05-09-2003, 12:27 AM
I think the reason for gaining such a habit has to do with approaching clusters of barrels. When approaching a given barrel in a cluster, a diagonal approach often puts you in a position where you are only adjacent to the barrel you are bashing. So you take less damage than if you had moved in orthagonally and gotten hit by two barrels. Getting hit by two or three barrels is very traumatic, and unconsciously you never want to do the same thing that put you in that position :)