The humble mouse and keyboard is still THE best gaming control option - and it might be coming to a console near you!
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC sit in a bar enjoying a drink after a hard day's gaming. They talk about the weather, the local digital sports team and more than a few jokes at Wii's expense are thrown in for good measure.
As evening becomes night, PlayStation 3, the slick hipster of the group, bangs the table. "I'm taking game controls to the next level with my buddy Move. The accuracy is a whole lot better than Wii's and we're actually integrating it into some real gaming titles."
Xbox 360, the everyday man, finishes his beer and shakes his head. "All you've done is reinvent the motion-controlled wheel! I'm evolving game controls with my mate Kinect. Players don't even need to hold anything in their hands to interact with us and they can play games with full-body movements."
PC, the George Clooney of the trio, enjoys his beer while the other two continue to fight among themselves. Eventually they realise that PC hasn't contributed to their argument.
"How can you sit there so quietly, PC? You haven't evolved past your keyboard and mouse roots since your platform began," says PlayStation 3.
PC finishes the last of his beer and smiles. "Why on Earth would I ever need to ‘evolve' my keyboard and mouse control methodology? It gets the job done and is still infinitely more accurate and versatile than anything you two have to throw at it."
Ba-dum. Tish.
In all seriousness, having had quite a lot of hands-on time across the board with various console controllers-including the afore-joked-about Move and Kinect-everything is still compared to the rock-hard foundation of the keyboard+mouse combo. And still, to this day, every controller that doesn't include mouse aiming, is a silver medal at best; and a none-too-shiny medal at that.
Sure, there may be exceptions to this rule. Racing games, sports titles and third-person games that don't require accurate ranged aiming all work really well on a controller; arguably, they work better than the PC's base control methodology. But when it comes to any title that requires a merging of speed and accuracy, where fast reactions need to be complemented by a controller that can match the rate at which you react in your mind, nothing beats the keyboard/mouse combo. In more specific terms, we find it incredibly frustrating in a console first-person shooter when we can't move or react in the same way that we can on a PC.
We recently had some hands-on time with a couple of different Xbox 360 third-party controllers: one was more or less the same as the first-party controller, but another one made use of a modified PC mouse for aiming. Needless to say, the latter controller had us interested.
The Aimon XB is separated into two parts: one part is the aforementioned mouse (with four thumb-positioned buttons for A, B, X and Y functionality), while the other is similar to a Wii Nunchuck controller. The ‘Nunchuck' replaces the functionality of the left-hand side of an Xbox 360 controller, while the mouse takes over the right-hand side.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012