Koki on 14/5/2009 at 11:38
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Analogue sticks are far more intuitive for MOVEMENT in a 3D environment, which has NOTHING to do with AIMING/LOOKING precision and speed.
Oh... kay?
Quote:
Something like Thief would've benefited greatly from analogue movement.
With no sneak button, just slow movement being silent? Even if the constant balancing the stick wouldn't make your thumb fall off, it would certainly be annoying as hell and you'd get discovered about fifteen times just because you crossed the "silence threshold" by accident.
It seems more like a feature just for the sake of a feature, not to actually help the gameplay any.
Thirith on 14/5/2009 at 11:52
I could imagine that it's simply a question of getting used to it. When I first started using a gamepad, I hated it, no matter which game genre. By now, however, I play things on the pad that a year or two ago I would've used keyboard + mouse for, and I'm much more comfortable using the directional sticks.
Ulukai on 14/5/2009 at 12:01
Having owned an Xbox360 for some years now, I've got used to playing FPS with an analogue stick, but I still much prefer WASD + Mouse.
Driving games however, are so much better with analogue sticks - even over the admittedly few wheels that I've used.
Jason Moyer on 14/5/2009 at 12:11
I've played Splinter Cell on the xbox and the first 3 SC games on the PC, and the PC controls win hands-down. Being able to precisely control your movement speed either with a toggle or with the mousewheel, SC style, is so superior to a tiny, imprecise analog stick it's unbelievable.
Of course, I'd question the need for fine gradiations in the rate of character movement to begin with. Even with the SC mousewheel solution, I never found a reason to use anything but as-fast-as-I-can-move and as-fast-as-I-can-move-without-making-noise.
Quote Posted by Ulukai
Driving games however, are so much better with analogue sticks - even over the admittedly few wheels that I've used.
Depends on the game. For something billing itself as a simulator, an analog gamepad is totally useless. Hell, for something like iRacing, I wouldn't even recommend a wheel with less than 900 degrees of travel, simply because you end up having some non-linear control mapping and the overall steering input isn't precise enough to handle the inputs you need to make when driving on the limit. For something like DIRT or GRID or something a gamepad is probably the better choice though, imho, and a wheel actually feels strangely like a disadvantage in those titles. Having said that, I find Forza Motorsport on the original sexbox to be nearly unplayable with a gamepad and driving aids disabled, and it's the one console title that makes me wish the original xbox had proper force feedback support and a decent wheel.
The same thing could be said for flight sims, though, too. I've tried an xbox 360 controller with IL-2 and Mig Alley for curiosity's sake, and they're basically unplayable without using flight control aids. OTOH it would probably work ok with HAWX, but that game is simple enough that it's fully playable just using the keyboard old-school-sublogic-flight-simulator-and-jet style.
Renzatic on 14/5/2009 at 14:20
The thing looks neat, but the placement of the analog stick is horrible in my opinion. It needs to be positioned on the side, angled away from the keyboard bit to be most useful. As it is, you'll have to splay your hand out to get access to both the stick and the keys, which will probably hurt like hell after 5 minutes of use, and won't be nearly as precise as it'd be if you had more bend in your thumb when in contact with it.
Cool looking whatsit, but needs a revision before I'd consider one.
Renault on 14/5/2009 at 14:35
Thanks for the replies, but I think there's some misconception about the purpose of the pad. It's a bit of an experiment for me (30 day trial courtesy of Newegg), but the point of the pad is to have a small, concentrated area where all of your gaming keys are located (as opposed to a full keyboard), and have them all arranged in an ergonomic fashion for long sessions. I have no intention of using the joystick for movement, but I suppose I could try it out. The joystick will more likely be used as a substitute for arrows keys, for things like navigating in-game menus. In any case, the thing is fully programmable, and can load up profiles for many common games. It also has onboard memory, so you can take it with you and not lose you settings.
And yes, the illuminated keys are a selling point to me because I play in the dark a lot, especially Thief. <bitchslaps Koki> Also, there's an LCD readout for the ultimate in geekiness where you can display game stats and/or cpu/gpu temps and stuff like that. It's basically a fancy gaming toy, and hell, I love toys. Should arrive today, so I'll try it out and report back.
Koki on 14/5/2009 at 15:06
Quote Posted by Br4thr4n
And yes, the illuminated keys are a selling point to me because I play in the dark a lot, especially Thief. <bitchslaps Koki>
I know what you mean. I couldn't drive my car at night at all until I glued LEDs around the pedals.
seriously
what the fuckRenault on 14/5/2009 at 15:40
The ever helpful Koki. So, I suppose you NEVER EVER look down at your keyboard, right, super genius?
That was a really nice car analogy though. Now try driving your Yugo around at night sometime with the dash lights off and see how that works out for ya. :rolleyes:
Koki on 14/5/2009 at 15:55
And I always thought all that talk about thiefgen was exaggerated. Enjoy your gamepad!
steo on 14/5/2009 at 16:21
Quote Posted by Koki
I know what you mean. I couldn't drive my car at night at all until I glued LEDs around the pedals.
:laff:
It's true that you almost never look at the keyboard while gaming, but very occasionally I have found not being able to see the keys in the dark to be a minor problem. While the car analogy is funny, 3 pedals is an awful lot simpler than 40 odd small, close together keys. Still not enough to warrant me spending money on glow in the dark keys though...
