What do you prefer

[bben46]

@Dowley:

Never say never. Current console controllers are far behind the keyboard/mouse as far as accuracy, speed and ease of use (for me and many others) although the console fanboys vociferously disagree. I suspect that the gamepad makers are working hard to achieve parity with the KB/Mouse controls.

 

MS actually did a test when they were considering opening up one of their online war games to players using both. They asked a group of top ranked tournament players to participate, and a group of non tournament casual players. The mouse/KB was not a super duper specialty gamer item, but the standard MS wired version (they used several models) and the gamepads were also stock with no tournament modifications.

 

The results were a mediocre casual Mouse/keyboard player could beat a ranked expert console player most of the time. When putting a ranked player against another ranked player, or a casual player against another casual player, the mouse keyboard nearly always won.

 

On analyzing the reasons why, they came up with, The mouse was faster on target, and thus quicker with the first shot. The mouse was more accurate, especially with a first shot. On a first shot miss, the mouse was quicker to compensate for a second shot. The keyboard offered more options that could be accessed quicker - One example: changing weapons - KB press one key, Gamepad, scroll through weapons then click to select.

 

Based on that study - done several years ago, the gamepad makers have a ways to go to reach parity. But I expect it to eventually happen. Maybe then I will use a gamepad instead of my Stock, off the shelf, 6 year old MS wireless mouse and stock wireless back lighted 3 month old $20 Logitec KB :biggrin:

 

For the doubters, here is the link: http://www.rahulsood.com/2010/07/console-gamers-get-killed-against-pc.html

 

For those who don't know, Rahul Sood (the author of that blog) has been involved in Gaming since about 1990, and that's longer than many of you have been alive. :tongue:

[vereen70]

Good to see old schoolers (like myself) coming out to voice their opinion. I’ve been gaming since the mid 80’s with games like Questron and was introduced to Elder Scrolls through a very little referenced game called “Daggerfall”. I genuinely prefer mouse and keyboard over gamepad, and I prefer PC over console any day. Although consoles do have their place, and for me it’s Sports and Fighting games. Other than that I find PC games to be more strategy oriented and cerebral, however that’s just my opinion as I’ve seen some very recent impressive exceptions. :wink: Edited November 13, 2011 by vereen70