Splinter Cell HD Trilogy missing another feature: inverted aim

by Ben Gilbert on Sep 30th 2011 5:00AM

Look, we're not prejudiced, we just think people who play shooters with inverted aim turned on have backwards brains. Backwards -- broken -- brains. But regardless of our feelings on the control setting, Ubisoft took things a step further with this week's release of the Splinter Cell HD Trilogy on PS3, entirely removing the option.

That's not to say it's the most egregious omission, as both Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory are sadly missing their multiplayer modes, but it's a pretty major one no less. We've contacted Ubisoft to see if there's any chance that the option will get patched in at some point, but have yet to hear back.

[Thanks, Merrick]

Tags: inverted-aim, inverted-look, playstation, ps3, splinter-cell, tom-clancys-splinter-cell, tom-clancys-splinter-cell-hd-trilogy, ubisoft

Reader Comments (94)

It's like Ubisoft tried to make this HD re-release a failure on purpose.

What I like to call a "George Lucas."

hopefully a patch fixes this issue...

Dealbreaker! Sorry Ben, but true gamers, play with inverted aim! (Or maybe just us old school gamers...) Regardless, it's enough for me not to give this another look. Take note Ubisoft.

@aroGADGET

Agreed. That's a dealbreaker for me too. I simply cannot play without inverted aim. I won't be able to play this.

@aroGADGET
I wouldn't say true gamers, but PC gamers who played flight sims back in the day, myself included.

@Cap Morgan

Wouldn't even say flightsticks - Any PC FPS I ever played was inverted. Since I learned on those first and console FPS came later, it kind of stuck. Non-inverted is just frickin' bizarre.

@aroGADGET

Ditto. I always use inverted aim. I was planning on buying this collection, but with this news the game has now been scratched off my holiday shopping list.

@aroGADGET

I'm an old school hardcore games and I only use inverted aim with flight sims while using a flight stick. It just doesn't make sense to me with any other genre. Up is Up, Down is Down, In real life I don't look down at the ground to shoot up at the sky.

@whylekat

Yeah, I think it comes from flight sim games, and also this too:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/MG/I/img/MG-1-121-30.jpg

My brain sees the right stick, as the back half of that gun. Being on a pivot point like that, you do have to "pull down to aim up"...

Not only flight sims... 3D Zelda games have all been inverted (the 3DS remake of OoT being the first to give you the option for non-inverted). I'm absolutely unable to play non-inverted. It just feels wrong to me.

@aroGADGET

but then the horizontal axis would also be inverted. it's fine if you learned that way, but having inverted vertical and non-inverted horizontal simply doesn't make sense for anything but flying games (because then the horizontal is for roll, not turning).

@Cap Morgan - I blame StarFox 64.

@aroGADGET Totally agreed.

I'm pretty sure it's because (arguably) the first "first person" games were flight sims... or space flight sims.

Inverted look does tend to be an old schoolers tool.

This doesn't really make any sense...

In related news, the original Splinter Cell was a big part of my life, a groundbreaking video game for me... just the mix of cerebral use of stealth, being able to shoot out just about every light, gorgeous graphics, etc etc.. it was just incredible. And then I found out you could shoot the sticky shockers (or whatever they were called) into the water while enemies were walking in it to shock them all. Awesome.

Anyways to get back on topic, wtf Ubisoft.

Not that i was planning on getting this at all.
I really can't play without inverted aim.

@Kolma I can't play without inverted aim either, at least with a controller. On PC I never invert my mouse aim. I actually wanted to pick this collection up. No inverted aim option = no buy though. I seriously can't adapt and I shouldn't have to either.

@Kolma
Glad to see there are lots of other inverters out there. The article made me feel like I was doing something wrong!!

@trickyd

I just find it funny that we can understand why others don't play inverted, but they can't for the life of them figure out why we do.

Honestly I think the difference is in how we conceptualize shooters. Players who play inverted see it as moving a camera in 3D space, non-inverted might conceptualize it as moving a reticle on a 2D plane.

That's how the games were to begin with I switched from using Inverted because of the first splinter Cell. I doubt it will be patched in. If you still use inverted aim I recommend you try and switch.

@F1shBone
I think the first games with free mouse look (Duke3D and Quake) were invert-Y by default. At least, that's how I learned to play FPS - I also jump with the right mouse button.

And no, I'm not going to change. If devs can't be bothered to add an option to invert the Y-axis I'm not going to buy their game.

@F1shBone

I never played them on the consoles, but the PC versions had an option for inverted aim. That's the version these are based on and they should have had the option, regardless of what version they used as the base.

@F1shBone

Asking me to play un-inverted is like asking me to play blindfolded.

Inverted is normal and correct ffs. You don't pull the stick back and have the plane go down now do you? Of course not. When you look up you bring your head back don't you? Well yeah duh! Anyway this is a stupid oversight.

@BrianZeluz
I honestly can't believe that there are actually people that play with inverted aim. For flying, it is correct and that is the way I play them, because that is how you control a planes work. I can't ever agree that inverted is the right way for looking though. Inverted aim is off by default on almost every modern game, so it must be the most used setting.

@soniccar

That's like saying you can't believe one in ten person is left handed. There is no correct way to play or write or do anything like this.

Especially when having the option for inverted controls means that the only amount of work involved is for one programmer to invert one value in one line of code.

@Pr1mus
I'm not saying anything negative in my comment. It is more like saying that I can't believe people go to conventions dressed as characters. Just because you find something hard to believe does not mean you hate the idea of it. Could you dispute that most games have inverted turned off by default? Almost every single non flight game I've played for the past 10 years or so has been like that.

@soniccar Maybe if you thought about it this way, it wouldn't be so 'unbelievable': If your head were the 'aim/look' thumbstick, I would pull back on the top of your head to make you look up, and push forward to make you look down. It's just that simple. I don't think anyone holds a controller vertically (at least no one I know) where one can definitively say that back = down or forward = up...so that means everyone has a broken brain, because our brains automatically assign up/down to either forward/back motion on a controller. Hmmm...interesting.

Yeeeesh you'd think at this point in time in the gaming industry certain things would almost be mandatory when creating a game or re-releasing a game.

I mean button configuration and aiming direction options should expected in damn near all games. Add to the fact the option was entirely removed boggles the mind even farther,

Maybe they were making the game with a bizzaro world way of thought. Who know, these things are still irritating none the less.

Why would they ever remove that option? This makes the game completely unplayable for half its potential players, and all they had to do was include a function somewhere that switches positive and negative.

Idiots. This option should be in every game for both camera and aiming. There is never a good reason to exclude it. Ever.

I used to play with inverted aim, but then, Afrika didn't have the option, so I had to learn the normal aim. After I was done with Afrika and playing other games with inverted controls, my aim was all over the place and the two options I had was... relearn the inverted controls or to be safe continue with normal aim since all games will have this option.

I decided to stay with normal aim and I guess will be paying off with Splinter Cell.

They screwed up the invert on the camera control on the PS3 version of BG&E HD too. You choose invert on the camera control and it inverts left and right too >< It doesn't do this on the 360 version.

That is slightly funny and a co-worker linked me to this article. I'm a researcher and one of our current tests is regarding the inverted control system (paid for by a large publishing firm).
The current trend we're noticing is that users who play with vertically inverted controls are independent thinkers with high intelligence. Most of the influential people we've contacted use inverted controls, but I can't name individuals. They're shown to be capable abstract thinkers and problem solvers.

Basically the best of the human race. I don't play inverted but damn I would love to.

It's still ongoing but correlations have been visible for a while now (it'll probably end early).

Thats all.

@Undulation

Really? I feel anyone can learn to play either pretty quickly, it just depends on what you've used to play. Perhaps this statistic has something that those same people have long history if gaming and have played flight simulators with joysticks and stuff.

I play flight simulators, but pad games I play with normal aiming, camera inverted though, but I switch that around sometimes when I'm lazy to change the settings. It's quick to get adjusted to either one.

@Kyrx
I've never played a flight simulator on PC. I've been trying to figure out where I got my preference for the y-axis inversion. I was thinking it was from old FPS's like Goldeneye, but perhaps it wasn't inverted by default based on what some people are saying...?

Maybe it was Starfox. That's inverted, right?

Ubisoft's Piss Off Your Customers Dept strikes again!
I've been playing with inverted (although I think of them as normal and the other ones are inverted) controls for nearly 30 years, there's no way I could (or should) change.
All of my friends think I'm weird, but when I grab their head and move it in exactly the same way as I move the stick to demonstrate the logic behind it I always get "Ahhh I see! but you're still weird and I'll do it the other way"

@eskimonoise

that's bs logic. if you follow that, the x axis should be inverted too.

Who makes these decisions? Monkeys?

I flip back and forth depending on the character view. No reason why in late 2011 AD that this feature is missing.

Damn monkeys!

Inverted controls are not a big deal to me, but its Ubisoft, an they've been known to half ass many a port or re-release.

I would never use that option myself, but I'm all for custom button mapping so I'm on your side oh weird invertebrates!

Screw the inverts. They'll have to relearn the natural controls of pushing -up- to look -up-, and -down- to look -down-.

To those using the head excuse "You pull your head back to look up", well since the other joystick (or WASD) is the forward/back commanded, I guess holding back on the stick (or S) should look up then, right? Back = Up, right? But to look down, you push your head down.
So on a controller, that's down on the left stick to look up, and down on the right stick to look down.

Another flaw in that theory, if pulling your head back means looking up, and therefore means down is up for the right stick, then for the left stick down must be to advance, because the force that pushes you forward is the moment of your legs moving backwards on the ground. You put your foot infront of you, and you won't move, but when you pull it -back-, you go forward. Get it?

Bunch of derps.

@Shinobi13 Complete assiness, some people like different control schemes. Move on.

@Shinobi13

Nigga stop trollin

@Shinobi13

Your counter logic doesn't even make sense.

It's really an inexcusible omission. It's one module and you tell the Y input to multiply by -1. Literally that is how simple of a change this is, and no, not talking out of my ass on this.

darn. I wanted to play this too. I don't care about the multiplayer but I just can't play without inverted controls

Well I'm not buying it then.

Ok Ubisoft.....NO MONEY FOR YOU! Inverted just makes sense, I started that way with flight simulators and never looked back.

I can't play console shooter games without the inverted option. My broken brain won't allow me to.

been playing inverted since Goldeneye, Turok & Perfect Dark...i guess my brain is broken.?

I once had an interview for a brand manager position at Ubisoft and couldn't be happier to not get the gig. I couldn't imagine having to market all the garbage this company puts out without any consideration or input from its customer base. It's amazing how one company can nail their HD re-releases (ICO/SotC, God of War, etc.) and how other companies can fail so miserably (Capcom, Ubisoft).

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Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell HD Trilogy missing another feature: inverted aim

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