"Multiplayer console FPSs are all s**t!"
So proclaimed a member of the 360 team earlier today, in a fit of overworked pique, while preparing a piece on Modern Warfare 2. What transpired was a fascinating, if heated, ahem… ‘discussion’ on the development of that special corner of shooters reserved for playing with others.
So proclaimed a member of the 360 team earlier today, in a fit of overworked pique, while preparing a piece on Modern Warfare 2. What transpired was a fascinating, if heated, ahem… ‘discussion’ on the development of that special corner of shooters reserved for playing with others.
One argument followed the line that, inescapably, shooters on console are, and always will be, eternally hampered by their control scheme. No amount of apologies in the form of perk lists, vehicles or complex team-based games will replace the basic, underlying fact that trying to control first-person movement with a little stick and buttons lacks the kind of precision and accuracy required to stick a rail through somebody’s eye, mid-jump, from half a mile away. And that precision and accuracy is made available, of course, by a killer mouse and keyboard combo.
“But!” remarked somebody else, “Shooters now, on console or otherwise, are so developed and different from your aged PC Quake Arena-based twitch gaming that they don’t just have to resemble that kind of game anymore. For whatever reason Halo was designed as a slower-paced, slightly more tactical experience, the important thing is that actually happened, and this many years down the line, it and those that followed it have become very different animals in their own right, with all kinds of new styles of expertise and dynamism. Simply saying ‘You needs a mouse with that, mate’ is a lazy and trite argument, not to mention a ludicrously sweeping statement.”
What do you think? Do you think the rise of consoles has sullied the venerable history of the multiplayer FPS, or do you think the genre has outgrown the early disadvantages of the console port to bloom into a more mature and multi-limbed beast of a thing?
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Both arguments are sound. Although the argument about controllers changing the way the FPS is designed is more so. Also, too many buttons on a keyboard – I can never remember where anything is. Now get back to work. :)
Halo is an exception to the rule. Seeing as I was properly into Quake 3 Arena (at semi-pro) level as well as an avid Halo 3 player I think I understand the issue quite well.
You’ll never re-create the accuracy of a mouse and keyboard on the current joypad setup and arguing the genre has evolved to the extent that this accuracy is not required anymore on a console is nonsense. Halo had to make concessions in its game to make up for this lack of accuracy by slowing down the pace of the game and having the auto lock feature. The latter feature can also really screw up the game in instances where the the aim will automatically reposition to another target in a way you don’t want to.
True hardcore FPS gamers will always demand the accuracy that a PC setup affords. We’re all waiting for the day when we can have that degree of accuracy on a console. The PS3′s motion controller might just be the answer to this.
To be perfectly honest with you, I always felt that console FPS controls are somewhat negatively portrayed or inaccurately represented as being nowhere near the fluidity of a mouse and keyboard. Am I the only one who thinks the opposite?
The only FPS’ I really played on the PC were Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament. I find that console FPS games are far more accurate and if there is an option to increase the speed of the sticks, then it’s very possible to make the game just as fast paced as any PC title. In fact, (maybe I’m just a little tard) but I feel that the keyboard buttons are too alien, too far apart, too clunky and the mouse is too…I dunno, slippery? To me, the keyboard and mouse takes me away from the experience. There’s no weight to the guns or any satisfying feeling. It’s unnatural. With PC FPS’, they all seem to feel the same but it’s harder to tweek them on consoles so many of them end up with a unique feel to them.
With a 360 controller in hand, I have access to all the buttons, my thumbs zip around the contours of the sticks (lol) and manage just find.
An experiment conducted by the developers of that crappy cross-platform FPS about the elves found that console players faired much better against the PC foes and the game had to be balanced accordingly. Don’t knock-off FPS console controls guys. They’re frakking awesome.
But more on topic, multiplayer FPS games on consoles rock. Give me Halo over Unreal any day. Look at all the features
Oops, I didn’t finish.
I was gonna say look at all the features on Halo 3 such as the video mode etc.
Why is it that a keyboard and mouse can’t be used on Xbox?
I already use a bog standard usb keyboard to type messages so the required input is already accepted. It can’t be that difficult to allow a usb mouse to recognized too? (aside from the extra programming)
…and just to play devils advocate, why is using WASD on a keyboard more accurate than the left thumbstick?
“Halo is an exception to the rule”
Sorry for being pedantic, but that makes it a trend not a rule.
Carry on