MMO Gaming

I’ve had it for a while and I think it’s now safe to put up a full review of the Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52.

Let’s start off by assuming you haven’t already gone out and bought one. If that’s the case, stop reading at this point and head on over to Amazon.com to buy it.

I mean it. If you feel like spending an extra fourty dollars pick yourself up the Logitech G15 gaming Keyboard. Or, if you prefer, light your money on fire and use it to burn down your house.

I’m not saying the G15 isn’t a good product, from everything I’ve heard it’s excellent. I just see no reason to buy it, especially for MMOs. I own a keyboard. It’s probably safe to say everyone who has a computer already owns a keyboard. I don’t need another one for my gaming. What I need is something compact to make me not have to stretch my hands out all over and switch back and forth between keyboard and mouse. That’s what the n52 does, and it does it well.

I can’t even imagine PvPing without having it. From the first time I used it I noticed how much easier it was to get to everything, and it only required one hand, leaving my other hand always free for the mouse. This makes a big difference in speed (thus why it’s called the Speedpad, eh?)

It comes with some software to install that is used to configure the keys on it. The software is fairly easy to use for basic settings (which is mostly what is needed for playing an MMO) but is still powerful enough to give the option of setting up some really cool stuff. It took me maybe 30-45 minutes to set everything up and test it out a bit until I got it perfect to how I wanted it.

Of course, the important part isn’t so much the software as the hardware, and I must say, it’s a steal on Amazon at approximately $30. It’s small, which is nice, especially if, like me, you don’t have a huge amount of desk space. It’s also pretty solid and holds in place well, even during some of the more frantically paced moments of the games I played.

It’s also incredibly ergonomic. It fits the hand nicely, allowing everything to be within one fingers reach without much stretching at all (the “1″ key and the “5″ key are the longest distance you will have to move any of your fingers, and that is hardly a stretch).

I will admit, it’s not quite perfect, but it is close, and if there is one complaint to make, and it is small, it is that the keys sometimes are a bit tough. That’s not all bad, as it means it is built for some decent amount of wear and tear, but at times I will have to repress a key because I didn’t quite hit it hard enough the first time, this happens pretty rarely, but it can be an annoyance when it does.

Overall there should be no reason that you don’t already have this, it’s well worth the money you’ll put into it and more and will probably increase your action and reaction time in any game.