Am I crazy for thinking these games feel awful on controller?

I got the bundle for all the modern games on sale, as i’ve seen clips of them online before and decided to play them for myself. But i’ve had a miserable time enjoying this game on controller. Maybe it’s because I play a lot of competitive shooters where I like to have perfect settings and aim, but I genuinely feel like a geriatric old man trying to pilot my character. The deadzones are massive so you can’t micro adjust, there’s awful smoothing and acceleration that makes turning feel like using a pirate ship wheel, and of course the FoV is not pleasant.

I don’t think i’ve ever had more trouble just looking around and aiming in a game before like I am in these games. I’m contemplating turning the difficulty down just because I can’t fucking play it well enough to properly fight. I’m sitting behind a wall 90% of the time trying to line myself up before shooting. I thought about buying a damn mnk emulator for Xbox so I could use that.

I’m not saying this to say the games are bad, they’re probably fun as hell on pc. But were the console versions just not as cared for? Should I just crank the difficulty down so I can focus on the story instead?

Gotta be you iv played them all for years on ps4 ps5 Xbox of all kind so on , iv always found them smooth an responsive , been replying them recently on Uber i love them through an through

I think it just feels different, not worse, but I get it

I play exclusively on controller. I think these games handle below par on controller

FPS are made for mouse + keyboard, for aiming and immersion.
If younplay with a console it's ok to use a controller because are perfectly optimized (exemple Doom the dark ages)

Keys and mouse always better for FPS games.

I have used a controller playing Wolfenstein games and newer Doom games on PS4/PS5. I do find you can get used to them. But it will never be the same.

I've only played New Order and Old Blood, but every id Tech 5 game(includes DOOM3 BFG(console), RAGE, Evil Within 1+2) has funky axial deadzones and smoothing. It seems like the engine preset and is pretty rough.

I didn't finish testing TNO, but I remember it was the same as RAGE. 20% was pretty standard size around that time(still large), but if the curve is also the same as RAGE's, it's quite slow for most the stick range which can make it feel unnecessarily sluggish. The smoothing of course makes movements slower and less predictable before it builds up.

Axial deadzones are common in games(not good), but id Tech 5's deadzones have strange corner notches were the more vertical diagonals move horizontally, and the horizontal corner range moves vertically. This applies generally to the diagonal regions which feels very strange.

I doubt there was any specific negligence for the console versions, and the engine devs setting it up probably thought these were useful things, even if they aren't.

You might avoid The Evil Within titles, since they have the same controls, but at a larger deadzone size, with horrific latency on top(2 is somewhat mitigated by offering a higher framerate on console).

You’re not crazy—the older id games can feel rough on controller, especially with huge deadzones and acceleration. I’d try lowering sensitivity, disabling smoothing if possible, and using a controller remapper before changing the difficulty. A mouse-and-keyboard setup may genuinely be the better fit, though.

I had a similar experience. The movement is responsive enough, but aiming feels strangely floaty and imprecise compared with other console shooters. I’d turn the difficulty down without guilt; you’re fighting the controls more than the enemies, and that’s not a fun challenge.

I use a gyro controller and it makes things SO much better.

I've played PC pretty much my entire life, going back the last 32 years or so. I once tried playing Wolfenstein (I think specifically NO) on an Xbox with a controller and quit after 2 minutes. I cannot imagine using a controller for a game like this

I haven’t noticed any difference at all. I’ve been playing mouse and keyboard lately but even own it on a switch 2.

I had a similar experience. These games feel designed around mouse aiming, especially when enemies are fast and you need tiny corrections. Playing on a wall is usually a sign the input is fighting you, not that you’re bad. An M&K adapter or emulator might be worth trying if you really want to finish them.

I just can't use the controller with FPS's. I wish I could!

Yes. Replayed them all recently and they feel totally fine on controller