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So it has keys, but does it play?
With its sexy backlit black keys and faux polished aluminum finish, it's tilting illuminated LCD and prominent multimedia controls, small wonder that Logitech's G15 gaming keyboard spoke to my gaming soul a.k.a. money pit with every trip to the local mass electronics retailer. Dropping a c-note on a keyboard is a little like buying a Rolls Royce to deliver pizzas, so I held out for as long as I could. Then, as fate would have it, my original keyboard drank one Iced Tea spill too many, and owing to a temporary post-tax surplus, the G15 was mine. And now, here's the rest of the story. As I stated in my review of the companion G5 gaming mouse, I'm an MMORPG gamer, and we're not necessarily known as being peripheral people. The G15 is known not only for it's nifty little screen but also it's 54 programmable macro keys. A macro, suffice it to say, is like a little script. For example, a macro could be targeting a bad guy, nuking it all to hell, then doing a happy dance. But we don't typically think this way. You say "macro" and (those of us who aren't farming gold for IGE, anyway) are likely to think, "Hmm, I could use those to auto-type the guild rules into the whisper channel for new recruits." We don't typically make the gameplay connection, but I'm told even old dogs can learn new tricks. I was out to see if the G15 could make MMO macros worthwhile for me. The macroing "G keys" and the LCD aren't the only smart features of this top-tier gaming keyboard. A handy "Windows switch" disables those pesky Windows keys so you won't be sent out of a fullscreen game by an errant keypress. The media keys allow you to control sound from the game and from popular music applications running in the background. The G15 also provides two full-speed USB ports for easy access complete with "cable-management channels" that run the length of the board, two opposing tilt-stands to raise the back of the keyboard, and independent mute and backlight controls. With the LCD display open, the keyboard is a significant 10.5" in length (without the wrist-rest, that is- if you have a slide-out keyboard shelf, make sure it's fairly deep), 21.5" wide, and 2.5" tall. One LCD To Rule Them All The G15's distinguishing feature is the 3.75" x 1" backlit LCD (black text on a slate-gray field). The display is crisp; the screen is easily read at typing distance from even the most severe angle (though the resolution can get a little blocky in-game when five or six lines of information are packed onto the inch-tall screen). If the glare from the screen is a little much, a button on the keyboard (all controls are located on the keyboard, eliminating the need for software control - a very nice touch) steps backlighting intensity from off to low to high, or you can simply fold the solidly-hinged LCD compartment shut into the keyboard. The LCD does what it does well, but how well does the concept flesh out in-game?
In what could be known as the fancy peripheral paradox, we know that game developers can't allow any piece of third-party hardware to impact gameplay in such a fundamental way that it's silly to play the game without it. Unless you're talking faddish console-friendly concepts like Dance Dance Revelution or Eye Toy, bundling essential hardware and raising the price accordingly is the surest way to low sales numbers. Thus, when you're talking PC game peripherals, game developers and hardware manufacturers are probably at loggerheads. The devs want the game to appeal to the widest possible portion of their target audience, and companies like Logitech want their product to become nigh indispensable when playing those games. All that to say this: on many levels, it's important not to expect too much from the LCD. It's a nifty thought and definitely has its place, but gameplay-wise it suffers from the same marginal utility the LCD on the Sega Dreamcast controllers offered back in the day. Your eyes can really only keep track of one screen at a time, why shouldn't they stay on the screen that really counts? Granted, I've only seen the LCD working in handful (World of Warcraft, Civ IV, Unreal) of the lackluster number of currently supported games, but if you're used to getting ammo counts, stat, or compass info from the actual game screen, the G15 offers little reason to change your habits. Add to this the aforementioned qualms devs have for giving too much support to peripherals, and you've got yourself a bona fide fluff feature. That's not to say the LCD is useless, not by a longshot. The LCD holds a lot of promise, if not in games, than in supporting apps. Benchmarking / movie recording app Fraps offers a nifty scrolling graph of your framerate, and gaming VoIP client Ventrilo promises G15 support soon. Not to mention that if you, like me, grew weary of the background music in your favorite games long ago, it's time to control the music! Load up a playlist in iTunes or Windows Media Player before logging in, then skip forwards / backwards, stop, pause and set volume using the G15's media controls while watching artist, song, and track info in the LCD. While eliminating the need to alt-tab out to skip your kid's shuffled-to The Wiggles mp3 isn't a reason to buy a $99 keyboard, it's another pleasant instance of the flexibility the G15 offers. And, make no mistake, flexibility is the keyword, especially with regards to the next feature Better Gaming Through Macros The G15 offers eighteen programmable macro "G keys," each with 3 "shift select" modes for a total of 54 customizable buttons. If you or anyone you know can keep track of 54 separate macros, color me impressed. Yet this is 54 macros per profile, and you can have a separate profile for each game.
More important than having a boatload of macro slots, however, is the ease with which gamers build quality macros in the first place. The G15 offers two methods for training macros: quick macroing, and by using the macro manager. Quick macroing is simple and effective, simply hit the "MR" key, press the G key you want to program, go through the key sequence, and press the MR key again to stop recording. By default, quick macroing doesn't record "delays" (which really means any kind of time value for the macro, i.e. how long a key is pressed down or the length of the pause between keystrokes, all measured to a thousandth of a second). If the actions in your macro can all be accomplished at the same time, e.g. switch targets and cast a spell, you won't need to worry about delays. But if you want to chain two timed actions together or move, you'll need to enable the use of quick macro delays. The mark of a quality macro setup, to me, is decreased dependency on the mouse, especially during combat. Anyone familiar with word processing knows the power of keyboard shortcuts (crtl-c, crtl-v, etc.) over using a mouse. The dream of macros is that if you're willing to spend a little time up front preparing your macros and experimenting to see what works, you'll be rewarded with an efficient, chat-friendly setup that literally keeps the game at your fingertips. That's the dream; the reality doesn't work out so well. Say we wanted to position a World of Warcraft rogue for the backstab ability after incapacitating the target. The Gouge and Backstab abilities we'd use are straightforward enough, just 1-9 hotbar keystrokes with a short delay between. Movement, however, is a pickle, and impossible to do with precision. You'll either run too far past the mob (all of which vary in size and shape) before turning around, not go far enough past the mob, or turn around too far or not enough - who can say if pressing down the "D" key for .853 seconds will result in a perfect about-face? I'm sure that with practice and patience, you could build a macro that accomplishes this action 60% of the time, but I'm more sure that I don't have the patience to add and subtract the hundredths of seconds to make it happen. Movement just doesn't lend itself well to macros. Worst of all, any time your macro uses a keystroke (e.g. 1 through 9 for hotbar buttons, etc.) an open chat dialog will simultaneously render the macro impotent and garbage up your /whisper to that cute night elf. However, with a little creativity, macroing does work wonders for changing targets and chaining spells together. Casters and clerics, I'm looking at you. My WoW Priest has keys G1-G5 set up to switch focus to the corresponding group member, fire the biggest heal I have, then work with a scripted macro to return focus to the mob the group is beating on. I imagine you could fire off some pretty nasty combos with caster classes as well. I offer two complaints against the G15 and it's companion software. One, the occasional clunky handling of game profiles. I'll log into World of Warcraft, the LCD will show that the World of Warcraft profile is loaded, but I'll be quick recording macros in a different game profile. For me, the problem was solved easily enough by configuring the software to stick to the default profile, but if you're a macro-holic, space could potentially get tight. The second complaint: the G Keys are inextricably tied to the Logitech Profiler software. Aside from my lack of excitement at having to keep this software running in the background, peripheral hardware tied to software makes me a mite nervous. I can't say why, except to say that I don't want my keyboard giving me the same driver smack-talk I occasionally get from my printer. Note that I've never had a problem like I'm describing, and the usb keyboard functions perfectly outside of Windows (i.e. during startup). **An obligatory word on macros and cheating - cheating not only lessens the pleasure we derive from beating a game on its own terms, but in MMORPGs, cheating has a definite impact on the community and the developer's monthly revenue take as well. While gaming purists would probably argue that anything designed to accelerate user actions is cheating, I should do my best to draw a line between macroing and automating gameplay processes. On the face of it, the two practices sound very similar. To execute macros, however, requires some fraction of a player's attention - which is maybe the most we can hope for nowadays. In any case, it's EULA friendly. Automation implies that something is making decisions for the player, and that is cheating in anyone's book. Bottom Line
Despite my lackluster sortie into advanced macro-making, I can't feel mad or disappointed toward the G15. Truth be told, I didn't hang lofty hopes on this serious piece of hardware. Though it probably goes against some unwritten reviewer's canon, I was along for the ride, content to see what it would show me. Like a good tool, you sense the possibilities just by sizing up its heft and edge. After only a little exploration of the G15's macro abilities, I knew it could handle whatever I had the patience to throw at it. The central problem is integrating G15's potential into the games themselves. I think Logitech would be better served by marketing the LCD as a support app device, perhaps using the LCD for instant messaging. The capability is obviously there, and the friends I habitually leave hanging when I get carried away in a full-screen game would thank Logitech for it. To me, IM elevates the LCD from eye candy to market expanding must-have. As it stands, if you're excited about backlit keys and hardware-based macroing, save yourself some money and go for the LCD-less G11. And if this review has left you feeling fairly indifferent, wait to see where the G15 goes. It may be just a little before its time. As it stands, the G15 is a little bit like a Rolex; while it might not take a lifetime to deserve one, it's nonetheless a sort of utilitarian gamer status symbol. It's a small bit of reassurance that computer games didn't rot your mind- you left the basement of your teenage years and went on to become fairly successful- but you cherish gaming just the same. As a tribute to your taste, the G15 has all the bells and whistles and a few small quirks, yes. But while I'm sure you can find more expensive keyboards, odds are they'll do less, not more. |
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(4 / 5 Hammers) |
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Ten Ton Recommendation: |
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It's packed with features, it's sleek, it's intelligent, but at it's heart the G15 is a trophy. Enjoy it as such, and it won't disappoint.
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