Max Shooter Keyboard &
Mouse Adapter For PS2 & XBOX
by: Jeromy
The third and latest XBOX/PS2 keyboard & mouse
adapter to hit the market is the Max Shooter. Before
this adapter was released there was a good chance
that the guy destroying you in Halo 2 was using a
regular XBOX controller and not one of the
previously released keyboard & mouse adapters. Enter
Max Shooter stage right. Now you should be afraid,
very afraid, as the Max Shooter basically turns the
console FPS into a PC FPS with all the accuracy that
that entails. After spending a good few days playing
Halo 2, Socom II, and Unreal Championship 2 there is
little doubt that FPS games were mostly made to be
played with a mouse and keyboard.
What’s In The
Package
The Max
Shooter, both the XBOX and PS2 versions,
come in a small package that holds the
actual hardware and an instruction manual.
The adapter only accepts PS/2 compatible
keyboards and mice so if you have USB
peripherals you’ll need to get an adapter or
head over to the old used PC shop and pickup
an old keyboard and mouse combo.
The actual
adapter is small in size and doesn’t hog any
serious amount of extra space. The XBOX
version features an extra slot on the
backside of the adapter for a memory card to
plug in.
Features
The Max
Shooter, both for XBOX and PS2, is packed
with a wide array of functionality which can
be accessed by using certain keyboard key
combinations listed in the manual. It is
fully programmable and also comes with game
presets for many titles. The XBOX and PS2
presets are listed below.
XBOX Game
Presets
- Halo
- Medal of
Honor: Frontline
- The
Chronicles of Riddick
- Counter
Strike
- James Bond
007: Night fire
- Tom
Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3
- Return to
Castle Wildenstein
- Unreal
Championship
PS2 Game
Presets
- Socom II
- Medal of
Honor: Frontline
- Time
Splitters 2
- James Bond
007: Night fire
- Tom
Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3
- Ghost
Recon: Jungle Storm
- Return to
Castle Wildenstein
- REZ
If your
favorite shooter isn’t listed above, the Max
Shooter also has three programmable
controller setups to fill your needs. The
variables that can be adjusted include key
assignment, dead zone adjustment, mouse
speed, and mouse inversion. Most seasoned
gamers know about all these terms but might
not be familiar with the dead zone. The
manual describes the dead zone as the zone
within an axis range that is interpreted as
being at rest.
Along with the
game presets, the factory default preset
automatically assigns keys in the following
way.
The selection
of game presets and programming for custom
games is all very straightforward, if not
time consuming, and is well explained within
the manual.
All these
features are great but what really matters
is how it holds up in the games. So without
further ado let us jump in to our first
game.
Halo 2
My first
experience with the Max Shooter and Halo 2
was less than stellar, but that was
completely my fault. Like most gamers I know
I jumped in head first without reading a
single page of the instruction manual which
was a really bad move. The factory default
setup is pretty much only suited for menu
navigation.
So I popped
open the manual and found out about the
presets, sadly no Halo 2, and decided to try
out the Halo 1 preset so I could get a quick
start. Everything worked ok but it wasn’t
better than the XBOX controller I had become
so accustomed to. In fact, it was much
worse. The mouse sensitivity was horrible
and the keys were mapped semi-incorrectly.
But again this was my entire fault and I
dove back into the manual to see how to fix
my problems.
An hour and a
half later I had finished tweaking one of
the user programmable presets included in
the Max Shooter and things were starting to
feel much much better. The mouse responded
close to what I would expect from a PC FPS
and the keys were all mapped to my liking,
but I was still sprawled out on the floor in
an awkward position. I wasn’t quite in FPS
bliss.
Another thirty
minutes later I had a table setup with the
TV, mouse, and keyboard in the regular PC
positions and things were feeling even
better. The Halo 2 bots didn’t know what hit
them, but the mouse movement was still a bit
off. Then I noticed in the manual that this
is one of the biggest issues that needs to
be resolved when setting up the Max Shooter
and that I should max out the sensitivity
settings within the game for optimal “PC
Like” results. So I did that and it proved
to be the one tweak that turned Halo 2 into
my first PC FPS on a console. The controls
are that good.
I finally
decided my setup was ready for prime time
and I headed online to face the masses. I
must note that my ranking in Halo 2 was
quite low before I got the Max Shooter and
that the PC FPS setup has always been better
for me than any console controller. So with
that said, I jumped into an online match and
low and behold I got my rear end handed to
me like always, but it was just the first
match so I pushed on.
I changed my
weapon setup from what I usually used to
what I thought would be great for accuracy
based shots and wow did that make a
difference. Now all I use is the Battle
Rifle. Four hours later I emerged with a
better ranking and an awesome kill to death
ratio. My hit rate and shooting speed went
way up with my new found accuracy and the
competition was destroyed because of it.
Once the Max
Shooter is tweaked to a gamers liking, it is
an incredibly deadly controller for Halo 2.
But Halo 2 is just one of the FPS games out
there so lets see how it holds up with the
others. Unreal Championship 2
I confess this
is my favorite all time XBOX game, so I was
extremely excited to see how it would hold
up with a mouse and keyboard. I once again
tried out a preset which didn’t hold up so
well and then went on to create my own
setup. Once the setup was done I headed
online for a FPS shocker.
I used the
same mentality I had in Halo 2; go for the
accuracy based weapons. I loaded up the
sniper rifle, headed to a dark corner, and
started sniping. My TV echoed “Headshot”
many times before the match was over, but
that was mostly because no one ever found
me. The next match was much different.
The rest of
the matches I played online with the Max
Shooter were populated with very good
players. They would find me sniping and then
destroy me. It seems the problem with Unreal
Championship 2 is that it was designed to
only be a console FPS. Much of the game play
really relies on the button configuration on
the controller. Thus I couldn’t bounce
around the walls, dodge, and reflect as well
as I could with the controller. This could
be because I have spent so much time with
the controller that I couldn’t break my
habits, but I believe this is one case where
the Max Shooter isn’t superior.
So one game is
completely changed by the adapter and one is
built too much around a standard controller
to benefit from it. Next up is the PS2 and
Socom II; let’s see how the PS2 version of
Max Shooter fairs.
Socom II
Once again I
connected the keyboard and mouse to the
adapter, plugged it into the PS2, and
immediately got a good connection. I surfed
through the menus with ease and entered an
online game. This time around there is a
preset available for the actual game I’m
playing. I loaded up the preset and was
pleasantly surprised to find the preset
layout to be perfect for Socom game play.
It felt good
and worked just as well as it did in Halo 2.
I don’t play a lot of Socom but I found
myself playing quite a bit in this setup as
I could never get into using the PS2
controller for FPS game play.
With the large
amount of customization, the ease of use,
and the low price this adapter is really
worth every penny. If you really want an
advantage in games like Halo 2 or just want
to try a new controller setup I would
definitely recommend picking the Max
Shooter.
Pros
- Plug and
Play
-
Customization and presets
- Low price
Cons
- Lack of new
title presets
Overall Score:
9.5
