- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I suppose I'm a little late on posting so this might be in vain, but I'll continue.
I think one of the best features of FPS titles over the years have been their robust level of customization. I played the Quake series for years, and as gaming is shifting away from the mouse and keyboard (tear), games on consoles are losing an experience many users never got to be apart of. So in that, heres a simple list of what I think many developers for consoles should start considering in their FPS titles.
1) Customizable sensitivities per weapon - I'd really like to bump by sensitivity to 2 when sniping, but in a general purpose game it's just not practical. It'd be great if I could whip out a sniper on sens 2, whip out a BR on sens 5, then change to sword with sens 8. This was a feature only newbies wouldn't utilize.
2) Matchmaking options - Instead of utilizing the veto system, try presenting a range of games on different maps (i.e. BRs on pit, Slayer on construct, Snipers on standoff) for that given gametype. I find myself fairly frustrated because the next game that pops up is always predictable and it seems the same maps pop up way too often. I say let the players of the game make the choice, not force on it them.
3) Utilizing Audio - Whether you guys developed the game this way or not, I find that I really don't even need to have any sound to play halo 3. Other than the occasional grenade popping near my head, sound is completely irrelevant to be a good player. Similar to the MLG playlist (they are really onto something, its a shame no one wants to play it), get rid of radar, speed up the game, and make players utilize their hearing to find players. A good example would be hearing the footsteps of a player on a ramp above you or coming around a corner. Radar is just giving an advantage to less skilled players and I find my self really frustrated with grenade spamming cause of radar.
4) Movement - Kind of related to 3, I think movement is terrible in all console first person shooters. It seems whoever sees the other player first wins most of the time. Give the other person a chance and reward skilled map movement by speeding the game up and maybe even some sort of strafe jumping. Boy do I miss that.
5) Lag - I suppose this is a given, but I find myself screaming "wtf" way too often when playing because it appears I kill someone first, get a head shot, die for no reason, or a guy lunges halfway across the room at me. To be honest, in at least half or more of the games I've been playing recently have been frustrating cause of this issue. I'm not sure of a suggestion, but maybe your tweaks to improve lag on the client side are actually making things worse cause it's misleading the lagged player.
I know consoles have their limits in relation to what a PC can do with the keyboard, but I think these suggestions are rational and fair. I'd be elated if they actually were implemented in Halo 3 in some way (a big stretch), but perhaps future developers start to consider us PC gamers and how the transition is particularly painful.