OT: Video Games IV

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arlcapsfan

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Oct 3, 2015
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Hi All, I'm looking for a little gaming advice. My son is turning 8 and we ready to purchase him a system. The one's he mentions that his friends have are xbox 360 and wii-u. Talking to a guy at best buy, he thought the best option would be the nintendo switch. I want to get him something that he can play age appropriate games on and as he get older the thing won't be totally obsolete. I welcome any and all advice. My knowledge is limited to atari pong. Thanks in advance.
 

usiel

Where wolf’s ears are, wolf’s teeth are near.
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Hi All, I'm looking for a little gaming advice. My son is turning 8 and we ready to purchase him a system. The one's he mentions that his friends have are xbox 360 and wii-u. Talking to a guy at best buy, he thought the best option would be the nintendo switch. I want to get him something that he can play age appropriate games on and as he get older the thing won't be totally obsolete. I welcome any and all advice. My knowledge is limited to atari pong. Thanks in advance.

Hopefully some of the console players here will chime in with some advice. If this was PC gaming I could certainly provide some advice.

pc-master-race.jpg
 

Jags

Mildly Disturbed
May 5, 2016
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Hopefully some of the console players here will chime in with some advice. If this was PC gaming I could certainly provide some advice.

I've never done the console thing either. Not since the Genesis. For years, PCs offered gaming experiences you couldn't get on consoles (good online play, MMOs, great FPS franchises, etc.).

Some of that is still true, but to far lesser extents, and nowadays I get the sense that PC-exclusive gamers like myself are missing out on some big things. There are great, buzzed-about titles that we'll never see or will only get bad ports of, the EA Sports games left us behind years ago, and the console gaming community seems much larger.

It's a mixed bag now. We still have the better MMOs (but they're far less of a thing today), mod-capable games like Skyrim and Fallout are vastly superior on the PC, game delivery via Steam and other services make games more easily accessible and often a lot cheaper, and I think getting kids into PCs versus consoles entices them to learn about computers, which is a tremendous ancillary benefit.

I tried an XBox a few years ago, but the thing that threw me was the new controllers. I was good on the old D-pad ones, but the new ones with the two thumbsticks and the D-pad and 47 buttons was overwhelming to me. I got reasonably good at it, but the level of control they give you is still far, far less than what you get from a keyboard and mouse.

So consoles passed me by. I'm officially old now. Long live the PC.
 

um

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Sep 4, 2008
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While I Agree that PC is mostly better at everything else. I'm in a huge huge minority but I much prefer using a controller to a mouse and keyboard, I guess I prefer to use my thumbs than my wrist, plus I hate moving with wasd.
 

Jags

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If you use wasd you've already lost at PC gaming. ;)

Yeah, my setup is kinda weird but works really well. I map "forward" to the left mouse button and "backward" to the right mouse button so all the movement happens on the mouse. It allows you to be really precise with your movement and aim.
 

CapitalsCupReality

It’s Go Time!!
Feb 27, 2002
64,388
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What else would you use?

I'm sure you everyone had their own setup. I like to use the arrow keys left of the number pad. The clear space around those makes hitting other buttons that are close more unlikely. The wasd area is way too easy to mi**** buttons. At least for me. I also like to reassign functions to the buttons around those arrow keys.
 

usiel

Where wolf’s ears are, wolf’s teeth are near.
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Yeah, my setup is kinda weird but works really well. I map "forward" to the left mouse button and "backward" to the right mouse button so all the movement happens on the mouse. It allows you to be really precise with your movement and aim.

For actual twitch FPS games I do not use WASD. Forward and back with left and right mouse and shift and z for left/right strafe (fire with the CTRL).
 

Hivemind

We're Touched
Oct 8, 2010
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WASD is solid. It gives you the ability to A/D spam easily, and is still densely packed so you can hit other keys as necessary. Just play enough that you don't have accidental key hits elsewhere.
 

Jags

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May 5, 2016
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WASD is solid. It gives you the ability to A/D spam easily, and is still densely packed so you can hit other keys as necessary. Just play enough that you don't have accidental key hits elsewhere.

Those of us that came up PC gaming in the 90s and played a lot of FPS games before mouse look became a thing (Wolfenstein, Duke, Doom) and you could just use the keyboard, there were the WASD people and the arrow key people.

I used arrow keys because I was a righty and a touch typist, so "movement on the right, function keys on the left" was ingrained in my brain. Then when games like Quake, Unreal, and Half-Life came out -- when looking up and down became imperative -- the WASD people stayed where they were and used the mouse to look and shoot. The arrow key people came up with other alternatives, like usiel's and mine and CCFs.

It's just a matter of preference. I don't think I could change now if I wanted to, which is a bummer because the gaming world prefers WASD. I remember in the Arkham Asylum console port to the PC, it wasn't even possible to set up the controls the way I usually do, so I know my setup is weird to most people. I had to get a controller to play that game, and fumbled my way through it. A couple of the Far Cry games force you into WASD-like movement when you drive vehicles.
 

usiel

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I blame my brother playing Q1 on the only PC in the house for that funky config so I sort of inherited it as if I wanted to squeeze and play had to use his cfg. All that said playing against online and at convention top high skilled Q3 players they were all WASD so I no illusion that my cfg capped my top level skill out a bit in the aim/movement department. Always found it a little harder to strafe jump but I was never a flag runner and more of a D player in Q3 CTF.
 

Hivemind

We're Touched
Oct 8, 2010
37,009
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Those of us that came up PC gaming in the 90s and played a lot of FPS games before mouse look became a thing (Wolfenstein, Duke, Doom) and you could just use the keyboard, there were the WASD people and the arrow key people.

I used arrow keys because I was a righty and a touch typist, so "movement on the right, function keys on the left" was ingrained in my brain. Then when games like Quake, Unreal, and Half-Life came out -- when looking up and down became imperative -- the WASD people stayed where they were and used the mouse to look and shoot. The arrow key people came up with other alternatives, like usiel's and mine and CCFs.

It's just a matter of preference. I don't think I could change now if I wanted to, which is a bummer because the gaming world prefers WASD. I remember in the Arkham Asylum console port to the PC, it wasn't even possible to set up the controls the way I usually do, so I know my setup is weird to most people. I had to get a controller to play that game, and fumbled my way through it. A couple of the Far Cry games force you into WASD-like movement when you drive vehicles.



Personal preference is fine and all, but there are objective matters at play here as well. It's like QWERTY vs Dvorak keyboard layouts. While most everyone uses QWERTY because it's what we're used to and its our personal preference, but Dvorak is an objectively superior keyboard layout when it comes to both typing speed and ergonomics. Similarly, I use the default hotkeys in StarCraft II, but "The Core" keybinds and other customized layouts offer competitive players an advantage. Just because my preference is the default hotkeys (because it's what I'm used to and I can't be bothered to learn something else) doesn't mean that the default hotkeys are objectively as good.

Same idea applies to arrow keys vs WASD. Your preference may be the arrow keys, but the arrow keys objectively provide fewer other keys in the immediate vicinity to allow for quick actions without repositioning your hand. WASD and IJKL are objectively stronger control schemes, even if some players have personal preferences that differ.
 

Slateman

Registered User
Feb 2, 2016
537
2
Currently playing through the Shadow of Mordor. Have to say, while it's clearly hack and slash, it's well done and intriguing. Shadow of War may be a Day 1, full purchase price buy for me.
 

HeyMattyB

Sports bring out the worst in everyone.
Aug 20, 2010
2,269
2,449
Philadelphia, PA
I got sucked back into Overwatch thanks to the Summer Games event. So much Lucio Ball. I might actually make a real effort in Season 6 of Competitive when it starts up. For the time being, I'm just learning a few new characters in Quick Match (Winston, Sombra, Zenyatta) while occasionally solo queueing through what's left of Competitive Season 5.

I had been playing a TON of For Honor--which, in terms of gameplay mechanics, is super fun and satisfying. But Ubisoft (in typical Ubi fashion) completely botched the release and the post-release support for the game. Hardly anyone plays it any more, and most of those who do are super frustrated by Ubi's lack of support. I guess they just released their most recent DLC with new maps/characters, but...I'm just not interested right now.
 

Raikkonen

Dumb guy
Aug 19, 2009
10,716
3,166
Russia
I got sucked back into Overwatch thanks to the Summer Games event. So much Lucio Ball. I might actually make a real effort in Season 6 of Competitive when it starts up. For the time being, I'm just learning a few new characters in Quick Match (Winston, Sombra, Zenyatta) while occasionally solo queueing through what's left of Competitive Season 5.

Lucio Ball is super fun. But, suddenly, ppl started to play 2 goalies in higher diamond and further. Rank farming kind of makes it less fun.

Ranked mode made ppl mad at each other lately. Sad.

But Quake provides fun again! :P
 

HeyMattyB

Sports bring out the worst in everyone.
Aug 20, 2010
2,269
2,449
Philadelphia, PA
Lucio Ball is super fun. But, suddenly, ppl started to play 2 goalies in higher diamond and further. Rank farming kind of makes it less fun.

LOL I was wondering what was up with that! I'd be playing goal and a teammate would be dashing around right in front of me and I'd be like, "Dude I'm good, I got this. Why don't you try to score, maybe? Or support from mid-field?" But they'd just keep dashing in front of me and booping the ball back and forth with the other goaltender. Finally, I'd be like, "Look if you're going to stay back here, it looks like you've got everything taken care of, and I'm totally not needed here, so I'm going to step up." And then the other team would score a goal and my goaliemate would freak out.

I guess the strategy at the higher levels is, what...to double-up on goaltenders and spend the entire match booping looper shots back and forth between goalies, with one offensive guy looking to deflect an airborne shot or pop in a rebound?

Oh well. I'll probably (finally) get into Rocket League after this.
 
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