Trackpad Gaming

[GodzillaGuy92]

So, a few days ago I beat BioShock on Hard with the Vita-Chambers disabled; since the only computer I have is my laptop and I don't have a mouse or wired controller, it was all done with a trackpad, as has been the case with all of the game experiences I've had since taking up PC gaming about a year ago. Granted, even on Hard with no Vita-Chambers, BioShock is so forgiving (the first few Rosie fights notwithstanding) that doing so isn't that much of an achievement. But I've also beaten Painkiller on Nightmare difficulty (fittingly, that room with the tanks in "Military Base" will forever haunt my dreams) and gotten gold medals on all of Portal's challenges, neither of which (especially the latter) I'd consider a mean feat.

Which isn't to say that I don't get why the mouse is highly preferred over the trackpad: The fact that trackpad gaming more-or-less requires the use of the pointer finger for all mouse-like functions essentially means that I can't aim and shoot at the same time or use the right mouse button for zoom/iron sight aiming, a problem somewhat exacerbated by my lack of a mouse wheel that forces me to map the left and right arrow keys to the task of weapon selection. But even so, the frequent throwing around of casual comments like "Ever tried playing a first-person shooter on a laptop? It can't be done without an external mouse" [http://www.pcworld.com/article/201978/4_Reasons_Apple_Magic_Trackpad_Wont_Kill_the_Mouse.html] stands out as odd to me.

So basically, my question is twofold: 1) Am I crazy, and as desperately in need of a mouse setup as everyone seems to be suggesting? 2) Am I alone in this, or does anyone else out there game using a trackpad?

 

[josemlopes]

A friend of mine beat Borderlands only using the trackpad so theres that...

Mine doesnt seem to work very well so I never tried, every time a keyboard key is pressed it stops tracking, so everytime I wanted to move I couldnt aim

 

[MysticToast]

Gaming on a trackpad is awful honestly and I don't know how you did it.

Also, my laptop suffers from the same problem as josemlopes above me. Even if I wanted to use my trackpad for gaming, I couldn't.

 

[Danceofmasks]

If you also don't do the same things with a mouse, you don't have any perspective.

See, people say trackpad is bad because they try it and a mouse.

Maybe single player games aren't exactly ideal at illustrating the point, as even with poor controls you can exploit poor AI, so maybe jump into some multiplayer and see how you fare.

 

[GodzillaGuy92]

Maybe single player games aren't exactly ideal at illustrating the point, as even with poor controls you can exploit poor AI, so maybe jump into some multiplayer and see how you fare.

Yeah, I can see that being the case. But given that I care very little for multiplayer these days, it ends up not being that relevant to my situation. As someone who almost exclusively plays singleplayer games, I've found the trackpad to be, while not good, at least quite sufficient.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I used to play Left 4 Dead with a trackpad during class back when I was in college, since the desks are so goddamn tiny I never had room to use a mouse. It was pretty difficult, and I could never play on expert because it was nearly impossible for me to spin around fast enough to shoot a zombie off me if one started hitting me in the back, but I got pretty good at advanced difficulty, and could even skeet hunters out of the air sometimes. Still, I would much rather use a mouse, or a controller than I would the trackpad.

 

[skywolfblue]

I've played shooters like UT2k4, and RTS's like Homeworld and Starcraft on a laptop trackpad.

So yes the whole "you NEED a mouse to play" is just absurd.

 

[Sovereign _909]

I use to play Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas with the trackpad when I was at school, VATS makes it a whole lot easier.