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: Nightfire
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein
- Unreal Championship
PS2 Game Presets
- Socom II
- Medal of Honor: Frontline
- Time Splitters 2
- James Bond 007: Nightfire
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3
- Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein
- 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, deadzone adjustment,
mouse speed, and mouse inversion. Most
seasoned gamers know about all these terms but
might not be familiar with the deadzone. The
manual describes the deadzone 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 gameplay
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 gameplay.
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 gameplay.
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
