Fine, I'm converted! [Controller discussion]

[Mánagarmr]

I've never broken a controller in my 31 years. I had a joystick wear out, but what's to be expected from a cheap supermarket $5 thing?

[KingIsaacLinksr]

My issue has never been that games work better with controllers, its that the game was designed for consoles and looks/operates horribly on PCs. If your game isn't designed for PC, DON'T PORT IT TO THE FRAKKIN PC ALREADY. The same goes for iOS games and the amount of ported iOS games on Steam makes me so very irritated. Games that are designed to be played on the go do not work on a desktop where you clearly not on the go. They are too dull, shallow and not worth my time and money. Quit trying.

Anyway, rant over. I am also interested in getting a controller soon due to the amount of games that have come out lately that seem to work better for controllers.

[LaughingThesaurus]

@Isaac, that's basically like saying "Hey, developers, don't take the opportunity for free money." If porting costs very little and they charge more and get lots of people buying it on PC, it's just gravy to them. The more important thing to ask for is competent ports that are priced reasonably.

[keith.lamothe]

@Isaac, that's basically like saying "Hey, developers, don't take the opportunity for free money." If porting costs very little and they charge more and get lots of people buying it on PC, it's just gravy to them. The more important thing to ask for is competent ports that are priced reasonably.

That's exactly it, though: if they do a bad port it's not free even if the porting effort itself costs no dollars and no hours.  Bad ports cost goodwill, reputation, etc.  I imagine a lot of folks don't think that matters, but when you as a company get to the point where someone can stand up in large-ish crowd and refer to you as "Electronic Arse" and no one else in the room has the heart to dispute it... you've left some money on the table, somewhere in there.

And of course some folks just don't want to release bad products, but we're kind of past the point where that's a generally understood virtue

[KingIsaacLinksr]

@Isaac, that's basically like saying "Hey, developers, don't take the opportunity for free money." If porting costs very little and they charge more and get lots of people buying it on PC, it's just gravy to them. The more important thing to ask for is competent ports that are priced reasonably.

They aren't. They usually cost 3-5X more than the mobile version from what I've noticed and are not ported very well, missing plenty of PC-specific settings and such. I really can't imagine they are making much money by making these poor PC ports, but what do I know.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Also, to add to Keith's comments, you have cost a sale. Not only did you turn me off from buying your PC game but you turned me off from buying your mobile game. While I am only one person, I can't be the only person in the world who thinks like that. There have been devs who have done respectful PC to iOS and iOS to PC ports and have earned my money. The many that don't, well, I pass them on by. Even if their game is considered great.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Oh yeah, and that's ridiculous. The price being 10$ for what was a 2$ game needs to stop, as does the whole "I don't care if my port is bad" attitude. But, the way to get that is not to say "Hey, don't defile the PC platform with your awful product." It's to say, "We will not buy products that are not any good, so make sure you do it right."

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Oh yeah, and that's ridiculous. The price being 10$ for what was a 2$ game needs to stop, as does the whole "I don't care if my port is bad" attitude. But, the way to get that is not to say "Hey, don't defile the PC platform with your awful product." It's to say, "We will not buy products that are not any good, so make sure you do it right."

But that's what I was saying. Just in a different way. And with caps locks. Granted, I should have said, "if your ported game doesn't work well for the PC, don't sell it. Have some sort of standards" or something to that effect.

[Mánagarmr]

I don't mind ports, or games designed for consoles being released on PC, as long as they are fit for purpose. Menus that work with mouse+keyboard, resolution settings, vsync and a control scheme that works with mouse+keyboard without hitch.

Skyrim is an excellent example of a crap port. Graphically, it works well and it even looks like the PC version has higher resolution textures in addition to higher screen resolution, but by god the UI is TERRIBLE! Even with a controller that UI is a clusterfuck (sorry).

Other things that drive me insane are ports that are framelocked at 30 FPS on PC (see Mass Effect). Hello? This isn't 2005, it's 2012. My PC is capable of producing 120 FPS on my 120Hz monitor at 1920x1080. Don't give me a scaled up 1280x720 at 30 FPS. Gah!

[chemical_art]

Skyrim is an excellent example of a crap port. Graphically, it works well and it even looks like the PC version has higher resolution textures in addition to higher screen resolution, but by god the UI is TERRIBLE! Even with a controller that UI is a clusterfuck (sorry).

By far the greatest thing about the Elder Scroll games are the mods, and I'm 98% confident that there is an UI mod either now or in the future for Skyrim.

[Mánagarmr]

By far the greatest thing about the Elder Scroll games are the mods, and I'm 98% confident that there is an UI mod either now or in the future for Skyrim.

Yes.

But that's not an excuse for making a crappy UI to begin with

[chemical_art]

But that's not an excuse for making a crappy UI to begin with

Oh, I thought it fine.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Skyrim's awful UI is the reason why I haven't been playing it since getting a computer that can play it. I mean with my old computer I played around in it for a while and I had some fun, but the game's really just got this impossibly bad UI that you cannot use a mouse to navigate. You have to click slightly off of some things to click on them. How does this make any sense?

[Mánagarmr]

Not to mention it's hilariously unintuitive. Some screens require you to right click to get out, some uses backspace, some uses space. None uses escape (which is a common "Back out" key). It drives me completely insane to use.

[zespri]

By far the greatest thing about the Elder Scroll games are the mods, and I'm 98% confident that there is an UI mod either now or in the future for Skyrim.

What mods in your opinion are essential for Oblivion?