Why Are New PC Video Games Easier To Play With Gamepads And Joysticks

Well, it’s another great year for video game fans. After a loooong time, a new Mortal Kombat game is out, GTA V is knocking on the doors and so on. But it is also time for me to write about a thing that has been bugging for a long time. Just as the title of this blog says, I have watch many recent PC games work better with gamepads than with Keyboard and Mouse. Now in my mind I have been thinking, why the hell is it like that?

Personally I am a very big fan of Soccer games like the Fifa series and Pro Evolution Soccer series. While PES has always been tilted towards the gamepads, I had no problems playing Fifa with keyboard till the Fifa 11 version. But then Fifa 2012 came out and I was bamboozled. No matter how hard I tried, I was not able to even pass the ball properly using keyboard, let alone score a goal and win a match. So in the end, I had to break a decade long rule of mine, to play a PC game with a controller. I was easier to play but sad nonetheless.

Not only Fifa, the classic Beat’em Up games like Street Fighter are also becoming harder and harder to play with Keyboard. You can hardly do a combo without using a gamepad. Sometimes there are games that play quite well with the Keyboard – Mouse combination but some parts of the game are very difficult to play with them. For example the hugely popular Far Cry 3 is very nice to play on PC but driving the car with keyboard is a pain in the behind. Only gamepads can take care of this problem.

I have been thinking, why is it happening? The best answer that comes to mind is that the game developers now make cross-platform games. The console versions are almost always more stable than their PC counterparts. Unlike consoles, there can be an endless number of combinations for different PC hardware and software. So the bugs and glitches are more prevalent in PC versions and developers have to keep churning out bug fixes on a regular basis to support buyers. While for console versions, the hardware and software are standard globally and there is almost no chance that a game running on a PS 3 in the US will not run on a PS 3 in Singapore.

May be making PC games gamepad dependent is the developers’ way of pushing gamers towards consoles. But for hardcore PC gamers like us, we will not go down without a fight. And at the same time, it is a sincere plea to the developers that please make PC games playable using keyboard and mouse only.