WASDa big deal with this PC Gaming lark?

*I'd just like to start here by saying this piece is a bit meandering and far from my finest piece of writing, but it was something on my mind and I just felt like I had to get it out! Cheers!

P.S. Sorry about the title too!

************************************************************************************************************

A recent change in my situation has granted me, for the first time in nigh on 20 years, access to a PC capable of running games that demand slightly more horsepower than stock windows solitaire and minesweeper. We are not talking about hardware like a GTX Titan here… No, what I have access to is something entirely more modest (a GTX 670 if you must know…). There are specs that I could list, but the truth is that I wouldn't entirely understand what they all mean. And plus, they do not make for particularly interesting reading. But either way, it's a PC that is able to comfortably run pretty much anything at high to ultra levels that was released prior to 2012 and that is good enough for me.

So, with all this "power" now suddenly at my fingertips, you may think that I would open myself up to the world of modern PC gaming and enjoy all those recent classics that I have either missed or played at sub-standard PS3 levels… games such as…well you know… Euro Truck Simulator 2 (??), Anno 2070… (or god forbid Dota 2!!) . But alas, no!

The era that I decided to dive headfirst into was that weird period between 1999 and 2005… a period in which I had kind of fallen out of love with gaming. Sure, I had a PS2 and I played a good few of the major releases at the time (Devil May Cry, GTA III, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy X etc.), but in all honesty my engagement with gaming was largely confined to sessions of Pro Evolution after university. This wasn't down to anything as profound as me realizing the futility of gaming or suddenly appreciating how poor much of the writing in these games was… it was simply that I was at university and doing other things with my life.

So when I finally did emerge from my cocoon around 2007 with my purchase of the PS3 and suddenly discovered that gaming coverage on the internet had become, in some cases, actually pretty good, I started to hear about all these much loved and highly regarded game franchises that had completely passed me by. "System Shock you say? Hmmm, isn't that some kind of Doom clone? Civilization? Can't I just play Theme Park?"… I'm obviously exaggerating my ignorance for comical effect here, but you take my point. There was this huge catalogue of games that had built up that I simply had no level of engagement with.

I thought about looking into playing some of these games, but this was a period in which talk of graphics cards and GPU clock speeds had started to become more prevalent on gaming message boards and the whole thing just went right over my head. I wouldn't say I was intimidated by it all, but it just seemed unnecessarily complicated. Why would I bother going to all that trouble when I could just buy a PS3 or 360 and sit down and go? And that way, I wouldn't have to bother with playing with a mouse and keyboard as well… The choice was obvious.

But then fastforward to 2016 and here I am, sitting in front of an ageing but capable Alienware machine with access to a catalogue of tens of thousands of games through Steam. I felt excited… I could sense that I was on the verge of going on some fantastical trip through a kind of lost world. A world in which many of the genre tropes, kinks and pitfalls that we see today were still being worked out. A world in which character models had a distinctly square character and nobody cared. The uncanny valley was still a good few miles down the road yet… I was super happy that I was going to be able to experience it all first hand… Happy, but also slightly apprehensive. Was this lost era of gaming going to be ruined for me by a combination of high expectations and being slightly spoiled by having grown accustomed to the graphical fidelity we have nowadays? Was I going to be able to deal with a mouse and keyboard? Well there was only one way to find out…

The first game I bought was Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition. Bought in one of those fabled Steam sales for a couple of quid, I immediately felt like I was winning. Sure, you might say 2 quid for a game released 16 years ago is a fair price, but having only really experienced the PSN model of pricing, it felt like a steal to me.

* By the way, I should preface this by stating that I played and loved Deus Ex: Human Revolution on the PS3, and also that stealth games are kinda my jam, so the game itself was not completely alien to me. But I was keen to see where the series started regardless.

So, anyway I start up the game and am happy to see that I can run the game on the highest settings! Oh, the "power"! But now that the game is up and running in all its vanilla, mod-less, year 2000 glory, I have to deal with that other big bug bearer of mine… that pesky mouse and keyboard thing.

It may seem a silly thing to be hung up on, but after having played with a controller for over two decades, the idea that I could easily adapt back to WASD seemed almost farcical to me. I genuinely believed it would be a major struggle and that I would, at best, only learn to cope with the control system at a bare minimum level... Five minutes later and the tutorial over, it was like I'd rediscovered my right hand. Movement was so natural that, before I had even reached the foot of the Statue of Liberty, I had stopped having to even think about it. One of the major things that had been keeping me from even attempting to engage with PC games had been swept away before I'd even shot a guy… Ridiculous!

All these stupid qualms about PC gaming now put aside, you may ask how was my overall experience with Deus Ex? It was…good. Of course I was unlikely to be blown away having spent the best part of a decade playing games with much more refined gameplay and graphics, but there was certainly a compelling flow to the game as I went on sneaking missions through air vents and up behind two-bit subway gangsters. I imagine that 16 year old me would have loved the whole section in the neon wonderland of Hong Kong, but as a 32 year old I found it interesting, but ultimately unremarkable.

In fact, without meaning to take anything away from the game, I would go as far as to say that very sentiment sums up my general feelings towards the game overall. I can see how liberating it must have been back in the day to allow the player the freedom to choose their own path of approach, but this is not necessarily something special nowadays. Games like Dishonored and even Deus Ex: HR have done the same thing, and done it better. But that is just a natural form of progress and it shouldn't diminish Deus Ex's status as an all time classic. And that is part of the joy of going on this journey… I am able to appreciate these things without necessarily having to love them.

Now, when I first started writing this piece I seriously considered detailing my thoughts on each of the games I have played on the PC in these past few months. I wanted to share with you my experience in going back to a period with which I had no affinity and talking about what I discovered. However, after a few failed drafts, I found that my experiences largely followed the same basic pattern. It was only with game genres that I had zero experience with that I found I was able to have any real fun beyond a basic level of curiosity (see blog posts on Civilization and Gunpoint). Again, that is not to diminish those games' achievements, it is simply that I have now played more refined versions of those some basic mechanics and that often means that once the curiosity is satiated there is little left to sink your teeth into.

But even if my magical mystery tour into the early 2000s was a bit more flat than I was hoping for, it has certainly taught me that PC gaming is nothing to be scared of. In fact, I can very clearly see how in many ways it is the superior way to play many types of game. I do not plan on chucking the PS4 in the bin any time soon, but I can definitely see myself one day in the future, when the grass is greener and the bank account more flush, buying a proper PC that can run whatever is thrown at it. You may think that dream is pitifully small, but trust me, compared to where I was only six months ago the change in attitude is huge…

As a fellow console to PC convert, your post echoed a lot of what I had felt when I built my PC last year. One thing I still haven't gotten used to is the whole "keyboard" in the keyboard and mouse setup in action games. I will fully admit that the mouse is superior for aiming in shooters, but I still only begrudgingly use the keyboard. Movement feels awkward with WASD and I always struggle to locate the melee and reload buttons simply by touch. For a game like Deus Ex it's not a huge deal as it isn't very twitch based, but for a multiplayer shooter like Overwatch or Titanfall? I'm practically useless without a controller. Luckily, modern shooters are more about movement and positioning rather than twitch reflexes so I actually manage to hold my own with a gamepad.

In any case, I absolutely adore my PC and it's definitely become my primary platform to game with. But, like you said, there's still room for consoles, and if Sony can keep putting out stuff like Uncharted 4, I'll happily keep my PS4 hooked up for years to come.

I am looking for an analog equivalent for a keyboard as I just can't move properly with a keyboard. Before i upgraded to a gaming pc the last time i played games on pc was when the original maxpayne came out and the first shogun:total war. I was probably 16 or 17 i think at the time and remember them playing really well with mouse and keyboard. Then i started building pc's in 2011 and still played most games with a gamepad. I tried battlefield 3 with a keyboard and mouse because it had terrible gamepad controls, but just kept dying over and over because i couldn't move right. I never got my head around the complex keyboard stuff but kinda want to get something that can let me get my analog movement with mouse look aiming. I played a bit of swotr and marvel heroes with keyboard and it played fine, but then my hands started cramping up terribly with both(i'm also 32 about to be 33)

@oursin_360: This might be right up your street.

If it ever gets released.

I'm pretty much PC-only these days and use a gamepad as much as I use a keyboard/mouse. One of the best things about the platform is that you can generally use whatever the hell you like as a control method.

If you're coming from consoles, definitely be wary of those low low priced PC game deals. You'll have multiple hundreds of games before you know it!

@hassun: I learned this the hard way.

Sorta what i mean, but i also want analog stick movement. I've seen a few things with an analog stick on it but they look just as awkward to use. Something like a wii mote(nunchuck) with more inputs on it would be great.

@oursin_360: The Logitech G13 apparently has analogue movement from its thumbstick. I say 'apparently' because I owned one but sold it before the analogue functionality was patched in - For me it had digital controls.

I really like those gaming keypad arrangements because I'll frequently find myself kicking back in my chair with one on my knee instead of hunched over a keyboard. I just didn't jive too well with the G13 (but lots of people really rate it) and ended up with a Razer Orbweaver. The Orbweaver has only got digital support for its thumbstick, however.

yeah i was looking at both of those and the cheaper version of the orbweaver i can't think of the name atm, none really seemed to review well as far as analog movement.

I didn't read your thread, but I was really impressed with the title of your thread. Clever stuff!

Okay so I've been playing pc since I was a kid and the only games I used wasd in are 3rd person games and games like dayz and arma. I have movement on right mouse button, remap reload to middle mouse and backwards on M with strafe on comma and period.

You guys should think about changing the buttons about too! I hate using wasd and there is alternatives!

Glad to see you're enjoying the transition into PC gaming. Just wait until you get into the exciting world of Zelda themed Total War overhaul mods. Then you'll truly have made it.

Oh and HR isn't a patch on the original Deus Ex.

As someone who plays both PC games and console games I tend to lean more towards Gamepad controls. I know mouse and keyboard is faster and more accurate but in high stress situations I'm the equivalent of Michael J Fox playing as I tend to start shaking real bad. This is especially noticeable in games that require accuracy. Something about having a controller in both hands makes me not shake as much and allows me a level of comfort I don't get playing with M&K. Games like MMO's I still WASD on but I've been doing that since DAoC days so it feels strange to play an MMO that way. These games also don't require a lot of precision mouse clicking either and I have tons of quick keys on my mouse to deal with anything my fingers can't reach so I don't have to take my hands off the keybinds.

@zirilius: @oursin_360: @darth_navster: Yeah, look I think controllers are going to suit certain types of game more than keyboard and mouse (and vice-versa), but for the types of game that I enjoy playing (i.e. single player, first-person, slow paced) then the mouse and keyboard definitely seems the right way to go. But I am currently playing Hitman: Bloody Money which offers zero controller support and I can 100% confirm that keyboard and mouse are horrible! And yeah I'm by no means claiming to be some kind of expert with a keyboard and mouse. You certainly aren't going to catch me chancing my hand at any multiplayer games (but then again I wouldn't engage with them using a controller either)!

@hassun: Yeah the urge to not buy something when it's listed at less than a fiver is harder than I imagined!

@fallen189: Yeah... you'd think I could have come up with something better given that I've been mulling it over for over a month now! But you should read the rest of my stuff! It's full of other dime-store, two bit witticisms of a similar level!

@picky_bugger: Uh huh sure... Next thing you'll be telling me that Sim City 2000 is superior to 3000.... :-p Haha, nah but seriously I enjoyed Deus Ex a lot, but I thought HR was genuinely excellent. One of my favourite games of the last gen.

@dbdanny16: Seems like an option I could look into, but honestly I find WASD and mouse just fine!

@kmfrob:

Don't get me wrong, I liked it enough to complete it three times. Really looking forward to the next one, I just hope the world is a bit more fleshed out this time.

I didn't play Deus Ex back in the day and have no nostalgia for it and I'm genuinely astonished that anybody would say Human Revolution is the better game. There's no accounting for taste, I guess.

@davidh219: Astonishing?? Haha... Fair enough mate! Thanks for the insightful comment!

@kmfrob: How do you feel about the Thief series?

@davidh219: I haven't played the reboot, and only briefly touched the original... But it scratches a similar itch. Why?

@kmfrob: Just curious which you'd prefer if you had played the first three is all, since there are certainly parallels between what's different between Thief 1&2 and Thief 3 and what's different between Deus Ex and HR. I haven't played the Thief reboot either. I've heard bad things.

@davidh219: Well in my opinion there is plenty of merit to Deus Ex: HR and so it is far from astonishing that somebody, such as me, may prefer it to the original game. That is not me saying that the original Deus Ex was a bad game...no I enjoyed it a lot, but I just preferred HR. If you didn't like HR then that is fine, but your finality in saying that the original Deus Ex is just better than it is just the exact kind of arrogance that causes me to react and respond. Anyway...

@kmfrob: When was I arrogant? All I said was that I personally find it surprising. I even said there's no accounting for taste. Do you not know what that phrase means? Or what? You're entitled to your opinion, dude. Chill.

I just like that I can alt tab to porn, Photoshop or instantly launch a game. No getting up to the couch and turning on a console, TV and audio system. It's lazy bliss.

It is also easier for me to spend money on a PC knowing I will use it for more than simply gaming and Netflix, I regret buying my PS4 as it is just gathering dust.

Now that's a dream we can all get behind!

I was in the same boat a while back. Couldn't hit the right keys to save my life. But if you sit down and force yourself to play, especially FPS singleplayer campaigns, where the pace is much more gentle and reaction time less demanding than online, you'll get the hang of it surprisingly quick. Only really took me two games (Crysis 1 and BF4's campaign) for it feel natural. Now I'm far and away better than I ever was with a controller, and I was pretty damn decent with a controller back in the COD4 days.

I use the Pinnacle Game Profiler and a 360 gamepad for games I feel would be better using a controller. It's not perfect, but I find it works pretty good for the games I play.

I was thinking of doing just that with Doom in fact. I'm no back-in-the-day Doom fan, but it seems sacrilegious to play it with a controller. :-)