I'm a PC gamer. I play with a keyboard and mouse. But I find lately I'm getting frustrated because some games that I like seem like they were designed mainly with a controller in mind (I am looking at you, "Stray").

I'm having the same kind of issues in "Raft" that I had in "Stray." I mentioned I am getting better at the parkour, and that's true, but the reason I'm better now is because I was abysmal before, so "better" is just "sucking less than I did previously."

Do I just need to get a controller? And if I do, what do I get? I'm not going to say I'm a hardcore gamer, but I play regularly.

@AngelaPreston honestly, the Xbox controller is great

@szeis4cookie Thank you for this suggestion. I may have to look into that.

@AngelaPreston I started playing PC games over 30 years ago and using the keyboard always felt very cramped and difficult to me, especially when it came to doing various combos.

When I started using a controller and playing console games (about 20 years ago possibly), I realized that the controller was so much easier to use and my fingers didn’t feel so cramped.

Unfortunately, I’ve never used a controller for PC games since I switched to mostly console-only game play once I got into console gaming. Sure, I’d occasionally play a PC game but most of these were very much mouse-clicking type of games. So other than sharing the fact that I felt a controller was easier than the keyboard, I’m afraid that I don’t have anything much to offer 🙂

@f I still think it helps - it's unlikely that I'll invest in an entirely new system in the near future, but it's not out of the question as my son gets older. Do you have a favorite?

@JenYetAgain Cool! Thanks!

@AngelaPreston I’m fairly certain that switching to a controller would help you too (and definitely not advocating for switching over to consoles) 🙂 Perhaps you can get a controller from Amazon so that you can try it out and if it isn’t to your liking, you can return it?

I believe what helps the most (at least for me) is that I have something solid to hold on to which gives my palm support and not have my fingers arched over the keyboard. But of course, YMMV.

As far as consoles go, I think my favourite is the PlayStation but that’s mostly historical since that is the first console that I really loved. I have owned/used all three of the current main consoles — Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation and I keep coming back to the PlayStation. But that’s also partially due to it having some of my favourite games like the “Horizon” series and the “Uncharted” series ….

@f Thank you! The only ones I have any experience with are the Nintendos - I liked the Zelda games.

@AngelaPreston The wife and I both loved, “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” on the Switch 🙂 The great thing about the Switch for us was that we could take the game with us anywhere and play anywhere. But as we get older and eye-sight becomes weaker, the handhelds just don’t work for us 😛

Similarly, we loved the Xbox back in the day when the Kinect was there because we could do active gaming without controllers — like play tennis or bowling. But sadly, they discontinued the Kinect and so it isn’t as compelling to us now.

The other thing that we love about the PlayStation, that I forgot to mention, is that it seems to have more couch co-op games. Sure, couch co-op doesn’t seem to be that popular generally, but we love it since that allows us to play together with two controllers and on the same TV screen and that’s a huge draw for us 🙂

@AngelaPreston I had the opposite experience with Stray. My wife played it on keyboard and managed some of the sections effortlessly. I played it with a pad and struggled. Particularly with the running sections.

@DJDarren That's interesting! For me it was the way the controls changed during those parts. It seemed as though those encounters were written mainly for a different setup than I had. A lot of the feedback I read on Steam said the same thing. It seemed more difficult than necessary in those spots.