Good Online FPS Games/Servers For Beginners? 804
An anonymous reader writes "I have been playing videogames for years, but only recently got a DSL line in my house and so have never played any online games before now, as dial up was always too slow. Now that I have a fast connection, I want to get into online gaming, FPS gaming in particular. My problem is that Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, Quake and all the other popular games seem to be dominated by people using cheats, and by established clans of players who are a lot better than me. Are there any online FPS games or servers whose barriers to entry are not too high for the average player? I am looking for something that I can just connect to for a half an hour now and then when I am bored and can have fun with."
LAN with Friends (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll also give you the opportunity to build up those skills to get good enough to compete with the losers^wpros who spend all their time playing FPS games.
Practicing with Bots (Score:5, Insightful)
I know that the question specified "online", but if you consider yourself a beginner, then you probably need to practice some before you get online and swim with the sharks. Many of the current FPS games allow for single-player with bots, and the bots are often good enough to mimic real players, with the useful difference that you can adjust their difficulty. I know that my officemates and I practiced with Tribes 2 that way for several hours when we bought the game before we logged into the online servers, and it made a world of difference in our enjoyment.
Small and Simple (Score:2, Insightful)
http://www.bzflag.org/
Its small, simple, and a helluvalot of fun to play.
ArmageTRON (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:LORD! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Tribes (Score:3, Insightful)
The newest on the market (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, any game someone mentions thats a bit older (like Enemy Territory) is a bit too complex for a 'fps newbie'. A fps newbie should get used to playing a standard deathmatch, and learning things like circle strafing... THEN get into a game that requires complex strategies and team play.... that's when things get really fun
BF1942 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:RtCWeT (Score:4, Insightful)
1) The hardest servers will be fully patched to the newest version.
2) Much easier servers are servers that were never patched. Many noobs here, young kids, etc that didn't play enough to want to patch, or don't know that a patch exists.
3) Easier still is the demo version. Almost entirely newbs here, everyone at all serious layed out the $40 long ago.
So, using Return to Castle Wolfenstien as an example,
- The 1.4 servers are tough. Clans live here.
- The 1.33 servers are much easier
- The Wolf MP test beta is easier still.
BTW Wolf has punkbuster. Just because someone gets constant headshots does not mean they are cheating. I can regularly dominate a match, but I also routinely get owned by peole who are simply phenominal.
bzflag (Score:4, Insightful)
The game is like the old Battlezone game where tanks move around trying to simply kill each other. The flag part is where you run over flags and get different "power-ups" depending on the type of flag.
It's cross-platform, simple, and the graphics are scalable such that it can be run on a variety of machines varying horsepower.
Re:RtCWeT (Score:4, Insightful)
Some good places to start (Score:5, Insightful)
Some inexperienced FPS players automatically assume that someone's cheating when they get smacked down, often repeatedly. 99% of the time it's just skill, in my experience. I often thought the same way when people would have 20 frags and no deaths. However, I now realize that it's just talent. I am not in any way saying that you are one of these people, it's just that cheating is a lot rarer on online FPS games than one might expect from reading this post.
I have no experience with Half-Life: Counterstrike. This only applies to Q3 and UT2003.
Re:RtCWeT (Score:3, Insightful)
But be prepared to get addicted... after a few days, your vocabulary will be reduced to the messages of the quickchat, as happened to the people in the video on this page (hilarious, a must see!):
http://www.et.gamesunited.de/files.html
Move up through the ranks (Score:3, Insightful)
Play some good old team fortress classic. It isn't that popular anymore, but people still play. It will train you to apply your already existing fps skills against real players. Once you've got the multiplayer fps groove and the skills to avoid being called a n00b pick your game of choice. You can go for a slower paced lower skilled game like america's army, BF1942. A middle of the road game like UT. Or the high skill fierce competition games like CS and natural selection.
There are lots of fpses out there, and one of them is right for you. But don't jump right into the online world like you're in the polar bears club. Remember, you're going up against guys like me who've been fpsing since wolf3d on dos and the game wont be fun for you if I frag you in two seconds every time. Go through the same skill building process we did. You have the luxury of not having to wait years for new games to come out, so take advantage of it.
As for me lately the only fps I'm into is NS.
Re:RtCWeT (Score:5, Insightful)
The maps are very large and there's a complex set of objectives which have to be accomplished. Basically, you have to know where to be and where to go or else you are largely going to be useless.
I tried it with some friends of mine -- while in standard RTCW you could just bumrush the Map Room or whatever, these guys never really got the hang of ET and were always wandering around the wrong side of the map.
The good thing about the games is that if you aren't the best FPS shooter, you can be a Medic or Engineer and just play defense.
Terracorps (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:America's Army (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, I think the person saying it's all about grenades isn't really fair. A lot of times you can't use them because of the close quarters and worries about killing a team mate. Also, once you learn the places the opposing team will most likely throw grenades blindly, you can avoid most of them. On most maps, teams will use grenades right off the bat and people will run strait into them.
"Easy" FPSs (Score:2, Insightful)
Couple of suggestions:
1. Play BF1942-- fun and doesn't really require a great deal of skill (flying can be tricky tho)IMHO. Not a troll, just my experience.
2. Read some strategy guides-- see the ones e.g. at www.csnation.net. When I started at CS, I plain sucked. I still suck. But there are a few really basic things that can really help (like sticking together, how to shoot the ak or when to use that 'nade).
3. Play on clan servers with reasonably good players. I found that playing DoD or CS with people who could kick my a$$ made me much better after time. You just try harder as opposed to those pubs where people are screaming n00b or h4x all the time.
4. lower the mouse sensitivity. I'm amazed at the accuracy improvement. Those nerves won't screw you up as much.
5. learn the maps. Start an empty server or play on a lan and try to figure out the camping/sniper spots. That's how a LOT of kills are made, esp in HL-based games.
6. Keep moving when shot at, stop when you shoot back. How often do you say, "WTF I WAS SHOOTING AT HIM???"-- quite possibly you were running at the same time.
And I could go on. FPS, especially HL, require lots of practice. That should help a little.
Re:Well (Score:3, Insightful)
Granted, I know there are people out there who do cheat, but people have a tendency to blame cheating
any time someone is much better than them. If it were anywhere near as bad as some people make it out
to be there would be a ratio of like one person not cheating for every 3-50 who are.
Natural Selection (Score:5, Insightful)
Day Of Defeat (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you want to play with others or just win? (Score:5, Insightful)
With any game this is going to happen. Its like playing football with other people, sometimes the other team is going to have big bulky guys and sometimes you are going to lose.
Play and have fun. Its no fun losing 0-10 but thats why you have rotating maps and teams get mixed up. And you will get better.
My suggestions:
1. Learn the maps. Learn the guns.
2. Follow another player. Do what they do. Talk in game to them. (use team talk)
3. Try and play as a team. Say thank you. Joke around (Sexual jokes are welcomed. Homosexual jokes more so.)
4. Enjoy the excitement with playing with pretty guns and the thrill of shooting them off.
leagues (Score:1, Insightful)
Just a thought
Re:LAN with Friends (Score:4, Insightful)
If its an older lan (p133 and up) get Quake 2 for Superheros Q2, Weapons Factory, Transformers Quake 2, and Action Quake 2. And get BattleZone. Half Life if you've got Voodoos. If you get HL, don't be afraid to hunt for the more obscure mods - my fave mod for HL is an obscure little action/racing hybrid named Turbo. Very fast, very violent, very cheap.
Good introductory games:
UT - easiest deathmatch FPS ever. An endless supply of good mods exist, and unlike in HL you can mix and match them.
Nerf ArenaBlast - UT for the kiddies!
Cube - simple, but painfully fast. wouter.fov120.com/cube
Serious Sam - easiest FPS to learn, no getting lost, no thinking - just shooting.
The newer FPS games I've played have all been harder, faster games. UT2k3 lost the whole "Quake for newbs/girls" appeal that the old UT had.
Oh, and BattleZone 1 is the greatest RTS/FPS hybrid ever.
That's what he is (and I am) trying to avoid (Score:5, Insightful)
Because you never get up to speed playing maybe a couple hours per week, like the guy in question does. You play that infrequently, and you still get your ass kicked.
Bottom line is he (and many of us!) want servers where one can be capabibility-matched, so as to have a fun and competitive game regardless of skill level. Basically the idea is to vent some real-life frustration without making the game a full-time job.
Cheating overstated (Score:2, Insightful)
In any event, when I first started UT2k3 I was a n00b, but after several months of playing I became quite good, joined a clan, competed in ladders, etc. It just takes a long time to get there. Practice, practice, practice. You also have to learn how to tune your mouse, know what kind of mouse to use, have a good mouse pad for your mouse (logitechs are great mice but finicky with what pad you use), hotkeys, etc. Just get over the fact you're gonna get your ass kicked all over creation for a long time and you'll be fine.
Re:Halo isn't too bad (Score:1, Insightful)
Many a game I've sat in hiding with a fuel-rod launcher, waiting for 'Red' to come around the corner, only to be 'naded from beind by some jackass who wants to take the launcher and look for trouble (sually dihin 10 seconds of taking it).
Re:LAN with Friends (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The newest on the market (Score:1, Insightful)
That said, the cheating question is still a valid argument against older games, as the older a game is, the longer people have been trying to cheat at it.
Quality game communities are hard to find. (Score:2, Insightful)
We have CS servers, NS servers, BF1942 Servers, an occasionaly other servers that pop up and vanish as popularities wax and wane.
the community is where its all at though, we have a top notch admin team, who take cheating and general mis-behavior very seriously, and do an amazing job keeping the servers fun for all levels of players.
ban? Don't think so (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyways, one day I decided to try connecting to the people scanning, and sure enough, they had open fileshares in windows, usually c:\. I probably shouldn't have, but I left a note in autoexec.bat followed by "pause". The other thing was, they all had Half-Life directories. I could have stolen their cd-key's if I wanted by copying their registry! I'm betting they all got duped by a "cheat program" that someone put out.
Re:Nothing beats dialup (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:America's Army (Score:2, Insightful)
that being said, i agree with everything else you said about AA. the realism is nice, but its nice to just be able to jump right into a game like enemy territory(which, for those not in the know is for linux as well)
Just jump in.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Exaggerated cheating (Score:5, Insightful)
Although cheating is a serious problem on some servers, the fact is most claims of cheating are false. It's the beginners who see cheating when it's not there. They come from newbies who don't realize that although they think they are good, there are people much, much better than them. There's a hierarchy of tiers of player skill in FPS games, just like there is in life. Even people in the top tiers will get trounced by people on the even higher tiers.
All the problems that come with people cheating can be eliminated simply by playing on a good, reliable, well-administrated server that you've come to trust. It can take time to find one, but it's worth the investment. In short, don't sell out Quake, Counter-Strike, and its progeny just yet.
Re:Practicing with Bots (Score:4, Insightful)
Intermediate-to-advanced players will surely occasionally hop onto a n00b server to shoot some fish in a barrel, take out some frustration, test a new tecchnique, or whatever. This will annoy and discourage players who are "expecting" to do well because of server skill settings.
Some new players may even incorrectly assume that they don't have to bother with the (relatively high) learning curve of the controls and coordination required for most FPS games.
A sort of Peter principle kicks in: as soon as you have one or a few games where you start to do much better than the preset skill level for that server, you have to move on. It would be hard to tune the system to choose the "break-point" at a proper time for everyone. If I get lucky and a wild grenade kills 10 enemies, am I ready to move on? A tough AI problem, for sure.
The idea of filtering by skill quickly gets reduced to filtering by score, or at best aggregate average scores. This can work if you have a game with uniqie id's and centralized tracking [bftracks.com]. But then you'll need to account for multiple player for the same game CD, which allows for "cheating" the system by creating new "n00b" accounts.
Even if you work around the problems above, note that score is really not strongly related to player skill. Scores are more a combination of relative player skills, the maps, and playing styles used in each game. Bad players can get high scores and good players can gwet low scores, especially in team games, depending on the class and role they are playing.
In fact, some team-based mods are now actually not tracking individual player scores, but only team scores. This is to encourage more teamwork and less Rambo-style play. Some players get very high scores by baseraping with planes or whatever, yet still play poorly (by definition) because their team loses, and they don't help. If team victory is the goal, individual scores don't do well to promote it.
The above emphasise the problems with determining "skill" in terms of segregating servers and enforcing the segregation, and it also leads into my suggestion.
With class-based games, you have the option of focusing on 5 or 6 different skill sets / strategies. If you're not the best/fastest twitch finger in the West, consider playing classes other than assault/soldier and choosing not to run head-first into the front lines. Maybe you would be better playing medic, or engineer, or artillery support. I play a variety of classes (mostly in BF1942 [battlefield.com]), and each one is a very different experience requiring totally different skills and play styles. Please consider trying them all a little and see what you may have a natural knack for, and enjoy.
Should be rated "unhelpful" (Score:3, Insightful)
Come on - the question was what games/what servers to play for the casual FPSer. Someone who likes to play to relax from work, but doesn't want to devote more than a half hour or so to a "session". With what you recommend, at a half-hour a day, you're talking months, if not years of daily playing to beat all those games (at that half-hour per day) before they can get online. That's of no use to the questioner - he wants to get online *now*.
But don't jump right into the online world like you're in the polar bears club. Remember, you're going up against guys like me who've been fpsing since wolf3d on dos and the game wont be fun for you if I frag you in two seconds every time. Go through the same skill building process we did.
He's not asking to go against you - he's asking "where do you and your ilk *not* play?"
For another point, I really like multiplayer FPS games, but I really hate single-player FPS. I got the RTCW multiplayer demo, loved it, bought the game, played half (yes, half) of the first level on single player, and then never played single player again - just went multiplayer. I prefer playing against human, not computer AI.
-T
There's a far more elegant solution to all this (Score:4, Insightful)
There simply is no multiplayer FPS game that exists that doesn't have the skilled players and cheats and clans (whom almost all usually cheat to some degree, usually the highest clans either don't cheat at all or cheat like a mofo with custom stuff). That's the reality of it.
With that said, there are some excellent single player games out there like morrowind (if you've got the super powerful hardware) or Deus Ex, Chrome, and a couple others. There are also some low-skill multiplayer games like planetside, halo, and everquest that are designed for someone like yourself, but obviously some have a monthly fee. (I'm taking this in comparison to high skill games like tribes, BF1942, and to a lesser extent Q3, UT2K3, Natural selection, etc).
Re:America's Army (Score:4, Insightful)
You sneak through the jungle being as quiet as possible, making sure you stay in cover, going from tree to tree bush to bush. You don't hear anything, wonder where everyone is, then suddenly you come out from behind a bush and are literally face to face with an enemy. Its that split second rush where you both just crap yourselves and start firing. This of course pushes everyone else over the edge and suddenly the jungle just erupts with gunfire.
It has the same problems as other games with griefers and people who don't take it seriously but if you get on a good server it can be very tactical.
Wolf ET (Score:3, Insightful)
Here are some quick tips for newbies:
- Start out as a medic. You can revive people with the needle, and lay down health packs for other players. If you do this well, people will start to help you by protecting you when u get into trouble. As a medic, stay in the back or middle of the pack when you spawn so you don't have to fight first. Insted, play cleanup, and finish off the enemy and revive teamates. Reviving teamates is the easiest way to get a good score and get yourself on the scoreboard if your a newb (but don't let this fool you, most of the top players play medic regularly) Another good reason to start medic is that your health automatically replenishes, so you will live longer.
- Learn the maps. All the maps have objectives. After completing the first objective, there is usually a second main objective. As a medic, you will be able to follow the better players around.
- teamplay teamplay teamplay... This is the name of the game. Don't run off by yourself or you will die and have to wait for respawn. As a medic you start out with smaller levels of ammo. You will have to be nice to your teamates or they will not give you any ammo. Also, without medics, everyone dies faster. Without fieldops, there isn't enough ammo for the team. Without engineers, there is nobody to complete the objectives. This game requires teamwork. Cover the engineer while he is planting the bomb. stay behind as a medic so the guy in front of you will have a backup in case he gets ambushed, etc etc.. Teamwork is the name of this game (most of the teamwork is pretty straightforward so the basics should come naturally, this is the best part of the game and why most people play it) If you are in it just to get frags, ET probably isn't the game for you...
- Try not to talk shit. Its probably OK to talk shit sometimes, but this game isn't like CS where 24/7 shit talking and unfair gameplay is tolerated. People doing lame shit will be booted by most server admins if they see it. This is also a good reason why its such a popular game for both newbies and hardcore clan players.
- Since this game isn't like quake*, you only have 1 main weapon, not 9 of them. So it will be easier for you to learn your loadout. There is pistol, main weapon (usually sub machinegun) and then your special weapons (needle and health packs for the medic) This simplicity means you can learn the gameply much faster. The drawback is that you have to navigate the "limbo" menu before you can join the game. This is the hardest part for most newbies: just select which team you want to be in, and select which class you want to go (medic, fieldops, soldier, covert ops, engineer) and then select your weapon. Thats it! Jump in the game and start going
- Try not to get frustrated when your respawn timer is high. That is part of the game and if everyone had instant respawn, the gameplay would be way less fun. It keeps people from doing rambo rushes and gives value to your life. One small problem is that the enemy might try to "spawn camp" you in which case the game is no fun. If you are a serious newb, try another server, or if you get better, kill the spawn killer and your problems are solved.
above all, have fun. This game is awesome and free. Go download it ASAP!
Any FPS without respawn (Score:4, Insightful)
Games without respawn is way better. A good current example is Rainbow Six. Start playing cooperativew games to learn. Mature gamers, friendly atmosphere. Have yet to meet coop cheaters. This game rocks.
Otherwise go for strategy games, like some of the best out there. Myth II Soulblighter rocks.
Re:Website (Score:2, Insightful)
Not for the faint of heart... (Score:3, Insightful)
Now then - what to play as a "casual" n00b? Don't play Quake. What can I say? Even Quake3 is way too fast to get any instant success as a player. Quake2 is even faster. (Before you all reply about the weapons, I mean the movement rate, not the firing and weapon swapping rate).
For a more sedate level of play try any game based on the Half Speed engine - like Counterstrike, or Team Fortress Classic - a game you can play whilst eating your dinner and still do well.
Similarly, RTCW (and the just as good - and free Enemy Territory) is quite a leisurely paced game with breaks (when you die) and it enforces teamplay. (teamplay in 4v4 Q2 for example requires active thought on the part of the team and it's leader - whereas in RTCW, CS and most team fortress class-type games, the whole map strategy is laid out with helpful neon pointers saying "this way to ye olde strategic objective").
Another game I found quite relaxing is Jedi Knight II CTF - just don't waste time trying to foght people with those light up sticks - there ain't no substitute for a good blast^H^H^H^H^H rocket launcher at your side kid.
UT/UT2003/U2XMP are not exactly lightning paced games either (you shuffle along like your pants are round your ankles) but boy are the weapons fiddly. You get all manner of sludge guns, explosive ball thingies and other wierdo stuff (although XMP is not so bad on that front and has vehicles too).
I'm afraid I don't agree about the level of cheating. I know cheating goes on, but I rarely see any and I play most FPS games online. Sometimes, a high level of skill may seem like cheating. The Quake2 source code was released a while back so potentially, there are many hacked clients knocking about for Q2, so if you are feeling braver than your post would suggest, make sure you install something like "NoCheat" or "Biteme!" and play on a server that actively enforces using these client validators. The All Seeing Eye (ASE) is perhaps the best way of locating servers - http://www.udpsoft/eye
I think if I had to pick one for a new player - it would be RTCW ET - free, runs punkbuster and is fairly easy to get some initial encouragement with.
When you're ready for something quicker - try 3wave Capturestrike for Q3 - full on smack! smack! smack! fzsst! bang! whack! gameplay.
Oh yeah, and just one other tip - in the words of Obi Wan Kenobi " Use the MOUSE Luke!"
Pob lwc!
Re:RtCWeT (Score:2, Insightful)
I wholeheartedly agree.
Even though the maps in Enemy Territory tend to be largish and without knowledge of a map's quirks and understanding the objectives you might end up wandering around waiting for someone to snipe you, a very good way of getting the hang of things is playing a medic.
Just hang back, follow the ones that seem to know what they're doing, avoid fire and keep your syringe ready.
Once you're starting to get the big picture, you might want to try engi or c-ops, just don't rush into fieldopshood - poor judgement with airstrikes is a sure way to get flamed
--
dereksmalls@euroservers
Re:Oh BS (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not even as if they gain any kind of kudos from doing it. I can understand why people like demo writers will spend days hacking out a visual effect that has no real use. At least they can garner some level of respect from others, if only for their technical skill. By comparision online game cheats are either hated (by gamers) or considered as sad as sad can be (by everyone else).
At least they are sufficently lacking in technical/social skills that I'll never have to work with them.