The guys on YT make it look so easy.
Yet when I do it, I barely touch my joystick and the aim moves way too far left or way too far right. In other words: My joystick is way too f’n sensitive!
Is there something I can do to remedy this?
Maybe buy a different controller? (I currently use PS4 stock controller)
Or is this simply a matter of “it takes time” to get good? Because admittedly, I am new to gaming.
Thanks for any input.
Most FPS games have sensitivity settings, check the game options. Which game(s) in particular?
I’ve given up on console FPS gaming because of this. With the standard controls at the standard settings in most games, I aim too far to the left, then too far to the right, then too far to the left, then too far to the right, then I’m dead.
Always. I’ve put in enough hours that if I was going to develop the skill, I would have. Give me a mouse (and PC) any day.
Well, I was originally having issues with Horizon Zero Dawn. I soon realized this game is too hard for me. So then I bought Wolfenstien, because I was told this is a good game for beginners.
The premise of the game is easy enough, it’s just that I can’t get my aim where I want it to go. I didn’t see any sensitivity options in the options menu.
I’m no expert, specially with multiplayer games, but there are some things you can do other than just practice. These only really work with single player games.
If you are making too coarse movements laterally with the aiming stick, try instead to get the height right with the aiming stick and use the right stick to “strafe” your aim left or right. This makes it much easy to fine tune your aim as the movement is slower and smoother.
If it is a cover based shooter where you push a button or squeeze a trigger to pop out of cover and aim, you generally find the AI enemy will pop their head up at the same position a few times. Look to see where their body (or ideally the head) is when they pop out of cover, then, when they are behind cover and not shooting at you, aim at the place they were, fine tune the aim then release the aim trigger so you return to cover. Next time they pop out to that position, squeeze the aim trigger without touching anything else and you should be set up perfectly to one shot them in the head. This all depends a lot on the game mechanics. Some games don’t have such persistent aiming and you have to adjust each time.
If you are having trouble with the vertical component of aiming, have a go at reversing the Y axis for the left stick. You may be persisting with a control setup that is not natural for you. I have always been a pull-back-on-the-stick-to-look-up player, other people have to have it set so they push forward to look up (they probably think of it as push up to look up), either way, try switching and see if that feels more natural.
Other than that. Practice practice practice. Take your time, don’t panic, don’t shoot until your aim is true, fire single shots or short bursts to prevent recoil from ruining your aim and wasting bullets.
If there’s nothing in the options (which is unfortunate) then you’ll just have to practice. See this Reddit thread where people echo your problems:
I didn’t play FPS games on console until the last 5 years or so. I’m used to playing them on PC with a mouse and keyboard which is much easier. It took some time to get used to it but now it’s natural and I can jump into most FPS games for the first time without being overwhelmed. It takes practice really.
Yeah…no. I’m not going to “practice” for an unspecified amount of time (> weeks) to learn to overcome the shortcomings of a crappy interface. I don’t need to “practice” to play PC games with better controllers, and there’s plenty of them out there.
Well, it’s not that PC games don’t require practice, its just that you’ve probably been “practicing” them for a lot longer and are used to how the mouse/keyboard feels. I don’t play FPS on PCs and am worse with a mouse/keyboard than I am with a console controller (though I readily admit that the m/k combo has the potential to be much better for me, but I’d need to practice.) It doesn’t help that I don’t use a mouse at all, preferring a nice track pad, so my mouse skills in general are out of practice.
Heh, poking around on the internet, I’ve found these rings that insert around the neck of the joystick.
It’s supposed to make the joystick less sensitive. We’ll see…
That makes you in a small minority, then. The inherently better accuracy of PC controls over console ones for years prevented cross-platform “twitch” games because the PC players would always win – even today, such games are rare, and the few instances either degrade the PC experience deliberately or add things like auto-aiming and aim correction to the console side to try and even the odds.
That sort of indicates that it’s not just a “practice” thing, since we’ve got populations that have been using both environments their whole lives, now.
It’s not my intent to make this still another PC vs. Console war thread; there are plenty of them if folks want to throw themselves against that wall.
But the notion that console game controllers are even remotely as accurate as those in other environments (mice and trackpads, both) is silly, and shouldn’t really be subject to much debate any more. And even the best of these console controllers seem to require a level of dexterity that both goes down with age and is right at the limits of what the hardware can register for many folks.
I didn’t say the controller was the equal of a mouse/keyboard, only that to get the most out of a m/k combo you need to practice, just the same as you need to practice to get the most out of a controller. Any physical skill requires practice.
Personally I find a controller to feel more immersive than a mouse and keyboard, but that is a personal preference and has nothing to do with accuracy or ease of use.
Careful. You might just be buying condoms 
The advantage of a controller is that I can hold it in my 2 hands and do all I need. It’s ideal for sitting on my couch in my living room. I don’t need a desk or any kind of surface for anything but my rear. It’s convenient.
But it’s very limited in what it can do. I can’t type easily with it even with a tiny attached keyboard. It’s not as precise as a mouse for aiming. I have fewer buttons to assign things to which means games either need to dumb down my options, or add an extra step via radial menus, or do bizarre button combinations.
It’s an objectively inferior interface made necessary by the ergonomics of console play.
I’m bumping this because this is too funny.
I’ve been stuck in this one spot on Wolfenstein for a while now because of my stupid inability to aim.
Last night, after drinking too much wine, I decided to give it a go.
I blew past that spot I’ve been stuck on, on the first attempt!
This is the first time I recall drinking made me better at something! 
Consistent with the advice offered on the Reddit thread linked above: Stop thinking so hard about it, and be aggressive! What’s better for that than alcohol?
you can always get a Bluetooth mouse and use it on the ps4…
A little bit of alcohol always made me better at pool.