[Orayn]

GAF, are there are particular ways you like to have your controls set up? I'm not just talking about sensitivity and inverted vs. non-inverted, but broader aspects of control like centering around shoulder buttons/triggers as opposed to face buttons, what analog sticks are used for, which buttons are assigned to which functions, etc. If you think a certain implementation is perfect, say so. If you think it's great but could be improved, explain how.

Here are a few things I think work really well.

3rd Person Games with Emphasis on Shoulder Buttons



Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are paranoid, twitchy games. You're always darting in one direction to narrowly avoid getting turned into a bloody smear, or adjusting the camera to peer around a corner - This means that your thumbs are almost always on both analog sticks. Fittingly, your most important functions, attacking and blocking, are controlled not by your thumbs, but by your index fingers. I can't really describe this as anything but brilliant. The only improvement I can think of would be putting dodge/block/run on L2 and changing the functionality of parry to make it work like a Just Defend.

Drawing a Weapon with a Trigger



It's no secret that lots of people love ironsights in their shooters. On a controller, holding down a button to enter a precision mode feels pretty good. What I think feels even nicer is going into "shooter mode" when a shoulder button, preferably an analog trigger, is held down. The connection between tightening your grip around the controller and having your character change their stance is just crazy intuitive and resonates with me on a very deep level, and also adds nicely to the horror atmosphere of games like the ones whose box art I posted above. I like the implementation in Dead Space, Dead Rising 2, and RE5 more than RE4 or anything else that makes me aim with the left stick.

-

What are your thoughts, GAF? Cheers? Jeers? Share with me!

Disclaimer: This is not a thread to share strong opinions about actual input devices. This thread also recognizes that what we like is irrational on a certain level, so try not to tell others their preferences are wrong.

[BadWolf]

I prefer fighters to have 4 attack buttons instead of 6.

[Curufinwe]

I didn't mind aiming with the left stick in RE 4, especially on the GameCube which has the most precise left analog stick on any controller. I stuck with it for the 360 version even though they added the option to aim with the right stick.

[Roto13]

I prefer fighters to have 4 attack buttons instead of 6.

So much this. Six buttons are fine if you're the type who plays fighters with an arcade stick, but I just use a standard console controller and shoulder buttons aren't ideal for fighting games.

Six button Genesis controller was ok for Street Fighter II, though. :P

[Hobbestetrician]

I didn't mind aiming with the left stick in RE 4, especially on the GameCube which has the most precise left analog stick on any controller. I stuck with it for the 360 version even though they added the option to aim with the right stick.

Did the exact same thing. Those are the only games I would even think use that scheme on but it just really works for me. Got all the way through Professional with that scheme.

[Boss Doggie]

FPS - prefer it to be controlled by mouse and keyboard.
2D platformer or movement - prefer it to be controlled by DPad than analog sticks.

[Carl]

Don't really have any. Pretty good at getting used to control schemes.

[Muffdraul]

The only preference I can think of is, when playing Playstation games I prefer O to be confirm and X to be cancel. It started to become an issue when I started importing shortly after the original PSX launched, but it wasn't that big of a deal because in those days most games allowed you to configure the buttons however you wanted. Why developers stopped doing that, I wish I knew. It was more of an issue during the PS2 era. It doesn't come up too often with the PS3 because in most games the console's region is what determines the O and X functions. Once in a while there's an exception, which is pretty annoying. Consistency, how does it work.