of yarn which can launched at the enemy to take out a chunk of their health. Keys help open chests or doors, and the wood and stone tiles are used for resources to re build doors in the main screen and to upgrade the doors for more options.

The enemies are shown at a small menu before you are thrown into the game, along with objectives you can finish in order to level up and obtain resources required to level up. The actually side scrolling effect is very well integrated within this game.  Your character essentially runs in through dungeons and encounters enemies to attack, and chest as well as doors to unlock to progress. The enemies can vary between combat enemies, which are enemies that like to get up close and personal when they attack, ranged enemies that launch bombs or projectiles from a distance to do their damage, and boss enemies, which is pretty self explanatory. They increase in difficulty gradually so the game doesn’t become too easy or difficult.

This game became very addicting to me. I don’t know if it was the simplicity of the game itself, a simple side scrolling game, or if it was because of the tile matching, a technique I hadn’t seen utilized as the main function of the game in a RPG game. The overall game is worth it, and I would give the game a 9/10. It surprisingly has a great replay value since you can clear your progress any time during the game in order to start over. 

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