Controllers vs Mouse and Keyboard
This was (and is, until tomorrow, November 21st, 2016) a free weekend in Overwatch, so you can download and play the game for free on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. I play a lot of Overwatch on the PS4, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to try it on the PC.
I'm not very good at aiming using a game controller. I find it constantly frustrating trying to line up a shot and overshooting the target. I've been trying to get better, by using techniques like roughly aiming with the aiming controls and then moving my player for the fine aiming. This works, but it never feels precise.
I installed Overwatch on the PC and spent a few hours playing it, and first impression is, wow. I can aim! What a difference.
Second impression is: Uh oh, so can everyone else. Snipers seem a lot more dangerous on the PC than on PS4.
When you get killed in Overwatch, the game shows you a replay from the perspective of the person who got you, and it makes me feel better to see, on the PS4, other players having the same trouble. Lining up a shot, overshooting, slowly repositioning ... sometimes people make a lucky shot but often it shows other people struggling with the same imprecision I do.Â
That levels the playing field, and probably explains why they'll never give us cross-platform play (PC and console gamers in the same game). The PC gamers would run away with it.
I'd switch back to the PC, but main reasons for going console in the first place still apply: That's where my friends are, cheaper long term hardware cost (no buying new hardware as minimum requirements rise), and RSI.
I use a trackpad on my Mac, because when I used to use a mouse, I'd start to experience carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. Wrist pain. Switched to the trackpad and the symptoms vanished. Game controllers are fine, trackpads are fine, but for some reason, I just can't spend a lot of time gaming with a keyboard and mouse anymore.
But it was nice to jump back into that world for a few hours. Yes, console gamers are at a disadvantage, but we're all at the same disadvantage, which evens it out. Makes me feel a little less bad about my crummy aim.