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There's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I wonder what IBM's plans were...would they name the future full iterations like "OS/2 v2" or would it have been like "OS/3"?
Not that outlandish if you know Microsoft's history. Microsoft was making flight sims for a while before they were making Windows and then continued on making top shelf flight sims up untill the mid 00s iirc
I was never into vehicle sims. But my grandfather was, had a crazy (to me) setup for it and everything. I was under the impression, via his complaints, that they had stopped making them. Your comment made me look it up. It seems they closed down the original studio around that time and then he passed before they started doing anything with the franchise again so the news missed me
Actually wanted to link the Wikipedia page section about it. But... well, I fucked up in a moment of pure stupidity and right clicked and copied the footnote marker instead of the section head. And I just pasted it.
Noticed it when I had about 100 upvotes and I was like: should I edit... nah, people are upvoting, they are getting it. Don't change it when it works.
Does both.
I once played an FPS game with mouse and keyboard and I pressed the gas with my foot and apparently it had the same input as shooting. It was a crazy fun tech to have two different inputs.
Controllers like that are common for stuff like that. They're actually just a pretty ergonomic design. Haven't you seen the Xbox controller US Navy ships haha
i think most people know this. it’s just the fact that it’s a cheap $20 MadCatz-type controller you’d give your little brother, and not like a Duke or something recognizable that makes it funny
With how much US military stuff usually costs it does surprise me that they'd use a commercial controller that's mostly optimized for cost and fairly often has issues with the quality of it's parts like stick drift for something as essential as controlling a ship.
I own a wired version (F510) of this since 2010... If not for the stiff triggers and damn axial deadzones, it would my favourite controller of all time as well. Especially thanks to amazing membrane D-Pad that is somehow very tactile despite being slightly floaty - you can always sense when you went diagonal, unlike on Nintendo (excluding most of their portables) and Sony controllers (exluding the Vita, which has the best D-Pad of all time of any console period), and it's not stupidly noisy like the Xbox Series controller.
It's built like a tank, too.
I had a friend who rigged up a holder on his steering wheel so we could have his phone in front of him to watch YouTube while driving. His excuse was that he "gets really bored" while driving.
Reminds me of this clip of Skoriath, a streamer who used to play Blazblue. A chatter told him he could get a leverless or fightstick for pretty cheap and he replies with "Or I could keep using the thing that already works", referring to his keyboard
8BitDo Ultimate. It's because the controller turns itself off when I put it on the dock. I could just put it down on the desk, but it feels untidy, and if I didn't touch it for a while it would eventually disconnect anyway and throw the warning at a less predictable moment.
If you're using a wired controller, I guess you'd never have it come up at all.
My experience with Cyberpunk was better swapping from Mouse and Keyboard to a controller. I actually started playing in the living room with steamlink.
Then there's is me who drives better with keyboard as well. Probably has to do with I was born with keyboards, molded by it. I didn't experience a proper controller until I was already a grown adult.
I was born in the dark glow of a hot cathode, molded by a flickering CRT monitor. I didn't see 144 Hertz until I was already a man! By then it was nothing to me but blinding!
I’m like this but with the Souls games. I don’t understand why so many PC players say playing with keyboard and mouse is so difficult in games like Elden Ring, I find it so natural and easy and I’ll be damned if I have to play on a controller using that stupid “claw” technique haha
I did DS1 on tank controls. It was clearly ment for controller and mouse felt rather wonky, but I didn't have controller at time, so experimented with binding camera controls and attacks to numpad and somehow it was pretty comfortable.
All my buddies think im crazy for playing soulikes on K&M. I love it.
Although the steam controller with the bindable back buttons is slowly winning me over since i can dodge, jump, etc without taking my finger of the joystick.
This is it at a core. You make do what with what you have. I didn't have a controller for a long ass time so I had to t learn to drive and even fly with a keyboard.
Same. I just can't play with a controller. Stuff like Hades or Dave is ok, I love the SteamDeck/Controller pads for Civ6. But I can't drive, shoot or play anything complex with a controller. Can't even remember which button is where.
They don't know what proper multiplayer is until they beat Half-Life 1 on PC with mouse and keyboard. One person mouse and one person keyboard. I can say it is definitely an experience.
Even now, if a game requires aim, I ain't touching it with a controller.
This is the big one for me. I like playing action RPG games with a controller, but if there's any aiming involved with like a bow or any other mechanic where you need precision, then I'm going back to KB+M. I also prefer driving with a controller, but again you'll have a lot of games where you also need to aim and shoot while driving so it's back to KB+M.
my theory is that your reactions are quicker with buttons on the keyboard. going from Left to right is almost instant. while on the controller there is travel time (both for the buttons and the stick, but with the stick more so).
Same, I just bought a controller for the first time in my life as a grown ass man in my early-mid 20s and while I do find it satisfying to use in casual cozy games, it's not fun at all feeling completely gimped and crippled using it in shooters or even complex RPGs. M+KB is just way too accurate and powerful compared to controllers, but M+KB does suffer a lot in terms of cinematic/aesthetic feel in single-player games, it's much nicer to see a playthrough of a game on a controller than on M+KB.
I still think analog wasd keys should've become standard.. literally would've made kbm the perfect input device but nooo.
There are a few keyboard with that but they basically have zero support and probably require you to pretend the entire keyboard is a controller just to get analog controls.
At least it's possible but then steam has console UI for everything..
I imagine controllers are also bad for RTS with lots of micromanagement. In those games you typically have 10 control groups that you change every minute, and need like 20-40 hotkeys on top.
Yup, controllers are actually solid for most shooters, but they're genuinely terrible for RTS style games, one of the only genres I never use controller on
Controller in COD is heavily carried by aimbot though. Or "aim assist" as they call it. Take that away and even the pros wouldn't hold a candle to the average keyboard and mouse player.
I remember doing Last Wish with a group when it came out. And I was consistently at top DPS and waiting for people after jump puzzles. I pulled double plate duty on Kalli because some guy couldn't get his done. And then he struggled on the jumping section afterword and when everyone found out he was on controller they clowned him so hard. I'm like, "I play on controller too".
My brain just can't grasp M&K for FPS games. I grew up on consoles and I blame that, but my go-to for any FPS is controller.
The only game I didn’t mind for driving with keyboard and mouse was war thunder tanks, mouse for turrent and wasd for wheels and steering, it felt pretty intuitive and used my existing aim skills from FPS.
I suppose the tank in Fortnite is set up the same. Fortnite overall isn’t too bad for vehicles, but the buggies are near impossible to drive precisely with keyboard, they’re too squirrelly.
Controllers are far from optimal for driving, though. Wheel + pedals for ground vehicles and joystick + throttle + pedals for aircraft is in a whole new level, even though it is quite an investment.
For the vast majority of people a controller is better just because of price alone, not to mention needing the space for all those other control inputs
Also pulling the trigger to not go full throttle all the time is pretty intuitive, though I was bummed to find out my switch pro controller only works the triggers like a button, no option to go half on gas. That's okay to play shooters, but sucks for racing games.
Yeah Nintendo hasn't had a (good) controller with analog triggers since the GameCube, something about them and Sony and Microsoft not paying the patent holder in the Wii era and all getting in trouble for a bit until the patent was dropped or something like that from what I remember.
I think the wireless GameCube controller has analog and some games probably support that now that it's an official option at least
I’ll never understand why so many people have spent the past nine years praising the Switch Pro controller as much as they have. It has good ergonomics, and I like that the face buttons are bigger. But the d-pad actively fights you at Tetris and then the digital triggers sour the whole thing for me.
Negative. Wheel for your GTAs and Forzas is so mid. And it's psychopathic for TrackMania. Wheels are cool for sim-oriented experiences. If there's not an actual constant relationship between the steering wheel and the front wheels of the cars, you're just cosplaying.
As someone who used to play with a wheel a lot, Dirt Rally, Asseto Corsa, Project Cars, Truck Sim. I spent a total of zero hours playing Forza on a wheel. Hell, even SnowRunner is a controller experience.
The game controller wasn't really the problem with that sub. It was the crap hull and the viewing window - both of which weren't rated for the kind of dives the company was doing.
Got myself a Razer Huntsman V3 Pro and was recently trying out the Analog WASD controls for racing and it’s pretty good honestly. I’d rather use this than swapping for a controller
In a good way. Analog keyboards are really great for driving games like beamNG, but I’ve also gotten a ton of use out of them in skating sims and similar games.
It’s probably the best PC peripheral change I’ve ever made now that I’m thinking about it.
Plus, I feel like the increased responsiveness does help improve FPS movement a bit.
3rd person also M+KB, because of the free look alone. I even had to use mod for Sekiro to get rid of all the auto rotate stuff and it's so much better experience than vanilla or with a controller.
Controllers are great for comfort tho and some features like pressure sensitive buttons which are great for driving sim games like BeamNG or Assetto Corsa, even tho they're supposed to be played with proper wheel.
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u/PCMRBot Bot Aug 04 '26
Welcome to the PCMR, everyone from the frontpage! Please remember:
1 - You too can be part of the PCMR. It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart! Age, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, religion, politics, income, and PC specs don't matter! If you love or want to learn about PCs, you're welcome!
2 - Think owning a PC is too expensive? It's cheaper than you may think. Check http://www.pcmasterrace.org/builds for our famous builds and ask for tips and help here!
3 - Consider supporting the folding@home effort to fight Cancer, Alzheimer's, and more, with just your PC! https://pcmasterrace.org/folding
We have a Daily Simple Questions Megathread for any PC-related doubts. Feel free to ask there or create new posts in our subreddit!