I fired up TimeSplitters 2 for the first time in like two decades and immediately went 
at the aiming controls
Firing from the hip, there’s no crosshair on the screen, which would be fine, but instead of a zoomed-in aiming mode or iron sights, aiming your gun roots you in place and gives you this light gun game-like pointer crosshair. Usually, aiming in an FPS game decreases your sensitivity to make it easier to make finer adjustments but this is the opposite. The crosshair is essentially a super sensitive mouse cursor that you control with a stubby little thumbstick, and it feels terrible to use.
Halo had been out for almost a year by the time TimeSplitters 2 came out so why didn’t they just crib Bungie’s homework 
I quickly went back and checked TimeSplitters: Future Perfect and sure enough, it just had a regular Halo-style crosshair as the default, called “fixed crosshair” in the options, with the old control style called “moving crosshair.” I guess by 2005 Halo had established its control scheme as the de facto standard for console FPS controls
I wish goldeneye came out on PC with proper kb/m control because while I always liked the level designs, I can never get too far into the game due to the controls. N64 controller is an enigma.
i don’t have a link handy but there’s a proper pc port of timesplitterw 2 inside of homefront: the revolution or whatevr that game is called and there’s some github thing where you can boot directly into it
Timesplitters 2 is such a god damn banger but I can’t handle the controls at all any more. I wonder if there’s a way to play it with mouse and keyboard? Kind of like PrimeHack for Metroid Prime.
It is impossible for there not to be one.
I searched it: https://github.com/garungorp/MouseInjectorDolphinDuck
Thanks for the link, this seems promising. Might’ve come in handy when I played Resident Evil: Dead Aim last year, though on second thought I don’t think it would’ve made that game any better
Timesplitters aim is taken directly from goldeneye and perfect dark. Personally i find it significantly more intuitive and they were my favourite fps games as a kid to play. It was in itself a method of making single stick FPS playable, precise aim is for sniping and stealth headshots otherwise make sure the enemy is in the center of your screen and fire. Although i can imagine this is like me liking tank controls so…
I found my right arm going unconsciously to my mouse whenever I used the aiming mode. It feels like something made for a mouse due to how sensitive it is. With full-auto weapons, shooting from the hip works okay but the beginning of TS2’s first level requires stealth and accurate headshots with semi-auto weapons and it’s not a good time
I also love tank controls… at least in survival horror games. The first two Onimusha games have them in a melee action context and it wasn’t the best experience 100% time
Yeah the zoom controls i will admit are just plain bad. Don’t think the first level actually requires stealth though it just makes it easier but you can run through and trigger all the alarms. Not that it helps much.
I think out of the fps on the ps2 at the time it was still the nicest feeling as competing games were medal of honor, killzone, nightfire, agent under fire. Which all felt clunky to me
I love early 00’s shooters were they were still trying to figure out what control scheme to use. Each FPS had some wacky layout going, just throwing shit at the wall to see what would stick. Tank controls everywhere too.
Turok was so weird with the controls
Oh god and I so wish to play it again lol. I remember it being so good. If I were to replay i doubt I’d even be able to parse what the polygons should represent, let alone move Turok
It is good goofy fun. I highly recommend it.
With the wealth of jay pegs we have it’s honestly surprising there’s none from Turok :thonk:
Lmao exactly what I was thinking of
Timesplitters 2 was the absolute peak of me playing shooters and still my undisputed multiplayer GOAT. I remember coming back from raves and spending an entire day and/or night playing it with mates as a student. God only knows how many hours I put into it, more than any other game ever for sure. I probably put more hours into the level editor than most games I’ve played since. High camp, perfect multiplayer, and just a crazy amount of content all wrapped up in a single game.
the 90s UI design was fantastically awful since no one knew what the fuck they were doing. Control schemes fall into this category as well I guess.
I feel there’s a place for the floaty generous autoaim of games like time splitters and Metroid Prime. It lets you have fast shootouts whilst focusing on exploration. I hope someone makes a game like that one day
I actually didn’t notice much autoaim here. I’m used to the Halo-style aim assist implementarion where your crosshair slows down and adheres to targets when you pass over them
The trick is to not use the precise aim button ever, except sniping and stealth. You can do everything else without it and you need to be mobile, use the strafe buttons.
Annoyingly, the first level requires precisely those two things. I wanted to play the Notre Dame level where you shoot zombies with a double barreled shotgun but that’s level three
Let it not be forgotten that it was Alien Resurrection on the PS1 that pioneered the twin-stick control scheme
TS2 does use dual analog, the aiming is just wonky
And reviews at the time didn’t like it!
tbf that’s a function of dual analog controllers not even existing until the dualshock
turok had the core concept down 3 years earlier using the c-buttons as one stick, and goldeneye had this hilarious dual analog option using two n64 controllers, one in each hand, also 3 years earlier
Most companies also probably didn’t want to release a game you couldn’t play with the original non-analog controllers, AFAIK there are only a handful of PS1 games that require analog sticks.
There was a PS1 controller with analog sticks called the Dual Analog Controller before the DualShock.we need to bring back the double N64 controller method, the true golden age
Wait until you play Goldeneye64
That game was considered revolutionary at the time and is credited for bringing FPS to consoles.
The N64 has a single joystick. You can imagine how it plays by today’s standards.
Honestly I’m surprised I didn’t become a massive anti-communist after growing up with a game where you spend the whole first level shooting Soviets
surprised I didn’t become a massive anti-communist after growing up with a game where you spend the whole first level shooting Soviets
If kids can shoot Nazis in wolfenstein and still grow up to become swastika and wolfsangel bearing pinatas, then no reason they can’t shoot Soviets and still grow up to become Stalinist-Bidenists
Goldeneye split screen multiplayer, my beloved.
spoiler
1v1 me no oddjob
all grenade launchers all stacks all day
I am inveeencible!
GoldenEye let’s you plug in two controllers and play with two analog sticks. Controller mode 2.2 is pretty close to how FPSs on controllers play now.
I never knew that. That sounds rad as fuck
ge64 has a lot of little cool details like that.
Now I want to rewind time and try it out! I also remember the Star Wars Podracer let you use two controllers too.
i like it that way it’s fun
