and used a controller more than we’d like to admit
What? Why would I care what kind of peripherals anyone uses?
Also these stats are def wrong because I was ~100% controller and Steam told me 25%, and I know I’m not the only one.
Same! My setup is literally a home theatre PC, and Steam thought I played a massive percentage of my playtime with Mouse+KB. No idea how they got those numbers.
Not only that: Steam Decks and similar handhelds exist
Do you possibly have Steam input disabled? I could imagine that they get their statistics from that.
Well. I didn’t disable it.
The only thing I care about is, its statistics for fun. For developers this is a helpful metric. As I see, I am not the only one who got feathered up with this statement. Glad there are some normal people here.
On average, PC Gamer’s staff played around 59% of their games with keyboard and mouse, and 41% of them with a controller. I, myself, had a shameful 57/43% split. We are very sorry.
Who the fuck cares? My stat was fifty-something on a PS3 controller. Anyone who thinks it’s shameful can go shit themselves. Are their readers some unironical PC masterracists or what?
I thought using a controller was so normal and uncontroversial that no one would even think to say that as a joke. “As a living room gamer, I’d like apologize for gaming on a chair instead of the couch. I’m so sorry.”
It is very clearly tongue-in-cheek.
Obviously it’s a joke, but the point is that using a controller is so unremarkable that it’s just weird to make the joke. If they hint at this kind of attitude, it makes me wonder if it’s actually a thing in their bubble.
It’s not really weird.
Wouldn’t be weird for a satire site to invent things to joke about, but I don’t think pcgamer is one
I dont believe ppl yapping about aim assist being op, a good mouse and keyboard player will always destroy a lobby of controller players
People win fps tournaments with controller now. Its harder for the mouse and keyboard player because they have to actually aim. Snap aim + look speed being slowed as you have your scope on people is bullshit. Someone slides past and your aim follows them. Thats never happening on mouse and keyboard and the player has to track that and move.
Yeah as someone who has a wrist injury that makes chronic gaming with kbm very difficult, the attitude around this stat from PCGamer is kinda shitty.
Like, some games are far better on controller. Dark Souls is the first that comes to mind, but I honestly can’t see myself playing any melee based action game with a mouse and keyboard, regardless of my injury.
Realistically, the main advantages of kbm over controller tend to be hotkeys and aiming. Aiming can be overcome with gyro, which I use very frequnetly. Hotkeys is harder to overcome, but if you have spare buttons on your controller, steam input can at least make hotkeys something you can customize without much issue.
Yeah, some games are just worse with mouse and keyboard. I bought mad max this year, and I’m not going to use keyboard when half of that game is driving. And even when that isn’t the case, I’m not hauling over the keyboard and mouse when streaming the game to the tv. Right tool for the right job. I can’t understand how someone has a problem with this.
People don’t this is just a weirdly phrased headline to draw engagement.
For me, its an easy solution. Is the game require fps / tps style of aiming? No? Is it mostlyclicking and dragging items? No? Then the choice is controller. Yes to any of my quistions? Then its, kbm. Easy squeeze.
It’s weird just how long input device bigotry persists in the PC space, despite being basically ridiculous.
Mouse is great for positional input, and keyboard has a lot of keys, but let’s be honest, the keyboard isn’t even great for typing, let alone gaming. That ‘m’ has been hard-carrying kbm for a very long time, whereas controllers are very much purpose-designed, and have finally been getting some nice advances with gyros (pretty fun to use with flick-stick) and extra buttons, plus one of mine has a cool automatic trigger resistance option that really adds to driving games even without the game knowing about it at all.
And that’s not even getting into that some players just find controller a more fun way to game than kbm. Sure, I’m never playing an action game on keyboard because it would murder my already pained hands, but honestly, that’s not why I play on controller. I like (preferably unassisted) controller gaming. Yeah, it’s not optimal in some games, but “optimal” does not equate to fun, especially if you’re not deep in competitive shooter territory, which includes a lot of players PC or otherwise.
Controllers are fine to use with PC. Certain control schemes and game genres just play better on it. But if I see someone using a controller on an FPS I’m mocking as their aim assist kills me before I can even ADS.
People use aim assist when using a controllers on an FPS?
I always thought aim assist made aiming more difficult. No wonder I’ve sucked at FPS games.
I mean I’m sure its not in all games, but I have been seeing it in more AAA FPS games on pc. They have some sort of slight aim assist software to help with the drunken pirate effect of looking with a joystick.
Calling it “slight” is being generous. Lots of competitive games have almost GTA-level aim assist. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that but it does rub me the wrong way when the controller and keyboard players can end up in the same lobbies, as mouse aiming and controllers aim assists usually play very differently and thus rewards different skills.
I could also probably yap for a while about why I think these differences killed the “old” movement shooters (e.g Quake) and gave rise to CoD’s style of movement shooter
Depends on the game. Call of Duty aim assist was so crazy (since MW2019) that when they finally nerfed it in Black Ops 7, big name CDL players literally couldn’t aim for their first 5 games or so. And right now a bunch of console players think it’s trash because they can’t aim OR abuse the omega sweaty movement that was in BO6 previously (they barely nerfed the slide).
This is resulting in me noticing that while a lot of people still rush there’s a ton of players who now literally pre ADS everything like they are playing MWII (2022). It’s extremely annoying.
Video games like Apex Legends and The Finals have included aim assist for controller players on PC
There’s a reason so many apex pros switched to controller
Aim assist just lowers the sensitivity when you are aiming on an enemy. Games now have auto aim (called aim assist for some reason) that aim for you, snap on and follow the player around without even giving more input.
Nowadays “aim assist” is just the name given to the whole suite of controller aim assistances. At least at the studios I worked at. It includes:
- Snap : “snapping” the aim to the closest target. For an easy example, it’s typically very strong in Rockstar games, where you trigger it by simply pressing the aim button
- Tracking : automatically tracks moving targets, if the player is aiming at them (again with a Rockstar games example: this is what happens after the “snap” when you just hold the aim button)
- Head/weakpoint assist : reduces sensitivity when aiming at/around heads (or other weak spots).
These terms are just the ones I use personally, but at least none of my colleagues seemed to think they were too vague or misleading. There are also a lot of other mechanisms but these are the main ones. But I think you’re right in saying that the dramatic snapping assist most games have nowadays have made the head assist mechanism almost redundant (though it is still present in many games, where it can come in handy for minute adjustments after the snap)
Yeah, it’s ridiculous now. I think it was a combination of trying to give less skilled players more of a chance and trying to give any controller user a chance versus keyboard and mouse, with the crossplay craze. Ended up being a disaster, it’s hard to take it away too, because people are used to it.
Thats the beauty of PC! You can choose the best control option for whatever you want to play
I’ve been using a controller more than M&KB for a few years now since I had an RSI. So much more comfortable; but absolutely shit for my aim without a really aggressive aim assist. 😮💨
But I’m more into soulslikes than shooters now anyway. Partly because of the above mentiomed RSI, but mostly because all the current shooters are not my jam. I don’t really like BR or extraction/survival shooters. I just want CS or straight up DM type games.
used a controller more than we’d like to admit
I don’t understand this statement. I mean it sounds like as if it was a bad thing you hide it or something… There is nothing to “admit”. I even play some first person shooter (single player) with gamepad, nothing wrong with it. Especially great with the gamepad support from Steam Input.
I’m better than most of you when a kbm. Get over it
