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Strange control scheme decisions in games

L3 to sprint is the worst idea of all time, even if it's toggle.

Far too easy to mid-click while aiming. Destiny is a prime example of this, can make fire fights incredibly frustrating.
 
Behold: the shooting controls of Metal Gear Solid 3

Most Pistols:
Hold the Square button in tightly to bring up the weapon. Release it quickly to fire, or release it slowly to put it away without firing. While doing this, Snake's feet are planted to the ground, and you'll still be in overhead view mode (or third person view in Subsistence). To lock on to a target and be able to move around with your gun drawn, you hold the L1 button. To aim in first person view, hold R1.

The Single Action Army:
Holding Square will make Snake hold the gun at hip-level in first person view, so to aim down the iron sights you'll need to hold Square, R1 and L1 the whole time. This is the only pistol in the game that isn't CQC compatible, by the way.

Assault Rifles:
Hold Square lightly to bring up the weapon. In first person view, it'll only be at hip-level, so you'll need to hold L1 to aim down the sights. Release Square to put the weapon away, or press Square harder to fire it, then go back to holding Square lightly to stop firing. Use Triangle to switch between single shot, three-round burst and fully automatic firing modes on weapons that support it.

Sniper Rifles and RPGs:
These will put you into feet-planted first-person view as soon as you equip them, but they'll only be at hip-level. Press L1 to aim down the scope and, with sniper rifles, press Triangle to toggle between different scope magnification levels.

With all weapons, when you're in first person you can use the L2 and R2 buttons to lean to the left or right (or press them together to go up on your tippy toes), and of course these are analogue functions, too. Oh, and this is nothing compared to the CQC controls, which involve such finger gymnastics as making you hold the Circle button lightly and then somehow also hold the Square button to take someone as a human shield.
 
I don't understand the complaints of L3 being used to sprint; I prefer this method.
And not exactly a control scheme, but...

Steel_Battalion_controllers.jpg

Edit: It's for Steel Battalion on the Xbox, by the way.

Sorry for the enormous image, but it shows every detail.

Oh, and Gunvalkyrie on the Xbox had pretty strange controls as well.
 
I am struggling to remember it, but a Gamecube car racing game used control stick revolutions to turn the car- as opposed to just pushing left or right.

Like, you literally had to spin the control sticks around and around like in Mario Party.

This sounds awesome actually.. lol
 
So we're just going to pretend triggers haven't been standard for acceleration controls in racing games for years now? Mario Kart does have a strange control scheme compared to most racers these days.

Why do those games matter? They even make an argument for Mario Kart's setting not being silly. 90% of those games have A/X to accelerate as the first alternative option.

Strange would be something like Y to accelerate, A to ues items and whatever to drift. But certainly not the same control sheme that's been used for over 20 years.
 
So we're just going to pretend triggers haven't been standard for acceleration controls in racing games for years now? Mario Kart does have a strange control scheme compared to most racers these days.

I guess since it doesn't have analogue acceleration and has hopping to drift, it can be forgiven for not having standard 'real' racing controls.
 
As much as I love the game: Kid Icarus Uprising. The Controlls are garbage especially for left-handed people like me. Even with the Circle Pad Pro - Did they really think just because I'm left handed I am used to walk with a right controll stick instead of the left?.... yeah... no.
I also had my issues with TW101 but I kind of got used to it thanks to the 'create-the-last-drawn-symbol-with-a-button'-skill. Never really managed to controll symbol drawing with the right controll stick

I love these two games - but I never went back to it after finishing them. Mainly because of the controll issues I had.
 
Dark Souls: From mapped rolling, sprinting, backstepping, and jumping to a single button, circle, while L3 went unused. It was therefore impossible to transition immediately from sprinting to a roll, since you would jump instead. Thankfully, they fixed this in the sequel.

In addition, two special actions - the kick and the jump attack - are bound to the same inputs that control forward movement + weak attack and strong attack, respectively. In the heat of combat, this often resulted in you inadvertently doing a kick when you meant to chain together some weak attacks, or doing a strong attack when you wanted to pull off a jump attack, or doing a weak attack when you meant to kick your opponent.
 
Dark Souls: From mapped rolling, sprinting, backstepping, and jumping to a single button, circle, while L3 went unused. It was therefore impossible to transition immediately from sprinting to a roll, since you would jump instead. Thankfully, they fixed this in the sequel.

In addition, two special actions - the kick and the jump attack - are bound to the same inputs that control forward movement + weak attack and strong attack, respectively. In the heat of combat, this often resulted in you inadvertently doing a kick when you meant to chain together some weak attacks, or doing a strong attack when you wanted to pull off a jump attack, or doing a weak attack when you meant to kick your opponent.

I hope Bloodbourne puts dodge/backstep on a shoulder button this time around. Yeah, you'd lose the perfect symmetry, but evasion is going to be important enough that I feel we'll really need it.
 
After playing the Wii version, they should've implemented a dual stick control system.

No excuse.

Yeah. No variation in gameplay allowed. Only a single one people are comfortable with. Seriously, the idea that there's one holy control scheme that should fit all is beyond idiotic. There are loads of traditional dual stick shooters. Play those and leave the games with some degree of individuality alone.

Resident Evil 4
Metroid Prime

Both unplayable garbage. I'll go back to work now.

Don't buy such games then. Stick to the AAA Assassin's Creed type shit. The super focus tested, overengineered, individuality-less, mass produced, high production value but no creativity crap. Would be really nice if real game developers didn't need to cater to this kind of stuff.
 
Yeah. No variation in gameplay allowed. Only a single one people are comfortable with. Seriously, the idea that there's one holy control scheme that should fit all is beyond idiotic. There are loads of traditional dual stick shooters. Play those and leave the games with some degree of individuality alone.



Don't buy such games then. Stick to the AAA Assassin's Creed type shit. The super focus tested, overengineered, individuality-less, mass produced, high production value but no creativity crap. Would be really nice if real game developers didn't need to cater to this kind of stuff.
I agree with you on RE4, the series is supposed to be survival horror and not a spectacle shooter. But Metroid Prime has so much back tracking and platforming that forcing you to stop moving in order to aim goes directly against its design.
 
Many n64 games were weird. the controller never felt right.

Oddly enough, most of them transfer to a modern dual analog controller fairly well.
  • Stick and d-pad map just fine
  • Put either L or Z on the left trigger
  • R on the right right trigger
  • A/B on the bottom and left face buttons
  • C-buttons depend on the game, but I usually put them on both the right stick and remaining face/shoulder buttons.
 
I *never* understood this comic

caTnGET.png

This feels awful and is obviously sub-optimal, meanwhile a more comfortable layout is literally one button away. Square and X for common actions, triangle and circle for rare ones.

No Classic Controller support for DKCR on the Wii still baffles me.

DKCTF is one of my, if not my very most favorite, Wii U game and I still can't bring myself to buy the Wii game because of waggle to roll.
 
Army of Two

L2: Zoom
R2: Fire
--------------------

Ps: for Mario Kart 8: accelerate with Y, brake with B
it's easy.
 
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