WASD

[Owain Taggart]

First one I was familiar with to have it then I think it's due to the transition phase games went through to being true 3D, that I considered FPS games having it as grown up and matured, if that makes any sense. Quake in a way, was a wakeup call to the possibilities for the genre's future. When you think back on these games, it's amazing things we take for granted were originally innovations, like mouselook in Quake Oh man, how did we do without it?

Haha, I played lots of DN3D back in the day. Those were fun times. There's a group remaking it that officially got the go-ahead from Gearbox after being impressed with what they could do, though I haven't heard anything much. It might have been delayed. If interested, look up DN3D Reloaded. The same team is rebooting Rise of the Triads.

[NCC-1701-B]

I used to use the arrow keys, but moved to WASD when I realised I was stretching my left arm all the way over for no reason! Been using WASD for longer than I've been using any gamepad, just feels wrong to move around with sticks...

[Mr. Adventure]

Yoda wrote:

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I definitely wouldn't credit Unreal with coming up with WASD. They were one of the earlier games to have it as the default control scheme. WASD was common in the Quakeworld days but it wasn't the default. If you recall for Quake you even had to manually enable 'mouselook'.

Yeah, I remember being at a friend's when he set it up for Quake II and it was like a light suddenly shone down on me. It was just so *right* it was like playing for the first time. I remember getting hit by some grunt who I could not locate to save my life when it occurred to me to look toward the ceiling. I felt like Khan learning about the third dimension.

[Sephiroth]

Kelthaz wrote:

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I don't know how anyone can prefer a control stick to a mouse for aiming. It's so imprecise.

takes a little practice but when you get it, the dual sticks are just as accurate as a mouse.

[Yoda]

No they aren't. Exhibit A) Console games have massive aim assist, PC games don't.

[Robert Maxwell]

Sephiroth wrote:

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takes a little practice but when you get it, the dual sticks are just as accurate as a mouse.

Joystick movements are rate-limited and relative by nature. With a mouse, on the other hand, you can move your cursor with great precision to any point on the screen in a fraction of a second--and practice makes you more proficient.

It's not even a knock against joysticks, it's just a task they weren't designed to do well--but mice were.

You can't type a research paper with a mouse, either, or at least I wouldn't want to try. Use the right tool for the job. I'm curious to know what FPS games out there work with joysticks at a level that's on par with mice, and don't use any kind of auto-aiming or other soft cheats to make up for joysticks' inadequacies.

[Owain Taggart]

Mr. Adventure wrote:

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Yeah, I remember being at a friend's when he set it up for Quake II and it was like a light suddenly shone down on me. It was just so *right* it was like playing for the first time. I remember getting hit by some grunt who I could not locate to save my life when it occurred to me to look toward the ceiling. I felt like Khan learning about the third dimension.

I guess that makes sense, as I was never really much into Quake beyond a curiosity, so I never played the sequel. I was more of a DN3D fan. So for me I first saw it in Unreal, and the experience may differ for others

[Itisnotlogical]

What really irritates me is games that have WASD, but A and D are for turning instead of strafing. I believe that was the default setup on Deus Ex and it threw me off for the longest time before I just gave up and changed the settings.

[Owain Taggart]

Haha, yeah, I know what you mean. Definitely annoying and it does seem like an odd setup. Strafing can effectively be more efficient than turning directly, if your movement direction is tied to your mouselook, which is how most games behave these days.

[Geckothan]

Turning with the keyboard is utterly pointless. Strafing and mouselook are the only way to go. In Quake-based games, you don't even need to press forward once you've got some momentum (if you're awesome and just bunnyhop around everywhere).

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, I always want to strafe with A and D. Turning with those is stupid in a mouselook game.

[Owain Taggart]

I used to play the Rainbow 6 series of games with some friends, including someone who was clumsy with grenades and would drop them at his feet, almost every single time. Somewhat of a slower game where you did have to be quiet in order to not be spotted, but quite rewarding among friends. The walking in that game was slow and deliberate, but the strafing allowed you to be a little faster as you were effectively cutting corners and I'd often circle-strafe my target to the point that he'd just be standing there trying to target me. Ahh, those were the days.