Or at least they should give it a try to realize what they are missing. I've been a faithful keyboard+mouse player for all my gaming life until I recently bought a 360 controller to play the game on my couch and it's been a blast. Since my main character is basically a pure archer I still miss the accuracy of a mouse but being able to move and look around with the smoothness of a joypad is incomparable to the instantaneous movements of a keyboard. Since a video is worth a thousand words I put together http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQksnaxTNXw little video to show what I'm talking about. You ought to believe me, a 360 controller for PC is one of the best buys you could make to enjoy Skyrim, it combines the best of both worlds and once you get used to it there's no turning back. It's been almost two months since I bought it and I've never touched the keyboard anymore.

And the above comes from a person who just a while ago would have been ready to swear upon everything he owns that he would have never played a game on PC using something even slightly different from a mouse. Never say never I guess.

I play Morrowind with a keyboard and mouse. I play Fallout 3 and NV with a keyboard and mouse, and prefer it to using the controller in those two games. I don't mind what I play Oblivion with, but I always play Skyrim with a controller. Something about the combat and the ability to just lie back and relax (despite the fact I don't feel that way with the other games) is just awesome.

It really depends on how the game "feels" for me.

Camera movement with a controller is much smoother but I can't deal with the lack of accuracy you get with it. It's no first person shooter with a requirement for good accuracy but still, it's not for me. I do have a controller but I only use it for games where it makes me more accurate (hack and slash games like Darksiders/Dark Souls, platformers), not less.

Easy and quick answer: OH HELL NO, thanks.

I tried a controller not long ago, and dropped it at 5 minutes of starting. Just not being able of turning around instantaneously was a huge pain.

I'm just too used to the speed and accuracy of the mouse, and being able to have tons of hotkeys at my reach.

100% agree with this, I think alot of it is more psychological, the nature of just sitting back on your couch or bed and just relaxing with a controller, theres something.. theraqeutic about the whole affair.

I have a monstrous PC but I bought MineCraft on 360 and thats my main version just BECAUSE of the controller : )

Sorry to disagree but I controller for me are for games like sports simulators or action based games....you can make a case for games like Assassins Creed or Arkham City too, but for FP games there is no subsitute for mouse and keyboard...I must admit that the camera movement does look smooth (and the 360′s controller is better than the PS3 for that) but it is not for me. I hav tried it too, and maybe if I played a melee char I would not notice much, but for my archer there is no substitute

You can move more smoothly, but you can't aim worth a damn. I'll take accurate aim over accurate movement in a game like Skyrim any day. Besides, have you tried doing a 180o with a controller? Makes kiting a PITA.

no thanks. Not even going to try. A controller will not let me use console commands. hell can't even type them in. I use console commands a lot for screenshot taking and what not. Havning also played Skyrim on my PS3 before moving to the PC, I will say with experience to back it, I enjoy the keyboard and mouse MUCH better. And honestly I dislike the 360 controller. The PS3 controller I like better. I did buy a logitech gaming controller with the thought of using it for Skyrim. That didn't last past the continue/load/new game screen.

so again...

no thanks.

lol, that was my first reaction to it. Then I fell in love with it while wandering in a cave, the ability to slowly move and look around catching all the details I missed while playing with the keyboard is priceless. A controller forces me to a slower pace that makes me feel way more immersed than with a keyboard+mouse.


Perhaps 5 minutes weren't enough to appreciate it.

I got used to a mouse and keyboard with most games. I can use a controller while playing PS1, but I'm not exactly good with it. Any game that allows free movement gives me a very bad time with a controller.

That's nothing you can't do it yourself with KB & Mouse. Don't make them the culprit when the real one is your self-control

I "trained" myself to both get rid of fast travel and to take a slow pace with the game. And results showed off some time ago (I only travel by foot, or via 10-slot Mark & Recall, according to my character's lore).

And well, maybe 5 minutes weren't enough. But I truly couldn't stand it, and the reason is because I like the freedom of movement the mouse offers. Sure, sometimes I like to slowly turn around. But sometimes I want to do it in half a second, like when in a combat (where you don't have the luxury of having several seconds to turn around). And that's something the controllers just don't offer: freedom.

Well, the first thing that comes to mind you can't do with KB+mouse is moving around at like 10 different speeds. You also can't walk down easily those spiral staircases found in the Nord ruins, and you certainly can't lie back and relax like you could do with a controller. Once you get used to it [and it took me a full month for this] all those things alter completely and forever the way you play the game. Self control has little to nothing to do about it.

I don't find the mouse and keyboard more accurate. It's a matter of taste. I just use a M + K for strategy games like total war.

Um, no, keyboard and mouse being more accurate is actually a fact, not certainly a matter of taste. You certainly can't do anything even close to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB76kyYxDoQ with a controller, but a game like Skyrim is definitely better played with it in my opinion.

You can. And if you can't, you have badly adjusted the sensitivity of the mouse. AFAIK, it's the controller the one which in fact has only 1 speed. And again, I can walk down those spiral stairs just fine, even with a single, slow, prolongued movement.

And again, self control is all what's about with it, wheter you believe it or not. The proof is that you CAN go slow with K/B if you want. All you must do is, well, to do it.

BTW, just stating the fact...I always play with max sensitivity, and I'm still being able to do such slow and careful movements like the stairs' one

While with the anolog stick you set the speed to your likings, with the keyboard is either walk or run. That's only 2 speed settings.

I was talking about turning speed, not walking speed.

And anyways, are you sure there are more speeds than Walk --> Run --> Sprint (there are 3 in the game, not 2), or you're just misinterpreting them? It seems a bit odd to me...

Started with a 360 controllet then gave KB/M a go and wish I had used them from the start.

The menus I found awkward and had less accuracy with the pad and also have so many more hotkeys now

I've tried it, and I don't like it. I don't play any games with a controller except if they're racing or sports games. In the case of Skyrim, it would also be annoying because I am first and foremost an archer, and aiming with a mouse is just way more precise.

Same here. Still i do have a software to make my computer think my PS3 controller is an XBox controller, so i suppose i could give it a shot.



Well, those sticks are anolog, so speed may depend on how you push the stick.

Wait what? I can see now why you didn't get used to the controller, perhaps you just pushed the sticks all the way up to their full position and thought they were meant to work that way. They are called anolog stick for a reason, just watch the first 40 seconds of the video and you'll know what I'm talking about. And about turning speed, it's definitely smoother and obviously steadier than using a mouse, you just have to push the RS where you want to look, hold it there and you'll turn around indefinitely. That's why spiral staircases are easier to walk down.

I play the pc version with a xbox 360 controller. I just prefer how the controller feels like an extension of my hands and very rarely do I press the wrong button, let alone feel like I need to pause the game and look down at the keyboard. I also greatly prefer using anolog sticks for movement, rather than wasd or the mouse for the easy 360 degree movement and speed of movement is determined by how far I push the stick. Depending on the situation, or my mood, I can either crawl, walk, or run just by moving the anolog stick slightly or futher down.

With other pc games, I frequently pause the game during combat just to make sure that I'm hitting the right hotkey, and once in a while my hand will shift and I end up walking right instead of straight. When using a controller, I just play the game and only look at the keyboard when taking screenshots and etc.

I don't really care about walking speed...walking is something I only do while in towns, and I have no problems switching from running to sprinting. But turning speed is the real point...it's all about if you prefer steadness or freedom of movement, and I always go for the second, simply because you can also have steadness on K/M with a little practise and sensitivity adjustments, while the turning speed, AFAIK, remains constant in controllers.

As I said, I don't want that. I want to being able to turn around slowly while watching some beautiful landscape, I want to turn around in less than a second while in combat. I want to do a steady, single prolongued movement to walk down some spiral stairs...and I don't want to worry about turning speed limitations every time. Can you do that with a controller? I'm afraid you can't

Sounds like you didn't use it long enough to tell whether you can or not, because as a matter of fact you can actually do both. You can both move and look around as slow as you wish and turn around in a fraction of a split second, it's just a matter of adjusting the stick sensitivity, exactly like you would do with a mouse. The one thing you can't do with a controller is aiming with the same accuracy of a mouse, but unless you are a pure archer you won't ever feel the need of the accuracy a mouse has. Not going to convincing you otherwise, it's not my intention, but since I find you pretty uninformed I strongly encourage you to give the controller a long try, just enough to being actually able to understand how it's supposed to work.

Hm..didn't know you could adjust the stick sensitivity, although I figured it may have that option. But still, as I've already said, the biggest advantage you mention it has (steadness) is also it's biggest weakness (due to the lack of freedom of movement).

And well, in reality it isn't a matter of only having played for 5 minutes, you see...I instantly fell in love with K/M after the first time I tried it, back to the Quake 1 years (after having played a lot with consoles). Since the first time, the mouse just felt so horribly natural that I think it's just the way of playing.