Racing and fighting games even?

To me it is mainly that mouse (+ keyboard) for games which need fast and precise aiming (like FPS games) and games where I have to click on small menus and objects on the screen (like most RTS games)... and other controllers for other games.

A gamepad isn't necessarily needed for any kind of game (unless the game really is designed for a specific type of dual-stick gamepad), but gamepad is a good "jack of almost all trades" option for many types of games. Not FPS or RTS games though.

Platformers... unless they need the analog sticks for analog movement, I can play 2D platformers even better with a mere keyboard.


I'm still miffed though that I ended up playing Descent 3 with mouse + keyboard. I first started playing it with a dual-stick gamepad and the game seemed perfect for that kind of controller, considering you need to rotate and tilt your ship over all the axis, as well as aim around and even strafe to four directions... perfect!

However, the game simply needed so precise aiming that I had to start using a mouse for aiming, in order to simply survive. I didn't like it because with a gamepad (with analog sticks) the gameplay felt more natural, like I was actually steering a floating ship in tunnels. With a mouse it felt like... I was some kind of Quake soldier floating in the tunnels.

Hard to explain I guess, but I always feel analog stick is more natural for "vehicle controls". A bit like if I had a racing game where I could flip the heading of the car 180 degrees within a millisecond with a flick of a mouse... it might make my racing times better, but it wouldn't feel like driving a race car at all anymore, since there is no inertia etc.

Come to think of it, Halo (PC version) had an interesting concept for mouse steering for the vehicles. You'd point with a mouse to certain direction, and the car would start turning itself towards that direction, until it was heading there. It worked pretty well for such a game. It didn't feel like I was steering the vehicle myself, but more like I was pointing my hand to certain direction, telling the driver to start turning there.

Yeah okay fighting games but DEFINITELY NOT RACING GAMES! Pads/wheels are impossible for me to control the car with.

The only racer I use a pad with is GRID and that is because of the accelerator. In that game you need to be able to hit the gas 'partially' which is something you can't do with a keyboard. With a keyboard the button is either pushed or it isn't; you can't go halfway.

Mouse = best pointing system. Accurate to move the camera in all games.
Keyboard = you can use 10 fingers. Best way to control any character movement and anything (action, jump, item, quest ecc... button).

I still have to understand what type of game actually need a gamepad... even dark souls was better with Mouse & Keyboard for me (actually in that game the camera was so bad that I decided to map it to the keyboard... I was not able to play with a gamepad anyway).

when you can only use 2 inch to control both character, camera and any other action you want to perform it's really difficult to play any game.

Sure a joystick it's the best way to move a character in some action game... but you still would need something like this:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41mFrmZ7F8L._SY355_.jpg
to actually use more fingers.

That's why, in the end, I just prefer my Keyboard... In the end WASD is not bad at all and everything else is just perfect.

Sometimes I think even touch screen is better than a gamepad.... For example point&click adventure/rpg are perfect for mouse&Keyboard, playable with touch screen, impossible to play with gamepad

Even for racing game like need for speed I think keybaord is better. Even if you cannot gas partially you can still gas intermittently

Mouse and Keyboard for games that require precision (aiming and fast clicking).

Controllers for games that requires you to perform combos.

One other thing that is left out of this discussion:

Ergonomic issues. For instance, I find that the mouse isn't the nicest device for my right hand, so I prefer just using the keyboard or a gamepad. (Also, I prefer my Logitech Precision gamepad over my XBox 360 one because the former is lighter and I often play games that don't need analog control.)

I am aware of one twitch streamer who is unable to play with a game controller (because it hurts her wrist too much), but can play just fine with the Nintendo Switch's joycons.

Then, of course, some gamers are only able to use one hand; such gamers *can't* use mouse and keyboard because you need one hand for the mouse and another for the keyboard. Games that can be played with only one input devices can be played if the keys/buttons can be remapped to something accessible (all commonly used buttons on the same hand), or if the game doesn't require fast or multiple inputs (most games I count as being RPGs, turn based strategy). Games that only use the mouse (like some RTS games) could be played as well; perhaps even Baldur's Gate if the player has some way to hit the spacebar (perhaps with an elbow or something).

(Incidentally, I won't criticize a game for requiring both hands for normal play if it's necessary; it's only when you get something like Chrono Trigger (an otherwise accessible game that, at one point, requires pressing several buttons at once to proceed) that I consider it to be a serious accessibility flaw.)

Edit: It's also worth noting: A different streamer has said the joycons aren't good for precise inputs (or something like that), so there's still no control option that is "best" for everyone.

It's even better when you get the right mouse (for me fingertip mice instead of massive jerky palmers) and tune it to your reflex response.
Essentially if your jerk reactional jump of the mouse spins your view round where instinctively you would normally turn your vision to you can get more in sync and use reflex as a sort of auto aim instead of just a panic response.
This 'locked in' state is impossible with the linear/exponential different available states of a controllers movement and vision control.

What's really funny is I use to absolutely thrash N64 perfect dark now I can barely put up a fight going up against easy bots; I guess because I'm no longer use to separating motion and turning as much.

I always map them (ZQSD on my keyboard) to the arrow keys. I like that the arrows keys, and those surrounding them, have empty space next to them so I won't accidentally push the wrong key.

That is very interesting to me. I used to remap everything to arrows in the old DK 3D/DOOM days before mouse look, but now with that I stick with WASD. The new gaming keyboard I have actually has WASD a different color than the rest of the keys so you can see them quicker.

I always hated WASD. It just seems wrong to move your fingers one row away from standard touch typing position.

Depends on the game.

Sometimes joystick is better. Sometimes keyboard and mouse is better. Sometimes gamepad is better. Even with gamepad there is a choice between d-pad and analog thumb stick. Joystick have digital and analog varieties too.

Analog joystick is obviously a must for space/flight simulators. I would never play these games with keyboard.

Digital joystick is obviously best for fighting games (except for Smash Bros, which requires analog thumb stick). Ever try play a fighting game with keyboard and mouse?

Stealth games and other 3D games that demand precise character movement are also better with analog stick rather than WASD. But games that require precise aiming are better with mouse.

Very complex top down, real-time strategy games generally are better with mouse too. Although my favourite RTS of all time is Ogre Battle 64 which works just fine with N64 controller. But still RTS is associated more with PC gaming for good reason.

On the other hand, platformers (both 2D and 3D) were traditionally associated more with consoles than computer gaming, also for good reason.

I think to say one type of controller is the best and ignore all others doesn't make sense unless you have very narrow tastes in games. I don't want game developers to design all games for one type of controller only. Does anyone really want that?

I prefer controller wit the games like DMC, Fifa or Dark Souls.I always use mouse and keyboard with shooting fighting and racing games.

10 years ago I was not able to play without arrow keys... But now I'm able to use the keyboard without even look at it... and when I play some games that require you to use E and/or Q for some actions (like climb a ladder that is connected to movements) I think it's better WASD.
I still love arrow key to move for some games so I understand why you remap them.... Still when I use arrow key I prefer to map everything else on the numpad keyboard and since the numpad keyboard is not the best thing in laptop (and right now I play on laptop) in the end I stick to WASD