Gaming with your FEET - Dank or Dumb?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,216 words · ~6 min read
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i'm not gonna sit here and debate the merits of a keyboard and mouse versus a
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controller for gaming today because the pc setup is obviously
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superior for the majority of genres whether you need accurate pointing and
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FPS or a ton of key real estate in a moba
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but that doesn't mean that the keyboard and mouse is a natural interface there are a
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ton of movements here that take time
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and muscle memory to develop if you want to get good at them or at least there
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were what if i told you that you could
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offload some of those trickier moves to a
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third appendage allowing you to do more things with little effort
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i'm talking of course about the beacon
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get your mind out of the gutter man it's a bluetooth controller designed for your
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foot i said get your mind out of the gutter come on
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but is this just what you need to gain an
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edge and kick ass or is it a waste of your hard-earned
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money well it's a kickstarter so it could very well
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be both let's check it out
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after i tell you about today's sponsor mack weldon mac weldon makes great
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now our early test unit still has some rough edges from their small scale 3d
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printer but it's got it where it counts the plastic construction is
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very solid despite being lightweight the strap appears to be
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durable enough and it's long enough to wrap around even your steel toed boots
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with foam cushioning on the bottom to contribute to a comfortable feel even
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after multiple hours of use which its usb rechargeable battery affords so
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so far so good the unit is detachable thanks to a
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satisfyingly strong magnet though other
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than charging there's not really much reason to pick it up because aside from
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the on off switch everything is communicated by differently colored leds
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and vibrating haptic feedback so then
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once you strap it onto your foot
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what exactly can you do with this thing
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well theoretically lots
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you can use it for nearly anything that your keyboard can do using the included
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software to map key presses to one of
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four actions roll left roll right
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pitch up and pitch down sorry aviation nerds there is no yaw
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now the device calibrates itself every time it's activated and all of the
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movements are relative to your starting position so you can even use it with
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your legs crossed like if you wanted to stretch a glute while you game
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but it's more than just four extra keys
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each gesture can accommodate up to six
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keystrokes mapped sequentially across the gestures range of movement so the
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idea is that the farther you tilt the device the more commands you can execute
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in this way you can create pseudo macros
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but without actually using any automation like if you have to press
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down forward punch to throw a hadouken
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then you can map that sequence so all you have to do is
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rock your foot to throw fireballs all day long as for the shooter and moba fans out
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there the beacon can be useful for you too in FPS i found the most useful
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commands to offload are the ones that would otherwise make you have to hold a
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key down like crouching sprinting or
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push to talk with the beacon you can do these things
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without inhibiting the movement of your fingers in any way and you can even do
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otherwise impossible things like strafing right and reloading at the same
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time and with mobas mmos or rts games it's
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really nice to be able to easily deploy spells or seldom used abilities without
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fumbling to reach for keys that you aren't fairly familiar with notice that
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i said nice to be able to now there are
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lots actually lots of gamers out there with physical disabilities for whom this
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could be a total lifesaver since you can use it instead of a hand or heck
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even wear it on your head but others might only get marginal
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utility from it which means that the price needs to be right
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so it's going to be retailing for 138 euros or about 160 us dollars
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it's a little bit ouchy and that's with them trying to keep the price down
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doesn't even come with a micro usb cable in the box compare that with other
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stomp-based foot controllers that while maybe bulkier and less versatile come in
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at under a hundred dollars although it should be noted that the
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stinky footboard which i'm referring to specifically
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did go out of business despite being widely adored so
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maybe that one should have cost more or less i don't know and unlike some
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pedals you can't expect the beacon to be able to simulate a gas pedal with
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varying amounts of force the input is either on or off
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just like a regular keyboard
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so should you invest in a beacon wearable
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controller well while it is pretty darn decent at doing
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what it says it's going to do offering you a tweak-tastic amount of control
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over how the keys are pressed the reality is that most of us won't need
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something like this that badly so the main people we'd recommend it for are
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those with physical impairments or gamers finding themselves in desperate
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need of a few more buttons but who aren't concerned about complying
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with tournament play rules which generally don't allow macros which this
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could kind of be considered to be otherwise this uh
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kickstarter might be a
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supposed to be shaking my my foot a non-starter
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freshbooks.com tech tips and enter Linus tech tips in the how did you hear about
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us section so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do
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hit that down
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