Curse You Muscle Memory!

[Death on Trapezoids]

Controller maps for most games, most FPSes anyway, are generally very similar, and those that aren't have reconfigurement options. Right trigger shoots, X reloads, and A jumps, etc. You eventually learn these commands on a subconscious level, which helps with immersion and overall skill with the game.

This is all very well and good, except when that one game comes along with the really funky controller scheme that you can't (or can't be bothered to) change. This is a thread for all those klutzy moments.

I've got two examples to kick things off:

1) going from pretty much anything else to Gears of War 2, because everything else uses X to reload and Gears uses the right bumper. The worst moment that comes to mind is standing in front of a Grinder, trying to reload a gnasher before it makes swiss cheese out of you.

2) Going from Dead Space games to Halo games, because Dead Space uses the left trigger to scope (which you do constantly) and Halo uses it to chuck grenades. This leads to unintentional team killings, frag suicides, or suicides from sticking yourself with plasma grenades because you were looking down at the time.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I think fighting games are a good example of this, even though you CAN remap buttons to your heart's content in most. However, moving from BlazBlue to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is still awkward and vice versa after playing one for an extended period of time just based on how different the games are in how they handle button inputs and other stuff.

 

[The Apothecarry]

I can alternate between control schemes for games pretty easily. It's when I play the same game on another system that I can't stand. The control schemes for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Modern Warfare 2 are almost identical, save for the placement of the aim, fire, and grenade buttons.

On the 360, the triggers are aim and fire, and the bumpers are for grenades. On the PS3, the "trigger" and "bumper" locations are reversed. I'm decent at Call of Duty, but all my skill is useless when I lob grenades while trying to aim or shoot. It's that one little thing that makes the PS3 version of MW2 and Black Ops unplayable for me.

 

[-Drifter-]

I find games where you press Y or triangle to reload generally take some getting used to. Even worse, if I play them for any long period of time, I do get used to it, and when I return to a game with more standard controls I keep accidentally pressing Y/triangle instead of X/square or B/circle.

 

[mjc0961]

I keep forgetting that LB is the handbreak instead of X in LA Noire. So instead of pulling a sharp turn, I end up crashing while my partner says "you wanna turn left here."

I've done it in plenty of other games, but this is the most recent. Although I had the same problem as you in Halo, TC. So many thrown grenades when I wanted to use the scope (I also don't know why your character always gets out of crouch position when hit, but that's a rant for another day).

 

[Arcticflame]

This is less about controller scheme and more about muscle memory but...

On fifa 11, I play a lot against PC's, online I play very rarely, pretty much only against one particular friend.

I'm so used to when the ball goes out for my goal kick, just hitting A and passing it to my Centre back, that I do it out of habit. When I go online, of course everybody just runs forward to intercept, and has an easy 1v1 against the keeper.

It's infuriating and I just cant stop doing it, every single time I hit A as my mind is screaming not to.

As for specific controller schemmes, games that make jump right mouse button, and also games where crouch is c, that bothers me.

 

[Xaio30]

Assassins Creed 2(PC) to Just Cause 2(PC).
It starts getting silly after the onehundredandeleventh time you blow yourself up with a grenade when you try to run.

CAPTCHA: sacialle Tönnies

 

[Continuity]

Ahhh, I always change the controls if they're not generic WSAD, I can take a little variation like "c" for crouch or ctrl for crouch, I can get used to small things like that pretty quickly, but WSAD R and Space need to do what I expect them to.

 

[Jamash]

The funniest time muscle memory has foiled my plans was when I went from a heavy period of Midnight Club: LA to GTAIV.

I was finishing off the street races (to get the achievement) and during a long stretch I decided to look behind me to see how much of a lead I had.

My conditioned thumb automatically pressed (Y) to invoke a reverse view and poor Niko leapt out of the Infernus (travelling at over 200mph), bounced along the road and came to a stop by rear-ending a car with his head as the other racers zoomed past his embarrassed corpse.

 

[Arcanist]

Assassins Creed 2(PC) to Just Cause 2(PC).
It starts getting silly after the onehundredandeleventh time you blow yourself up with a grenade when you try to run.

CAPTCHA: sacialle Tönnies

Just as bad - going from Assassin's Creed to Sly Cooper. It starts getting silly after the billionth time you cock up a jump because you keep expecting on grabbing the ledge.

 

[Entreri481]

The worst is a normal shooter to TF2, every time I try and reload I end up doing a character animation and dying.

 

[PhoenixKing]

From any game whatsoever to Killzone 2/3. Oh my god that was a *****. I beat KZ2 twice, once on the hardest difficulty, and I STILL find myself not being able figure out which button does what.

 

[Shreder55]

This isn't a muscle memory problem, but I can't play with any of the PlayStation controllers because I HATE the the two thumbsticks so close together and the shoulder buttons just annoy me. So I never play with a PS3 if their is an alternative

 

[LobsterFeng]

Play RE4, and then try playing RE5. That takes some getting used to.

 

[p3t3r]

Everyone I've asked swears that there is a better controller layout for COD that allows for easier "dropshotting". Personally I think dropshotting is a little bit try hard, (although less than fairy-leaping around every corner) but I thought what the hell I'll give it a day in court everyone swears by it.

Cant do it though, because i've been playing default too long. The drop prone button gets moved to what is traditionally the knife button, which means invariably when I round a corner and am suddenly toe to toe with a baddie muscle memory panic knifing takes over and now i'm staring at his boots and getting shot in the head. Which is pretty much how I shoot most people who dropshot anyway.

End result is I'm not a big enough tryhard to even bother trying to overcome my muscle memory on this one.

all my friends play the apparent try hard drop shot one while i just play the normal 1 so i always whenever we just take turns playing splitscreen zombies i always have to change it. but then sometimes i forget to change it and then i change it a bit latter after i have used it for a bit. then i get really confused

 

[devotedsniper]

Playing through mass effect 1 only to keep hitting the wrong button for a good while on the 2nd one, thats my personal annoyance.

 

[oreopizza47]

See, muscle memory is what saves me, not damns me. When I go back to a game after a long time off, I instantly remember the controls and go back to as if I had been playing for months. It's a handy trick for all my older games with clunkier controls. And it makes it a breeze to change up my thinking to learn new games.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

This is less about controller scheme and more about muscle memory but...

On fifa 11, I play a lot against PC's, online I play very rarely, pretty much only against one particular friend.

I'm so used to when the ball goes out for my goal kick, just hitting A and passing it to my Centre back, that I do it out of habit. When I go online, of course everybody just runs forward to intercept, and has an easy 1v1 against the keeper.

hooray for the AI teaching players bad habits! (I don't actually play fifa but this kind of thing happens elsewhere)

OT: Reloading after every kill in an FPS..I'm slowly pulling myself out of doing it but I can't count how many times I'm caught reloading. It's just trigger, x, move on