Shadowrun: Keyboard versus controller in the final battle
Filed under: PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters
With consoles on one side and PC's on the other, the room was literally divided between the two factions. The only unification between the them being that of Microsoft and FASA Studios' upcoming shooter, Shadowrun. Best known for its cross-platform gameplay, all eyes are on Shadowrun to bring some real gravitas to the never-ending debate between fragging with a controller or the staple keyboard and mouse. We received our Shadowrun training on the Xbox 360 and while it was educational, we wanted to play "the right way" over on the Windows Fista build of the game.
A few rounds later and the collective butt of our team was sore from the repeated beatings it was taking. Next to us on a PC was Mitch Gitelman of FASA Studios. With every frag a taunt and every victory a celebration, you can only imagine our surprise when we realized that he was doing it all with the Xbox 360 controller.
Sacrilege? Maybe. Boundaries? Shattered. And if Microsoft gets what they want out of the Games for Windows brand, get used to it. Read on to discover how Shadowrun is making the controller a serious contender.
The only FPS I have played with on the 360 is COD2 so I can't really comment, but it certainly felt a lot better as a controller than previous titles I have played on numerous other controlers.
Surely it's down to how well the game is programmed to utilise a controller, than whether a keyboard/mouse is easier to use.
I think the real test would be the new Unreal Tournament, as I can't imagine someone with a controller could react as quick as a mouse twitcher
A bunch of journalists who've barely played the game and who say they'd rather play it with the keyboard/mouse combo get a kicking from one of the designers who's been playing the game with a joypad since its conception. Clearly the joypad is better
I was surprised how easily I was able to play Halo, the first time I ever tried it and the Timesplitters series, console-only FPSes are still fun. I find horizontal movement, and circle-strafing pretty natural on a 'pad - it's the vertical aim that fucks me up.
I'm personally better with mouse and keyboard, but that really is down to practice. My first wobbly steps of actually using a mouse at all, post arrow-key-only Doom-days were in Quake, and I initially sucked far harder than I did at my first console shooter. FFS I'd stand still while shooting, rather than remap keys so I could use both hands!
It's all what you're used to, but it's possible to be wrong, or to retrain. I didn't use WASD until Oblivion came out, I thought Gran Turismo couldn't possibly be played without a steering wheel and when I bought a MegaDrive, I reasoned an Atari-style joystick was obviously the only way to play Sonic the Hedgehog.
Most of us probably don't want to "retrain" to use a 'pad for FPSes, but I know plenty of people for whom that's their natural and preferred method, and who would be teh suxxor with a mouse, and could probably still hand me my mouse-fingering arse, not that that is any particularly fantastic acheivement.
Very true FJ. Inverted vertical axis on the mouse is a prime example - if I don't invert I'm a complete spacker and can't even move. It's just a matter of adjusting. Thing is, you adjust to one thing and it pushes something else out ("remember that time I learned how to make wine and forgot how to drive?" - Homer Simpson). As you say, the transition to having a vertical axis and mouselook was a massive obstacle to me too and took me a good while to get used to. Put simply though, I can't see how such an accurately analogue device as the mouse can be improved upon by a joypad, even with analogue sticks.
Dog Pants wrote:Very true FJ. Inverted vertical axis on the mouse is a prime example - if I don't invert I'm a complete spacker and can't even move. It's just a matter of adjusting. Thing is, you adjust to one thing and it pushes something else out ("remember that time I learned how to make wine and forgot how to drive?" - Homer Simpson). As you say, the transition to having a vertical axis and mouselook was a massive obstacle to me too and took me a good while to get used to. Put simply though, I can't see how such an accurately analogue device as the mouse can be improved upon by a joypad, even with analogue sticks.
^this
The test they did wasnt exactly a scientific one anyway. A better test would have been to get the inexperienced journo's to play against each other, some on console, some not. That way, experience wouldnt have been as much of a factor.
Time will tell on this, obviously. But my vote is still on the squeeker/keys being the bestest, for the simple reason of speed/accuracy. On a mouse, you can whip about all over the place quickly with big movements, or do small, more accurate adjustments with small movements. A joystick has a much more limited field of movement, so you either have to be able to accurately make small movements *or* be able to swing about full circle, not both.
The only problem I have with controllers and first person shooters is how sloooow everything seems to be. The three seconds it takes to turn around enirely on a console seems like an enternity compared to spinning around in less than a second with a mouse.
Shadowrun: Keyboard versus controller in the final battle
