PC Gamers: Do You Have Trouble With Console Shooters?

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talker

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Nov 18, 2011
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I've never been good on handling the aiming knobs on a xbox, or a ps3 for that matter. I guess it's just another reason I only have a pc
 

zerragonoss

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Oct 15, 2009
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I tend to use both controllers and mouse and key broad just fine. I would consider myself quite good at both and would say they are both equally fun. (as a side note i turn auto aim off whenever I see that option.) controllers tend to make for longer more tactical fire fights while mouse and keyboard allow for some more awesome shots. A few notes for using the controller is that you are shooting with timing and both sticks. If you want accurate shots its not about lining up the cross-hairs and than firing, its about firing when they go over the point you want to hit. To do this well it is important to incorporate you movement into aiming, instead of just compensating for it like you can do with a mouse.
 

Evonisia

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Jun 24, 2013
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I PC gamed for a few years before getting a console with any shooting on it (that being the 360), I adapted to it just fine, never really saw the major issue with controllers and shooters. Apparently 360/PS3 controllers are so bad it makes the Wii's controller look like it has laser precision.
 

Yuuki

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Mar 19, 2013
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Last game I played on a friend's 360 was CoD:Black Ops. I absolutely sucked, couldn't aim for shit with analog sticks. It definitely takes getting used to, and even if I became used to it what's the point because I'd find myself sorely missing the ease & precision of a mouse. Once you've experienced something superior it sucks to go backwards.

TelHybrid said:
When it comes to movement (platformers for example) a controller will always be superior to a keyboard.
Question, what aspect of platformers makes controller superior to keyboard?
 

TelHybrid

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May 16, 2009
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Yuuki said:
Last game I played on a friend's 360 was CoD:Black Ops. I absolutely sucked, couldn't aim for shit with analog sticks. It definitely takes getting used to, and even if I became used to it what's the point because I'd find myself sorely missing the ease & precision of a mouse. Once you've experienced something superior it sucks to go backwards.

TelHybrid said:
I tolerate a controller for shooters if the situation calls for it.

A mouse will always be superior for aiming. When it comes to movement (platformers for example) a controller will always be superior to a keyboard.
Question, what aspect of platformers makes controller superior to keyboard?
An analog stick is more manoeuvrable than WASD (and shift to change movement speed). Try playing a platformer liiiike... Super Meat Boy, or a 3D one like Sonic Generations, or even a 1st person platformer like Mirror's Edge with a keyboard, then a controller.
 

mirage202

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Mar 13, 2012
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I struggle with the aiming with the sticks, it just feels so clumsy to me. Only console that I never had issue on shooters with was the N64. For some reason that single stick/trigger combo felt almost as natural as a mouse does.
 

Yuuki

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Mar 19, 2013
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TelHybrid said:
An analog stick is more manoeuvrable than WASD (and shift to change movement speed). Try playing a platformer liiiike... Super Meat Boy, or a 3D one like Sonic Generations, or even a 1st person platformer like Mirror's Edge with a keyboard, then a controller.
Ah yep, so for variable movement speeds and a maximum turning speed.

Mirror's Edge wouldn't count because it's a first person with the camera (i.e. angle) controlled by mouse, you can look/turn 180 degrees almost instantly with a mouse while with analog sticks you are limited to a maximum turn speed.

For 2D platformers with variable run speed and driving games (variable accelerator and turn) I can see analog sticks being superior.
 

Angelous Wang

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Oct 18, 2011
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The reason you are bad at it is because mentally/biologically speaking they are not the same skill.

Mouse and Keyboard is hand-eye coordination.
Controllers are thumb-eye coordination.

Being good at one does not help at all with the other, might as well compare foot-eye coordination.

Controllers work equally as well as Mouse and Keyboard it's just a case of developing your thumb-eye coordination enough to match your hand-eye.

I myself am actually better at controller shooters than Mouse and Keyboard shooter because I have played them more therefore my thumb-eye coordination is more developed than my hand-eye. Most of the time if my PC shooters have controller support I will use it or I will even sometimes create my own with xpadder.

Not that my hand-eye is bad but it's just a case of 15ish years of development vs 5ish years of development.
 

AnthrSolidSnake

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Jun 2, 2011
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No, but to be fair I didn't get into PC gaming until 2006, and even then I used gamepads with most of my games (I think the only exceptions were The Sims and Diablo 2). However, recently I've been using KB/M, and even though I've been using it alternatively for the last year, I still have trouble with mouse aiming. For example, I just bought Counter Stike: GO, and I am TERRIBLE with mouse aiming. Expert bots? Get my ass kicked. Online? Get my ass kicked. With a gamepad, I did a bit better, but since everyone jumps around so much (I do mean jump, like bunny hop.), it makes it hard to compensate for both vertical and horizontal aiming. I'm hoping getting a better mouse will help a bit, since I am using a rather small, wireless mouse, but it's actually a pretty decent one.
 

LAGG

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Jun 23, 2011
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Angelous Wang said:
The reason you are bad at it is because mentally/biologically speaking they are not the same skill.

Mouse and Keyboard is hand-eye coordination.
Controllers are thumb-eye coordination.
Playing with an arcade stick would be just as bad as playing with thumb sticks or any other form of deadzone-based input method for looking and aiming around. The reason is because there's many layers of translations between what the hands do and what the game responds. Mouse is position-to-angle, sticks are direction-acceleration-speed-time-to-angle.

Using thumb is just a easy and precise as using wrist (even your head or your foot can be just as fast and precise). I can attest that, check this post is all there: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.828244.20149892

Note: I will be doing "FPS with foot" experiments don't doubt it! o/
 

Sandjube

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Feb 11, 2011
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I have to turn the sensitivity up to ludicrous heights, but once I got used to that it was alright. It was getting a bit annoying having to hold a fucking joystick for like 2 seconds to go around once. Pc controls still blow 'em out of the water for me.
 

darron13

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Jul 30, 2008
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You have to get used to it. I play on both with no problems, but I have PC only friends who can't play console shooters for shit. The whole two analog thing baffles their hands xD
 

BloatedGuppy

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Feb 3, 2010
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I'm a gong show trying to aim on a console. I need a reticle that takes up 2/3rds of the screen if I want to hit anything in a timely fashion.

It's a pity because making sneaky little headshots from a distance is one of my favorite things to do in FPS games. We borrowed Last Light for the PS3 and I ended up buying it for the PC rather than even attempt playing it on there. Metro was annoying enough with a mouse.
 

Mike Fang

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Mar 20, 2008
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Do I have trouble with them? Not at all...'cause I don't play them. Ba dum tish.

In all seriousness, back when I played console games, console shooters didn't give me -too- much trouble, but I did find the controls more difficult than with PC shooters. For me, analog sticks, for whatever reason, seem to frequently lack the responsiveness and ease of control that a mouse does when moving a first-person crosshair. Now I seldom had as much trouble with over-the-shoulder shooters like RE4 or Dead Space, funnily enough. However I think part of that is due to the mechanics of third person shooters like them. In such games, turning your character in the direction of an approaching or attacking enemy immediately puts your crosshairs/laser sight in the general vicinity of the enemy, so once in aiming mode a little nudging with the analog stick puts your sights on what you want to shoot. With FPS's, it's tougher because your camera controls and aiming controls are often connected. It creates a difficult dichotomy wherein if the controls are too fast and sensitive, you'll overshoot the target constantly but if they're too slow, you'll be laboriously panning the camera while an enemy just outside your peripheral vision runs up and cuts your ear off or takes potshots at you while you slowly turn to the side like an oscillating fan.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Feb 9, 2012
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I'm not very PC oriented these days but I did grow up playing FPS on the PC well before I even tried it out on the console. You spend 5 or 10 minutes learning the controls and it works just as well. No sweat.
 

Shadow-Phoenix

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I can play FPS's on consoles and PC's as long as I use a controller because I'm more fammiliar and adjustable to use one than I am a K+M.

Playing TF2 and other FPS's along with Skyrim with K+M just makes me feel like I'm ink a tank and doesn't feel natural to me but that's my opinion and preference.
 

Eamar

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I am embarrassingly bad at aiming on consoles when I haven't used one in a while.

I'd say it's because I just get out of practice with using the controller (despite always planning to get one, I don't actually own a console myself), but I don't have the same problems with third person shooters or totally different genres like fighting games... could just be that I suck at Halo, of course :p

My solution for overcoming the problem is to try and play the whole game with a melee weapon. Probably not what you're looking for, especially not if you play with other people (my ex definitely never got sick of me charging about with a Gravity Hammer. Not once).