PC gaming: keyboard beats joypad

John Carmack decrees that keyboard/mouse control is far superior to the console joypad
John Carmack decrees that keyboard/mouse control is far superior to the console joypad

The father of modern day first person shooters, id Software founder John Carmack, is not a fan of console joypads, much preferring the good old mouse/keyboard control input for his games.

In a recent GamesRadar interview with the legendary ID, Doom and Quake Live creator, Carmack told them, in no uncertain terms:

"The keyboard/mouse interface is definitely still the superior interface for a competitive first-person shooter experience, much better than an analog joypad."

Where next for PC?

What are the major tech innovations PC gamers can expect to see in the near future, according to Carmack? And where now for PC gaming?

"There are still things that the PC does better than consoles," he tells GamesRadar. "The browser environment is faster - navigating web pages on the console is a really tedious experience."

Carmack also reminds us that the next leap forward in consoles will always "be preceded by earlier versions of them on the PC."

He adds: "And we're certainly looking at CUDA programming and Larrabee prototyping, as AMD looks toward Fusion, those are all things where we use the PC as an early sounding-ground for what the more dominant (sales-wise) consoles are going to eventually wind up being."

Adam Hartley