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I'm sorry, but the platformers, driving games and third-person action games where the emphasis is not on shooting are way better with gamepads than with keyboard and mouse. These games benefit from the analog controls, and the keyboard÷mouse don't have that. I don't know how much did you play these kind of games with a controller, but if you get used to the controllers, there is no way the keyboard and mouse feels better. I bought a gamepad to my PC a long time ago, just for these kind of games.

I didn't wrote I never used gamepads (but I didn't used much joypad) because I owned various consoles.

I don't think play one year with gamepad will make it better than mouse plus keyboard, but play during all childhood with gamepads for sure can change a feeling.

That said there's always place to debate even if at end it's just a different life experience difference. So I wonder what you mean by third person:
  • First there's RPG, turn based or not, I wonder how any pad could beat a mouse plus keyboard.
  • There's action games like Diablo, again no pad can match.
  • There are dual sticks, well just try some PC game like alien shooter 2, once more pads just can't match.

For driving game I don't know that's possible, but one point there's nothing more analog than a mouse, only touch controls are more analog and any stick aren't more analog than a mouse and are far to offer the same degree of precision.

For platform games, it depends of the platform game, PC shows some using a lot the mouse controls, and they are huge in term of controls. For those going to dual stick, the combo mouse plus keyboard is quite great I bet you never tried.

But well I can't imagine what it could be for people intensively trained to gamepads during all their childhood, at this age children learn a lot naturally, so I can only suppose it makes a huge difference. For someone that never used keyboard nor mouse, nor pads during all childhood, I think the keyboard plus mouse combo is just unbeatable and I have yet to see games that feel better with a pad.
 
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  • First there's RPG, turn based or not, I wonder how any pad could beat a mouse plus keyboard.
  • There's action games like Diablo, again no pad can match.
  • There are dual sticks, well just try some PC game like alien shooter 2, once more pads just can't match.
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No argument here, these games are best played with KB+M. But when I said third person games, I meant Devil May Cry, Prince of Persia, Beyond Good and Evil and the like.

As for driving games, while the mouse has analoge movement, you can't assign the acceleration, breaking and turn left/right axis to a mouse. I mean you could, but the game would be uncontrollable.

Platformers: Usually KB+M is good for them, but I think Prince of Persia, Shank, Trine are better with gamepads.

And just to be clear, I'm not a console only player, I only have consoles for 2 years, but I'm playing on PC since 2000.

It all comes down to whether or not someone can adapt to a controller. If he/she can't, that KB+M will always feel better for him/her.
 
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It all comes down to whether or not someone can adapt to a controller. If he/she can't, that KB+M will always feel better for him/her.

Well, this for sure - but also a bit of open-mindedness. It`s sort of fun to be a hardcore worshipper- done that, but if I stuck with it I`d be still loading programs from a tape deck or watching demos on Amiga.

I also have this funny memory of some folk refusing to play early FPS` WITH mouse. "Keyboard forever!" they defended "this mouse, too difficult!"
 
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As I wrote I think that the childhood experience makes a difference, so yes I won't argue more, in general, but will just explain my feeling.

A gamepad means a very precise thumb control, and I just can't learn it to feel comfortable with diagonals or with precision.

For example a Joystick is clearly much better for few games like car driving and planes, but I have a precision with a Joystick I can't reach with a Joypad because of the smaller size and the thumb control.

Another example is with the digital pad, most of my fingers are used to handle the pad and the thumb needs do all. Use 3 to 4 fingers for movements is just much more easy and you don't lost more fingers, plus the keyboard offer you quite more keys very close and quickly reach.
 
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...I also have this funny memory of some folk refusing to play early FPS` WITH mouse. "Keyboard forever!" they defended "this mouse, too difficult!"
It's funny you quote this because it's certainly Doom that setup one of the most common modern controls scheme.

With Doom I started with a special gamepad, the control of the movement pad was done with a stick you should handle so not the thumb. But a day I force me switch to kbd+mouse and it took 2 or 3 days to never come back.

At the opposite I played some console games during weeks and would switch back instantly to keyboard plus mouse if I could and if the game controls was adapted for.
 
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This thumb problem is an interesting point. I have an iPad and play most games with the ipad put on a surface sightly inclined. This allow me use mono or dual stick with the index finger not the thumb so the pads are controlled with a mix of hand movements and finger movement. I'm not fully at ease and the lack of physical elements is a problem but i feel much more easy and in control.

A trick is with those virtual pad is that you can move more or less far from the pad center to have more precise or more fast circular movements, it's quite unique to those virtual pads, physical pads are unable to reproduce this ability and force you be quite close to pad center for your circular movement around it, ie it requires much more precision.
 
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I've recently started using a gamepad for some games. In fact, with Mafia 2, I use both - KB+M is much better for shooting/moving but the gamepad is substantially better for driving.
 
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