For a game that was one of the killer apps for the Xbox 360, it’s surprising the PC version never shipped with proper controller support. Leave it to modders then to do the work of BioWare and Microsoft by cramming it in there post-launch. Or should I say post-post-post-launch, seeing as the game came out in 2010.
So you can play Mass Effect 2 with a gamepad. That’s kind of exciting, but perhaps not mind-blowing. Well, this mod also adds the power wheel from the console version, so it’s extremely faithful to its Xbox One counterpart as a control method.
The modification can be found over on the ME3 Explorer forums, though it should be mentioned it requires a small tweak to get working. It involves using a save editor to map a power to the “Y” button, but it’s not heinously complicated to do.
If you’re wondering about the other two Mass Effect games, the news is good — this mod will serve as a foundation for including controller support in those titles also, though you’ll have to be patient.
ME2 Controller Support (Power Wheel) [ME3 Explorer, via Reddit]
Image: moonshine
Comments
12 responses to “Modder Adds Proper Gamepad Support To Mass Effect 2”
Modders – filling in where EAs contempt left off.
I don’t understand why they’d just cut or leave controller support out. It makes no sense…
Now if he could go back and patch the Mip Map bug on Garrus’ face in the PC release of ME1 that would be lovely.
Thats pretty good especially seeing as I got mass effect 2 as part of the humble origin bundle
Soooo word on how much us Steam users will have to pay for this mod? O_o
But I thought PC controls were “waaaaay better than console”? Or did someone finally wake up to the fact that even though the mouse is (arguably) more fluid, you have ancient digital input for every other command in the game, such as movement.
How anyone looks at a keyboard, designed for text entry, and says, “yeah I want to play games with that!”, is beyond me.
… or people like to be able to leverage their ability to choose the right tool for the job/moment, PC controls are better because you can use pretty much whatever you like. I wouldn’t want to use a keyboard to play Assassin’s Creed and more than I’d want to use a gamepad to play Battlefield.
(@bomyne as well) I think that the same mindset that celebrates Android devices is the one that celebrates keyboards. There’s a design principle called the flexibility – usability trade-off which basically says; the more options you have, the less inherently usable your design is.
A keyboard, as I said, was originally designed for text entry. The fact that it has so many individual inputs means that it’s flexible enough to become a game controller, but not focussed enough to do it well. To make the argument that a keyboard is a more effective controller than a controller itself (specifically designed for the task) is to fly in the face of design principles.
I’ll use the analogy of a swiss army knife. Sure, it has a knife on it, scissors, bottle opener, etc.; but to argue that its knife is more effective than an actual kitchen knife, or a survival knife, at their respective roles, is ridiculous. You use a swiss army knife not because it’s the best at what it does, but because it can do a lot.
More options can be a good thing, but it always comes at a cost of usability. You can’t be a jack of all trades and expect to be a master as well.
(That said, one genre that the keyboard is perfect for is RTS games. That’s something that can’t be matched on controller.)
It’s because the keyboard has a LOT more buttons and is far better than anything a console can use. I can’t imagine trying to play a shooter with a controller… A racing game, maybe. I need the precision from the stick on a racing game… but the digital entry of a keyboard does not hinder my ability to play a shooter… and is far better than a controller.
So how much is this on Steam?
Controller support on a shooter… Well that’s a whole new level of pointless!
Oh good, this might mean I can play my PC version on my laptop without struggling so hard with my shitty set up.