Essential gaming device

The Fang Game Pad by Ideazon is one of the best gaming devices for the PC you can buy. Not only does it make playing games on your PC easier, it does this without impacting your current PC set-up.

Ideazon has been known to gamers as the maker of the ZBoard - a keyboard with specialized keys for gaming. The most recognizable feature of the Zboard is the enlarged W, A, S, D, Q, and E keys. (These of course are common keys used in action PC games.) This works great if you are willing to put up with "swapping-out" the keys to a standard key set whenever you need to type-out real text. Realizing that people don't want the extra hassle in switching their keysets, Ideazon released the Merc Keyboard.  This is a standard keyboard with the left side arrayed with gaming keys including Ideazon's signature enlarged WASDQE keys. You can effectively type standard text without swapping-out the keys as is needed with the original ZBoard. But the downside of the Merc is that the number pad and other keys require you to hold down additional "shift" keys to operate them. This makes the Merc cumbersome to work with if you use those keys a lot for your daily computing tasks (as I do). Thankfully , Ideazon has solved this problem with the release of the Fang - a gaming pad designed to fit your current set-up. The Fang is not meant to replace your keyboard, but to add to it. That allows you to choose any keyboard you want to use with it - and choice is always a good thing.

The Fang Gamepad is a Windows device that uses a USB port on your PC. It is solidly built out of plastic and the unit itself rests comfortably on sturdy padding. There are 41 keys all placed within the reach of a single hand. The key layout itself is symmetrical, so there is no disadvantage to a left-handed person or a right-handed person. The large W, A, S, D, Q, and E keys are at the center of the layout of course with two top rows of number keys from 1 thru 11. More buttons are laid out for either your  pinky or thumb to press. All the buttons are shaped such that they are easily pressed depending on what finger is closest. So for example, the thumb buttons are larger than say the buttons you press with your index finger. The feel of the buttons is solid - all good quality with a tactile response. The only minor complaint I have is it's all a bit too lightweight. The Fang can easily be moved if you apply too much pressure with your hand. I found myself sometimes moving the entire unit during frantic moments of gaming. Still, I managed to get used to it - keeping my hand squarly on the base of the unit and making sure only my fingers moved.

By default, all the keys correspond to a certain keystroke. For example, the three thumb buttons correspond to V, B, and C. The number keys correspond to numbers 1 thru 10, with the 11th key corresponding to the (-) key. Additionally, there are some keys devoted to ALT, SHIFT, CNTRL, TAB, CAPS, etc. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, you could not actually program each individual key. However, you could change the over all scheme by using Ideazon's included software called ZEngine. ZEngine allows you to choose one of many included "layouts" which change the keys to function for a specific game. All the popular games are supported - such as World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, FEAR, etc. (You can of course leave it on the default setting since it works with most games anyway.) More layouts are downloadable from Ideazon's website.

Will it make you a better gamer? In my case it actually did. All the skills/actions that I need are always within reach of my left hand. And best of all, long sessions of gaming remain comfortable since my hand doesn't have to contort to reach any key. The Fang simply has a more logical layout than a keyboard when it comes to gaming. The simple fact that the ASWDQE keys are large and ergonomically laid out makes playing action games so much easier on the hand. I use to think that I couldn't get used to such a device since there are so many buttons on it. But since the buttons are designed to feel different for each finger, learning to use the Fang is easier than I thought. It only took one gaming session of World of Warcraft to get use to this nice device.

The Fang is relatively cheap - about $35-$40 from what I have personally seen. And you could argue that buying the Fang and a relatively inexpensive keyboard is better and still cheaper than buying a single expensive "gaming" keyboard such as the Logitech G11 or G15. Or you can go the other way and pair it with one of those expensive keyboards and have the "ultimate" gaming input set up. That's one of the best things about this device - it lets you choose the keyboard of your choice.

The Fang is definitely the input device that gamers have been waiting for. The logically laid-out keys and the tactile performance of the unit is excellent. I can definitely say playing games with the Fang is a lot easier on my hand - no more painful contortions to reach those out-of-the-way keys. If you play games on your PC regularly, this should definitely be on your desktop.