shadow skill said:
Take Jedi Academy for example actually performing the various moves that were available was a pain in the ass because getting a single fluid motion out of a keyboard is so damn hard to do, and the fighting engine in that game was actually decent!
The mouse and keyboard is the definitive way to play first and third person action games on the PC and is far more intuitive because you can use all five fingers in your left hand, which means it is quicker, as well as using the mouse for aiming. Jedi Academy was a brilliant system, and the keyboard did not hinder it at all. The movement keys WASD mixed with the left mouse button was easy to use, and combos were not that hard to pull off, especially when one would fight using the fast sabre style. Perhaps you should say that using a controller is better for you, and not everyone, because the keyboard is incredibly intuitive because it is possible to use all of your fingers at once instead of merely two thumbs and pointer fingers.
eggdog14 said:
But yea, PC's are really only good for shooters. This is why computer-elitism never really made sense to me, they are better for shooters, hands down. This cannot be questioned. However, for platformers and fighting games, a keyboard just doesn't offer the amount of dynamic control needed.
I disagree that PC's are only good for shooters. It really depends on what exactly is trying to be accomplished, but I've played a great deal of action games such as Metal Gear Solid (first one) as well as platformers on the PC and never had any trouble controlling them with a keyboard. The secret is that the mouse keyboard combo is what makes it intuitive. I agree that some games work better on controllers, but only because the game play is built around that device rather than being built around a keyboard. The only real thing that the PC lacks in a keyboard is analog control, which is really only an issue in games where one would need to be sneaky such as Metal Gear Solid 2, but the control scheme on that game was just badly ported to the point where you had to use a controller. Splinter Cell made the transition excellently and didn't need analog control because it had a variable speed control attached to the mouse wheel. I personally loved that innovation, and I thought it was actually better than an analog control, because you could just roll to the speed you wanted and didn't have to worry about slipping up because your thumb gets tired of holding the stick just a tiny bit to sneak. There was still room to slip too far with the wheel and it became a game of constantly rolling the mouse wheel in order to keep at a walking speed that would make you silent, yet it was entertaining instead of distracting as I find it to be sometimes with a joystick.
Again, Gothic had a fantastic fighting system based upon the mouse and keyboard that was incredibly intuitive because you could actually swing in the direction of the directional button you pressed. I'm not being an elitist PC gamer, and I am confident that it would be possible to find a way to make a game like Ninja Gaiden work just as well and just as fluidly on a keyboard and mouse set up as on a controller. It is simply a matter of designing it appropriately around the device, which is what SHOULD be done for ports. If anything, saying that the console controller is the only fluid system is a little console elitist in and of itself. Some people are just better with a keyboard, and some are better with a controller, but both can work in incredible ways if the game implements those controls PROPERLY!
EDIT: Shadow skill, I will give you the fact that fighting games are just better on console controllers, but I think that is because of the type of game it is. Platformers and action games do not require the eight direction two dimensional system of movement that all fighters require. By two dimensional controls, I mean that all movement is controlled from a side angle view as opposed to a free three dimensional camera. Whether your playing Mortal Kombat 1 or the latest Tekken for instance, pressing Up will always make you jump or move on one plane in a fighting game (except soul caliber i think?) where as in most platformers and action games, jumping and ducking are assigned to other buttons than the directional pad. Arcade sticks are also good for the game play found in fighters, but again, an arcade stick wouldn't work for all action games, RPG's, or platformers. Fighting games are the one area where a controller would be required to do combos as it is easier to use the thumbs to do the very minute movements. That doesn't necessarily apply to all games with combos such as Jedi Academy, Oblivion, or Gothic, but it is overall easier to use a controller on side view fighting games.
