Author - Jerry Paxton

Cooler Master USA has long been known for their PC performance cases and accessories. However, they recently launched a gamer-specific line of products known as ‘CM Storm’. This brand has been picking up some serious steam around the tournament circuits with their first two PC gaming chassis, the Sniper and Scout, and now they have released their first ever foray into the gaming mouse market with the Sentinel Advance.

The Sentinel Advance is actually fairly large for a gaming mouse, sporting a size similar to older models you would expect from companies like Logitech. However, for its overall size the Sentinel Advance is very sleek and the size is just perfect as it was meant for long periods of gameplay and you can easily rest your hand on it without problems. To further accentuate gamer comfort, the Sentinel Advance sports both thumb and pinky rest areas which really help avoid nasty cramps from heated tournament-play. Additionally, the mouse is all black, rubberized plastic save for the underside, OLED, and grates.

You did read that correctly, one of the more eye-catching features of the Sentinel Advance is its OLED screen which displays helpful information like X and Y sensitivity levels as well as a monochrome, 32×32 image which can be pretty much anything you like (in that size) however CM Storm recommends putting your clan logo in it. This can be accomplished via the software, but we will get to that later.

Aside from the two main mouse buttons, the mouse features a treaded middle-mouse button, a profile changing-button, two sensitivity adjustment buttons, and two thumb-buttons for extra functionality. For your twitch-based, high-reflex gaming this amount of buttons would be fine however for the MMO or RTS gamer, you may want to opt for a mouse with additional, programmable thumb and pinky buttons.

I am not usually a huge fan of flashy lighting systems on mice but I will make an exception in this case. The lighting effects of the Sentinel Advance are very impressive, with multiple modes of display (including my personal favorite – a ‘breathing’ pulse) and seven vibrant colors. There are two LED ports on the bottom-front of the mouse which shine light out like two laser beams when active and you can independently set the color of those and even have it only show when you click one of the mouse buttons.

A huge factor of awesomeness for CM Storm in choosing to include five 4.5g weights in the bottom of the mouse. They are, of course, removable to allow you to hit the weight you like but I found the mouse most comfortable at the full 22.5g addition. It is not light as far as gaming mice go but the added weight gives you a solid mousing platform to play off of. The biggest issue I see with the mouse is that they do not include any carrier for the discarded weights, which in my case could lead me to losing them.

The Sentinel Advance also is built with a braided cable as opposed to traditional plastic ones. The benefits of the braided chord is increased strength, flexibility, and a decrease in cable ‘stickage’ and bunching.

Installation and use of the mouse is simple: You can choose to go plug-and-play with the unit, in which case you can select between four different DPI settings. Or, you can install the CM Storm Sentinel Advance control software and get the ability to have multiple control layout profiles and, as previously-mentioned, upload your own clan logo into the mouse’s OLED screen.

As you can see, CM Storm has done a fine job of creating not only a useful control suite but a stylish one as well. The various controls are laid out as one would expect and are not hard to navigate to in the least.

Gaming with the Sentinel Advance is incredible. The Sentinel Advance’s twin-laser sensor has a max setting of 5,600 DPI and, while ungodly sensitive, remains smooth in its motions thanks to the size and weight of the unit. This may not make sense to you, weight and size do not regularly equal ‘smooth’ but along the bottom of the Sentinel Advance you will see four mouse feet, two of which along the sides with a very high-surface area in comparison to feet usually seen on gaming mice. These ultra-smooth feet allow the mouse’s weight and size to work for the gamer, instead of against.

You would never know that the Sentinel Advance was CM Storm’s first gaming mouse. The quality and precision of this mouse is incredible and CM Storm has a real contender here capable of going toe-to-toe with any other gaming mouse on the market. Expect to see this mouse readily-adopted by even the most hardcore gamer. The CM Storm Sentinel Advance is available now.

CM Storm Sentinel Advance Product Page

I have a confession to get out of the way before I start my review so you can understand my Beatles-leaning bias. To start at the beginning, I remember playing Guitar Hero II for the first time and playing Woman by Wolfmother on easy and getting my ass handed to me. It didn’t matter at the time, I just knew that my rock star fantasy had been met and I was hungry for more. I remember playing the first Rock Band fondly for the first time with friends, stumbling over the drums and praying the neighbors couldn’t hear the awful singing. It was just like that first time playing Guitar Hero so long ago… When I learned The Beatles Rock Band was being made – I think I blacked out for a few hours from pure joy. This was the reason I was alive, this would define me as a person.

So when I say I love this game, I hope you understand I do so taking into account my pure and utter love of what I consider the finest rock band of all time. Now let’s get down to it, shall we?

When you break the game down, you do have a Rock Band game at its core so if you’ve played one, you’ve played this one. You have four instruments to choose from: guitar, bass, microphone and drums. The ‘Fab Four’ fit right in don’t they? Each instrument has its own training of which I dabbled in. I was most interested in learning the drums more than I’ve been able to in the past I and was pleased to find the tools for learning them are much advanced from any of the other games. Not only do you have a basics trainer that will teach you 45 different beats, but you also have Beatles Beats where all of Ringo’s famous beats are broken down so you can learn them at your own pace. You can move automatically between beats per minute by pressing up or down so when you think you’ve mastered any particular set, push it up to fail miserably all over again. I can see myself spending a lot of time annoying everyone within close proximity trying to learn the way Ringo would play a set of Rock Band drums.

The game itself consists of several modes of play, each with an online component. Quickplay gives you all of the songs right off the bat without having to unlock any thankfully. It’s a sort of instant Beatles party where anyone can pick their favorite song and join in or leave any time in between sets. They made it painless to see how difficult each instrument is by incorporating the sliders from the previous Rock Band. Before any song you can individually turn on or off the no fail mode if you happen to be playing with beginners or you’re trying to show off in expert mode before you’re ready.

Story mode is an awesome trip down The Beatles’ career. The animated videos that break up each set are a lot of fun and pure Beatles porn for the aficionado. There are a lot of nice details that go into this. While the song is loading, I presume a studio recording of the band right before the song is actually recorded (complete with the date) is played like ambient noise. For me, it gave me that connection like I was actually in the recording booth or in the studio itself. Seeing bits and pieces of their famous recordings from the Ed Sullivan show recreated, or the girl running across the grass at Shea stadium or the famous final performance all meld together in an experience unlike any I’ve had while listening to The Beatles. A lot of times what happens behind the flying notes is looked over because it’s lame. The awesome intro that was released online is basically how the entire game looks. A lot of the songs are just the boys on stage, but as they move into their psychedelic phase, so do the graphics. Yellow submarines fly around, the guys fly around in some floating gazebo or stand in front of an animated Soviet propaganda poster and it’s all so beautiful the first few times you go through a song it might actually distract you from the notes much to the chagrin of your band mates. When I had a chance to let others play and watch it closely, the only thing I could possibly say in negative were the facial expressions being very robotic. I can forgive them that, even Pixar struggles with this.

The difficulties all received a good tweak in this version. Easy remains the entry point for all wannabe rockers using only the first three buttons of the controller. On the drums it really breaks down the basics of the beat to the bare minimum. You can sing off-key fairly well, even I was able to keep on my feet singing on easy. When you first start out it seems like the notes are flying at you like a sub-orbital SR-71, but it doesn’t take long before you feel like the slow kid everyone used to make fun of. Medium brings an extra button into the mix as well as an additional layer of complexity to the notes. On drums you will be asked to use your foot more often while blasting away at quicker beats. Singing for me becomes impossible thankfully. Hard really kicks things into gear, but it’s not nearly as jarring as previous versions. Yes you’re using all the buttons on the guitar, but the complexity is much more forgiving. I’ve never been able to come close to finishing drums or singing on hard personally, but I’ve seen it on TV. Expert is the realm of those with too much time on their hands, every note is accounted for. Those are the kids people always shake their heads at wondering why they don’t spend that much time learning a real instrument.

I don’t know if it was my pure memorization of all the songs before ever booting up the game, but I felt that this game was easier as a rule. I can hang on expert, but I’m not pulling off perfect scores. In previous games I couldn’t even finish the last few songs without failing halfway through. Here I can finish all the songs on expert guitar with 80% and up, most 95% and up. I have a feeling most that are on my level and up will not find this game a challenge necessarily. That said, I personally haven’t had as much fun since playing Free Bird the first time. If you’re looking for any face-melters or something to dethrone Dragonforce (ed. note: Dragonforce, hell yeah!), you might be disappointed.

One thing that is really cool about this game is the bass track. Even back in the Guitar Hero days if you wanted to play with a friend playing bass is something that had to be traded back and forth because, well… it was boring or frustrating. The guitar had all the solos, got all the girls and glory. The bass was just keeping time, filling things in. Not here, my friends, oh no. Paul kicked ass apparently. I didn’t mind playing bass for about 10 songs while my friends played along and I would have kept on going, but someone requested to take it over! I think it might have been the first time in the history of mankind. We can all thank Paul for this. I would love to talk about the three part harmony available in certain songs, but I couldn’t find enough singers to sing by themselves let alone attempt to sing with two others. I must admit when no one else was home I had my way with a few songs, I just couldn’t help it. After a few attempts I felt dirty sullying their beautiful voices in such a way. I may never be able to forgive myself.

Do you like The Beatles? Do you like playing on plastic instruments? You will absolutely adore this game. I know I’ll be playing it for a long time to come. Maybe I can do a follow-up report on how well the drum trainer goes. I’m looking forward to the upcoming Abbey Road album and any others Harmonix has up their sleeve. All that said, if you don’t really care about The Beatles, or if you’re only looking for the most insane riffs to show off with, this really isn’t the game for you… and I can’t be your friend any more.