I always say that PUBG is the best battle royale game ever made, despite everything.
Not just that, but the console version is a hidden gem. It faithfully replicates the gunplay from the original PC version, combining it with controller-exclusive input without any aim-assist whatsoever. Making PUBG Console not the definitive version of PUBG, but on par with the definitive PC version.
This means two pillars of PUBG, which I call playable realism, and skill blends with luck, are preserved or even enhanced.
Now these two pillars are threatened. While PC players are thoroughly reassured that no changes will be made where clearly none are needed, nor requested, console players are told that now shots that you feel should be hitting, will be hitting.
No! PUBG gunplay is not about feeling that you are good but having actually not mastered aiming, precision, recoil control, and other weapon familiarity like bullet velocity and drop.
PUBG is about the world answering favorably when you have adapted to it. When you have gained the skill and worked for it, the world starts to respond to your influence and control.
At that point luck goes from working in your favor only on rare occasions in isolation to becoming a multiplier of sorts, creating many opportunities for genuine surprise at your own skill and effort.
One pillar of PUBG, permanent death, has already been pretty much destroyed except for solo mode. The game used to tell a story about the fragility of life, the ever-looming presence of death as a possibility, and how surviving becomes all the more meaningful because of it. A single match would tell and contain this full story, before hitting rewind, reset, rinse and repeat.
Now we might as well be collecting coins to gain extra lives in a mushroom kingdom. The blue chips do not even tell a compelling story about cloning, a missed opportunity.
I’m asking PUBG devs sincerely to please reconsider the coming change to hit boxes on console. If anything, put enlarged hit boxes in casual mode only, where they belong. Leave Normal and Ranked to the playable realism where skill blends with luck that already makes PUBG Console stand out as a game.