Fierce 5000 DPI Laser Gaming Mouse v. 2 Score: 78% Developer: Rude Gameware Device Type: Controller

Function: Fierce 5000 DPI Laser Gaming Mouse v. 2 is a gaming mouse that seems to be pretty responsive in games and provides enough customization to make most gamers happy, though using it as your everyday mouse seems to have a few problems. More on that later though. The Fierce 5000 feels pretty good in your hands. There is a padded siding where your thumb will sit on one side, as well as one for your right-most fingers as well. Just above the thumb, there are a pair of buttons marked with arrows, while the top of the mouse not only contains the standard left and right buttons and the wheel, but it also has a clickable button towards the palm of the hand in the middle. Finally, there is another pair of buttons just to the left of your pointer finger. While the mouse has a good feel to it, based on button placement, it is obvious that the device isn't designed for lefties since most of the extra buttons are found near the left side of the mouse. Of course, at this point, many southpaws live with right-handed mice in their daily lives anyway. The Fierce 5000 also has a lengthy cord-styled wire that makes it easy to manage and, for the gamer-on-the-go, promises that it won't get tangled. While I felt like a seven-foot long cable was a bit much to deal with, these days I feel like cables in general are just too much. Of course, it is completely understandable to design a gaming mouse not to be cordless. The last thing you want to happen while in the middle of a fight is to have your battery die or for a signal issue to cause your mouse-clicks to not get to the computer. There are a few other features in this mouse, the least of which is the high DPI count on the laser and it's fast reading capabilities to insure the fastest response possible. While I never noticed any issues with the mouse's response time while testing it, it is hard to really tell if this mouse performed better than my normal one, a Logitech MK700, which I'm sure doesn't sport 1000 Hz Polling and a 5000 DPI Laser Engine. There is a disc that comes with the Fierce 5000 that installs the mouse's configuration utility. The software's UI might look straightforward at first, but when you look closely, you will find that things aren't quite as intuitive as they first appear. More on that in the last section.

Performance: Like I said, the Fierce 5000 DPI Laser Gaming Mouse v. 2 does its job well. While playing various games like Transformers: War for Cybertron and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, I found the mouse to be quite responsive and handy when in the thick of things. The programmable buttons also came in handy in these particular games. For instance, I was able to map one of the buttons to the Transformation action and I found myself swapping between the two forms much more readily than I had when I last played the game. Similarly, mapping several force moves, like Push and Lightning, in Force Unleashed made those attacks even more accessible than before when they were assigned to the (E) and (Q) keys respectively, something that I had trouble getting used to previously. Another feature, the ability to add small weights to the inside of the mouse, also had some interesting effects on gameplay. While there are only four weights (three at 10 grams and one at 5), adding different amounts to the mouse went a long way into finding a balanced device that felt right for me. It really is interesting how much 35 grams can make a difference concerning the feel of a mouse. As for the Fierce 5000's supposedly untangleable cord, well it seems to work as advertised. During the testing period, I would bundle up the mouse and stick it in the backpack I take between home and work. While what I would pull out would be a bit of a mess, there was never any trouble untwisting the cord. Even if there was some semblance of a knot in it, the cord was easily unraveled without much effort.

Features: 1000 Hz Polling With 1 m/s Response Time High Speed Motion Detection - 150 Inches Per Second Ultra-High Sampling Rate 7 Buttons Independently Programmable Micro-Adjustable Weight System 5000 DPI Laser Engine Onboard Memory to Save Your Modifications Always-On Mode On-the-Fly Sensitivity DPI Adjustment LED DPI Indicator Gold Plated USB Connector for Maximum Conductivity 7 Foot, Lightweight, Non-Table Cord Included Customization Software

Drawbacks & Problems:: The Fierce 5000 DPI Laser Gaming Mouse v. 2's configuration software is one of my main concerns about this mouse. For one, each of programmable buttons has a dropdown list of available actions. Initially, I expected to see every key on the keyboard within this list, as well as the normal mouse options. Instead, it provides a list of slightly more complicated commands like maximize or minimize window, switch programs and page forward and backward. These are all commands that I would expect on a non-gaming mouse. After reading the manual a bit, I realized that the options I was looking for, those that would make in-game commands more accessible, had to be made into macros. Basically, you select "macro" for a button and in the popup, create a macro to do the tasks you want. While this is good and lets you do some fairly complex behaviors, it made simple tasks like the aforementioned key re-mappings more work than should be necessary. The software also lets you play with its CPI (sensitivity) settings. While this is good, there isn't really any kind of explanation in the manual as to what the four different sets of values do or mean or, quite frankly, what CPI is for that matter. This particular part of the software either requires forehand knowledge on the subject, good Internet research skills, or just playing around to see what feels good to you. One of my other problems with the mouse is how wrong it felt in non-gaming applications. Even with the sensitivity settings restored to their default values, I found the mouse to be too slow in moving across the screens. While this is obviously because of the mouse's heightened resolution, it makes it really annoying to go from one side of a monitor to the next, much less across two different ones. Again, fiddling with the CPI settings resolves this, but then I am forced to use one of the five profile slots for my non-gaming configuration. It just feels wrong. As a gaming mouse, the Fierce 5000 seems to deliver on pretty much everything it advertises. As a normal mouse for your day-to-day use, it wouldn't be my first choice. Personally, I would prefer a good middle-of-the-road device that I can use in either setting, but then again, I actually do a lot of non-gaming on my PC. For those gamers out there who pretty much only have one use for their machines, this might be a mouse worth looking into.

-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer

Minimum System Requirements: PC with Available USB Port, Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7, CD_ROM drive   Test System: Windows 7 Ultimate, Intel i7 X980 3.33GHz, 12 GB RAM, Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Card, DirectX 9.0c

Related Links: Game Vortex’s Review of Transformers: War for Cybertron for Windows Game Vortex’s Review of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition for Windows