Lock-on? Auto Aim? Free Aim? What's it for you?

I'm surprised at the amount of people playing with lock-on. It's just not fun, you're not really doing anything. Free-aim feels great, it's better and smoother than RDR (i know, i replayed it a week before this came out).

Lots of people also saying that shooting with a controller in general is awful. Honestly i disagree. I grew up on PC shooters, but I actually feel shooting with a controller is more fun and satisfying. These days whenever i use a mouse in a shooter, sure i'll get tons of headshots and aiming is super smooth and effortless, but it feels like I'm clicking on dudes, not shooting them.

The only real difference between the shooting in this and in Max Payne 3 (which i also replayed recently) is the animations of max were so detailed and fluid that it made run and gunning super easy and preferable.

And yes, I agree the lock-on stuff is beneath me as well. It's disappointing it defaults to lock-on as many people wont bother changing it, they'll miss out on satisfying and well made shooting. "oh i died a few times, i'm not going to get better at shooting, i'll just have the game aim for me"

Everything you have just said makes me think you're a crazy person. I probably have thousands of hours logged across numerous FPS/TPS games on consoles and I still have yet to play a game where I thought, man, this is preferable to M&KB. Any control scheme that I have to grind out for hundreds of hours before I start to enjoy it is rubbish in my book, not to mention the fact that I don't have anywhere near that amount of free time. And yeah, I played Dragon's Dogma and actually originally tried to spec into an archer build, but dropped that a few hours in because trying to shoot the bow was so frustrating.

I get that a lot of people are happy with playing shooters on a controller, and actually find it preferable. I am not one of them.

Free Aim although I'm not entirely sure if it's the gunplay itself (which is mostly good) or the way the frame rate effects it but it can be a real pain to aim at times but it's still preferable to having the auto aim do all the work for you, there's obviously a greater satisfaction being more connected to the gameplay itself and pulling off great shots.

@seppli: All that is true and would be fine if GTAV was made like a Max Payne game, or any third person shooter really. Aiming has certainly gotten better, and that is fine, but the gameplay has not. The gunplay isn't nearly as sophisticated as a dedicated Third Person Shooter game. Your health is too small and regenerates too slow, the enemy AI is poor and the game makes up for this with sheer numbers. That coupled with the generally good AIM those AI enemies have can be a real issue. In other third person shooters you have some hooks to make the gunplay interesting. Dodging, special abilities, fluid controls. In GTAV it's very barren in terms of variety for the shooting. Hide behind cover or shoot standing up. Huge animation priority on everything. Getting out of a car takes forever. Getting up from a fall takes even longer.

So yah, I could definitely play this with Free Aim, but there is no point because it's not a satisfying third person shooter and I much rather run away and get into a car than engage in any sort of firefights.

I would love to do Free Aim if I had any control method besides the controller. But with how quickly you die from enemy fire, it's just too difficult. A lifetime of PC gaming has spoiled me and going back to a controller feels sluggish and bad.

Free aim because I like to have some semblance of a challenge in most games.

@starvinggamer:

I believe there's two types of players when it comes to playing with gamepads. Binary Players and Analog Players. Binary Players go full tilt by default, while Analog Players use the whole range of movement - full tilt being the option, rather than the default. Of course that's over-simplifying it, but I believe that's the gist of it. The root of the disparity of opinions when it comes to playing games with a gamepad.

P.S. The Archer archetype has never been better realized than in Dragon's Dogma. I highly recommend working yourself into its controlscheme. I think there never was a better merging of melee and ranged combat gameplay in any game to date, better than what Dragon's Dogma achieved with its three bow-wielding classes (Strider/Ranger/Assassin).

Actually yeah, how is that going to work? Free aim default locked for everyone? Some people will be in for a surprise if so.

@razielcuts: In red dead redemption there was a normal lobby that let you use whatever aiming style you liked and a free aim lobby that forced you to use free aim. I imagine it will probably work like that.

Free aim, except during those rampage missions. I don't like those, so I turn auto aim on just to get through them faster/easier.

I just hold RT without LT, you get the cross hair but since you do so much damage and barely take any, the need to be subtle is sorta gone, just DUMP

@clonedzero: I think the problem I was having might have been with the people that would be a good distance away on a roof or something. I was kinda having a hard time spotting targets during those missions, and just wasn't enjoying them. I hate leaving side missions and stuff undone and just sitting on the map, so I just used the lock on aim to rid myself of them.

Is it confirmed that GTA Online will disable lock-on/auto-aim? That would be a good design choice, I think.

I started out using free-aim, but I wound up switching to auto-aim an hour or two into the game. Something about the free-aim just felt really off to me and I couldn't get used to it. It probably doesn't help that I don't play many shooters on consoles these days.

Wait ... you realize your first post might have sounded a bit weird to people and apologize for it? You can't do that! This is the internet!

It reminds me of when Resident Evil Revelations on 3DS was criticised for being much better with the Circle-Pad Pro because it's the only was you could control the camera or walk and aim... except you could go into the options and make the face buttons (A, B, X, Y) control the camera, making the game play a lot more like MGS Peace Walker (ie just fine). Or recently how Jeff has complained on two separate podcasts about the controls of Killzone Mercenary and how you have to tap the back of the Vita to sprint ... yeah or you can press circle when moving, which is how 99% of people do it. That game is good ... take it from someone who has spent more than an hour with it.

So often on podcasts (not just Giant Bomb) games are slammed for not being amazing in the first hour or group-think takes over. Most reviewers have lost touch with what it's like to have to buy every game...

Didn't even know there was a difference between lock-on and auto aim. I'm using the default setting so I guess it's lock-on? I just don't like using the analog stick for aiming and I'm never going to get good at it (and don't see the point to get good at it since I don't play much FPS/TPS on consoles enough to care).

Assisted aim, lock on is too crazy and I'd go with free aim except that a lot of the time it's really hard to pick out enemies from the background, the amount of times the game has guided my aim at an enemy I could barely even see is crazy, I really wouldn't want to have to rely on parsing the out myself. Shoot outs are enjoyable and that's fine by me.

The default whatever it was called.

I'd rather stick my dick in a meat grinder then engage in shooting with a controller and especially with the shaky shooting controls this game has and how incredibly fast you go down. I don't play GTA for the shooting whatsoever but to get a good personality story and enjoy the open world. A. if this was on PC i'd only be pleased to play with no lock on, like i did in GTA4 B. if i want to challenge my shooting skillz i'll go play BF with a k&m.

Free aim.

Free aim for when I want a challenge, lock-on when I want a mission to be over.

Free-aim. Never had a problem with manual aiming with controllers. I'm not trying to sound like a douche either, but I just grew up playing shooters on consoles, so unfortunately I'm acclimated to the general shittyness of it. I am actually enjoying it though. There is some challenge to the combat rather than the brain-dead flicking of the right stick.

@fuzzy_dunlop said:

I can somewhat concur. I expected a harder challenge as well but the result was much more satisfying personally. Bullet time and rampage specials were much more precious with free aim so I had to discipline myself to be a good shot. Also it made one of the assassination missions more action-y.

Lock on (or auto aim, whatever the default is) is fine for me. The free aim isn't good enough to justify wrestling with the controls. Guess that makes me less of a man or a filthy casual or some shit.

Auto aim, then feather the the stick up a bit to shoot guys in the teeth.

The default on, the free aim isn't smooth enough for me to enjoy like Max Payne 3 was. I treat it like Read Dead: lock on, move joystick up a little, head shot.

Eh. Between the morsel of health I can never seem to keep and the aiming controls I can't ever seem to wrestle into obedience, I think I'll stick with the default auto aim.

I haven't tried the free aim in actual combat, but I just can't see how it is viable option. When you're in close quarters with more than one or two enemies, you die extremely quickly when you're out of cover. The only way to stay alive is to pop out of cover for a fraction of a second, take a guy out, then go back in cover. There is no way to line up a free-aim shot in that kind of time. The game is clearly balanced for the lock-on targeting.

I have too much trouble seeing the reticle to use free-aim.

I have too much trouble seeing the reticle to use free-aim.

I could sit closer to my TV but I'll probably just stick whatever the default is.

You can change it to a more traditional crosshair in the settings if you change it to 'complex', so it's not just a single dot.

This is where I realize I beat the game thinking the aiming was stupid auto-aim this whole time, with no way to change. Now I see that free aim has been there the whole time and I am a fucking idiot.

Goddamn my life.

The aiming in GTA feels super sluggish for me, and there's a bit of a delay in my movements, so I just use lock-on because I want to have fun. So far it's really the only game I've played with lock on or auto aim enabled.

Aim-assist cos I feel like the game was designed and play tested with the lock on aim in mind, which can make some of the more intense firefights unfun, and switching back and forth from free aim to assist during these moments would be too much of a hassle for me.

In most games i turn aim assist/auto aim off, even multiplayer FPSs, this way you get better much faster.

I can stay alive on foot with a 4-star wanted level almost forever. Even with Frank, the shoot-out lightweight. Free-aim, mind you.

Kiting law enforcement hordes like the samurai warrior my virtual self really is. I'd say my average target acquisition time doing a 180 degree turn is about 0.75s. With your eye on the radar, that's easily quick enough to turn around and take out most cops being cannonfodder in their vehicles. Free kills.

Guerrilla warfare 1.01. Keep moving, keep the enemy in your back. Take out what comes into range as efficiently as possible. Works best in urban areas with lots of obstructions of line of sight shielding you from choppers.

Kiting is so much fun. It's like a non-stop Michael Mann movie, and I'm playing the badest badass ever. Especially playing Mike. Dude is a stonecold killer with his bullet time special. A real professional. Mike's special ability is a dead give-away that it's not really meant to be played with lock-on/auto-aim. His special being only meaningful with manual aim. Not that you'll need it, once you get good at the game.

Cars are death traps. That's the error most make. Getting in and out of vehicles gets you killed. Also law enforcement tends to pile-up on you, as soon as you're in a car. You have to create very specific circumstances to get out of a car safely when pursued. Narrow sidestreets, garages, under bridges and overpasses - ample cover. And you'll need to kill as many cops as possible from inside the car before getting out. And you definitely have to be at a full stop. If you fall down, you're done for.

On foot, you can keep them at bay by outrunning and outgunning them. I mean I've done this shit successfully to real-life people in FPS games, why wouldn't it work on lowly AI?

I've beaten the game with free-aim, and didn't feel overwhelmed at any time. It just depends on one's confidence and skill level. I guess most who voted free-aim experienced it the same way. For example, I can survive almost indefinitely with a 4-star Wanted level. Kiting law enforcement like the stonecold samurai warrior my virtual self really is. Free-aim no less.

It's Guerilla Warfare 1.01 to fighting a superior force. Keep moving. Kill whatever moves into range first. Move on. Don't get flanked or encircled. As long as you're quick about it and more lethal than what the game throws at you, you'll prevail. Every now and then you'll successfully break all lines of sight, and get to recover half your health. Indefinite 4-star survival guaranteed. 5-stars however? Well - those CIA vans then become far too frequent. Unless you get into a real get-away car from your garage, you're toast. In GTA V kiting works best in urban areas with lots of obstructions of line of sight, so choppers don't get an easy beat on you.

You can outrun and outgun cops on foot. Almost indefinitely. Using Free-Aim. It's a matter of confidence, tactics, and skill level.

"The lock-on and auto aim settings are crutches for non-core more casual players that franchises like GTA manage to attract. I feel like it's beneath me."

that's probably one of the most entitled and assholeish statements i've ever read on the internet, mostly because it comes off as sincere and not self-aware, instead of only ironically being an asshole (most people don't sincerely talk about "core gamers")

so that's hilarious.

Sure - it's a bit dickish to say that the default setting is the *lesser mechanic for lesser players*. In my way, I'm making a plea for non-lesser players to man-up and take-off the training wheels that have been defaulted onto GTA V, because I believe a game I control myself offers better more rewarding gameplay.

I'm an asshole for the betterment of the world! Sincerely.

Free-Aim, even for a controller Free-Aim, because I don't want to dominate the enemy like some super-soldier, I rather die a few times and have a longer game then snap-lock kill everyone in 20 seconds.

Free Aim doesn't work well for me in this game. The framerate is way too dodgy for me; it impacts the joystick feedback and makes it way too hard for me to carefully aim my shots. That, and the fact that you die super, super fast even with a body armor.

I've been using Free Aim but I still don't like the shooting very much. It just doesn't feel as good as other 3rd person shooters. I might just turn it back to Lock on or aim assist just to get through the shooting sections faster.

@yummylee:

yes definately

thats absolutely false

Is it now? Because that's a pretty accurate description of my gameplay experience so far.

Free aim 'till last night, when "Burying The Hatchet" came along. Tried it maybe ten times and then just gave up and switched over to assisted. I haven't had problems with aiming before and will turn it back to free once I continue playing, but that was just too much of a hassle for me. Of course the problem might've just been more about the lack of body armor and proper weapons, rather than controls.

Lock On. Shooting missions are generally the most boring part of the game anyway, and the fact that aiming your gun is complete guesswork in Free-Aim really puts me off (referring to the fact that there's no almost no basis for where your guy will be aiming when you start aiming your weapon; there's no centre-dot until you pull out your weapon and especially with vehicles you're basically just blindfiring). I tried Online with Free Aim and all it highlighted was how dull and repetitive the Deathmatch jobs are. Real bummer they seem to comprise half of the instanced missions.