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Resident Evil 4 Remake's Weapon wheel is really Intuitive

A Big pet peeve of mine is having to pause during gameplay to equip item's or abilities that I should have access to in real time.

The Biggest example of this is weapon wheels in shooters on console's. You have to either pause the action entirely or really slow it down to change weapon. The Horizon and Ratchet games are good examples but it's basically been the default way to do things for a long time.

This is bad because firstly it feels like cheating giving you more time than you should to make choice's and secondly it breaks the game flow and doesn't feel very good. We've seen PC gamers real time switch for age's and we all know how good those weapon combos are to pull off.

This is where Resident Evil 4 remake comes in (Although I think Doom Eternal updated to this as well). There's no pause and you have 8 weapons mapped to the d-pad 2 weapons to each Direction. Tap once for the first weapon and twice for the second weapon and Bingo that's it! You basically have your entire arsenal accessible in split seconds and can weapon combo almost or as good as Mouse and Keyboard players.

It's so Goddam simple that I'm amazed it's taken this long to figure out (Unless there's any game I've missed?). One of many reason why I think RE4 remake feels amazing to play. This could potentially scale up to 12 or even 16 weapon's beyond that I think it could potentially get clunky.

Are they any other example's of Intuitive controls you can think of?

I remember Infamous and Dead Space being ahead of there time allowing you multiple abilities when holding R1. Infamous especially allowing all your powers while climbing/hanging was really cool.
 

protonion

Member
I hate the wheels but I would like to pause also.

Sometimes I find myself panicking in intense action and equip the wrong weapon or delay a lot and get damaged.

I have a soft spot for mgs1-3's weapon selection.
 

RagnarokIV

Battlebus imprisoning me \m/ >.< \m/
I hate the wheels but I would like to pause also.

Sometimes I find myself panicking in intense action and equip the wrong weapon or delay a lot and get damaged.

I have a soft spot for mgs1-3's weapon selection.
Even both iterations of Metal Gear Online had it, which was fun.
 

Filben

Member
Problem on console is you usually use your left thumb for moving and using the d pad/selecting weapons and therefore sacrifice your movement especially in hectic situation where you really want to keep said movement. That's why it slows down in many games because even if they use a wheel you then select usually with the movement stick your weapon and again leaving the movement of your character.

It's different on m/k.
 

Matt_Fox

Member
Are they any other example's of Intuitive controls you can think of?

I'd say Red Dead Redemption 2 was the opposite. Considering its a candidate for GOAT and so highly praised, the weapon wheel and UI was really problematic.

I really want to see the paddle controls on Elite game pads become mappable for new inputs (rather than just useless clones of existing buttons). For example in Resi 4 you could map First Aid or flash bangs to them, anything that keeps the gameplay flowing and keeps you out of menus is good.
 

01011001

Banned
I mean yeah it's pretty good, but in the end it's nothing special, it's basically a variant of what PC shooters like Max Payne used, only that there you use the number keys and not a dpad of course.

as an og RE4 veteran I still often just open up my inventory and change weapons there tho lol
 
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Inviusx

Member
I wouldn't really call it intuitive as similar systems have existed for a long time but in the context of this remake compared to the original, its a smart change that keeps you in the action.
 
I would also prefer this to a weapon wheel. In gta online I often choose the wrong radio station because the controls feels so vague. But with so many stations, I don’t have a solution for a better system.
 

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
There is a weapon wheel? I know you can press left, right, up and down to select items and weapons, but that's not a wheel (like Diablo 3). How do you access the 'wheel'?
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I am pretty sure TLOU and TLOU2 had this.

But yes, i prefer this over the horizon and red dead weapon wheels. two taps on the dpad is way better than fucking around with the left analog stick pausing the game just to switch weapons.
 
Deadspace has the exact same 4 weapon d-pad switcher except it doesn't extend beyond 4 weapons which is a design choice.
Plenty of games have mapped 4 weapons or abilities to the d-pad. This is first game that I'am aware of that's gone beyond that.

It's nothing groud breaking but a pretty cool evolution at least.
 
I am pretty sure TLOU and TLOU2 had this.

But yes, i prefer this over the horizon and red dead weapon wheels. two taps on the dpad is way better than fucking around with the left analog stick pausing the game just to switch weapons.
I just googled and the last of us have you go in the back pack which is a touch screen press.
 

Knightime_X

Member
If there's a wheel, I will always config my guns the same.

Down for heavy
Up for long range
Right for side arm
Left for assault
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I just googled and the last of us have you go in the back pack which is a touch screen press.
Nah, im pretty sure you only go into the backpack if you want to change weapons that are already mapped to the dpad. For example you can have two pistols on the right dpd but there are several pistols in the game so if you want to switch to a third pistol then you double tap right then hold X to into the dpad. The game then cycles through all your remaining pistols in realtime.

it is very similar to the RE4 weapon wheel. The only difference is that the up and down buttons are limited to grenades and other healing or melee items where as RE lets you customize each button. Now that i think about it MGSV might have had a similar system.
 

sainraja

Member
The Resistance series and Ratchet series have long had a weapon wheel system. I really liked how it was done in Resistance 1.
The Last of Us also has a system that allows you to switch weapons on the fly (even by type by holding down Square). The system in The Last of Us is designed for us to be able to access quickly during gameplay.

The past RE games focused on their inventory system but it is nice to be able to quickly switch between guns and assign them shortcuts.
 
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Nah, im pretty sure you only go into the backpack if you want to change weapons that are already mapped to the dpad. For example you can have two pistols on the right dpd but there are several pistols in the game so if you want to switch to a third pistol then you double tap right then hold X to into the dpad. The game then cycles through all your remaining pistols in realtime.

it is very similar to the RE4 weapon wheel. The only difference is that the up and down buttons are limited to grenades and other healing or melee items where as RE lets you customize each button. Now that i think about it MGSV might have had a similar system.
Ah okay got you been while since I played
 

BouncyFrag

Member
Oblivion had a strong weapon/item/spell dpad. Must have mod for Skyrim. Witcher 3 mapping buttons for signs was a welcome change too.
 

drotahorror

Member
` - melee weapon
1 - pistol
2 - smg
3 - shotgun
4 - AR or Sniper
5 - Rockets
G - Grenade
Z - Crossbow or Sniper
X - Plasma
B - Chaingun
H - alt Grenade or Health kit
Q - ?
T - ? or Flashlight
Y - ?

With only 8 slots, RE4 was very easy to setup.

But yeah I'm being kinda silly. Glad the weapon wheel works well for RE4. I'm not big on them at all.
 
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Drizzlehell

Banned
I don't have any particularly strong feelings on it. There are times where I double tap the d-pad expecting to get a sniper rifle but end up pulling a shotgun instead. Doesn't always work perfectly but the idea is neat. Same with weapon wheels. I guess they work best if they slow down time but they can be finicky as well. Overall no solution that I've tested so far was perfect. I think that Doom Eternal did the weapon wheel best.
 

darrylgorn

Member
I think developers should do a lot more with secondary bindings.

Instead of a weapon wheel, you could access the weapon you want much faster if you hit left bumper/shoulder and map each weapon to one of the face buttons.
 
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Astral Dog

Member
I often forget about this thing and just equip the weapon the old fashioned way(for a classic RE4 experience 😃)

yeah its nice it exists but most of the time i use only 3 slots 4 at most
 
I think they mapped 4 weapons to the d-pad but not eight
mazpGZH.jpg
 

drotahorror

Member
Too far from the fingers. "C" and "V" would be better.
I usually use C for crouch. V is typically my melee button but with RE, it's E because it felt better. Plus it's the same key as Action.
I was more or less talking only weapon keybinds.

I also use wasd a bit goofy so things like C, V, F, etc, are more comfortable for me than CTRL and LSHIFT, etc.
 
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TexMex

Member
As others have pointed out, many (great) games have adopted this system already, but you are correct - it really is great.
 

Sygma

Member
A Big pet peeve of mine is having to pause during gameplay to equip item's or abilities that I should have access to in real time.

The Biggest example of this is weapon wheels in shooters on console's. You have to either pause the action entirely or really slow it down to change weapon. The Horizon and Ratchet games are good examples but it's basically been the default way to do things for a long time.

This is bad because firstly it feels like cheating giving you more time than you should to make choice's and secondly it breaks the game flow and doesn't feel very good. We've seen PC gamers real time switch for age's and we all know how good those weapon combos are to pull off.

This is where Resident Evil 4 remake comes in (Although I think Doom Eternal updated to this as well). There's no pause and you have 8 weapons mapped to the d-pad 2 weapons to each Direction. Tap once for the first weapon and twice for the second weapon and Bingo that's it! You basically have your entire arsenal accessible in split seconds and can weapon combo almost or as good as Mouse and Keyboard players.

It's so Goddam simple that I'm amazed it's taken this long to figure out (Unless there's any game I've missed?). One of many reason why I think RE4 remake feels amazing to play. This could potentially scale up to 12 or even 16 weapon's beyond that I think it could potentially get clunky.

Are they any other example's of Intuitive controls you can think of?

I remember Infamous and Dead Space being ahead of there time allowing you multiple abilities when holding R1. Infamous especially allowing all your powers while climbing/hanging was really cool.

Gyro aiming honestly. Splatoon is so wonderful to play
 
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