I fired up TimeSplitters 2 for the first time in like two decades and immediately went not-built-for-this at the aiming controls

Firing from the hip, there’s no crosshair on the screen, which would be fine, but instead of a zoomed-in aiming mode or iron sights, aiming your gun roots you in place and gives you this light gun game-like pointer crosshair. Usually, aiming in an FPS game decreases your sensitivity to make it easier to make finer adjustments but this is the opposite. The crosshair is essentially a super sensitive mouse cursor that you control with a stubby little thumbstick, and it feels terrible to use.

Halo had been out for almost a year by the time TimeSplitters 2 came out so why didn’t they just crib Bungie’s homework whywhywhywhywhy

I quickly went back and checked TimeSplitters: Future Perfect and sure enough, it just had a regular Halo-style crosshair as the default, called “fixed crosshair” in the options, with the old control style called “moving crosshair.” I guess by 2005 Halo had established its control scheme as the de facto standard for console FPS controls

  • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    22 hours ago

    Timesplitters 2 was the absolute peak of me playing shooters and still my undisputed multiplayer GOAT. I remember coming back from raves and spending an entire day and/or night playing it with mates as a student. God only knows how many hours I put into it, more than any other game ever for sure. I probably put more hours into the level editor than most games I’ve played since. High camp, perfect multiplayer, and just a crazy amount of content all wrapped up in a single game.

    • Gorb [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      11 hours ago

      I made horror maps in the level editor and would permanently zoom in with the p90 scope for a film grain and spawn zombies. Flickering lights everywhere.