I'm a PC gamer, been one all my life (well, since the early 80s, anyway- didn't have access to any PCs before then). I've really very rarely played games on console. I had a PS2 once, but put maybe 40 or 50 hours into it. I've got a Wii, but have played it even less. So, that's my background. I just haven't played games with a controller very much.

Despite this, I went and bought an XBOX 360 controller for my PC to try out on Skyrim, and it arrived last night. It's wireless, and was easy to set up. This is what I got: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109243

I imagine that all you console gamers have been using the same kind of movement system- left stick to move forward and back and to step side to side, and right stick to turn and look up and down- so I'm sure you've gotten used to it. I'm finding it difficult, to be honest. I keep getting turned around, and find myself strafing when I want to turn. I'm also finding the lack of precision with the right stick to be a little disconcerting, as well. I'm used to being able to easily and quickly center on a target with the mouse. On the flip side, I'm finding sword swinging and blocking far more intuitive with the triggers than it was with the mouse buttons. I also like how I can vary my speed so easily just by how far I push the stick forward (if you weren't aware, with PC controls, it's just a toggle between run and walk, and only one walk speed). To make the transition a bit more smooth, I started a new playthrough.

Despite the difficulties, I'm going to stick with it. I'm sure that once I get used to it, it will be much better. I've already noticed that it's far more comfortable to use when sitting in my recliner with the game on the TV, even though I have a good wireless mouse and keyboard and a lapdesk to set them on.

So basically a question or two for all you controller users, particularly the PC controller users: Do you use any mods or other programs to change the default controls? If so, what do you recommend? One thing I found is that so far, MOST of the extra buttons I can get by without, but I still find myself having to keep the keyboard in my lap or close by for the quick save hotkey. How do you deal with this? Any tips for a newb controller user?

I have played both pc and console skyrim and once you get used to the controller it will fill a lot better than just keyboard and mouse trust me.
The only tip i can give is to just keep playing.

Xpadder

The only draw back for me is the lack of hotkeys otherwise I love 360 controls

I am a console user moving to PC. I will be bringing my controller with me. As a matter of fact it will be the same one you are using. I would assume you could use the start key to pull up the save menu, that same as with the console. I am under the impression that all the functions are the same as the Xbox itself.

There are issues with the controller not working and bugging out, but only after you have remapped the functions of the presets. There are mods that will correct this.

@ Aces: Yes, I've heard of xpadder. I might check that one out. I also know there are some mods already out.

@Cinco: The start key does bring up the menu, but it's not the same as a quick save. First, it comes up on the quest journal, and there is no option for quick save. You can create a new save with a few keypresses, but 1) that creates more save files that aren't needed, and 2) quick save is just F5: boom, one single keypress, done. There is also the conveniece of quick load on F9. The quick save doesn't create a new save when you use it- it overwrites the previous quick save. It's a huge boon if you experience a lot of crashes (which I have been since 1.4 came out).

I have tried both, and I think your difficulties are pretty representative. I played Oblivion on the 360 and found playing it on PC awkward because the mouse and keyboard just seemed too "sharp" of controls for what felt like a game that was intended to be played smoothly. I felt like I was using twitch fps controls, which was odd. Funnily enough, I started playing Skyrim on pc with mouse and keyboard, and now trying a controller feels really awkward. I particularly notice things like picking up small objects (a large pain). I think a lot of the problems are pretty much unavoidable (ie pc not being able to gradually increase movement speed, and controllers not being as accurate). You will adjust to either in time though, and it will cease to matter. It is the change that is the most disconcerting because you have a feeling of how it "should" feel.

Same, but I found a "mod" on Nexus that used the Left shoulder Button (LB) as a "shift" button, when I hold that it changes all my face buttons to other functions. So I have 8 hotkeys all on the D-Pad. Once I got used to it, it's no different to playing on 360. Except, ofcourse, with all the benefits of PC.

No way can I go controller. One because, to me, the Mouse\Keyboard is way, way better.

Two, I think it`s a con to get you to spend money on Microshaft for a PC game.

I even fought a multiplayer fps once against a friend with the control pad. i was like a fish on dry land getting slaughtered. then we discovered the console took a Mouse and allowed me to sidestep with the pad like I do with the keyboard.

I won 9 games out of 10. He just couldn`t touch me and my accuracy was increased 90%!

No way, would I use a controller except for beat em ups and racers.

I think I got used to an anolog stick playing Goldeneye. Give it time, your neurons will catch up.

If you don't mind spoilers , she will get your right stick skills up to speed if you know what I mean.

I guess it could be said then, that you learn to exploit what you use most.

So no one control option is the actual best, it's all down to the player and how well he can manipulate his choice of controls.

I am quick as a flash in 3rd person on xbox controller at picking up even individual coins off tables and that, just cos I learnt where to place the crosshairs compared to what I wanted to do.

Use whatever feels most natural/intuitive to you!

Answering to spoiler: OMG, I always wished there was something like that in the game, definitely finding her! I need some archery practice.

Oooh heres a good topic. Personally for me I think Skyrim feels the very best on ps3 controller but also great on xbox. The menu system to me seems totally geared towads using a controller. You press the menu button and then use the joystick to scroll to every menu...brilliat and streamlined. Makes me HAAATE the pip boy. With that said joysticks have a deadzone when returning to neutral and therefor will never be as precise as a mouse and keyboad. Then again I dont even know if real life shooting is as accurate as a mouse and keyboard. I think for for shooters technically a mouse and keyboard is the "best" in terms of performance and accuracy and a mouse user would fill a joystick user full of arrows in a second. I personally play most games on consoles and enjoy that controler better than mouse and keyboard right now. Since Im not fighting mouse and keyboard users im fine .
The archery vs melee thing I totally agree with as well. Its like gta 4 where shooting is better on m&k but the driving is better on the gamepad. Does the PC version support force feedback? I think this is a feature so many people ignore but theres something about getting a jolt in your hands that really ads to the experiance. Need proof? PLay metal gear solid 1-4. Getting caught in a stealth game can be startling but someone yelling out and having your controller vibrate just makes you jump!

Controllers are all preference tho. Ive seen a mortal kombat 3 tournament where one finalist used an arcade style mk fight stick and one guy used a keyboard. A KEYBOARD FOR A FIGHTING GAME!!!...it was wierd but even tho he lost he was good!

i cant stand controlers even in fps's the delayed movement and looking speed is horrible compared to a mouse and keyboard.

I see what you mean now OP. I understand how the quick save would indeed be handy.

As far as using K&M, I guess one can get use to anything. I can't set up for as long as I can kick back. I play for upwards to 16 hrs. The controller is just way too comfortable to give up. I can also see how a mouse would give an advantage to aiming. That may be why I have such trouble aiming a shooter. When I do play them, and so far the only ones are FO and ME, I tend to favor the Sniper. I favor them anyway because of my sneaky / passive playstyle.

After I get my rig built. I may entertain the idea of a mouse on a pad at my side. There are some interesting upright mice out there. But for now I see me sticking with the pad.

EDIT : As for any delay and speed movement with a controller...You can adjust the sensitivity of the sticks to be lightning fast. My issue is they can get too fast.

The biggest difference is the "dead zone". Lets say the middle position of your joystick is 0. All the way to the left is -50 and all the way to the right is 50. If you move it tot he right you are going from 0 to 50. If you let go of the stick and it snaps back to neutral you gor from 50 to 0. That time it goes from 50 to 0 is the dead zone because even though the joystick is moving from 50 to 0 is moving left the joystick doesnt register anything. If you want to look left right left righ think -50 to 50 then -50 to 50. The time the -50 or 50 approaches 0 is the deadzone because it doest effect movement. Wiggle a mouse back and forth and it moves eft or righ tright away.

Hold your joystick all the way to the right and your character will spin in a circle. Let go and he just stops. The joystick goes from left to right but you dont look left...it just stops. No matter how high the sensitivty the deadzone is the same beacuse the joystick physicaly exists in the same world regardless of sensitivity. If you crank your sensitivity to high when looking from left to right you cross that deadzone but once your out of it your high sneitivity will cause you to look way to far. Unless of course you adapt. I used to play halo 2 with my sensitivity set to 8!

With all of the that said I play most games on xbox and ps3 and if youve played halo from halo 2 through reach and got sniped in the face as many times as I have by people using xbox pads the mouse and keyboard vs joystick argument still might hold some water lol

I played Oblivion and Morrowind on pc with a mouse and keyboard so naturally I felt I was going to play Skryim the same way. However having a 360 controller on hand I gave it a try and decided to use the keyboard after a week of using the controller.

I instantly went back to a controller, much as I felt TES games were meant to be played on a keyboard I think Skyrim was made for the controller and as such I feel it a much rewarding experience. I don't think I will ever use a keyboard on this game. I just wish I had more hot keys, that is the only down side I have.

Been using a controller for years and years.
Even on FPS games I play a controller mouse configuration, then you have anologue movement as well as superior mouse aiming at the same time. Keyboard is old hat digital rubbish.

It will not. But its more comfortable sitting on a sofa yes. Dead zone is a problem, but also thumb muscles are just too imprecise, mechanically, to give you any kind of actual control.

I see what you are saying about the "dead zone". But the stick is moving back so fast, by snapping or by my hand, that is a non issue. That is for me anyway. It's just making it stop on the pin. Mouse or stick, i would still have that problem. I mean when you throw a ball, you are just eyeing your target and your hand follows where you want the projectile to go. The same is said for shooting a longbow. You don't actually aim anything. Placing that crosshair on a precise target is a pain for me no matter the operating mech. So still...the controller wins out.

A PS3 controller works as well... You just need a good PS3 controller program that makes that makes it so that your PC sees it as an Xbox360 controller. (mine has vibration that can be enabled.)


You can either search on Steam (the DeadIsland forum part), or just plainly search on the internet...


For Skyrim, I'm using a mouse.

Its all down to preference and personal skill with the peripheral of choice. Personally I play FPS games on the PC with the kb/mouse but sports games like football simply must be a controller for me. Skyrim is a game where I could use the kb/mouse but I would probably default to the pad after a while simply because I have played it that way on the 360. I have the MS wired controller for the PC, much cheaper and easier to setup than a wireless pad. Especially considering I have 2 wireless pads already linked to the 360, and I would need to buy the wifi connector for those and then resync them every time when switching between PC and console. So a wired pad for the PC made more sense to me.

I will say this much. I've been playing arcade games since Space Invaders, consoles since the Atari 2600, and PC games since 1985 with Adventure (look it up) and the like. I played Oblivion on PC with keyboard and mouse (well, mousepad on a laptop) and did the same with Skyrim for about two days. Then I got a controller, which I had been planning to buy anyway since I wanted one to play Dead Space. The controller is far, far better than using mouse or mousepad and keyboard as far as comfort goes.

That said, it has been shown that head-to-head in an FPS, people using mouse and keyboard will school people using a gamepad time and time again. The mouse and keyboard setup is far more precise. I think this shows a flaw in most FPS games, however; they allow the character to be far too accurate. People can, by getting good with the controls, dominate people who don't. That sounds fair, at first blush - why shouldn't people be able to get good, after all? But I think the problem is that it reduces the FPS to purely a game revolving around hand-and-eye coordination, which real combat most definitely is not. There's no way for me to test this, but I'm fairly sure that if I were able to set up a match between eight people who had good hand-eye coordination and a mastery of the controls, but who played the game like idiots who couldn't spell the word "tactical", much less be tactical, versus eight people whose hand-eye coordination and twitch skills were mediocre, but who had a grasp of sound tactics - I'm pretty sure that the twitch-skill morons would win every damn time.

I love and enjoy MW3 (brother gave it to me for my birthday) and I've played every installment of the Halo series and have played FPS since Wolfenstein. But, when I die in MW3, I usually die within a half second of the other guy pulling the trigger. I'd hazard a guess and say their first bullet is a kill about 2/3rds of the time. That's just not realistic, and it means that nothing matters except the player's twitch skill. Any sense of tactics is utterly irrelevant. If the other guy has a faster reaction time, he'll win every time, regardless of how stupidly he plays and how inventive your tactics are.

Urban combat is a thinking man's game...except when it's actually a game, then it's a Mountain Dew drinker's game.

Anyway, sorry to digress. For Skyrim, go with the controller all the way. You will get used to it. The only downside is the two hotkeys instead of eight.

Brilliant point man. That what I love about battlefield. Dedicated servers so lag is at a minimum. Positioning and tactics is no better or worse than twitch kills. A tactition can get the drop on a twitch killler but the fast shooter can whip around if the camper/tactical guy misses that first bullet, and if two guys shoot so close to each toehr you the lag and game cantg decide they both die because bullets travel once they leave your gun and it IS possible for 2 people to shoot each other at the same time.

I like what one poster said here about the anologue movement being superioir than holding shift to run. on pc its either walk slowly or run balls out!

Yeah, I do prefer the controller for that sort of thing - being able to adjust movement speed is nice.