I hate this trend of UIs that use a free floating cursor on console

[flyinj]

Dragging a free floating cursor around a screen with a stick is so clunky and slow.

More and more games are doing this now and it just plain sucks. It's like developers are looking at other games and saying "well, they got away with just throwing a cursor on the screen, let's do it too!"

Give me back the awesome controller tailored UIs of the past.

 

[Dave.]

If you're going to do this, at least let us use the touchpad!

 

[Hexxen-panda]

The new Assassins Creeds are so bad at this! They let you use the ps4 touchpad for the map, but not on the actual menus?

 

[Hella]

The devil's UI.

 

[MWorldII]

100% with you on this

 

[LossAversion]

Wouldn't be so bad if you could adjust the speed of the curser. Most of the games that do this move the cursor at a snail's pace.

 

[Max|Payne]

Also the keep button pressed for 2 seconds to perform action.

I know it's useful if you need to cancel out of it if you select the wrong thing but I'm also impatient and want things done immediately!

 

[Rodney McKay]

Yeah, I hate that it's becoming so prevalent.

Avenger's has it, but thankfully you can use the d-pad to select things in at least some of the menus, like how a console menu SHOULD control like.

Also the keep button pressed for 2 seconds to perform action.

I know it's useful if you need to cancel out of it if you select the wrong thing but I'm also impatient and want things done immediately!

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Unfortunately Avenger's is full of that.
Why can't I open chests right away? Or push buttons right away?

I'd much prefer games just make the button press immediate and maybe include a 2 second timer afterwards to cancel it, at least then the feedback from the game would feel better, even if you're still waiting the same amount of time.

Holding a button down to select things or dp tiny tasks never feels good to do.

 

[bushmonkey]

It's also the combination with 'hold down the button to selecta' that really annoys me. The 2 of them together slows all menu interactions to a crawl.

 

[KDR_11k]

Also the keep button pressed for 2 seconds to perform action.

I know it's useful if you need to cancel out of it if you select the wrong thing but I'm also impatient and want things done immediately!

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Also that delay is still too short to actually have you rethink your action.

 

[flyinj]

Also the keep button pressed for 2 seconds to perform action.

I know it's useful if you need to cancel out of it if you select the wrong thing but I'm also impatient and want things done immediately!

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Yes this also really sucks. It's like they are actively trying to make the UI as awful to use as possible.

 

[Rivyn]

Also that delay is still too short to actually have you rethink your action.

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You can alter the delay in the menu in Valhalla.

But I agree. It came on consoles with Destiny and a lot of games went overboard with it. It makes absolutely no sense.

 

[Eeyore]

I feel like Destiny started this.

 

[Timppis]

Normally these kind of rants and complaints are pointless and entitled.

But this is 100% true. You are doing the good work.

 

[flyinj]

You can alter the delay in the menu in Valhalla.

But I agree. It came on consoles with Destiny and a lot of games went overboard with it. It makes absolutely no sense.

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It makes sense because you can save money by cutting UX development and design out of your budget.

 

[SJPN]

I feel like Destiny started this.

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I remember playing the Destiny Alpha demo and loving everything about the game, but thinking the UI must be a placeholder. No way the final game will be like that...

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Yes, it's shit. Also "holding button to confirm". WTF are they even thinking? Going through dozens of items in Assassin's Creed Odyssey to sell or salvage them and then always have to press the button for several seconds is just cumbersome.

 

[FriendlyNPC]

I feel like Destiny started this.

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There have been quite a few console games through the ages who have done this, so I wouldn't say Destiny started this. Champions of Norrath and its sequel Champions: Return to Arms on PS2 is one example.

However Destiny certainly did popularize it in recent years.

 

[Rendering...]

Same, it's shit. Analog sticks are so bad for free cursors. Don't even bother if you're not going to support a touchpad or motion control.

 

[Oreiller]

It's apparently an accessibility thing.

 

[Gradly]

Yes I hate this so much. Using the cursor feels slow and clunky especially when I'm not that good at aiming too

 

[Estarossa]

Honestly... preach! Who thought that was a good idea?

 

[TechnicPuppet]

Floating cursor menus, holding buttons along with inventory management are the roughest part of No Man's Sky.

Game would be so much better if they fixed those three things.

 

[sredgrin]

Even better if they are for what reason, capped at 30 FPS. Looking at you Ubisoft. No reason for a 30 FPS main menu, but if you do, let me use the dpad.

 

[Mechaplum]

Absolutely correct. UI should be designed to suit the platform and input methods. Also it's ubisoft chrissakes, not some 5 man team indie.

 

[KDR_11k]

You can alter the delay in the menu in Valhalla.

But I agree. It came on consoles with Destiny and a lot of games went overboard with it. It makes absolutely no sense.

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I'm not sure any reasonably usable delay would work for that. As my UX professor said, users are always certain when they do an action. They don't second guess themselves until afterwards.

 

[Polyh3dron]

I feel like Destiny started this.

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It did, and for the way Destiny's menus are laid out, it makes sense.

And then of course, all the imitators come around and do their darndest to run a cool thing into the ground.

 

[Rommaz]

I despise arc system works for doing this in their fighting games. Its awful

 

[Hail to Starscream]

It's the worst. I blame Destiny. They started that shit.

 

[Rivyn]

I'm not sure any reasonably usable delay would work for that. As my UX professor said, users are always certain when they do an action. They don't second guess themselves until afterwards.

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I don't favor the cursor at all, but I also don't favor the option to having to press the D-Pad tens of times in order to reach said item I need.

 

[gblues]

I just started playing No Man's Sky on game pass and it's so annoying. Especially during the tutorial bits where there's a spot highlighted and I press the A button and nothing happens. OHHH YOU WANT ME TO MOVE MY CURSOR ALLLLLL THE WAY OVER THERE!

At least you can turn off the button holding, although that setting doesn't affect the main menus.

There's a perfectly functional d-pad right there.. let me use it.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

I think Destiny was the first where I noticed it and I thought WHY? It makes sense in the inventory, but why in a menu with two options? What's wrong with selecting with up and down? And then you have to HOLD to confirm something. I get this is sometimes necessary especialy with two bindings on one button and you only have so much buttons on a controller, but holding down a button for no apparant reason just sucks.

On the other hand, Codemasters still offer no mouse support at all in their F1 games on PC. Clicking through all those intricate menus and sub menues would be so much easier.

What the fuck are they doing? Did none of the testers told them or they didn't care?

 

[pswii60]

Completely agree OP.

Ubisoft seem to love the floating cursor thing. Also Tetris Effect does it which is annoying too. It's unnecessary.

The other thing I hate is the trend of having to hold a button for 2-3 seconds to select something or to proceed. Metro Exodus is a huge shitter in that regard.

 

[flyinj]

I don't favor the cursor at all, but I also don't favor the option to having to press the D-Pad tens of times in order to reach said item I need.

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I agree. But having to tap the D-Pad 10 times to get anywhere is just another example of terrible UX design.

Well designed non-floating cursor UIs will always be vastly superior to "let's just put a mouse cursor on the screen" UIs.

 

[Neural]

Totally agree. And, Frankly, it feels cheap and lazy. At the very least, provide a "snap" style alternative control where we can quickly move between elements of the interface.

 

[Milk]

??? When I first played Destiny, the UI was one of the things that blew my mind. It was like, whoa. This is like a PC UI... but on a console. And it doesn't feel clunky or inaccurate, it actually feels really really amazing with the control stick! This is awesome!

I don't think I've encountered a UI like this outside of Destiny so maybe other devs are just doing it wrong. Destiny's UI is absolutely incredible, it works magnificently.

 

[XR.]

It's terrible, and I don't see why they insist on implementing it.

Is it still a thing in Destiny 2?

 

[RoboPlato]

It works great in Destiny because Bungie actually put a lot of thought into how it would work and it suits the way you need to manage equipment in that game. Stuff like Avengers and AC don't get that right so it's just slow.

I wish we could use gyro to move through these sorts of menus. Would be so much faster

 

[StrappingYoungLance]

It really doesn't bother me, or at least it doesn't in Destiny or Assassin's Creed.

 

[Yuntu]

It never bothered me tbh. Its pretty much a non issue.

 

[JustTeaThankYou]

It's bizarre that after 20 years of PC games having to erode and water down their identities to fit into console control constraints, first party console games would (pointlessly?) adopt something like a cursor.

FWIW I don't actually hate it, but I don't love it either and it doesn't seem to usefully add anything

 

[Benzychenz]

I can't say I've ever played a game with this, or at least haven't played any of the examples given in the thread so far.

So it doesn't seem very widespread.

 

[QuixoticNeutral]

I can't remember when I would ever have encountered this until recently in both of the freely accessible titles on Stadia (Destiny 2 and the Immortals demo). Hated, hated, hated it. So sluggish, so imprecise, and the D-pad is right there waiting to be used. Luckily, playing off my notebook I was able to switch to mouse and keyboard on menu screens wherever necessary.

There is probably a generation gap at work here. As someone who grew up with digital input on D-pads (or KB+M on PC) it really does feel as though this is a UI design targeted at the sort of young people who have never known a world where analogue sticks were not the primary input for everything.

I agree. But having to tap the D-Pad 10 times to get anywhere is just another example of terrible UX design.

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D-pad inputs in menus are 100% accurate with their "snap-to-grid" precision, and absolutely fine. They do as they're told. These days they're supplemented by other elements like the L/R bumpers for paging anyway, and if there are too many button presses to get anywhere, that's a problem with the layout and menu hierarchy, not with the input.

 

[GamerJM]

Destiny is the only example I can think of and I forgot about it because I played like 10-15 hours of vanilla and then never touched it again. I thought it was totally fine there though. I can see how it could be more cumbersome but it at least makes use of analog sticks in menus instead of D-Pad more natural.

 

[MH MD]

I actually think of games that did it before Destiny
It's Guilty Gear/BlazBlue games
And only on character select screen .
I like it there actually, it makes for fun interaction when playing with someone else.
But don't like how it's implemented in every other game like apex legends and so on, they are just pointless there

 

[Choco Momonga]

Also the keep button pressed for 2 seconds to perform action.

I know it's useful if you need to cancel out of it if you select the wrong thing but I'm also impatient and want things done immediately!

Click to shrink...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I hate this too

 

[Phinor]

Also the keep button pressed for 2 seconds to perform action.

I know it's useful if you need to cancel out of it if you select the wrong thing but I'm also impatient and want things done immediately!

Click to shrink...

There should always be the option to either disable this entirely, or bypass the action by for example double-clicking.

But there (almost) never is..

 

[JigglesBunny]

You have my sword. I think Destiny was the first to popularize the usage on console and it's been a plague on nearly every AAA game since.

 

[elenarie]

Research shows it is a far better, more intuitive, more easy to understand, and more easily compatible with more accessibility accessories UX than whatever games generally tend to have. :) It may not feel very console-like, but that's for the better.

 

[JustTeaThankYou]

Research shows it is a far better, more intuitive, more easy to understand, and more easily compatible with more accessibility accessories UX than whatever games generally tend to have. :) It may not feel very console-like, but that's for the better.

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Do you have links to that research (or articles about them)? Specifically accessibility. I'd google it and not jump on you like this, but it's a case of having no idea what to search for..