I am really, really trying to enjoy the game despite the lack of IBMM.
After about 500 hours of Halo on PC, and 8 years of using a mouse exclusively for gaming (10 years on Xbox controller before that), I still notice the controller auto aim, especially against opponents who care/try/are-good/etc.
I disagree that IBMM cons will outweight the pros.
- I don't want to play games with human beings who play first-person-shooters on the Controller. Period. I want to play with opponents/allies who also play on 120hz monitors and use mouse and keyboard. I do not want to be part of or adjacent to the console or controller community. I do not want to play FPS games with console gamers -- it is a different community with a different mentality and type of gamer.
- The only reason I call out in game and try hard is because I respect the fairness of the Hardcore settings (I try hard in Rumble but merely tolerate the trash settings). I want to outplay people and be outplayed by people in order to drive me to improve and excel. That experience is broken without IBMM. This is especially true with the tenacious controller users who use the unscoped BR and do the "controller shuffle" as I call it where they simply strafe and allow the controller to take over.
- Halo has always had a competitive scene but PC gamers are unable to experience their own version of that because Console Peasants can just embarrass us and tell us to get good on our own platform. Even if we are 20 year halo veterans like me who have played at a very skill level across multiple platforms, multiple Halo titles (2, 3, reach) frame rates, FOV, controller settings, mouse settings. Just look at the Summit 1g situation. You CAN feel it when you play against it.
I don't want to play competitive games with the controller community. If the population is too low then I will disable the filter and join the console gamers for some rumble pit where the BR is less important.When I play Hardcore Halo 3 or Halo 2, I want the filter on.
I'm a controller player. I'm in high 20's in Hardcore H3, but haven't played in a few months because I legitimately want to play with kbm but couldn't get past 22 Solo Q in Hardcore and had to pick up controller. Grinded to 27 a week after that and then quit altogether because I am so tired of playing controller on a PC title.
With that being said, I absolutely love the way you described the "controller shuffle". Strafing in H3 is a difficult thing to learn on controller, but ultimately, you're not wrong: Strafing essentially involves moving the stick left to right and allowing aim assist to do the heavy lifting in terms of actually tracking your opponent. I'm not trying to knock H3, because it does take skill to strafe (more than most of the games in the series) but it also comes down to aim assist doing 80% of the tracking for you.
One of the coolest things that I noticed when I got a lobby of 8 kbm players together is that strafe battles changed a lot, and felt more like Quake than the typical (left-right-left-right-jump-ghandi hop) strafe I've been doing for 10 years. Strafing was a lot more varied, with longer strafes thrown in, and jumps/ghandi hopping worked so much better when you had to track the target 100% yourself. The depth we saw with just a night of matches with all kbm players was so cool, and I would love to see that sort of thing flourish with input-based matchmaking.
I just wanted to say that I appreciate that point you made because most controller players don't really get how much more depth the game acquires in kbm lobbies. It legitimately feels like a true Arena shooter at times when on kbm. Flicking with sniper (like the Quake Railgun), tracking with the br (like the Quake Lightning Gun), lining up quick nades mid-battle and then immediately firing away in a 1v1 duel. It all feels so good and fresh in H3, and it's a shame you can't experience any of it in matchmaking because of the controller domination past rank 20.
