Xpadder: The Missing Link Between PC Games and Controllers
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/30/12 at 02:38 PM CT
Previously, I discussed Valve’s beta test of Big Picture Mode for the Steam gaming platform. While Big Picture Mode goes a long way to homogenize the PC/console gaming interface, much like the 7th Generation has homogenized PC/console gaming libraries, there’s still a gulf. Sure, I may be able to start a game using a controller in Big Picture Mode, but if it’s a game that doesn’t support controller inputs, I’ll have to switch back to keyboard & mouse to play it. While it’s always possible that Valve may be hiding some awesome Big Picture Mode features that include keymapping and input emulation, that doesn’t help someone who wants to play now.
The current solution for this dilemma is to use a third-party keymapping program. While this type of program has been around for a long, long time, they have been historically feature-incomplete or just generally dodgy. And while I usually would never advocate paying for something when there is a free equivalent, the $10 …
The PC/Console Gaming Singularity
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/23/12 at 01:50 PM CT
Some attentive members of MeltedJoystick have already noticed this, and it was announced through our Press Release system. However, I would now like to officially announce that the MeltedJoystick database now includes PC games.
Why add PC games to a site created by console gamers, for console gamers? This site was built by two people who never played PC games and is run by two other people, one of whom rarely played PC games for the occasional exclusive and one who turned against PC gaming in its entirety. You could easily say that none of the MeltedJoystick staff love PC gaming for what it has always been: an expensive, error-riddled, exercise in poor controls, stiff necks, and first-person shooters. However, PC gaming is no longer the same as it used to be, just as console gaming is no longer the same as it used to be.
PC gaming and console gaming have reached a singularity. Where it used to be that PC gamers were the only poor bastards who had to put up with gigabytes of …
An Xbox 360 Controller and Steam Big Picture Mode: The Way PC Gaming Should Be
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/16/12 at 05:06 PM CT
I recently went through my cabinet of PC gaming paraphernalia to take stock of what games and peripherals I had accumulated and to see if any of it still worked. While I decided to hold onto the boxes of floppy disks containing games I was never able to play, the other pile I discovered quickly found itself dumped into a sack and hauled-off to the GoodWill: Controllers.
I’ve always preferred game controllers to a keyboard and mouse (one of the reasons it was so easy for me to abandon PC gaming in 2003 and not look back), ever since I first played a bizarre and terrible version of “Mega Man” on my Dad’s Tandy 1000. Controllers are small, you can hold one in your lap while kicking your feet up in comfortable recliner, they have a reasonable amount of buttons that can be manipulated solely by touch with a little practice instead of a full keyboard layout in which only a few keys actually do something in any given game, and they have d-pads (nowadays analog sticks) that allow …
The Windows 8/Xbox Live Crossover
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/09/12 at 01:13 PM CT
Ever since code combers first found embedded references to Xbox Live in the Windows 8 source code, I’ve been excited about the prospect of Microsoft finally doing right by their firstborn child and giving Windows some proper gaming attention, instead of lavishing mountains of praise on their misshapen hunchback of a bastard child, the Xbox line of unnecessary consoles. Unfortunately, now that we have seen Microsoft’s plans begin to bear fruit, we can also see that this fruit is so rotten that not even a Fruit Ninja would touch it.
Instead of creating a runtime environment or emulator for the dead Xbox or aged Xbox 360, Microsoft has decided it is in gamers’ best interest to only play Xbox Live Arcade games on their Windows 8 PCs. Okay, that makes sense, to some degree, as not every PC will have hardware capable of running disc-based Xbox/Xbox 360 games, with their higher production values and whatnot. Plus, it’s not a big deal, since most of the interesting Xbox 360 …
Backlog: The Embiggening - September, 2012
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/02/12 at 02:51 PM CT
Welcome to another look into the near future. September is now upon us, and the Summer Game Drought is officially over, with a deluge of new releases. But is this the long awaited rainfall we’ve been awaiting, or is it a downpour of acidic pollution? I’m leaning toward the latter.
The FPS drought has finally ended with the multi-platform release of “Borderlands 2.” While I’m not terribly enthused about this game, a lot of people I regularly play with are. And I can understand why; from what little I played of the first game, it seems like the series has a lot more going for it than the typical FPS (it even pretends to be an RPG). I might pick it up on Steam when it’s down to $10.
The truly horrifying thing about the end of the Summer Game Drought is that the weeds in the metaphorical gaming garden – those horrible licensed games that are always there, no matter how hard we try to uproot them – have experienced a massive population boom. September is not only …
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