Damn You, Microsoft!

[Phoenixx]

[venting mode on]

God knows it is already hard enough to find decent PC titles that support a gamepad. But what sucks even more is when you DO find one, only to find out that you have to pay Microsoft a handsome sum for their stupid 360 controller or you wont be playing with a controller at all.

Case in Point: Kane and Lynch. Bought that last week because ive heard its supposed to be real good AND, (since it is a console conversion), made to be played with a gamepad. Sounds good you say? Well, i certainly thought so, and it probably would be if it werent for the tiny little problem that the package merely says 'Supports the 360 Controller' and that this is precisely what it means! So even though i have nearly a dozen gamepads of all races and religions lying around here im playing Squat and Squat now because Kane and Lynch insists on a 360 controller. In fact there is not even an option to choose between keyboard/mouse and gamepad input,...if there is no 360 pad present then keyboard/mouse is all you get. But what if i bought the game exactly because of its gamepad controls? Tough luck, buy a 360 controller? You got to be joking,...

And from what i have read it doesnt stop here, the same alledgedly goes for ALL titles that have the 'Games for Windows' tag. So what kind of bad joke is this supposed to be? How far does that proprietary crap have to go? I dont care what anybody says, but when i am practically forced to pay some multi-billion-dollar company a lot of extra cash just to be allowed to use a frickin gamepad in the game i just bought then there is something seriously wrong and this quite frankly ticks me off no end. I was so looking forward to playing that title, now i can consider myself lucky that i became aware of this (confirmed via demo) before i have openened the package. Otherwise i couldnt even return the damn thing now. Therefore a hearty *Damn You* to Microsoft, a PC is not a console for gods sake, it is supposed to be versatile and customizable, and since you already grab enough money from PC users you really could leave it up to me to decide what controller i use with the games i payed for,...

[/venting mode off]

 

[freakofspeed]

I know where your coming from Phoenixx...
Microsoft and their "games for windows" program have made playing games without a 360 controller a pain.

I have kind of the reverse situation... Hooked up to my Spare PC are two wired xbox 360 controllers. With the recent console ports and the latest xbox 360 drivers its a breeze to set up. Unfortunately I need to use a custom driver to play some games ( eg. tony hawk games) as the triggers on the xbox controller come up as +/-Y axis rather then buttons.

I use the xbcd driver (originally created by users to get the original xbox controller working on the pc ). With the 360 pads the XBCD drivers allows you to customise all the buttons to be what ever you want
But here lies the problem... games that were designed to work with the 360 are not detecting it as a 360 controller but rather as a generic one and require a fair bit of effort to get working as designed. (far too difficult for my 4 and 5 year old nephews who are the main users of the controllers)

Have you tried the pinnacle drivers? I dont know if it will get you over the "only works with a 360 controller" hurdle and it costs $$, But you could get the trial version and see if helps you out.
http://www.pinnaclegameprofiler.com/



EDIT***
found this post (XBOX 360 Controller emulator by Racer_S)
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=934404&topic=45311376

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

what a bunch of douchebags.

anyway, you say the game accepts key input? then how about using any of the many joy-to-key utilities with your other gamepads?

my favorite is one from germany- RBjoy.

 

[Phoenixx]

Cool, you guys are the greatest!

@freakofspeed: Thanks for the emulator tip! I will try that out later. I have already tried to find a workaround like that myself, but when i read a statement from a Saitek developer i didnt look any further because he said the only way would be an emulator and that it would be very difficult to make one. Then he also said that K&L wouldnt work even with an emulator because it doesnt support the XInput standard properly. So i didnt think somebody would be able to actually make something that works. Quote Saitek Dev.:

"It's further complicated when game publishers don't always appear to support the XInput standard correctly; for example, Eidos's Kane & Lynch won't recognize any XInput device other than Microsoft's Xbox 360 pad - other XInput pads do not work as they should."

The whole article is here, but since it is in german (except for the quoted bit) youd have to run it through a translator.


@Nic: Good thinking! I was so mad and ticked off i didnt think of that. If all else fails i can at least try that, thanks for reminding me. I would use Xpadder then since i like it best.

Will let you know if any of the two suggestions works properly for me. Thanks again!

 

[Phoenixx]

Just my luck; when i try to run the emulator im getting the exact same error like this guy.

Leaves the other method then,...now why do i have the odd feeling i already know what is going to happen,...

 

[bob]

Case in Point: Kane and Lynch. Bought that last week because ive heard its supposed to be real good AND, (since it is a console conversion), made to be played with a gamepad.

I'm soooo happy I bought a PS3, I was so tired of not having games run at the highest resolution and all of the other usual pc gaming crap.

Anyway, I looked up Kane and Lynch and I didn't see where it received a very high rating.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/kanelynchdeadmen/index.html

I just finished Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (fantastic graphics) and now I'm playing Killzone 2.

 

[Phoenixx]

Yeah, im sure it would have been a whole different story on a console.

Anyhow, im taking the game back. I better do that as long as i still can, once i open the package theres no way i get my money back if something doesnt work in the game. Some things just arent meant to be i guess,...

 

[Phoenixx]

O.K., Kane and Lynch are back at the store. Let somebody else have fun with them.

Now im thinking of getting StarWars - Republic Commando. Ive just played through Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy again, which are no doubt the best damn PC-exclusive titles i have ever played. The GFX are outright amazing on 1600x1200 with 8xAA and 16xAF and the sound and the gameplay are beyond all critic too. In fact these two titles are the only games i enjoy entirely even with mouse and keyboard, so if Republic Commando is anything like those two are then it is a must have for me. Will gather some more info now, i hope there is a demo available,...


(BTW, ive seen theres a whole bunch of new GreenPepper titles now, Doom3, Quake4, SidMeiers Pirates, NFSUnderground, Hitman Contracts, Vampire Bloodlines and lots and lots more former top-titles for only €6.99. If they sell GreenPepper titles in your area, now is a damn good time to get a couple of great games for dirt cheap,...)

 

[TomcatLeader]

Leave it to Micro$oft. I'm glad I have MAME32 for my games. Any and all PnP controllers work, and I have two PSX to USB adapters so I can use PS controllers on my PC.

 

[destruk]

Nobody told you that PC gaming died as of 2 years ago? It's all consoles now if you want games. Sorry to hear about Microsoft's BS and lack of new titles, but it was bound to happen. Loading a game on a pc is too hard - I want to be able to press power, slap in a dvd, and go without having to do anything. As for resolution, if it's 1080i or 1080p then nobody cares about anything else - that's where the money is.

 

[Phoenixx]

Nobody told you that PC gaming died as of 2 years ago?

Nope. As a matter of fact ive read a statement from a dev of one of the major publishing houses just yesterday, where he said that the PC is to become the most important gaming platform in the future. I dont remember the entire text but it had to with online distribution. He said the marketshares are growing by 60% each year. (EDIT: Found the article. It was Eric Brown, Financial Manager of Electronic Arts who said that.)


BTW i lied when i said that the two Jedi Knight titles are the best PC-exlcusive titles and the only two games i enjoy entirely even with mouse/keyboard. The same goes for StarTrek EliteForce I+II too, so that would be four games total. And its not surprising either: All four games run on the same engine (Quake3Arena) and 3 of them were made by Raven Software. Only EF-II was from another team, but all four of them share that incredible amount of graphical detail and perfect sound and thus an atmosphere that has yet to be topped. When you play Jedi Knight you feel perfectly integrated into the StarWars universe and when you play EliteForce you feel perfectly integrated into the StarTrek universe. Its like being in a movie or an episode. In fact theres not a minute in these games where youd feel 'out of place', something which can unfortunately not be said about Republic Commando. I played the demo and that game doesnt feel like StarWars at all, it has no such atmosphere whatsoever. The only other game i know that comes halfways close to a StarWars atmosphere is Battlefront-II, but still it cant keep up with the Jedi Knight titles. Compared to those two i would give it at most 5 out of 10 for authentic feeling.

Its a shame they dont make any new titles on the Q3A engine - (especially Raven, who sure knew how to use this engine to its limits) - because the immense playability and the sheer beauty of the environment in these games are actually perfectly enough for a decent PC game. And then there is of course the performance aspect. On a halfways recent computer these games can be easily run at highest quality settings at 1600x1200 with full 16x AntiAliasing and 16x Filtering framesynched at 85Hz which means youll have a stunning picture quality with no jagged edges at all while the game still runs 100.00% smooth in every scene. Games on newer engines often dont look half as good and yet they stutter even on high-end hardware, even when you use only medium settings. So my choice would be clear. If they made any new Jedi Knight or Elite Force titles on the Q3A engine, i would be the first in line. Definitely. Too bad only its not going to happen,...