• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

PC games that work well with a Controller?

asdad123

Member
Well I've been bored lately and have been trying to find games that work well on a PC with a controller (Wired 360 controller actually.) So far I played Crysis and it was pretty awesome so Im looking for more games.
I feel like hooking my laptop up to my HDTV and just sitting on the couch playing the game. Any suggestions will be helpful :D

My Specs are
P7350 overclocked to 2.4GHz
4gb RAM
1gb Nvidia 260mGTX

Thanks in advance.
 
Pretty much any PC port of a HD console game. Most of them support the 360 controler, and if you can output them on your TV you'll get a much better result than playing on PS360.

The PC port of the recent Capcom games are said to be pretty awesome (SF IV, RE5, DMC4)
 
I've played TF2 with a controller and it works pretty well as long as you're not playing a class that's super aiming intensive (engie, heavy, spy).
 
Accidentus said:
I've played TF2 with a controller and it works pretty well as long as you're not playing a class that's super aiming intensive (engie, heavy, spy).

it's like having an arcade stick as the default input device for a system, but deciding to go out and buy a konami laserscope to play street fighter with.
 
zeelman said:
These games support the 360 pad, you might want to check them out:

-Mirror's Edge
-Fallout 3
-Halo 2

Giant Bomb has a whole list of them.


Don't play this with a pad, it controls like shit compared to a m&kb setup.

As for my suggestions?

The modern Tomb Raider games all have native support for the 360 controller.

SEGA Rally

Ghostbusters

Dead Space
 
I just played the Dark Void demo on PC and it played a lot better with the controller than it did mouse and keyboard. The flying especially felt awkward with m&kb and I switched over almost immediately. It also uses rumble on the 360 controller and it felt nice and tight. (I enjoyed the demo a lot and will probably pick up the game at some point).

Other games where I have used it myself extensively and can speak of the quality:
-Audiosurf (I like using the controller in ninja made, it uses rumble)
-Most racing games such as Dirt, Grid, Burnout, Outrun
-Resident Evil 5 (has rumble and 360 buttons although I like the m&kb better)
-Batman AA (has rumble and 360 buttons)
 
I really like native 360 controller support (rumble, controller icons, plus and recognize, etc) even though I almost always end up playing with kb/m (even the Dark Void demo, which I thought had surprisingly good flying using the mouse controls).

and yeah, the majority of games released today on PC have 360 controller support. For older games that don't, some people like the pinnacle game profiler, which allows you to download existing profiles that bind kb/m functions to a controller; you can even map almost-analog control using it by mapping a half left stick movement to W+walk key and full movement to just W. It's not as good as native support but it should get you by in most games. Just keep in mind a lot of older PC games, excluding console ports (which surprisingly lack controller support a lot of the time), are designed to play with kb/m.

And this is just a general message because I see the OP already said he has one, but you should really get a wired 360 controller or dongle to use a wireless 360 controller (there is a package that contains both that goes for fairly cheap; I believe I bought mine for $20-some a few months back). You can use other controllers using a 360 controller emulator or something but between on screen icons and compatibility, the 360 controller is pretty much what you need.
 
eznark said:
Trine works well, I must prefer it with the 360 pad. AssCreed as well
Gully State said:
It's sad that no one has mentioned Trine....the game didn't click with me until I plugged in my 360 controller .
The Trine.

And Street Fighter IV. Burnout Paradise.
 
RJT said:
Don't play Mirror's Edge with a pad. Seriously.
Yeah. I thought it was pretty fun on 360, but when I finally played it on PC, that game really came to life. It's really quite a lot better with mouse/keyboard, and I usually don't think the difference is nearly as big as PC-GAF likes to make it out to be. But Mirror's Edge is definitely an exception, play it with mouse/kb.
 
Struct09 said:
Basically most GFW branded games work perfectly with the 360 controller.
Not Mass Effect -_-

There was $20 down the drain. Even with Xpadder, there was too much shit to map properly.
 
inner-G said:
Not Mass Effect -_-

There was $20 down the drain. Even with Xpadder, there was too much shit to map properly.
Not a GFW-branded game.

And why would you expect it to work decently with a 360 controller when it only had one hotkey for abilities on the 360?
 
inner-G said:
Not Mass Effect -_-

There was $20 down the drain. Even with Xpadder, there was too much shit to map properly.

I'm pretty sure Mass Effect isn't a Games for Windows game. Mostly every game published or developed by EA are not branded GFW or GFWL.
 
Lyphen said:
Not a GFW-branded game.
My bad, I was thinking of the Witcher. (You should still buy it)

I bought ME just assuming it would have 360 pad support, since it was originally a 360 game, but that didn't pan out.

*edit* I think that games without pad support are another barrier of entry to PC gaming. There are a lot of people (like me) that just don't want to game with KB+M, regardless of how good a game is. Sure, there are workarounds, but they are a pain in the ass, and pad support should be relatively easy for a dev to put into a game, I'd assume.
 
Obviously most of the console ports - I can't play AC, Braid, or even Mercs 2 without one (especially during driving scenes).
 
Dead Space has some fantastic controls with a pad, but it might be a side effect of having some pretty mediocre controls without.
 
Struct09 said:
Are you saying The Witcher doesn't work well with the 360 controller? Haven't tried it yet.
No, it doesn't.

No native support, and there's so many buttons, you really still need to use the keyboard for some stuff.

I mapped my movement/combat/etc buttons to the pad and left my menu stuff on the KB.
 
inner-G said:
Not Mass Effect -_-

There was $20 down the drain. Even with Xpadder, there was too much shit to map properly.
It's no Dragon Age but Mass Effect plays very well with a mouse and keyboard. Being able to map your most used skills to a number is a big improvement.
 
Mirror's Edge
DMC4 - best version of the game btw
Bioshock
Assassins Creed
Arkum Asylum
RE5
SF4

EDIT: Pretty much any multiplat game has GREAT controller support...all Games For Windows have 360 pad support with button icons and everything
 
From experience:

Mirror's Edge, Assassin's Creed, Batman: AA, Gears of War (though much easier with kb&m), Devil May Cry 4 (hah- this game shouldn't even have supported the keyboard).

As a rule of thumb, anything third person is usually a pretty good bet to work okay.

Get Total Game Control, though. Or Joy2Key or whatever. It is a godsend.
 
brain_stew said:
Don't play this with a pad, it controls like shit compared to a m&kb setup.

As for my suggestions?

The modern Tomb Raider games all have native support for the 360 controller.

SEGA Rally

Ghostbusters

Dead Space
Dead Space plays crap on a controller too. Played the demo on the PS3 and couldn't do shit with those slow clunky controls. Even with the horrible mouse lag, m&kb has it beat. I recommend just turning off v-sync (which gets reduces the mouse lag by about 80%) and cranking up the mouse sensitivity. It's the closest you'll get to decent controls in the game. If you get screen-tearing then just re-enable v-sync through your graphic drivers.
 
Serious Sam HD. Looks a lot better on PC as well.

Also most of the Valve and source engine stuff works great. Half Life, Left 4 Dead and so on.

Oh and all the Lego games
 
LocoMrPollock said:
Oh and all the Lego games

Yeah these games have excellent support. You can also have 2 controllers plugged for co-op as well I believe (as in one person isn't forced to use the keyboard).
 
Shame on this thread for no mentions of Cave Story.

Though it probably isn't quite what the OP was asking for :P
 
jlchoi said:
Anything with the Games for Windows brand has native 360 controller support.
Except Quantum of Solace, CoD: WAW.

*obligatory "damn you Activision" comment*

Oh, and Strangehold too.
 
asdad123 said:
Well I've been bored lately and have been trying to find games that work well on a PC with a controller (Wired 360 controller actually.)

For ultimate x360 gamepad action, try out Infinity Ward's "awesome" port of the console version to the PC of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

It's all the fun of playing a console version of a FPS... but on your computer.

Yep, the developers decided to take all of the great reasons why you'd buy a PC game and remove them just so you can experience all of the console awesomeness burried within this gem.

Want a lack of dedicated servers? BANG, it's in there.

Want a lack of customizing options? POW, don't look any further.

I figure, the only way to play the PC version of the game is to do it the way IW planned it... using the X360's controller.

PS - if you can't tell, I'm still a bit pissed at these jackasses for not allowing even the most basic customization options. The lack of FOV adjustment makes this game motion sickness central on the PC.

Oh and everytime someone uses a gamepad on a PC FPS, baby Jeebus cries and then gives Jay Leno his old timeslot back.
 
Top Bottom