Showing posts with label Halo 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halo 2. Show all posts

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Some PC Games, are better played with a Game Pad

If you are gonna play games like Shadowrun, Overlord and Halo 2 on a PC, you would be better off investing in an Xbox 360 controller rather than simply playing with your trusty keyboard and mouse combination. The reasons are pretty simple:

  • Mouse-aiming is crippled in Shadowrun. You actually get penalized for accurate shooting.

    Quoting a Gamespy review:

    "The fast-aiming ability of the mouse has been negated by an accuracy penalty when aiming via mouse (as opposed to plugging in a gamepad). Abilities add either a generous auto-aim (Smartlink) or conduct area-effect (Strangle) as to negate the need for accurate shooting."

  • Overlord's controls are more finely-tuned on the Xbox 360 controller, and offers more options compared to using a keyboard and mouse.

    Quoting a 1UP review:

    "Problem is you need finer control than the keyboard-and-mouse setup offers on the PC. Play enough battles requiring simultaneous attacks from a gremlin horde and your antihero, and you'll notice a huge difference when using a gamepad.

    As is now becoming the standard, Overlord maps its controller layout to the ubiquitous Xbox 360 pad -- the left stick moves the master, and sweeping the right stick gives total control of the minions. So if you don't already own a gamepad, add that to the price tag.
    "

  • 4 words when it comes to playing Halo 2 with an Xbox 360 controller: "Force Feedback" and "Auto Aim"

    Quoting a Gamespot review:

    "playing with a controller is a bit closer to the original console experience, right down to force-feedback support. This creates some really weird and potentially unbalanced trade-offs in multiplayer. By default, a player with a mouse will be able to turn more quickly and, if that player is skilled, more accurately than a gamepad user. Gamepad players can increase the right-stick sensitivity to turn faster, but they also get another benefit that feels downright dirty.

    Like the console version, the PC game employs a certain amount of auto-aim when you're using a gamepad. This makes sticking to other players for up-close shotgun blasts or melee attacks significantly easier with the gamepad, and there doesn't appear to be any way to disable it or even detect that another player is using a pad. After pumping up the gamepad's sensitivity, we found ourselves doing more damage when armed with a gamepad"
So, if you are gonna play something that is released both for both the Xbox 360 and the PC, get the gamepad. Play-Asia has both wired and wireless variants in stock.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Unable to Comply, Building in Progress

I had the cheek to ask my company's Microsoft Partner Program Account Manager for some copies of Halo 2 for Windows Vista. Since Microsoft is providing us with VLK Vista Enterprise, might as well throw in some games, I don't really mind even if they are under "demonstration" licenses. All work and no play makes us Microsoft Partners a little..dull.

Anyways, that's just in jest, but I really did ask her, and no, they don't have games to give out in the Partner Program (too bad). Work related comments and views stated in this blog do not reflect that of my employers or my colleagues, or the company that I work in.

So if Microsoft doesn't want to give you games to play with in your office, what's the next best thing to do.. as in the legal thing to do, without resorting to piracy? Well, you can try out first person shooters (FPS) such as Quake III Arena (Q3A) and Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2K4).

Their demo versions are pretty comprehensive with Q3A focusing on deathmatch and UT2K4 with its myriad of team play options. The Onslaught mode in UT2K4 deserves special mention, since it involves playing in teams, capturing power nodes across a pretty big map. Create a path of captured power nodes to the enemy base and destroy the power node within that base to win the match.

Not into FPS? Well, if you can get your boss to spend a little on one copy of Starcraft... you'll get people yelling: "You want a piece of me, boy?!" or "My life for Aiur!", in no time. You can perform spawn installations of Starcraft (from a single copy of the game) for the purpose of having some localised multiplayer action.


When all else fails, get a PS2, a projector and a bunch of games, now that's what I call living, I mean, working. All puns intended.