It depends ENTIRELY on the game that's being played. Most of this "debate" stems from people scoffing at the use of a controller for any game. Platformers suck on Keyboard and mouse. FPSes suck on controllers unless made for controllers and only controllers. A PC is the platform of options. And a controller is one of those. I use it for what it suits.
Why do people seem to think Gamepads are better than KB+M?
- Thread starter Gankytim
- Start date
You can indeed play some games better with a KB+M but the KB+M was not designed for gaming plain and simple whereas a game controller is. I hate character movement with a KB from just how you have to place your hand to the KB not being analog. Yeah, you can aim better (especially FPSs) with a mouse but you can already aim really good with a controller anyways. I'd like to see a study on TPSs and whether a KB+M is better because moving the camera around with a mouse isn't as good as with dual analog sticks.
The precision is cool, don't get me wrong. But I found gamepads more comfortable, especially when playing games that require careful combinations of button presses (such as Warframe. F***ing sliding melee attack is murder on my hands).
Gamepads sacrifice a little precision for comfort and ease of use; in a game like 'Dark Souls', there are numerous buttons that can easily be mapped to a gamepad, but the keyboard and mouse controls feel more clunky and tacked-on, like they weren't expecting to create a PC port of the game and just hoped we'd plug in the well-worn Xbox 360 controller and use that. They were right - I started it with keyboard & mouse, but changed after about 45 seconds.
First person shooters require quick reflexes, precision, and rapidly spinning around to look for enemy movement and react accordingly; you can't do that as effectively with a controller, especially because the thumb-stick has to lose some precision and sensitivity. The thumb-stick can only move, at most, a couple of centimetres in either direction, whereas the mouse has several inches of mouse-pad to work with.
They each have their function. Really, it's quite a boon to live in an age where gaming hardware is so varied, and USB devices can easily be plugged in to work quite quickly. I remember a time before the Xbox 360 controller, when proprietary devices (particularly steering wheels) were apt to just not work with Windows 98, or only parts of them would work, ruining the experience as their buttons remained just for show.
Then again, I wasn't as tech. literate back in those days, but hunting around for drivers and solving such issues now seems (almost) a thing of the past, at least if you're not using incredibly exotic or under-supported hardware.
First person shooters require quick reflexes, precision, and rapidly spinning around to look for enemy movement and react accordingly; you can't do that as effectively with a controller, especially because the thumb-stick has to lose some precision and sensitivity. The thumb-stick can only move, at most, a couple of centimetres in either direction, whereas the mouse has several inches of mouse-pad to work with.
They each have their function. Really, it's quite a boon to live in an age where gaming hardware is so varied, and USB devices can easily be plugged in to work quite quickly. I remember a time before the Xbox 360 controller, when proprietary devices (particularly steering wheels) were apt to just not work with Windows 98, or only parts of them would work, ruining the experience as their buttons remained just for show.
Then again, I wasn't as tech. literate back in those days, but hunting around for drivers and solving such issues now seems (almost) a thing of the past, at least if you're not using incredibly exotic or under-supported hardware.
I could ask you why you think Keyboard and mouse are better than massive computer banks with hundreds of buttons, knobs, and switches and get a similar answer to most in this thread from you, OP. Thing is, gamepads have kinda been developed specifically for gaming in the first place, while keyboards and mice still have their roots in programming, office work, and other typing-intensive activities. Both do some things better than the other. KB+M has more buttons to work with, more robust customization, etc, while gameplads have superior omni-directional movement via analog sticks, and oftentimes notably better ergonomics for long-term play(Carpal Tunnel Syndrome takes much longer to set in when using a well-designed gamepad). It all really depends on the type of games and personal preference, however. I tend to prefer controllers due to the fact that I enjoy games with platforming, stealth, and heavy exploration elements in dense 3D environments, which gain a serious benefit with analog stick systems found on most controllers. That's just me though. Now the real question is, why do people seem to think that Kinect is better than brain-jack implementation for character control in games ? ;3
It all comes down to a lack of familiarity/skill. On the flip side, a controller feels like a malformed brick in the hands of someone who is accustomed to a M+KB.
They both have their strengths, as the OP more or less covered.
The dominance (or rise at least) of the gamepad is also possibly due to the PC moving into the living room/TV space. KB&M doesn't exactly hang out on the standard couch very well in terms of positioning. You've got some more freedom in where and how you want to sit over having the standard desk setup for the flat space for KB&M use.
Something I kind of wonder, having not played them on PC myself, is how KB&M handle stuff that uses both sticks on consoles, like the leaning in Wolfenstein, or driving and shooting in GTA/Saints Row.
The dominance (or rise at least) of the gamepad is also possibly due to the PC moving into the living room/TV space. KB&M doesn't exactly hang out on the standard couch very well in terms of positioning. You've got some more freedom in where and how you want to sit over having the standard desk setup for the flat space for KB&M use.
Something I kind of wonder, having not played them on PC myself, is how KB&M handle stuff that uses both sticks on consoles, like the leaning in Wolfenstein, or driving and shooting in GTA/Saints Row.