this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
39 points (100.0% liked)
Gaming
30616 readers
80 users here now
From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it's gaming you can probably discuss it here!
Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.
See also Gaming's sister community Tabletop Gaming.
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Definitely depends on the game.
A controller with two analog sticks and two analog triggers has six analog axes of input. A keyboard and mouse has two. There are definitely games that can benefit from more analog axes -- think twin-stick shooters. You can use digital inputs for movement, but it's also less-precise.
On the other hand, a mouse can provide both rapid and precise movement, more-so than an analog stick. And a keyboard has a lot more keys, which is important for some games. And a keyboard is going to be a lot better for text input.
Controllers have output to players, in the form of rumble motors (and with some controllers on some platforms, more-exotic options). There's no widespread support for any kind of output from the mouse or keyboard. Use of rumble motors can add immersion.
While I've used a mouse as a flight input in Freespace 2, generally-speaking, I think that a controller's analog sticks are better for flight sims (though if you're playing an old-timey WW2 flight sim, probably getting a full-size stick with all the extra controls is worthwhile).
On the other hand, it's very hard for a controller to compete with the keyboard and mouse for first-person shooters. I've used one for some games that were designed for consoles and aren't very demanding in response and often have vehicles that are better-controlled with a controller -- I'm playing Starfield with a controller. But one is simply going to do much better with a keyboard and a mouse, if one practices with both. Playing an FPS with a controller feels like driving a truck.
Some games, like a number of strategy games, are going to be much-better played with a mouse. I have a hard time seeing Paradox's grand strategy games being played with a controller, even with a lot of work on the control scheme.
Ditto for RTSes. I've tried a few with controllers, like Supreme Commander, and it definitely benefits from a mouse.
Playing interactive fiction of the classic sort, where one types in commands, really, really needs a keyboard. There are ways you can mitigate a bit of the pain, and some point-and-click adventure games have tried to do this, provide a limited set of preset commands, but it's just not great.
Playing pretty much any game designed for a D-pad, I'd rather play on a controller. Yeah, you can get okay with a keyboard, but it just doesn't feel the same, not nearly as fluid.
I raise the bar. Using a DIY 5.- EUR head tracker in NMS mapped to a virtual gamepad and my X52 Pro joystick mapped to another virtual gamepad and some keyboard keys just because (Why waste a perfectly fine HOTAS system just because the game is too stupid to support this?) :D
…and also KBM because this is simply more comfortable on foot.
Yes, it's complicated and it absolutely depends on the game and even… location? Like, on the couch I prefer some sort of gamepad controller too.