Mouse+Keyboard is just superior. Too many dellusional people here.

1) With a KB+M you can run and move diagonally (forward + strafe) then jump left, change weapons while mid-air, do a 180º turn, crouch and BOOM, HEADSHOT!! All of this in less than 1 second. Or when you face an enemy you can do insanely fast movements that doesn't allow your opponent to aim at your head, like rapidly change between strafing left and right or crouch, while you try headshot him. Can a gamepad do that? HELL NO!!! You can't do this on a console because auto-aim + clunky movement controls don't allow for this high level skill show-off.

2) Do you know why in Proffessional Gaming Competitions the Sports Games are ALWAYS played with a Keyboard? Because the Keyboard allows for a superior and faster input that gamepads can't provide. Infact, in any multiplatform game the keyboard/mouse is chosen as the main controller of the game in proffessional gaming, regardless whether the game sold more on PC or not. For Example, in FIFA 08, a sports game, has the Keyboard as the controller for proffessional competitions like WCG or CGS, because the keyboard provides a faster input than the gamepad, and FIFA 08 sold far more on consoles than on PC.

3) The movement response in a keyboard is atleast two times faster than with an analog stick, which is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for FPS gamers. The keyboard's response is so fast that you can make fast and repetitive strafing as a way to reduce your opponent's aim, I did that alot in UT and ET and it was very effective many times.

4) Control of the degree of speed is POINTLESS in an FPS. You either run as fast as you can or you crouch. Messing with at what speed you run/walk just gets you killed more often.

Interesting design, but too small of an analog and the 2 buttons next to it only mean you will be pressing them by accident every time you move your thumb too far down from the looks of it. Also put your finegrs on the WASD and try to press any button above it and notice that your have to slightly move your entire hand, affecting the movement. Also on a seocnd look thorugh it seems the buttons by the analog stick are for jump, but how are you going to be jumping with your thumb when you are too busy controlling the character, but that can be maped to something else. Biggest problem I see with this is till the limitation of keys. Yes you can map the basics to this, but then what happens if you have 10 or 12 weapons on top of the many function keys? Usually the 2 most useful weps are the ones clsoest to the fingers but all the other have to be able to be selected within manageable time. I'm counting 18 buttons in total including the 2 thumb buttons, and if 10 or so are taken up by weapons then it won't leave enough for all the other function buttons.

I had a serious Deja Vu about writing this post.../.

It also appears that shio has arrived so this discusson is effectively as good as over.

wait, hold on. let me get this straight, you can navigate 20 different keyboard buttons without hitting the wrong one by accident, but you're worried about bumping the two buttons that are in the general location of the analog? Do you accidentally bump the dpad when you're moving the left analog stick on the PS2 controller? and I said this was just an example, I thought the analog looked a little small myself, but I'm sure there are other variations on this with a better analog. it's also likely that it's smaller to reduce the total amount you have to move it to get from 100% left to 100% right

Also keep in mind that you're not limited to just 14 or 20 keys, cause you don't need 2 or 3 fingers for your movement, you only need one thumb, which means you can not only press single keys, but multiple buttons at once, which can be configured for pretty much endless button combinations.



[Note, this part is just personal gripe, not actual argument against Keyboard or FPS]
I have to admit, part of my problem with the people defending the Keyboard for FPS is because you invariably have them mention advantages that I don't feel should even be in the game to begin with:
* hotkeys for instantaneous weapon changing
* changing direction without having to account for momentum
* headshot = instantly fatal, body shots = lost hitpoints, but no other detriments
* instant reload
It's a game, reality isn't an issue, yet you have people building competitions around those games that are most catered to the keyboard controls you brag about, and then in turn use those as the examples to show that those games are most suited to Keyboard and mouse.
[/end rant]

I didn't know you could have button combinations, but struggling to pull off a correct combo will just make your thumb move even more, your fingers are all connected after all. It also seems that your personal gripes are aimed towards the non-realistic shooter as a whole. The more realistic ones have all that you mentioned, momentum,reloading, carrying only a few weapons (console shooters do this too but that's only to mask their inability to manage more than 2 or 3 guns at a time with a controller). I personally hate realistic games, if I wanted to take my tiem loading and all of that I would just sing up for the Army and leave it at that. I want something that's not part of this world and something that I can't experience no matter what I do.

I dont get why this is a question for the PC guys. I mean for goodness sake its called PLUGGING IN A GAME CONTROLLER, SUCH AS A 360 ONE VIA USB PORT, you dont like kb+mouse.

Not all games support a controller properly. I've seriously tried it with halflife and portal, which have a check box option that specifically states "dual analog" but it doesn't do anything.

well then you could be doing something wrong, I've tested out my PS3 controller and it worked. Though I couldn't stand it for a second, using a controller is not something I'd want to use in a series that I've been playing on the PC since the late 1990's.

Pit two COD4 players against each other. One on Mouse + Keyboard, the other with a gamepad.

All things being equal (luck, skill, etc.) the mouse user wins everytime.

That's why we prefer mouse + kb. Any questions?

@Grey Acumen

You need to let this go. For FPS Keyboard/Mouse is superior. Factually so.

The OP and title is why K&M on FPS is a big deal. That's been answered a hundred times: speed of movement, movement accuracy (despite your points in a combat situation you can actually navigate and dodge better with a keyboard/mouse) and the biggest difference - aiming accuracy.

I've played and enjoyed quite a few FPS on console now, and am switching more and more from PC to console. But I can tell you with absolutely certainty that the trade off is for comfort, big screen etc vs control - because analogue movement adds practically nothing to a FPS while it removes a whole lot of control.

I'd also note FPS on consoles are slower than PC based FPS for this very reason (I seem to remember seeing UT3 was around 30% slower). Despite being maybe slightly better for walking around dual analogue sticks restrict your speed of movement and aim in a combat situation and nothing you say will change that.

I'm glad you love your gamepad (or Wii mote or whatever) so much - but no console or other input device yet in general use is better than K&M for FPS.

So please (pretty please) let it go as I don't know about others but you're coming across to me as someone refusing to accept what is a fact and not an opinion, which never looks good.

@reasonable

Exactly. If gamepad was good, professional UT / Quake / CS players would be plugging gamepads into their USB ports.


I remember my first FPS (Wolf 3D) - I played it with a joystick. Most FPS gamers in the early days used joysticks. Then Doom came out, we went online (modem to modem or BBS) and faced "mousers" who utterly destroyed us.