Problem is that even on a premium product, cost is gonna be a factor. Well, and weight.
I can think of a bunch of features that could be supported in a controller. Problem is, not everyone is gonna want everything, and if they put it on the thing, everyone is gonna pay for it. On the XBox Elite Series 2:
Force feedback thumbsticks: No (I’m not aware of anyone that makes these, but force feedback joysticks were once a real thing, useful with flight sims simulating pre-fly-by-wire aircraft, like the Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2)
Gyro has been present in Sony controllers since Dualshock 3. All of the Nintendo controllers I ever used had it. Steam deck has it. I honestly assumed it is a standard feature.
I‘ve have a PS3 and PS4 and can‘t think of a single game that uses this feature. When I say widespread I don’t mean the hardware, but how it is implemented in software.
I decided to buy a good and expensive controller for my PC for the first time,
It‘s not exactly a widespread feature
Gyro has been present in Sony controllers since Dualshock 3.
Not many PC games natively support gyro, however, because most controllers that people have on the PC don’t support it.
Yeah, it’s an input that you can use to rig something up with Steam Input or some sort of macro software, but if you don’t have a large proportion of the userbase with hardware support, game developers aren’t going to put resources into native support, and without native support, most people won’t use it, and if most people aren’t going to use it, not a lot of incentive for game controller developers to support it.
I kind of wish that there were some kind of standard, cross-platform, open-source software package that you could have games hook into on one end and controllers on the other, have a developer-provided profile, but let the package provide some kind of profile that does something reasonable for an arbitrary controller (or multiple controllers, think HOTAS) if the developer doesn’t, and let game controller developers and players publish control scheme settings for games/controllers. Steam Input is kind of the closest thing to this, but is proprietary and tied to one distribution platform (Steam), which sort of sucks.
The sex toy crowd has something like this going on with buttplug.io – which, ironically enough, can actually support linking games to game controllers with vibration, not just sex toys, but for some reason we haven’t managed to get there with normal, actual game controller input. I kind of wish that given that they have their shit together enough to actually get something like this out there, that they’d rename the project to something uncontroversial like GameIO, support hooking up games to arbitrary output devices and input devices, and then expose an input layer to games. Have the option to use the game’s provided profile by default, but also use a custom one.
Steam deck has it.
The Steam Deck is successful for what it is, and maybe one day it will have enough market share to be able to really drive game features, but as things stand, it’s something like a percent.
If you crunch the numbers and assume the Deck does indeed represent 40% of Linux users, which make up 1.97% of Steam users, then the Deck is used by 0.78% of all Steam users. That’s the exact market share number for the Deck APU in the GPU survey, which means at least these datapoints are internally consistent.
That’s maybe the largest single bloc of people using a single specific non-mouse/keyboard input device on Steam, but it’s still a very small portion of the overall PC user base.
All PC games support gyro if they’re played with SteamAPI and the controller has gyro support. You can configure it however you want, it’s just a controller function being bound to an input.
You can even add gyro support to games that never had it, like PS2 and GameCube games. Because, again, it’s just a method of input.
It’s not widespread BECAUSE Microsoft refuses to include it in all their controllers. It’s been a standard in Sony, Nintendo, and even some 3rd party controllers like 8bitdo.
Shadow of the Forbidden Gods - a strategy game where you play as the ancient cthonic entity waking up because the stars are right. Set in a fantasy world where the forces of good slowly become aware of the coming apocalypse and attempt to forestall your return. You have to get past the janky UI and some dreadful AI art, but the gameplay is unique and satisfying.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a patent Microsoft just hasn't been willing to license use of.
I remember when the Sixaxis came out. It was missing vibration. It was because Immersion sued Sony (and ultimately won) over patent infringement of rumble motors. Sony ended up having to pay somewhere around $100 million.
I bought that same controller and it’s absolute garbage. It started developing multiple problems before I realized it was too late to use the warranty. The left bumper was inconsistent, the d-pad was wobbly (more give on one side than the other), and the right stick started drifting badly. Not to mention the basic, crappy software and connectivity issues. I tore it apart and tried every fix I could find but nothing helped. I wasted a lot of money for something that felt and looked really great, but was fucking awful otherwise.
Then I did a lot of research and found the Flydigi Vader 3 Pro. It has hall effect triggers and sticks, mechanical buttons, both C and Z buttons, triggers that could actually click, a gyro, a high poll rate, Nintendo Switch compatibility, and a lot more. It doesn’t feel as premium as the XBES2 controller did in my hands, but it seems just as durable and it’s less than half the cost. Don’t let the look fool you. I HIGHLY recommend it.
I’d like a spin-off. Less land stuff and more sea stuff. Instead of the ‘armada’ thing, how about being able to buy or capture larger ships for personal use? Or being able to directly control 2-3 ships? Or fight large scale coordinated naval battles?
That concept has so much more potential and I wish somebody would do more with it.
They’ve been trying with skull and bones but it’s both in development hell, been delayed multiple times and even changed play styles over the years. I’m not hopeful sadly.
And somehow Skull and Bones is coming out this month! Not getting it (cos its Ubisoft) but excited to see how the game will be taken in by the players, if at all…
I played AC:Oddyseey in 2021 and am currently playing through AC4:BF now for the first time. I’ve been wondering if the Ody ship mechanic was as great as I remember of if it was just a nostalgic feeling having it for the first time in the tail of Origins and throughout Odyssey. Sounds like it was actually great. Not-true-to-AC argument aside, Ody was an excellent game as someone who started on Unity.
I do recommend AC4: Black Flag as a pirate game. It does take a fair amount of somewhat normal AC gameplay (and Ubisoft side quest trinket distractions) to get enough upgrades to the ship to feel like a real pirate of the Caribbean and not just a poop deck swabber, but my ship is nearly maxed at ~75% story completion. I make sure my wanted level stays maxed so the pirate hunters chase me in level 60 men’o’war every time it loads me at sea. Two types of side cannons, forward chain cannons, rear fire barrel mines, long range mortars, front ram, and the option to board disabled ships for swashbuckler combat to gain different rewards. Plus a little tabletop smuggling across the Atlantic with turn-based sprite battles for a laughably insignificant amount of money compared to the work it takes to capture proficient ships.
Its not quite a pirate game, but if you’re willing to expand your seach to include a nautical mystery game aboard a trading ship in 1807, than Return of the Obra Dinn is worth a look.
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