I got my kid a cheap generic gamepad that I like a lot for its features (and price!) And was thinking of getting another one and modding them with hall effect sticks, so I stopped to actually look at it to consider if it was worth it and noticed it doesn’t have triggers, the L2 and R2 are just buttons.
Which got me thinking, do analog triggers matter all that much? I don’t really like racing games in general and since I’m a PC gamer I don’t even consider the gamepad for precision shooters (if I feel I need precision aiming I just do m+k). I can’t think of many situations where I don’t just bottom out the triggers on my xbox gamepad, to the point where I get surprised if in the middle of a game I find out I can do stuff like a weak shot with a bow or a weak anything.
What situations, other than throttle and break in vehicles, do you find yourself making real use of the analog triggers? Do you think you would miss them if you didn’t have them? Why? Maybe I’m just not noticing when I use them, it’s nice to have, sure, but can’t say more than that.
Nintendo Switch has been using digital triggers since 2017 and only racing games are really affected, haven’t seen complaints about anything else
I can’t remember any specific examples but I do remember there being some GameCube games that used the analog triggers dynamically. They did something like a light press would do one thing, then a medium press would do something else and then pressing it all the way down would do another thing. I wish I could remember what it is that I’m vaguely remembering but I think I do remember there being a shooter game where you could hold the button down halfway to charge up a shot before pressing all the way down to fire it.
I prefer controllers that let you lock the triggers for very short pulls so they act like buttons, buttons would be fine too for most games, big exceptions are probably racing already mentioned, space flight/flying combat, and many fighting games
It’s been a long time since I played PS2, but the analog triggers and bumpers and X/O/Tri/Sq got a fair amount of function. Ace Combat is of course a racing/flying category, but a non-racing function was Square pressure zoomed out the map variable. The other 3 shape buttons didn’t utilize pressure sensitivity, but the triggers and bumpers variable controlled throttle/brake and yaw.
I vaguely remember an FPS game where aiming down sights with binoculars equipped offered variable zoom.
But realistically, there’s a ton of uses for variable buttons, but devs have to employ them. I’d bet the utilization of the 6 extra PS buttons is nonexistent for any cross-platform games, especially PvP games. If you stick to PS-only titles, you’d probably find more examples. Unfortunately, I stopped at PS2, and nearly everything in my collection was racing. I can’t remember the details, but something about the Xbox one controller was lacking when I played the Spyro trilogy re-release/re-port.
The only thing I have ever played, aside from racing/driving games, that really made use of the analog nature of the triggers, was Metal Gear Solid. Squeezing the trigger really lightly just held the gun up. Holding it a little harder activated the laser sight. Pulling it all the way fired your gun.
That game made use of every feature of the controller back in the day, which was also one of the only games I’ve ever played that used Playstation’s pressure sensitive face buttons. AFAIK, they don’t even have pressure sensitivity anymore, like the original DualShock controller did.
I pretty much never see the analogue triggers used beyond a basic 1/0 switch outside games with vehicles (and sometimes not even those). There’s no degrees of actuation unless using them to accelerate and brake. And I’m not sure what else you could really use them for besides feeling like an actual trigger when using a gun in the game (which the adaptive trigger system does really well).
Hah, I distinctly remember the first time I discovered the pressure sensitivity in MGS 3. I was hiding inside of a locker, and pressed a button to lean towards the grate and peek out. I lightly pressed it, and Snake barely leaned at all. I couldn’t really see what I needed to. So I mashed it harder. But I pressed it so hard that Snake slammed his face into the metal locker door with an audible thud. The noise alerted the guard and I was caught.
The fact that they even thought to program in a “slam face into whatever you’re peeking out of” mechanic has me rolling now that I’m thinking about it. It really is peak Kojima.
FYI: If you do the same thing in a locker that has a poster of a woman in it, Snake will smooch the poster instead of slam his face into the door. Don’t remember how many were in 3, but there were a few in 2. In 5 you can paste them to your box and lure guards like Bugs Bunny in drag.
That’s so dumb. I love it!
GTA and Gran Turismo (and most racing games on the PS2) used the pressure sensitivity on the face buttons. The DualShock 3 was the last controller to use them. I don’t think it was used much on the PS3, so they removed them for the PS4.
GameCube games like Melee definitely need analog triggers for shield control
Can you elaborate? What happens if you bottom out the shield?
So bottoming out just uses the default shield (hard shield), a small third of the way press does a light shield which is bigger but causes more knock back on your character on hit. Then there is power shielding where it’s the hardest “light shield” you can do which can cause reflection on projectiles and fastest out of shield recovery. Goofy ass game lol
I can see why it’s known as having a lot of depth.
If you want to emulate Gamecube games, there are a couple where it’s needed (Mario Sunshine comes to mind), or some older games that make use of six axes (the Descent series can make good use of 6). But my experience matches yours–very few need them, and the few that do probably have workarounds.
I’ve been playing a Gamecube game (Spiderman 2 (2004)) on original hardware lately (slight lie - playing on a backwards-compatible Wii, but with an official Nintendo Gamecube controller) and the analogue L/R are quite annoying. Given that the analogueness doesn’t do anything in the game I’m playing unless you fully press it, it’s more like a non-analogue trigger with a ridiculous depression distance.
For a few specific genres, they matter a lot, and if you play those games it’ll suck to not have them. For everything else though, I’d actually prefer a digital trigger.
https://github.com/xemu-project/xemu/issues/2609
This guy apparently was making a list of XBox games that use analog triggers for an issue on an emulator. Each entry lists what function the game uses the analog trigger for.
It looks like:
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Acceleration (and, I assume, brake). By far the most common. Not always ground vehicles; spaceships and such.
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Rewind/fast forward in some sports games.
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A mining game that used it for drilling.
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Lean in some first person shooters.
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Sidestep in some first person shooters.
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As well as accelerate and brake, they’re very useful for aircraft rudders or some directional thrusters in spaceships.
I can’t think of much beyond that though. I think the analogue up-down-left-right sticks are a lot more commonly used - if only for moving a character in 360° rather than 8 directions only.
The game I played that I feel needed them the most was F-Zero GX. So, obviously it’s still racing, but they’re not used for throttle or brake, they make you slide laterally.
Some WipeOut titles do this too. Pretty crucial in 2048 for example.
great for racing games and GameCube
Since the Switch Pro 1 and 2 don’t have analog triggers, I’ve noticed how much analogs get in the way of the games I actually play on PC (all using them as buttons only) with a XBOX Elite 2, which I have setup to have the triggers as “buttons”, but I still miss the clicky feel.
If you haven’t, try going into Steam Input, and for each trigger, move the button to the soft pull instead of the full pull mapping, then in trigger settings change the action to Hair Trigger with a small threshold (500-1000) and set the analog output to analog off. Games usually do digital triggers poorly, and this usually makes them feel noticeably better.
I keep a template saved with this, so I can quickly apply it to a new game where it helps the feel.
It seems like you’ve already answered your own question lol They wouldn’t really matter at all if you aren’t playing any games that need them.
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