Why do console ports have always-on VoIP?

[soldant]

This. This is why in a lot of shooters we get a combined "Use" and "Pick up" key. So instead of disarming the enemy bomb, you just constantly swap guns back and forth with the corpse at your feet until you are killed.

That's a problem with the interface, nothing inherently wrong with combining various functions into one key. I mean "Use" and "Pick up" are basically the same thing, and needs to be based on what the player is actually looking at. Otherwise you end up with ARMA2 where you've got the entire 104 keys being used when only half of them would have done the job. Having 20 keys when 4 would have done the job is equally bad design as having 1 key when there should be 4.

A bad example of combining keys is in ME3, where "Use" and "Roll" are the same key. That's bullshit.

[Nalano]

Personally, I liked Mirror's Edge's contextual usage of spacebar for all "up" commands and ctrl for all "down" commands.

I didn't like ME3's usage of one key for everything from sprinting to vaulting to sticking to cover to pressing buttons, but I think had it been split up into two keys - one for movement controls, one for interaction controls - it would have been fine. As it stands, it was a mixed boon from ME2, where you had to stick to cover prior to vaulting over it (as it was also the same key) making some obstacles just tedious.

[Ravelle]

Personally, I liked Mirror's Edge's contextual usage of spacebar for all "up" commands and ctrl for all "down" commands.

I didn't like ME3's usage of one key for everything from sprinting to vaulting to sticking to cover to pressing buttons, but I think had it been split up into two keys - one for movement controls, one for interaction controls - it would have been fine. As it stands, it was a mixed boon from ME2, where you had to stick to cover prior to vaulting over it (as it was also the same key) making some obstacles just tedious.

The space for sprint and cover in ME3 was not that much of a problem in the campaign but in co-op you basically got glued to anything that stuck out in your sprinting path.