so, i had an interesting conversation with one of my especially techy friends… (he has an interesting keyboard in a form factor I’ve never seen before) and he raised some interesting points.
He prefer playing games with a controller, but does so on a couch, and well, most people don’t have a setup for keyboard and mouse ideal for this (I DO) but he mentions some interesting things:
With a stick on a controller, you have granularity in how much you ‘move’ but with a keyboard, its strictly on and off… I NEVER REALLY THOUGHT ABOUT THIS
He says, that it’s especially different on racing games, where you apply throttle (makes sense.) This guy is a gaming veteran and likes a lot of the same stuff i do…
It makes me wonder i need to just buy a xbox controller or something, and just get ‘used to it.’ always hated aiming in FPS games with it…
so tldr; my assessment is: joypad is best for movement, mouse is best for aiming.
maybe a new control scheme for gamers can encompass both? or is it best to just transition to joypads and ‘learn’ to aim with joysticks?
i know there are a lot of people on here who are older (like myself) who are probably committed K/M gamers, maybe this post seems funny and you don’t even get it if you are already used to joypads!
STILL… I do wonder if a third option is maybe a big improvement. something that somehow integrates both the granularity of movement and the precision of a mouse… VR controls come to mind but don’t actually accomplish this from my experience? (way too fucky haha)
Such things exist, but reviews are often mixed. However, I don’t doubt that they have made their way into certain people’s accessibility setups.
That is HORI Tactical Assault Commander Grip KeyPad and Gamepad Controller. I think it’s since been discontinued, but some stores seem to have stock.
There are also various adaptable controllers that allow combining variuous USB and 3.5mm jacks for different combinations. The Microsoft Adaptable controller lets you combine various switches and things like analogue controllers, mice, keyboards to create hybrid setups that can also enable this for people who need something for their personal accessibility needs.
One of the few instance where I prefer KB/M is for multiplayer FPS, and that’s because controller aiming is a disadvantage. For single player third-person and first-person games there’s little need for aiming precision to the same degree and most games have excellent aim assist that you don’t have access to in competitive shooters. All-in-all gamepad play is perfectly fine for solo gaming.
Obviously I like KB/M for certain tactical, and point and click games, but otherwise controller is generally more comfortable for me.
Does anyone remember the Steam Controller? I feel like this was also an effort to consolidate between KB+M/gamepad. I never got one, so I’m not sure if it really worked… though I will say it sounds like it’d be annoying having to finangle a game with no controller support to work on a quasi-controller. I much prefer the way Steam bakes in support for different types of controllers (even if sometimes controller support on some games is still weird, wrong button glyphs and strange implementations of rumble).
I think my view aligns with BMO here. Generally, I start by going with whatever the developer recommends I play with and have faith in their vision, whether KB+M or controller, and from there adjust to what I personally find comfortable. I typically play adventure games, visual novels or FPS with KB+M (though honestly I feel the lattermost gives controller support a lot more attention nowadays). Anything that I play that has the notice “Hey! Use a controller!” I’ll use that instead.
Anything that I play that has the notice “Hey! Use a controller!” I’ll use that instead.
lol, “Real Yakuza Use a controller!” got me to try this and I would constantly go back and forth on it! Sometimes I’d play those games that way, sometimes I wouldn’t. I could never decide what I liked more… or felt ‘better.’ I have a basic PS2 style one I got for emulators, it has no features, was super cheap. (And THOSE kinds of games do require that over a KB… same with a lot of games that are best played with the Wiimote) I might appreciate the gamepad more if i had something better (the new steam controller looks really interesting) but I don’t find myself wooed by my friends modern Xbox ones, really. Feels like its more of a ‘brand of soda’ you are used to thing to me. The stick throttle thing seems to be the main thing but if not used to it, not sure the relevance (Do you chug soda fast from the can or do you sip it with a straw?) I’m just trying to be open to new experiences
i wonder if throttle based WASD sidestepping makes you (and others) easier to hit or harder because you aren’t moving at the same constant speed. This seems like another ‘whatever you are used to’ thing, and to some extent pros and cons of both maybe. (If you are snipey-snipe, is the ability to slowly edged out a good thing or a liability? Seems like it, but it could also have drawbacks… But I guess having the option with a throttle stick is ‘better?’ But then, you also don’t have consistent movement speed that might make it much more complicated and harder for you to line up your aim something correctly in another situation?)
I did like GTA 5 with a gamepad (single-player) for driving and for shooting. it had excellent auto-aim, ui and feedback with the controller in mind (UI and feedback cues to telegraph hits, misses, headshots or kills… This impressed me, as I hadn’t seen anything do it this well before to compare it to) Some games definitely can benefit from some design focuses built around their inputs… That could offset personal preferences. Seems that some games (beholden to certain genres) could leverage this, too.
You pretty much nailed how I feel. I hate moving with kbm so I’m almost exclusively a gamepad player, even on PC, but aiming does suck with analog sticks. (I also use a trackball instead of a mouse because it’s easier to use from the recliner where I game.)
One thing that improves gamepad aiming is gyro, but unfortunately the game itself has to support it, and Microsoft for some reason has just refused to implement it as part of X-input so you can only get this on Nintendo or PlayStation. A big reason why aiming with analog sticks sucks so much is because of deadzones in the middle making small movements difficult without overshooting. Games with gyro aiming you can make the macro adjustments with the sticks and then use tiny wrist movements to fine-tune the exact position of the reticle in a way that’s very intuitive and quick like a mouse. It’s the closest thing to an ideal solution I’ve found.
The new Switch 2 Joy cons also have a mouse mode that’s supported in many Switch and Switch 2 games. I may try it out with Metroid Prime 4. The main drawback is you have to use the joy cons detached in separate hands instead of using a grip that you slot them into to form a single gamepad. When you want to switch to mouse mode, you simply rotate your wrist 90 degrees inward so the inner edge of the joy con, where the mouse IR sensor is, points down instead of at the opposite controller, and then you use it like a mouse, with the shoulder buttons becoming the right and left click buttons. In the preview video the switching looked really, really fluid.
The other concern I have about it is I’m not sure how comfortable it’s going to be trying to use the joy con as a mouse on the arm of my recliner. I mentioned above about how I use a trackball as my “couch/recliner-friendly mouse.” I switched to the trackball specifically after getting frustrated with the experience of using a mouse in that setup. The mouse mode joy cons are narrower, which might help with not needing as big a surface to move around on, but also doesn’t seem very comfortable.
Really wish MS would just adopt gyro support and make all our gaming lives easier on PC.
Maybe we won’t need them too. Maybe Steam’s greater push into hardware and gyro support on the Steam Controller, as well as increased console competition with the Steam Machine will drive devs to support it on more games. One can hope.
huh that was interesting. thank you for the input (no pun intended) I did not know that at all and that is surprising to hear… I wonder what the reason for that is. i’m also a recliner gamer, and got a trackball as well (but could never get used to it!) and I STILL use KB//M…. goes back to the personal preferences thing
Incidentally I just played CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs and the game allows simultaneous controller and mouse input. It’s also a first person point and click adventure so mouse X/Y is mapped to the right analogue stick. I found it more comfortable to walk with the left analogue stick and point and click with the mouse, so I played it with the controller in my left hand and my right hand on the mouse. It wasn’t half bad.
