You wouldn't believe how many mice and keyboardshave recently found their way to jamesgames.com for review. Though they may look similar, and even have similar pricing, these peripherals are as different as night and day.

I've taken them for a test drive, and what you'll find here are my personal reactions. However, I always suggest that you take any product review of input devices with a grain of salt, because my hands and yours may be sized very differently.

Go to the store and take them for a spin to see if your body and their design is a good match. You can't get that info from an article or even a photo.

So far, here are the products I've looked at: Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Pro Keyboard and Mouse, Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard, Logitech Illuminated Keyboard, Review: Microsoft Explorer Mouse, Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Keyboard, and the Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000.

Sound design in games has come a long way since the monotone “beep” from Pong. I’ve been playing a lot of Age of Empires III lately. Each broadside, cannon and mortar has its own magnificent boom. Recently, as a huge battle was raging, I realized that so much of what was making the game immersive was the quality of the sound.

The redesigned, smaller, and substantially improved Logitech G15 ($99) keyboard is the first gaming keyboard I’ve ever seriously using full time. Special function keys accept user programmed functions making it possible to do complex “moves”. For instance, you might have an opening gambit in a real time strategy campaign that might cue up a number of villagers, build a house, and then a fort. All of that might be assigned to a single key.

The entire set is noticeably smaller than the G51. Even the multifunction control pod takes up less space than the Z-5500’s. Headphone and microphone jacks are built into the control pod, but the alternate input ports are, unfortunately, on the subwoofer – meaning you have to dive under the desk anytime you want to change that setup.