Topic: Need help controlling things in games with joystick

Hi folks,

Hope I'm in the right place. I recently bought a Nintendo Switch along with a couple of games: MotoGP 19 and Gear Club Unlimited. I'm striking the same problem with each; the bikes and the cars are all but uncontrollable using the joystick.

Am I correct in assuming that a small deflection of the joystick should result is a small change of direction for the car or rider? (ie as they would be in real life) - with both games nothing happens with small deflections - and then when I deflect the joystick a little bit further the bike/cars just seem to go "full lock" and go careening off the track; it's virtually impossible to take subtle bends.

Am I doing something wrong? Is something wrong with the Nintendo Switch? I'm at a loss - and about to sell it, but I can't think that games that have such brilliant graphics could be so completely uncontrollable and unrealistic when it comes to steering - so thought I'd reach out for help first.

Would appreciate any advice people could give me.

@CJSouthern I've not played either of these games, but have you looked in the settings for steering sensitivity options?

I've not played those ones either but I have found over the years that different racing games handle differently, some barely turn and some send you careening off the track. Hopefully someone who's played those games specifically can help if checking the options for sensitivity doesn't work

@CJSouthern As mentioned above, I'd suggest looking into the game control options for something named "steering sensitivity" or "control stick sensitivity" and adjust that to your liking/preference.

And maybe needless to say, but other than that, you have to remember that the sticks are analog, so you need to use them accordingly. If by "deflect" you mean "I flick the thumbstick left or right" then I can easily imagine your vehicle flying off the track, so it's all about gently pushing left or right, and in some games, it registers sooner than others, so that is not something that's similar by default, which brings me back to the settings.

And if those types of settings aren't there, then you'll just have to put in a bit more practice, to get used to the either overly sensitive or seemingly slow-responding controls.

But looking at the games you mentioned, I'm all but sure that steering sensitivity settings will be in there, so you should be able to use those in both games.

Thanks folks,

I looked at the options for Gear.Club Unlimited yesterday and set the 4 options relating to that area to "maximum assistance" but it didn't make any difference.

It's almost like the joystick is "binary" rather than analog; it's like trying to drive a car when your steering wheel only goes to 3 positions ... straight ahead or about 90 degrees to the left or right with nothing in between; moving the stick slightly doesn't move the steering wheel slightly ... it does nothing until a certain position is reached and then just goes full lock.

Since this has happened on 2 games, I'm starting to think that it's something system related - is there any kind of system-wide adjustment I can look at or control diagnostic that I can run?

@CJSouthern You could try this:
https://www.imore.com/how-fix-controller-drift-your-joy-cons#...

And in MotoGP, there should be a more advanced sensitivity setting than in Gear Club. I never played a Gear Club game, but I have several MotoGP games on Xbox, and I can't imagine that there's an entirely different menu on the Switch version. There should be a dial or a slider that you can adjust from left to right, which will affect thumb stick sensitivity in the game.

Having said that, MotoGP is a pretty tough and unforgiving game, so it takes quite a bit of practice.

Another thing you could do, is take your Switch to your local game shop and ask them if they can try it out for you with another set of JoyCon, just to see if there's something wrong with the ones that you have.

That's about all the advice that I can come up with, other than maybe trying out some other racing games, to see if these are equally difficult to control. There's GRID and the in my opinion brilliant arcade racer Horizon Chase Turbo, and on the 9th of October, the free to play arcade racer Asphalt 9 will be released. You can preload it now, from the eShop.

Thanks. The unit is at work - and I'm at home right now - but I'll take another look at it. I was able to tweak the handling a little by playing with some of the bike adjustments (not control adjustments), but even then I'm not able to follow any of the lines of the AI riders and usually end up riding into the gravel (I ride a motorbike every day - so I have a pretty good idea how power / speed / brakes / lean angle affect trajectory — but the game only has 2 lean angles; full left, and full right). And that's not with the MotoGP bikes - that's just with the entry-level bikes.

I think I might take it back to the dealer and see what they think; buying more games is out of the question ... I'm already $180 out of pocket for the two that I've bought that are unplayable. At least the dealer should be able to get hands on and tell me what they think (they're a specialist games shop).

Cheers for that.

@CJSouthern On a side note: for future reference, you might wanna start using the reply button next to people's names, so we get notified that you've reacted to our comments.

@ThanosReXXX Will do - although hopefully I won't need any more help ...

@CJSouthern Do let us know how the story ends, though.
Oh, as for not buying any more games: Asphalt 9 is a free game, so you can just preload that now and play it from the 9th of October.

@CJSouthern weird was it already on minimum assistance? I know that sort of setting on other games can overwrite your input so I'd have it set as low as possible

@CJSouthern - I've put 30+ hours into MotoGP 18 and am currently playing Grid Autosport.

The standard Joy Cons aren't the best for driving/riding games, at first I found MotoGP 18 unplayable, and still manage to get the occasional tank slapper in Grid.

But MotoGP finally clicked. What worked for me was not being too aggressive (edit: as in not treating it like an arcade game where you can get away with daft drift angles and slides, treat it like a sim where you have to get each corner just right), making sure I didn't go too fast into corners - have the guide lines on and come off the throttle (but don't always brake cos going too slow can mean you steer too much in corners) when the guide line turns red.

You can have various angles of lean, but you have to be really subtle with the Joy Con, quite gentle in your thumb movements, tilting the stick in fractions and holding it. Try weaving in a straight line, just leaning the bike over a little. Cornering seems to be about matching speed to amount of tilt you hold.

I hope it clicks for you, MotoGP isn't the most stunning game graphics wise (Grid really sets a high standard, I'm amazed at some of the trackside detail, helicopter flying round following the action etc) but it's a fun game when you get into it.

Oh, and the review on this site for Gear Club 2 strongly criticised the game for its laggy handling, so it's not just you. I can't comment as I haven't played it, but I seem to remember it was suggested to turn driving aids off.

@Mii_duck

Thanks for that. Per @6ThanosReXXX kind suggestion I checked out the joystick calibration and it was working as it should - so looks like my struggles are with the software - not the hardware.

On a real motorbike turning radius for a given speed is dictated by lean angle (speed and lean angle are the only two variables for a given bike setup) - and there's no limit to the lean angle; you just fall over and crash if it's past the point where the front tyre loses traction - but the bike will let you do it.

On a real motorbike it's easy to tell how much lean you have but I suspect that in a game like this is would be much harder ... so I think they've more or less made lean angle more or less constant (full left or full right) with the turning radius thus being determined totally by the speed. And that just doesn't work very well; in my mind it's crazy to think that something like taking a small bend on a real motorcycle at speed is a "no brainer" (literally - it just doesn't require any thought at all) whereas in the game it involves close to a full flip-flop. So on the face of it, I really don't understand why they didn't just map stick position all the way to a maximum limit ... I just don't get it.

I went for the original Gear.Club version as it was cheaper and I read a review that said they preferred it to V2 anyway. I had another play with the setting yesterday - I was able to make some progress by turning on "auto everything" (eg max assistance with steering - brakes - throttle etc) but all-in-all it's a very unsatisfying experience; most "races" only last 1 to 2 minutes and then I seem to spend twice that time waiting for the relevant portion of the game to load or "wrestling" with the garage.

My previous experience with hand-held gaming was with a Sony PSP and (I think) "Need for Speed: Most Wanted". I used to play that for hours at a time. It's been quite a while since I'd played on a hand-held console; seems that Sony have given up on the PSP and Nintendo are the "ducks nuts" but for me, it's just "not a happening thing"; the hardware looks great, but the software seems to have taken several steps backwards in that control is unrealistic and there's far too much "bells and whistles" (including a zillion combinations of bell housing - striker length - frequency - whistle body colour and material type ...).

So sadly, I've concluded that it's just not the product for me and I'm going to sell it and cut my losses. If I "feel the love" again I might pickup a 2nd hand PSP and a copy of NFS (or whatever it was).

Thanks for your help everyone - muchly appreciated.

@CJSouthern - I'm not a biker (I'd like to be but my wife has ruled it out) so hope my post wasn't patronising.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Isle of Man TT game was a more realistic bike handling model but I can't vouch for that.

I guess a large part of these games is 'learning' how the software wants you to drive/ride. I'm really enjoying Grid at the moment, but if I up the difficulty a bit I find certain cars on certain corners incredibly snappy, unless I get the braking spot on. What you said about it all being about the right corner speed makes sense.

I remember loving Colin McRae Rally on the PS1, but being absolutely abysmal at Colin McRae Rally 2. Sometimes you just can't gell with a game.

@Mii_duck Apologies for the tardy reply. No - not patronising at all - all good there.

I think my problem is that I'm really wanting something that's more "simulator" than "game". It's a bit like aircraft simulator games; the graphics are just phenomenal - people say "it's so realistic" and yet compared to the real things that I used to fly they just don't feel real in the slightest ... my seat doesn't move in turbulence - I don't feel any G forces in tight turns - flying inverted and pulling negative G doesn't feel hellishly uncomfortable - I don't get hurt if I crash. All obvious things, but none-the-less the things that give true realism. So with the Switch game, being a driver and a rider, I kinda expect to at least have something that approximates the brain power that it takes to steer the car and lean the bike and yet they're both "chalk and cheese" compared to the effort it takes in real life.

I can't see that that's ever going to change ... so I think I'll just move on. But thanks for your inputs - very much appreciated.