I’m not nice at video games. At the least, not on PC. I’ve no aptitude for utilizing a mouse and keyboard.
That’s proper—I play every little thing with a controller.
At the least, I play all of my common genres with a controller. And, up till about three years in the past, the association labored. A non-zero variety of PC avid gamers could also be shrieking silently (or loudly) about how unideal it’s to play sure video games with analog sticks, however I by no means had an issue.
Then my good friend group determined to play PvP video games. On PC.
At some point, I’m enjoying Sea of Thieves and drunkenly lurching off a ship into water (my character, not me), after which the following, I’m making an attempt to line up headshots on a human opponent who most positively is aware of how to not get shot.
It didn’t take lengthy to understand I wanted lots of assist, and that help needed to come both from my mates or divine intervention, as a result of I actually didn’t appear able to serving to myself. So I did what everybody with wishful considering does. I purchased stuff to repair my downside. Particularly, I purchased the weirdest, wildest, and arguably coolest gaming keypad out there.
Enter the Azeron Cyborg gaming keypad
Alaina Yee / Foundry
My downside with mouse and keyboard is the keyboard. For no matter cause, utilizing the WASD keys for navigation nonetheless has but to click on in my mind. Add within the surrounding keys for triggering skills and the communication between my hand and my mind goes out a window.
Then again in April 2023, I stumbled upon this r/buildapc thread on Reddit. Amongst all of the unbelievable PC accent suggestions was one for the Azeron Cyborg. It appeared completely insane (and straight out of a Terminator film), however what caught my consideration was its precise thumbstick.
Throughout the first few weeks of on-line slaughter (mine, not my opponents), I had wistfully thought how having a left thumbstick for navigation however a mouse for aiming would mix one of the best of each my worlds. However the Razer Tartarus and related gaming keypads solely had d-pads, not full 360 analog sticks.
I took this new discovery as as signal, particularly once I appeared on the Azeron website and noticed a gently used mannequin going for $140 USD. (A new one prices about $200 USD.) Impulse purchases are uncommon for me, however this appear fated. Desperation to not all the time be the weak hyperlink on my staff could have added incentive to purchase.
Twenty-five bucks in delivery and a handful of days later, my bundle safely accomplished the journey from Latvia and landed on the PCWorld workplace’s doorstep. And that’s once I realized some exhausting truths about myself.
A brand new downside emerges
Alaina Yee / Foundry
The Azeron Cyborg is available in two flavors: normal, which positions a set of buttons above your fingertips, and Compact, which locations these buttons on shorter posts. You can even regulate the thumbstick positioning on the usual mannequin—a function I utterly underestimated once I bought my used Compact mannequin in sparkly galactic purple.
This keypad is dizzyingly programmable and adjustable. You get 29 mappable keys total, which incorporates the 5-way rocker swap and thumbstick. Key mapping is very simple—you simply obtain Azeron’s software program and begin assigning keys—and also you get two separate profiles which you can program. Key presses really feel good too, with satisfying clicky suggestions.
For the video games I performed (primarily Overwatch 2), I didn’t even use all 13 buttons inside my instant attain. A part of this needed to do with match. Even weeks later, my pinky can’t faucet its close by keys simply. That is regardless of me shopping for the smaller of the keypad’s two sizes, and in addition fussing with the positions of every key tower. You’ll be able to change the gap and the spacing, however I by no means discovered the right candy spot for my entire hand.
However I can’t blame match fully for my new wrestle, which is overcoming my very fastened muscle reminiscence on controller.
I’m my very own worst enemy, as common
Alaina Yee / Foundry
Throughout my childhood, I performed platformers and action-adventure video games nearly to the exclusion of every little thing else—and it appears to point out. A serious difficulty of mine in PvP video games is motion. I stroll in straight traces, because the worst (greatest) noobs do. However platformers, my favourite style, rewards that type of regular monitoring. That’s what I spent numerous hours optimizing for, whereas additionally missing publicity to genres (and sport modes) that reward the alternative.
So first downside: I don’t assume to strafe.
Second downside: The movement for strafing on an analog stick feels unsuitable to me.
Sadly, proudly owning an Azeron gaming keypad does nothing to unravel these first two points, because it has a thumbstick. In actual fact, I didn’t even determine the second till I compelled myself to attempt utilizing WASD in a low-stakes Overwatch match. It’s best to have seen my face once I realized how easy strafing felt when tapping two distinctive keys, slightly than wiggling a stick forwards and backwards.
Third downside: I’m not used to utilizing fingers past my thumb and forefinger.
As a normal controller consumer, all I ever use are two fingers per hand. Every now and then I would herald my center fingers if I’ve to press each the bumper and the set off buttons on the identical time, but it surely’s uncommon. (A fancier controller just like the Xbox Elite has extra buttons and thus can require extra fingers, however I don’t use that kind.)
Fourth downside: The controls are distributed in another way than on controller.
The Azeron Cyborg doesn’t change the what number of capabilities you carry out together with your left hand for a mouse and keyboard setup. It simply gives them in a unique kind issue. And in comparison with controller, it’s concerning the reverse of what I’m used to. On a controller, I’m utilizing my proper hand for an analog stick (digital camera angle/melee), the 4 face buttons (which normally map to weapon selection, reload, leap, and crouch in a shooter), and a set of shoulder and set off buttons (skills). On mouse and keyboard, my proper hand will get left click on (main skill), proper click on (secondary skill or zoom), and the scroll wheel (weapon selection/melee). At the least, it does on a primary mouse, which is all I’ve at the moment.
Lengthy story quick, I’ve lots of retraining to do and new muscle reminiscence to construct if I need to get anyplace in PvP.
The way it shook out
Alaina Yee / Foundry
Whereas the Azeron has not been in a position to cowl for abilities I by no means developed, I’m not upset. I knew it was in all probability going to be a protracted shot. (I’ve been by way of this earlier than with pictures gear.) I feel it’s an important keypad, and I like how a lot you possibly can customise it. That features the way it seems to be, too. In case you purchase new, you possibly can decide shade (so many enjoyable shades!), palm relaxation fashion, thumbstick fashion, and which hand it’s designed for (proper or left).
And the Cyborg has carried out greater than offering perception into my long-standing lack of ability to adapt to mouse and keyboard. My gameplay with hitscan characters in Overwatch is best—I don’t miss as many pictures with Ana when enjoying help, for instance. Don’t get me unsuitable, I nonetheless suck. However I can see glimpses of what life is like once you don’t utterly suck. It’s a pleasant counter to getting older and stiffer, which have dulled my reflexes and made precision thumbstick actions more durable. I as soon as dreamed of getting even half nearly as good as former colleagues on controller—they may go up in opposition to PC gamers, a lot to the shock of builders throughout demos. However that’s past me now.
My solely actual grievance concerning the Cyborg is that I purchased the unsuitable mannequin. The Compact model’s thumbstick isn’t adjustable, and for my slender hand it’s positioned just a little too low to really feel snug. The place the directional swap sits, that’s the place I need the thumbstick to be. I get an ache in my hand after enjoying for about 90 minutes or extra. If Azeron (or a neighborhood member) had been to launch a 3D printer file for a housing that reversed the positions of the thumbstick and rocker swap, I feel I may sport for longer stretches.
Regardless, the Cyborg has made mouse and keyboard really feel much less like a sink or swim proposition. Perhaps someday I’ll get to primary WASD competency. However up to now, that day has but to return. In the mean time, I’ve now acquired floaties to maintain me from drowning.
Replace (September 2025): I initially documented this expertise with the Azeron Cyborg Compact early within the journey, again in spring and summer season of 2023. Within the two years since, I can say that I nonetheless am proud of the funding—and it actually has acted like floaties whereas studying to swim.
I outlined 4 issues I had whereas enjoying in video games like Overwatch: simply not strafing, disliking the feeling of strafing on an analog stick, use of extra fingers than on an Xbox or PlayStation controller, and adjusting to a unique structure of buttons relative to a console controller. The primary two points nonetheless stay, however I’ve since adjusted to the brand new mapping and my gameplay has improved just a little. (I’m lastly not ranked as Potato 5. Yay!)
I additionally talked about that I regretted not buying the mannequin with an adjustable place for thumbstick. I nonetheless really feel that approach, however after Azeron launched a magnetic tenting stand for the controller, it helped ease a lot of the pressure on my thumb.
Azeron
Total, the enhancements I’ve made in mechanical talent has gotten me extra curious and prepared to provide WASD navigation one other go. (I simply picked up this Lemokey X0 gaming keypad at a deep low cost, on the recommendation of my colleague and resident mechanical gaming keyboard guru Michael Crider.) I’ve additionally begun exploring the thought of making an attempt a correct mouse mat and one other gaming mouse to see if it improves my intention. As somebody who has extraordinarily deep console gaming roots, I all the time assumed my motor abilities had been solely in charge for my weak mechanical abilities in PC video games. I didn’t understand a few of it’s based mostly in your gear and settings.
I really feel much less overwhelmed now concerning the thought of constructing the total swap to keyboard & mouse gaming. Whereas I don’t know if I’ll make the leap efficiently, the makes an attempt can be fairly entertaining, I’m positive. To different individuals, at the very least.
