it's amazing to me...how technology that wasn't even conceived for controlling a virtual avatar (keyboard and mouse) produced once of the most convenient and efficient control schemes.
I played CoD just fine with a regular gamepad, but it is obvious that you have exponentially less dexterity, speed, and accuracy with one.
The problem you run into is...where do you put the keyboard and mouse? It feels awkward unless you run it on a traditional ergonomic setup.
In my opinion, all modern gamepads produce similar results. Your thumbs can only produce so much fine movement.
Do this, move your hand in a circle. Now move it in all opposite directions. Your hand can relatively move in a perfect circle on a flat plane and any point in that circle because you have not only wrist control, but elbow and shoulder points as well to assist. It's very easy and very natural.
Now do that with your thumb. The only natural movement is side-to-side. Movement forwards and backwards is sort of possible, but it's limited because you basically have to dip your thumb joints up and down to make it possible, so it's a very unnatural and irregular movement.
Gamepads, by design, are NOT effective in translating smooth and accurate movement. Only with intense training can you compensate for these problems to make it workable.
If anyone doubts what I say, hook up your gamepad to your computer and run FRAPS.
Show me the following movement with a mouse:
=pointer at center of screen
=move pointer in a circular direction, rapidly increasing in radius.
=when radius nears maximum screen size, rapidly decrease radius
=stop pointer at center of screen
Now do that with a gamepad and watch how it compares.
But honestly, when I'm sitting in the couch sideways laying down, good luck getting a mouse and keyboard on my lap!