I feel that something which has been bothering me for a long time, could be worthy of a topic right here on PGC Forums.
See, I look upon myself as an avid gamer who likes to play the best games available with great story, great graphics and great gameplay. Great entertainment. But sometimes, more often than I would like, games that I play wind up becoming so annoying to play through that they go from being entertainment to become... harassment!
Yes, many times I should like to give the developers a telling IN CAPITOL LETTERS after going through another frustrating gaming session. I really do not look upon games as a kind of tribulation, where I have to go through hell in order to make it to the end and see victory. But they become it many times. Why?
Because of inherent problems in the very design of the interface between me and the gameworld: the 3D controller!
I have experienced problems with gamecontrol in a number of games over the years. On Nintendo 64 it was really starting, because of the center position of the analogue stick on the three pronged controller. This meant I got cramps in my hands during extended play, since I could only comfortable hold the joypad if I stretched my thumb to the 2. prong on the controller. I really never thought that one could properly control Mario, for instance, holding the N64 joypad differently. I think that nomatter how you held it, the cramps would eventually set in sooner or later.
While I admit that the Nintendo 64 controller was innovative, it could have been designed better to eliminate the handcramps. Another problem was handsweat. Sometimes I died in a critical moment on a level, because my hand slipped entirely out of grip since I was sweating too much in the hands and NOT noticing so for reasons on intense concentration. A rubbery finish on the sides, and on top of the official controllers thumb pad, could have solved that problem. But such problems are small, when compared to the biggest problem which I have faced with the current 3D controllers on the market: the lack of precise aiming. I should of course include that I play Shooter/FPS games now and then, and it is here that I experience the biggest problems.
There are so many shooters on the market these days, and they all require precise aiming to actually give you the feeling that you aim for real and shoot! Why didn´t Nintendo think of that? How could they be so narrow minded and design a controller (which everyone has copied since, meaning that it is the standard of 3D control overall) with Mario 64 specifically in mind? That is only ONE game, for crying out loud? It spells madness to tailor a controller to one game, one game category (Platform), when there is so many OTHER games categories coming right up afterwards and which DO NOT work properly with that type of controller!! All the PC Gamers I talk to, told me they will NOT ever play a shooter on a console simply because they cannot hit anything properly with the current controllers!! One guy I spoke to had bought an XBOX and he sold it immediately once he discovered how difficult it was to aim with the control stick! Now he ONLY plays PC games where he can use a mouse. This is mainly what I get to hear everywhere I talk to people about games.
However, the lack of precise aiming was my biggest ever problem in Resident Evil 4. This game is not merely a Shooter, but as much an RPG and one of the best such RPG´s in recent memory. But in my opinion it´s value is compromised by the problem with the interface.
I got insanely annoyed when facing many of the bosses and saw myself dying 10-15 times in a row on EASY setting, because I either couldn´t steer the darn laser sight properly with the fiddly control stick and for instance hit the bosses on the specific places on their bodies, where Plagas were growing, in time before they got to me or couldn´t react quickly enough at the many quicktime events where I am required to "suddenly" blazingly fast respond in a splitsecond to avoid getting hit by a rock or a huge monster or a dumb Marine who look like Rambo´s forgotten brother. It was especially grim in the shooting minigames, where I was unable to get all the bottlecaps simply because I could not HIT the damn target properly (i.e. where Ashley was positioned inbetween without also hitting her repeadetly). In the game with the female agent, I had to give up at the last boss because I could not hit him properly, thus dying all the time, until I gave up, realizing that for me it was impossible to give him the Hasta La Vista Baby-blow at the end because I could not react like I wanted to: just plain AIM and SHOOT and HIT! It was more like TRYING to aim and MISS THE SHOT and therefore NOT hit! Until I broke a controller in utter frustration!
While I could get used to the quicktime events, I could never get used to the aforementioned problem of aiming. Because the current 3D controllers are not suited for aiming well, because of the elevation of the round thumbpad on top of the stick itself, sitting on top of the stick on its underside.
Said elevation creates a slight delay inbetween the moment you move it in any direction and until it "reacts". I really don´t know of any other way to express the way I experience that problem. But there you have it. It´s just too much to have to sit and fiddle with aiming back and forth like a drunken idiot, when really this should be FAST, DIRECT, SIMPLE! It isn´t so in that game (and many others), because the control is not suited for it. If I am going up against those types of monsters in that world of RE4, I want to respond quickly and eloquently like a good field agent would for real, NOT like I am some amateur out to get killed 20 times before I get started. To feel that I cannot respond like I should in lifethreatening situations in the game, because the interface between ME and the GAMEWORLD is TOO PRIMITIVE, is the cause for great frustration. And that is what I mean when I say that (game-) entertainment becomes (game-) harassment!
So I think that a great game such as Resident Evil 4 should have been made differently, so that the frustration stemming from lack of precise aiming would have been eliminated. I had that same problem with Zelda: OOT and MM some times. They did something with the controls in Mario Golf, which I think could help Capcom to get ideas for giving a better control of aiming in Resident Evil 5.
Topic: Problems with 3D Control in today´s games (Read 13523 times)
