Do you have what it takes to get a review published right here on Kotaku? Ben does, as he discovers the one good thing to emerge from Square Enix’s strategy game.
Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.
And thanks to the very kind chaps at Madman Entertainment, purveyor of all kinds of cool, indie and esoteric film, the best reader review we publish each month will win a prize pack containing ten of the latest Madman DVD releases.
This review was submitted by Ben Abraham. If you’ve played with the Order of War mouse pad, or just want to ask Ben more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Order of War Mouse Pad (platform agnostic)
Order of War was a real-time strategy game published uncharacteristically by Square-Enix in September 2009. The Order of War mouse pad was a mouse pad that came with the special edition of the game, which I received as a winner of the Kotaku AU competition to win Order of War. I spent a rigorous nine months testing the pad so as to give the most comprehensive review possible.
Loved
The Smooth Surface: For years before I won the Order of War mouse pad I was content with just using the flattish, somewhat shiny surface of my gaming desk as a mouse surface. However the consequence was an occasionally erratic laser mouse that often saw my view snapped to the roof or ground in games like Left 4 Dead. The dizzying and unpredictable nature of these occurrences caused me no end of grief, but I am happy to report that the incidence of spontaneous mouse movements has decreased by a staggering 84% since using the Order of War mouse pad.
The Hard Base: Previous mouse pads I’d tried had a soft or bendable base, and even if covered with a rubber bottom, often curled up or slid around the desk making them a liability in the high stakes online gaming world. Not so with the Order of War mouse pad! With its solid cardboard backing and ever so slight suction effect resulting from its near-perfect design, the pad represents the perfect balance between grip and slide.
The Pretty Pictures: There’s a WWII tank on it shooting and exploding at the same time! And planes dropping bombs! There’s also some soldiers walking up a hill, one of which looks like he is posed mid-robot dance move.
Hated
Pretty much nothing about this mouse pad is worth hating, although I wish I could say the same about the game that came with it. I guess I could invent some imagined hatred like, “I hate that the mouse pad does not come with LED lights and a USB wrist-warmer that also serves your choice of espresso or mountain dew,” but that would be asking for too much from a mouse pad. It would be cool though.
What more can I say about the best mouse pad I’ve ever owned? I have no idea where you could get one from though – judging by the success of Order of War there’s probably a bunch of them in a Square-Enix warehouse somewhere. Maybe if you ask them nicely?
The Order of War mouse pad receives a score of 9.5 Robot Rocks out of A Sambucca.
Reviewed by: Ben Abraham
You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 500 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.
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