The graphics are not so beautiful and the story not as exciting when a computer game can't be played properly because of not having the right devices. You always need the right tool in hand. Luckily the choice is wide, ranging from simple mice to expensive steering wheels and joysticks. But what kind of playing device do you really need?
For PC owners there was for a long time only one answer to this question - mouse and keyboard - but this is no longer true. Even on a computer it's often easier and better to use a gamepad.
"That's very universal because almost every game concept accepts it," says Winnie Forster, author of several books on gaming computers and controllers.
Particularly in the case of action adventures and role-playing games, which account for a large proportion of the blockbuster games, they're best controlled on the PC using a gamepad. "The games are now often developed first for consoles and are of course optimised for their controllers," says Frank Stoewer of the magazine PC Games Hardware.
Getting a game controller to run on a PC is thankfully a lot easier than a few years ago. "Usually you can simply plug in and get started, the base support is nearly always there," according to Stoewer.