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“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
Monday, October 19, 2009
A little frustrating, yet strangely addictive.
So, I've been playing first-person shooters on the PC since the days of Wolfenstein 3D, so "First-Person Shooter" and "Mouse & Keyboard" are linked pretty inextricably in my head. Also, when I think "video game controller", the first mental image to pop up on my head is a black square base with a single joystick and a solitary orange button in the top left corner, not some organic shape that looks like it was grown in a vat and is covered with more buttons, switches, and joysticks than the cockpit of the Concorde. Needless to say, Call of Duty 3 on the X-Box is taking a bit of work...
LMAO!!!
ReplyDeleteTam, that's one (of the many) great things about having kids. I've gotten used to both the bazillion-buttoned controller of the Playstation as well as the funky Wii remote...
And yes. Left hand on arrows keys to move (and shift to run), right hand on mouse to aim and shoot...
:)
I found the learning curve for FPS's on consoles pretty steep, but eventually I came to prefer a xbox controller to the mouse 'n keyboard because it's harder. Sweeping along making perfect headshots with the mouse is just too damn easy and takes me out of the game. The extra concentration required makes the game more immersive for me. Moving and shooting is a difficult tactile skill, and I like the way the console controller mimics that.
ReplyDeleteI owned an XBox for all of 8 days because of that damn controller. Sold it to a buddy at a loss just to get rid of it. WASD is the only way for me.
ReplyDeleteTam
ReplyDeleteI recomend the Rainbow 6 Las Vegas series for some really great tactical third person shooting.
You have to actually apply some "real world" tactics to play the game unlike the run and gun hysterics of HALO or call of duty.
They take some getting used to.
ReplyDeleteJust wait until you get used to button maps for one game and then play another. On the 360, Halo 3's reload button is the right shoulder. In COD4, that's the same button you use to toss a grenade.
So I'd find myself ducking behind cover to reload, only to throw a grenade at my own feet.
Bugger.
That's fewer buttons than the control stick on a John Deere combine, and no $1000+ repairs if you get it wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe last game console I bought (for myself) was an Atari 2600, which I left behind in the divorce lo those many years ago. The same items you outlined as issues are the same reason I haven't bought a replacement.
ReplyDeleteThe Wife wants a WiiFit, for some godforsaken reason. My prime objection to the Wii, irregarless of 'simplified interface', is that every game I've seen for it insults the intelligence of anyone over the age of 11.
Regards,
Rabbit.
I tried various mini-controllers on Wolfenstein, but they were vastly primitive (and you had to load potentially computer-crashing drivers to get them to run) compared to the new Playstation and Xbox types that lay around every bachelor's apartment in a tangle of cords.
ReplyDeleteThey tax my coordination and memory to the point where I just start to flail randomly at the buttons and get killed - I was not a trumpet player.
Finally I got rid of all the PC games I had.
"I tried various mini-controllers on Wolfenstein..."
ReplyDeleteYou mean Wolfenstein 3D, circa 1992?
If you liked ZombieLand, get yourself a copy of Left For Dead. Zombie killing fun!!
ReplyDeleteLoL...
ReplyDeleteJust wait till you find out there is an Ethernet Jack on the back of the Xbox.
Nothing like getting the crap kicked out of you by a 12 year old.
Ah, yes. Thing is, once you get used to the controller, it becomes almost telepathic. It's especially remarkable (and humbling) to see an 8-year-old dancing around onscreen as nimbly as if they were wearing a motion-sensing body suit instead of just holding a controller.
ReplyDeleteI will say for driving games, joysticks of any sort do leave a little to be desired, though. I'm currently playing Test Drive Unlimited, and that makes me want to get a steering wheel controller. But I don't play games on the PC anymore; I prefer holding a controller to sitting at a desk using a keyboard.
Yes, that Wolfenstein on a 486DX with math-co. There was a strange little Logitech (?) arcade-type puck-thingy to go two-thumbs on it - but my two thumbs are both left feet - and you had to mess with dip-switches. Who even knows what a dip-switch is these days?
ReplyDeleteI wound up using a Kensington trackball instead of a mouse however because you could give it a wicked flick and run-away real fast when attacked.
If you are ever able to do as well with a controller as you did before with a keyboard and a mouse, you're not human. A couple of years ago, a gaming magazine (PC Gamer I believe) got a chance to do some multi-player Halo 2. Four of them would play on Xbox360s, and the other four would be on PCs. No matter how they scrambled the teams, the PC team won.
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad the newer consoles finally have graphics resolutions that compare with what my PC did 8 years ago. Now if Sony would finally let me play shooters with a mouse and a Nostromo controller, I'd be a happy camper.
Ahm - a DX/2 in fact - I'm glad now that I didn't get an Amiga.
ReplyDelete*snort*
You will get used to it, I promise. The real fun comes when you play the same game on a console and a computer... your fingers start doing things on the computer that they used to do on the controller (or vice versa), and you have no idea why. I have been trying to minimize that as much as possible...
ReplyDeleteNot a trumpet-player, can't get that fingery thing to work in the synapses, it just comes out random and spastic. If you do study and try it doesn't count. :-)
ReplyDeleteBeing a bit more of a pup, it still took me forever to move from arrow keys and the ctl key to wasd+mouse.
ReplyDeleteFor gawd's sake, don't buy Wolfenstein 2009!
ReplyDelete(I need another Mountain Dew, because that's exactly what I'm playing tonight after I finish browsing through the blog list...)
WV = Alizi - isn't that the little French schpoo who shakes it almost as hard as Shakira? Not tonight, I'm playing Wolfenstein 2009.
"A little frustrating, yet strangely addictive"
ReplyDeletePeople say almost that same thing about me.
If you replace the "Little" with "Lot" and "Addictive" with "Repulsive". Other than that, it's the same thing.
I know of what you speak. Recently tried to play some multiplayer FPS Star Wars game with my 6 year old nephew. Did not go well.
ReplyDelete