It's not about the best

[Nonomori]

Oh, my God, the horror of choosing the right tool for entertainment. I can't stand the pressure, I can't play without incredible precision and dozens of hotkeys. I'm wrong for enjoying XCOM with a gamepad, I have sinned for thinking about Dark Souls with keyboard and mouse. Doesn't matter if it's uncomfortable for me, I have to adapt or I will be playing the inferior version. Now I see the truth, thank you.

The "most fullfilling and elaborate experience" is a very personal concept. I don't like keyboard and mouse because isn't fun for me. That's all I'm talking about.

But what you're saying is exactly the problem I have with console exclusives: We don't get to choose.
I will never be able to play the Halo sequels or the Infamous games or Red Dead Redemption (this one hurts) because a controller in a game where you have to aim anything is just not fun for me. I could probably get used to Infamous with a controller, but then it's the same problem you describe where being comfortable with the controls is very important. I want to play Red Dead Redemption with KB/M, but I get to eat shit, don't I? To use your words, I have to adapt or I will be playing the inferior version not play at all.

I agree, in a perfect world, all options would be available. And I know I'm the lucky one, at least I can play the majority of games with controllers.

I don't wanna hurt you even more, but Red Dead Redemption is one of the best games ever made, it's that good. And absolutely beautiful on PS3. I can only imagine how good it would be in a more powerful machine. This decision of Rockstar bothers me too.

I still like controllers better for 1 reason. My first response to starting up a new game is to ALWAYS press all the buttons. With a keyboard and mouse that just isn't reasonable.

I do that too! I always fire a bullet when learning the controls. It's ridiculous, but I hate checking the options. Metal Gear Solid 3 is my personal nightmare, you can't do anything without 37 tutorials.

I never played Minecraft. Ok, I'll try.

 

[HaraDaya]

I'm enjoying my Logitech G13's analog stick greatly. It should become a standard. You get the best of both worlds, analog for movement, and precise aiming with your mouse. For the games that accepts it anyway.
Also frees up the fingers you normally use for WASD.

 

[MiriaJiyuu]

So, you feel more comfortable with kb/m, controllers or doesn't make difference? There are enough PC gamers who prefer gamepads to justify including the option? And why developers justify that don't have time or resources for gamepad support when it's already done in the console versions? It's serious, I really can't understand why it's so hard.

There are very few PC games now that don't support gamepads. Xinput in particular is easy enough to implement, seen people who barely know how to code implement it, Mass Effect 3 probably doesn't support it since they would have to rework the interface on PC, (there's a quick-select bar for keys 1-8 for example) and they were just being lazy or wanted to focus on something else, if you've ever played it on PC you'll notice the interface works slightly differently than the console. The only other time you really don' see it is when the gamepad doesn't make sense (RTS, the Sims etc) or there's something about the way the games controlled that would make it difficult to play with a gamepad, usually isometric games since they're angled.

The thing is, while it's not overly complicated, many games run into the problem RTS's or ME3 have where just including the controller would not be enough due to the number of menus (RTS's) or rewriting the console interface code to work on PC as well as creating detection to determine which to use is both a. time and resource consuming and b. often extremely buggy.

Usually? It's just not important to the developers though, and in most cases it's because the keyboard just works better.

My Preferences? Depending on the game really, shooters I prefer my keyboard/mouse, easier to aim more accurately and twitches of enemies can be more easily accounted for and it's easier to look around, especially since sensitivity can be changed on gaming mice to account for what EXACTLY you're doing. Most of my platformers and action-adventures I use my controller though, controlling free-running is really awkward on the keyboard imo.

Gonna throw in another twist here, playing HAWX, Evochron Mercenary or any other game where you are airborn/ in space and can move on all 6-axis I use a flight-stick, so much more precise.

 

[aguspal]

In my opinion...


Mouse and keyboard for every single game, except maybe racing games and those hack and slash ones (I dont like hack and slash anways so that would only leave out racing games for me, I like those but its been a while since I was interested in one of those soooo)

I dont need a fucking controller, M&K for the fucking win. It just feel more natural to play with them when playing... you know, PC games.

 

[Nonomori]

they were just being lazy

I always have the impression that "they were just being lazy" is the answer, but doesn't make sense, I can't believe that they don't want money from people like me for sheer laziness.

But then there are so many games with the two options and appropriate interfaces, even some indie games (Bastion comes to mind). Nobody can blame me for thinking that's weird when BioWare don't have "time" for doing what a team of seven people can do. You can't play with mouse and keyboard on a console, but you can play with gamepads on PC, so it feels like they are removing something from the game.

I have the same problem with PC versions who doesn't have splitcreen. I own two "Portal 2" because I prefer to play on PC, but I also like to play with real people. They patched the game after 18 months, thankfully, because playing on PC doesn't mean that you traded all your friends for a machine with Internet. The same thing happened with Borderlands and the sequel, and some others games, I presume. Maybe I just don't know enough about how these things work.

I dont need a fucking controller, M&K for the fucking win. It just feel more natural to play with them when playing... you know, PC games.

I'm not talking about fucking RTS, I'm talking about fucking games where fucking controllers make fucking sense in fu... wait, people can talk like that? One of those things that doesn't make any sense in my first language, we don't have flexible slurs like that! Well, I'm digressing.

Some genres are not meant for gamepads/console gaming, I know, but the majority of mainstream games are "just games" and not "PC games". You know, games like Bioshock 2 or the entire Mass Effect trilogy. And there are cases like Condemned and the first Portal, games with terrible gamepad support: basically, one part of the experience is severely broken.

 

[scorptatious]

As someone who mainly plays on consoles, I like to use gamepads. Of course, I'm finding that a mouse and keyboard seems preferable when it comes to an FPS like Team Fortress 2 or games like the first two Fallout games that involve a lot of pointing and clicking.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I prefer one over the other depending on what I'm playing. They both have their strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I always have the impression that "they were just being lazy" is the answer, but doesn't make sense, I can't believe that they don't want money from people like me for sheer laziness.

The more accurate statement would be "they are cheap", people who demand standards in their games are a very small minority so it doesn't bother the publisher/devs if they miss out on those 3-5%.

Some day we will live in a beautiful world where consumers have some dignity and companies are forced into quality, but until then the silliness must go on.

 

[aguspal]

they were just being lazy

I always have the impression that "they were just being lazy" is the answer, but doesn't make sense, I can't believe that they don't want money from people like me for sheer laziness.

But then there are so many games with the two options and appropriate interfaces, even some indie games (Bastion comes to mind). Nobody can blame me for thinking that's weird when BioWare don't have "time" for doing what a team of seven people can do. You can't play with mouse and keyboard on a console, but you can play with gamepads on PC, so it feels like they are removing something from the game.

I have the same problem with PC versions who doesn't have splitcreen. I own two "Portal 2" because I prefer to play on PC, but I also like to play with real people. They patched the game after 18 months, thankfully, because playing on PC doesn't mean that you traded all your friends for a machine with Internet. The same thing happened with Borderlands and the sequel, and some others games, I presume. Maybe I just don't know enough about how these things work.

I dont need a fucking controller, M&K for the fucking win. It just feel more natural to play with them when playing... you know, PC games.

I'm not talking about fucking RTS, I'm talking about fucking games where fucking controllers make fucking sense in fu... wait, people can talk like that? One of those things that doesn't make any sense in my first language, we don't have flexible slurs like that! Well, I'm digressing.

Some genres are not meant for gamepads/console gaming, I know, but the majority of mainstream games are "just games" and not "PC games". You know, games like Bioshock 2 or the entire Mass Effect trilogy. And there are cases like Condemned and the first Portal, games with terrible gamepad support: basically, one part of the experience is severely broken.

Thats right.

I was just saying that I rather have M&K in pc games, and gamepads for consoles thats all. I guess, if you can make them both work then go for it. But sometimes it just wont work, no mattter how hard they try (This goes both ways too. RTS with gamepad=FAIL, as well as M&k with racing games).

 

[MiriaJiyuu]

they were just being lazy

I always have the impression that "they were just being lazy" is the answer, but doesn't make sense, I can't believe that they don't want money from people like me for sheer laziness.

But then there are so many games with the two options and appropriate interfaces, even some indie games (Bastion comes to mind). Nobody can blame me for thinking that's weird when BioWare don't have "time" for doing what a team of seven people can do. You can't play with mouse and keyboard on a console, but you can play with gamepads on PC, so it feels like they are removing something from the game.

I have the same problem with PC versions who doesn't have splitcreen. I own two "Portal 2" because I prefer to play on PC, but I also like to play with real people. They patched the game after 18 months, thankfully, because playing on PC doesn't mean that you traded all your friends for a machine with Internet. The same thing happened with Borderlands and the sequel, and some others games, I presume. Maybe I just don't know enough about how these things work.

I love how that's what you pulled out of all that, not the actual answer I gave, 99 times out of 100 it's a reason other than lazy.

Regarding Bastion vs. ME3, the answers actually easy, the developers of Bastion can take however they want to develop the game, Bioware works for EA and must finish within their timeframe. Their endings are already rushed as is, fact is, they in particular don't have time. Besides the couple of days it would take to implement it, it would add to the testing time as well, and would probably ultimately take up at least 2 weeks to implement, that's a long time in game development. I'll point out EA prefers to move up release dates and put out unfinished games to taking the time to ensure that everything is there and working right. Most developers owned by a publisher have a similar problem.

Yeah most my games don't have splitscreen on my computer even if they had it on consoles, but really, it's not a console, and despite the recent 'Big Picture' update to Steam, it's not connected to most peoples TV, and most people don't have large enough screens to viably play splitscreen or a setup where you can do so comfortably, I can see why they don't include it honestly, as much as I don't like it. With the way PC Gaming is going though they should really start doing it.

 

[Lugbzurg]

Keyboards! Gimmie an FPS on X-Box 360, and I'm a dead man. Grant me that keyboard-and-mouse combo, and I just might pwn existence itself. Playing Sonic Adventure on PC always felt way better to me than playing it on the GameCube. And there's no doubt it my mind I'll feel the same way whenever I get around to downloading Sonic Adventure 2 from Steam.

 

[Nonomori]

I love how that's what you pulled out of all that, not the actual answer I gave, 99 times out of 100 it's a reason other than lazy.

Because that was the most interesting part? I hope you are not offended.

Well, the game always can be patched later, and probably will be, blockbusters don't vanish before 17 patches and 38 expansions. If Mass Effect one, two and three don't have gamepad support, it is because is at the very bottom of the list of priority, probably because they just don't want it, I believe we can agree with that.

It's an odd way of explaining, but I'm not offended with "we are making so much money with this franchise but our enormous team don't have time or resources for this", at least I know Bioshock 2 is the best experience possible with mouse and keyboard. Some people will scream and cry, but I doubt that 2K lost much money because of this.

The real problem happens when Steam says to me that Portal is "Controller enabled". That's a mean joke, Valve.

 

[BiggyShackleton]

As mentioned several times, really depends on the game. The majority of things I play just work better with a KB+M but I'm not against controllers in general.

What I will say, the Gamecube controller was the best fucking controller of all time. Hands down.