If we're talking Goldeneye, I believe the C-button aiming was an alternate control scheme. IIRC, the default controls had the stick control both your forward/backward motion, but also your left/right turning, instead of left/right strafing, so your aim was controlled horizontally by the stick, but vertically was pretty much locked on the horizon at all times. To do fine-tuned aiming, or to aim vertically at all, required holding R to bring up the crosshairs which you could then move with the stick, while standing still.
In hindsight, it's amazing that we ever tolerated that.
If the world exploration and character interactions in RDR2 are scratching your itch, then 2077 will definitely have you covered there; Night City is huge and has a lot of hidden spots and characters to find. I'd say that the combat is generally a bit more hectic in 2077, but not overwhelming. You can also freely adjust the difficulty whenever you want, so if you're not interested in mastering the buildcrafting aspects (since it leans more heavily into RPG aspects than RDR2) and just wanna get the story, that's also an option.
While it's definitely not required to have an amazing experience, I'd strongly recommend also picking up the Phantom Liberty expansion if you decide to give 2077 a shot. It adds a lot of additional content, including some new endings. And Idris Elba is fucking fantastic in it. He brings a very similar energy to Keanu, where you can tell that he really loves his character and the story he gets to tell. It honestly sets a ridiculously high bar for video game acting in general.
My recommendation for this will always be Cyberpunk 2077. There are SO many secrets and sub-plots to discover in the game, and every single one of them feels like an intricate, deliberate piece to the overall puzzle that makes up Night City.
To experience everything requires multiple playthroughs, which I normally dislike in long, narrative-driven games because I lack the attention span needed when it comes to repeating things in games. But CP2077 offers so many new ways to tackle every situation, and it's one of the few games I've played where it truly feels like a new experience on the second and all subsequent playthroughs. The writing and acting are spectacular, and going back and picking different options for various encounters will yield very different, yet authentic results.
I've 100%'d it and still went back and did at least 3 full playthroughs after. I can't sing this game's praises enough.
Agreed! The quality and quantity of the content in that DLC are enough to qualify for a standalone game. Not to mention all the wild new mechanics that the DLC introduces, and work seamlessly with the rest of the game. TTAODK was probably the best piece of content Gearbox will ever produce.
Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about some of the casting as I'm kinda tired of seeing Kevin Hart and Jack Black in everything lately (I'm surprised I didn't see The Rock in the trailer somewhere, to be honest), but the overall feel of the trailer seems to match the energy that the games had. I'm not saying it's 1:1 accurate by any means, but the trailer definitely manages to feel like Borderlands. I imagine the writers for the movie didn't want anybody from the main group to feel like a "downer" character, so Roland's probably being reworked a bit.
I'm okay with it so far, at least. It's generally pretty hard to make the "strong, quiet type" very interesting, especially for a movie format where you have limited screen time that has to be shared among a lot of characters. You can make that sort of character interesting, like in No Country For Old Men, but you have to dedicate a lot of time to it, and that's not easily done with a story that has so many characters with their own stories to tell.
I dunno, I'm just remaining optimistic. I want to like this movie.
I forgot that they were making this. I just checked the trailer, and it surprisingly doesn't look terrible. As far as video game adaptations go these days, this actually seems pretty true to the source material.
I imagine it'll be one of those movies that's terrible for general audiences, but will probably be well-received among its niche. As a huge fan of the first two Borderlands games, it looks solid and I actually want to watch this.
I highly, highly recommend playing BL1 and BL2. They're fantastic games, and wonderfully written. Not all of the humor has aged really well (nothing offensive, just mostly very 2010's-specific humor), but the gameplay still holds up today, IMO. The DLCs for BL2 are particularly good, and among some of the best DLCs I've seen for any game.
I've not read PA in ages, and saw that and thought "Oh wow, the new art style looks pretty good!" Then I saw this was from 2012, and decided to see what the art actually looks like nowadays.
What the fuck happened? Tycho looks like Handsome Squidward with encephalitis, and Gabe looks like every Nickelodeon character in the last 20 years merged into one. I'm curious to know what PA fans think about the style these days, since I've not followed it for a long time, myself.
I mean, it feels kinda obvious. If there's any company in this space that would never need to use generative AI, it's Nintendo. They already employ some of the most talented art teams in the industry, they're not exactly struggling to produce art or assets.
If this was from a developer who maybe hasn't been a gaming monolith for the last 30+ years, that'd be different. This is like if Bill Gates says he promises not to open his 401k early; like, okay cool, I don't think that was ever in doubt in the last 30 years, Bill, but thanks for letting us know.
A lot of it is going to be game-specific, and spending time tweaking the control settings until you find what feels responsive to you.
The rest of it is going to be technique, and a lot of trial and error to find out what works best for your play style. For instance, I can't do fast-paced, twitchy movements on a controller (even things that are technically possible to do on a controller; I just don't have the dexterity anymore), so I have to adopt a different play style when using a controller. I usually will go for a more support-based role, if possible; opting for long-range weapons/abilities, and playing a more patient, campy game. I play slower and more methodically this way, and try to position myself so that I don't ever get into the situations where I need to react to somebody closing the gap on me in the first place.
For me, it's an entire mindset shift. If I play the same game on M/K, I'll be playing with a much faster, reaction-centric style instead of one where my movements are more premeditated.
Some other tips will be learning to do things like using your left stick for fine-tuning your aim (you can get very precise horizontal micro-adjustments by leveraging your player's position, which can be useful for getting your shot off before the other guy does), experimenting with gyro controls if that's an option for you, or trying joystick extenders (small gadgets that clip onto your sticks to extend their effective length, which may make aiming easier).
As far as what to practice in, I don't know of any aim trainers that are designed for controller, so I'd say you should just practice with a game that you either don't care about or where it doesn't matter if you lose a bunch. I'd recommend The Finals; it's free to play, the default quickplay mode is active and puts you into a match quickly, and it's super low-stakes so you don't have to feel bad about experimenting during a live match. Your teammates don't have loot drops or anything hinging on your success, so if you play badly, nobody cares. And it's got pretty robust customization options for the controller settings (dead zones, acceleration curves, etc), which can help you figure out what settings you respond best to and what to look out for in the settings of other games. It has a huge variety in movement/weapon options, so you'll end up developing skills/habits that will transfer over to other games quite easily.
I didn't mean to weirdly steer this into becoming an ad for The Finals. But it's a very controller-friendly FPS that I think will be beneficial to practice with. I think it's also pretty fun, but that's subjective.