Since the mouse vibrations depend on the sound coming from the game (or even your desktop), everything you hear gets translated into a shake of the mouse, and truth be told that isn't necessarily a good thing. Speech in MDK2 and Counter-Strike, the windows startup noise and even music makes this thing shake which just isn't right. As if this weren't distracting enough, set the vibration strength to "full" using the funny little wheel at the front of the mouse and you'll think the table is being shaken by an earthquake as the mouse moves so violently. Don't even think of aiming accurately in Unreal Tournament if there are loud explosions going on nearby. Of course, you can turn the strength of the vibrations down, but then the vibrations become quite insignificant and barely noticeable. For some reason, regardless of the setting, you can either barely feel the vibrations, or they'll send your hand shaking as if it were holding a small belt sander rather than a mere mouse.

One of the advantages to the iFeel was that programmers had to specifically code support for it. While this might seem like a bad thing as it requires extra effort on the part of the developers, it also means that they can specifically choose when and how to make the mouse vibrate. This is not the case with the VMouse. With the iFeel you can precisely feel every shot as you fire it, whereas with the VMouse, opening fire with the machine gun produces an indistinct wobble from the unit that, again, either shakes your hand around like mad or is barely noticeable.

So who's going to want the VMouse then? Well, if the iFeel seemed like a great idea to you but either your favourite game didn't support it or you aren't using Windows, the VMouse is worth a look. It's also a rather reasonable 35 bucks if you want a mouse that's not too hard on your wallet and of course the shape means the mouse can be used comfortably in either hand. Don't expect to be able to turn up the vibration strength to max without ruining your aim, though.

Pete Closs
Games Editor