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."
America's Army (Score:5, Interesting)
Website (Score:4, Informative)
Someone forgot to put a URL...
americasarmy.com [americasarmy.com]
Re:America's Army (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, I think the person saying it's all about grenades i
Re:America's Army (Score:5, Informative)
There are very few (useful) cheats, and the latest 1.6 patch includes PunkBuster [evenbalance.com] and that's almost eliminated all traces of cheating. Even before PunkBuster, cheats were pretty rare, especially if you play on "pure" servers (which is most of them).
Not unlike the awesome old Team Fortress, BF1942 has a variety of classes you can play (assault, anti-armor, medic, engineer, scout, etc.) so there's a spot on the team for everyone, even those without the experience or trigger-happy twitch fingers.
And, very much unlike all other FPS games, there are vehicles. Planes, tanks, battleships, humvees, helicopters, motorcycles, artillery, etc. This, to me, add so much to the genre that I have trouble playing other FPSs without getting bored quickly. Vehicles can also be a good equalizer -- no matter how twitch fast that enemy is, if you're in a tank, and he's on foot, he's toast.
As an added bonus, you can find 64-man games pretty easily, which makes it even easier to get along without a lot of expertise. You can play a support role (engineer, medic) effectively with little practice, and so you'll be able to help your team win even while learning your skills.
You can pick up a copy in the stores for about $35-40, or online for $20 or less. There are two "offical" addons: Rode To Rome ($15) and Secret Weapons ($20), but neither are required to play. And, if you gravitate toward the DC mod (as most have, based on recent server stats), the add-ons are totally useless.
Oh, and the number one most important thing you need to work on to be good at FPS games is your config. That is, how you assign your player functions to your mouse and keyboard keys (please resist any temptation you may have to not use your mouse for looking around). Think about this carefully before you just slop something together. Otherwise you'll get used to a bad config and have trouble switching from it later when you realize that you need to be able to do action A and B together a lot, but you've got them both assigned to keys that use the same finger.
AA Tracker (Score:3, Informative)
One of the primary reason that I play AA is to track my frag rate.
1) Yes there is a learning curve but most games do, don't they? Find a map that you enjoy and play it over and over and over til you master it. If you are new to FPS, I think map memorization is key.
2) Follow an EXP. player. If one of your teammates has a good FR (10fr/3deaths), follow them around and see what they are doing. Even after you die, switch to the person and follow them. Watch their kill style and
Re:America's Army (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, America's Army has punkbuster anti-cheating software to prevent aimbots. It works pretty well too. I'm noticing less headshots/impossible stuff done by noobs. Development for the most popular aimbot has also stopped since it's users were constantly being banned.
As f
Re:America's Army (Score:5, Informative)
Also, I don't know any situations in which the maps you can play is restricted by your honor rating. Unofficial servers should give no bearing to honor at all, and people who do not like the honor concept can bypass it completely.
I agree with you that it sucks that idiot team mates can easily reduce your honor by running into your grenades because they do not pay attention, etc. This has certainly happened enough times to me, but in the end it is a rare enough event that I do not hate the game for it. Chock it up to realism, in real life you might want to anticipate that your team mates may be confused or just plain dumb, so throw your grenades far enough away that they won't injure themselves.
The biggest qualm I have with AA is the annoyance of the training missions. I just want to get my friends on the internet to play me... NOW. I don't want to go to people and say, I found this great game called America's Army, why don't you spend 3 hours tonight passing all the training, then sometime tomorrow night we'll play. It just isn't enticing when I try to sell it to friends and coworkers.
Otherwise, I love AA, more than counterstrike or quake. When on a good, communicative, cooperative team, facing creative opponents, the game is extremely enjoyable.
Re:America's Army (Score:5, Informative)
A team-mate of mine would frequently kill rocket-weilder's with the crowbar just to prove he could. Rockets were great, but they can be avoided if you know what you are doing. People who complained about rockets in Quake I are whiners.
I'm with you on liking the old rockets. I don't think I've ever enjoyed an FPS deathmatch more than the original low-gravity level on quake. (By the way, in big low-G maps, other weapons were much more effective than the rockets, unless your opponent was foolish enough to keep his feet on the ground the whole time. Hitting an airborne moving target with the rocket launcher, while you are also airborne and moving, was both very tricky and very fun.)
In answer to the poster's original question: It doesn't matter what FPS you start with. You will feel like a total "n00b" for a while. Even with a brand-new game, you'll find yourself on servers populated entirely by the original beta testers, all sitting on the local networks of their ISP office and taking full advatage of the DS3 drop. Even when that's not the case, somebody who's mastered one mouse-based 360-degree FPS is going to be pretty good at all of them, so they will always have a leg up on you until you've played a little more. Just get in there, get killed, have fun, and you'll learn. Ignore your scores while you practice your strafing techniques and get the hang of aiming on the run. Soon you'll be spraying death everywhere with the rest of us.
Re:America's Army (Score:5, Informative)
Learn to snipe with the M16. Mountain Pass is a lot of fun when you can snipe with the M16, well out of range of grenades. Also, learning how to move and how not to be seen will keep you from getting tagged by a grenade. Learn to listen for grenades and cook off the ones you throw.
And here's a quick guide [doorbot.com] I wrote on defending the Weapons Cache map... it contains some suggestions that you might find useful for other maps.
But other posters are right... AA has a steep learning curve; if you give it time you'll find it very rewarding.
Re:America's Army (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, he was behind the middle bush.
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.
Savage (Score:5, Interesting)
info: http://www.s2games.com
Re:Savage (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Savage (Score:4, Informative)
Savage is definately one of the best PC games that I've played for years. Give the demo a try, but don't judge it too hard. The demo is buggy, but the 2.00 version of the official game is fantastic and has a ton of extras.
I can't wait for S2's next game. I hope that a Linux game is in the future as well.
Re:Savage (Score:5, Informative)
Jon (Slothy)
Ex-employee, S2 Games
RtCWeT (Score:5, Interesting)
excellent game that REQUIRES team play and has lots of friendly people if you are interested in actually being a team member...
I'ts one of the very few I play on a regular basis..
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.
Re:RtCWeT (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RtCWeT (Score:4, Insightful)
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
PunkBuster (Score:5, Informative)
ET is an awesome game. Can't get enough. It's completely freeware, and there are stacks of user made levels to download. Highly addictive! Plays great on 56k modem (hardware modem, not win-modem) too.
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.
Urban Terror getting ported (Score:4, Informative)
Urban Terror will guarrantee that you fail at least one course because of it.
Re:RtCWeT (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:RtCWeT (Score:3, Informative)
however, i found that a lot of people dont tolerate noobs. i hit a couple of mines in a game and they almost voted me out. pissed me off that i had been playing 15 minutes and they just coudlnt stand somebody new playing.
without a doubt ill play again, however.
LORD! (Score:5, Funny)
bzflag (Score:3, Informative)
Well (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Well (Score:5, Interesting)
Here is what I base my assumption on. I've always been good at online games, usually finishing first or near first place of any game I was in. However, over the years, as cheating has grown more common, I've noticed that my apparent skills have followed a pattern. When a new game comes out, I do very good at it. However after a few months of playing, once the cheats start spreading, I find myself doing worse and worse. Eventually it gets to the point that I feel like I'm a n00b at the game. When a new but very similar game comes out, again I find I'm very good at the new game for a few months, but gradually start getting worse again. Now it may be innocent coincidence, but I have a hard time believing that either a) my skill level declines with practice, or b)other players get better than me but are somehow unable to transfer those skills over to other games, and thus take months of practice to surpass me again.
I've reached the point that I've just given up on online games completely.
Re:Well (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well (Score:3, Interesting)
The anti-cheat stuff like punkbuster is pretty solid now, and the only complaints I have are from noobs.
In light of this, a honor system like that in America's Army is a very nice bonus. But this does not seem to solve the problem at all. I think it would be better if game servers are dedicated to three different classes of players (newbies,
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well (Score:3, Funny)
They're not very good players, unfortunately. But at least they're not weenies.
Anti-social people (Score:3, Interesting)
So, it's hard for a beginner to start because these kids have all the time in the world to become either frighteningly extreme experts or lame cheaters. And if you somehow do manage to beat someone--like you mentioned, they become weenies about it.
LAN parties are where it's at. You get to play with your buddies, you get to have fun. Yell insults at each other
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:Well (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a decent FPS player (on public servers I usually rank in the top 2-3%; good enough to get accused of cheating from time to time), but I have a friend that can beat the crap out of me. To the point that I won't ever get a kill unless he goofs around. And I know he's not cheating -- he's just that much better than me.
If you're not familiar with the game then you're not going to be able to tell if you just died to some l33t script kiddie that is using an autoaim hack or to someone that just knows how to play.
Even if you only play 1/2 hour a day you'll get better (unless you just have no tendancy towards being able to play well), but you're going to spend a lot of time just dieing at the start. It simply takes awhile to learn the feel of the game -- what weapons work well where, how to navigate certain maps, etc. It's just like anything else.
Re:Well (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:LAN with Friends (Score:5, Funny)
Compared to what? playing with a mass of immature idiots in your living room?
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.
Re:LAN with Friends (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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.
Re:Practicing with Bots (Score:5, Interesting)
What would be nice is some sort of in game system that could filter servers by skill level. Maybe just a ladder would be enough. Set it up so if one player dominates, he gets booted to another server with a higher rating, and the weakest players get booted to a lower level server. Throw in some load balancing for good measure and you might have something accessible for newbies.
Re:Practicing with Bots (Score:4, Interesting)
Bravo! This is a great solution to the problem. It is also what happens in real sports.
Another option is the sporting notion of a handicap. If somebody is really good, then the server makes it harder on them. If the server makes the handicap public, then they still get to be known as a bad-ass, while everybody still gets to have fun.
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.
Halo isn't too bad (Score:5, Interesting)
TexanGirlz Servers (Score:4, Interesting)
Check them out: Texangirlz [texangirlz.com]
Enemy Territory (Score:4, Informative)
BF1942 (Score:4, Informative)
Once you get the hang of it, get the Desert Combat [desertcombat.com] mod. Updates the weapons, vehicles, and maps to present day.
Re:BF1942 (Score:5, Informative)
Definately BF1942 (Score:3, Interesting)
Walk around with your gun... get shot by a tank
Respawn, grab a helicopter or a bomber, blast the tank... get blown away by a jet
Jump into an AA gunsite, or a tank with AA... blow away the jet.
The vehicles greatly enhance what you can do, and of course there's also joy in just trekking around on foot. Nothing quite like the joy of actually takin
ArmageTRON (Score:4, Insightful)
Delta Force Series (Score:3, Informative)
Tribes (Score:3, Insightful)
UT2k3 (Score:4, Informative)
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
Your best bet... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Your best bet... (Score:4, Funny)
You will never see such a wretched hive of scum and villainy anywhere else in the galaxy. We have to be careful not to be pwned.
BF1942 (Score:5, Insightful)
Desert Combat (Score:3, Informative)
It's a mod on Battlefield 1942, and offers modern weapons and vehicles. It also has a fairly gentle learning curve - you can start off just play infantry, move up to Humvees and Tanks, and then work on the planes and helicopters. The gameplay is the best I've seen in any FPS that includes vehicles.
It's also a teamwork game - nothing like flying a blackhawk full of guys through a city, having two guys on the chainguns mowing people down, and the rest paratrooping in to take a base.
I've been playing it for a few months now, and it keeps getting better with every new release.
Problem with Game Balance (Score:5, Interesting)
My idea... (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the player with the highest score should glow in some eye-popping color and have access to only the lowest hit weapons. When their score drops, they go back to normal and the next highest takes their place. Call it an equalizer.
Day of Defeat (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Enemy Territory (Score:5, Informative)
Team play is crucial and the overall maturity seems higher(relatively) than some games like warcraft and counter-strike.
Also, the different classes allow the not-so-quick trigger-finger-player to still play a vital role.
Folks seem friendly, but that may not last.
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.
Play UT on CSHP servers (Score:3, Interesting)
(I haven't played UT in a few years, so I don't know what's what with the UT community as of late)
When I played UT, all of the best servers ran CSHP [unrealadmin.org]. There's a little more info here [planetunreal.com]. (Sorry, I didn't have time to find better links -- the CSHP home page seems to have gone away.) CSHP stands for Client Side Hack Protection. This is a aimbot/cheat protection mod that makes sure that everybody is playing on a level field. All of the servers running is, advertised it.
I just don't get it. What's the point of playing an online game if you have to cheat to win? What a way to ruin a game for everyone. (eyeroll)
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: Ridiculous (Score:5, Funny)
Just because it has taken you 10 years to learn how to play a FPS doesn't mean the average geek reading this site will require that much time.
Doom I??? Doom II??? I haven't heard of anyone playing either of those games in at least 5 years. My god, they had a Doom release on the Atari Jaguar!!! Think about that!
I think you have dedicated way too much of your life to playing these games.
In the amount of time that has expired since Doom I came out, you could have gotten your undergrad degree, gone to medical school, AND finished your residency. You would be a real, licened, ready to probe the vagina gynecologist.
Lets get our priorities straight here. Games should be a minor diversion, not an activity which requires 15% of your life to master.
Check out Tribes2 (Score:5, Informative)
I play on the T2War server http://www.tribeswar.com.
Server name: -2004 TRIBESWAR.COM
IP Address: 66.237.58.11:28000
Daily restart time: Approx. 5 AM PST
For more information about the game, and how great being able to play different roles than just "deathmatcher" or "flag grabber" check out: http://www.dansdata.com/t2bastard.htm
Battlefield 1942 w/ Desert Combat mod (Score:3, Informative)
I've not played FPS's since Doom 2 (no joke), because they are all pretty much the same old, same old. Couple that with the rampant cheating, and I was just totally turned off by the genre until last month.
My brother came to visit and convinced me to play, and I was pretty much hooked after awhile. You can pick up BF1942 for $30 or less and the DC mod is free... and it's a killer mod. It's worth the $30 to give it a shot and see if you like it.
Like any online game and FPS, though, there's an adjustment period where you feel like a dumb ass. I was very frustrated and felt like a total noob the first week or two I played, but now I'm getting pretty decent, and make it into the top ten fairly often. I still get pwned by a lot of the better peeps, and I think there are still a few cheats out there, even with PB supposedly protecting a server, but it's not terrible, and maybe some of those cheats really are god-like players *shrug*.
It's worth the $30 if you want to try out an online game, IMHO.
Terracorps (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow, this server's got forty players! (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't make the mistake of thinking that way. It probably matters a little less what game you play (though I highly recommend Enemy Territory).
Find a fairly small server, maybe ten people total. This will have the benefit that you'll be able to hear yourself think. You might actually see some of the map more than a dozen yards from your spawn area.
Most games have an in-game chat function, and messages will show up on your screen. People will try to point you in the right direction.
If you do decide to try out Enemy Territory, try out the Medic class; you give everyone on your team extra hit points just for being there as a medic. Pick someone and follow him, he'll wind up showing you the objectives as he tries to achieve them. And you'll be able to keep him healthy and revive him as you go. It's not a bad way to learn.
-JDF
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.
Everyone is better than you for a reason. (Score:5, Informative)
Most people playing online have been doing so for months if not years. They've developed the reflexes, knowledge of game systems and maps, and tactical know-how to stay alive. Unfortunately, the only way to gain these skills is practise.
I suggest you download Wolfenstein: ET [4players.de]. First of all, it's free so if you decide online gaming isn't for you after all, you haven't lost anything but a little time.
Secondly, the penalties for death aren't too harsh. Unlike Counter-Strike, where you have to wait up to 5 minutes after dying to play again, you'll be back in the game within 30 seconds.
Thirdly, it's "easy-to-learn, hard-to-master", to use the cliche. You don't have to learn complex firing patterns or master the intricacies of every weapon in order to play competently. You can introduce more complicated elements and strategies at your own pace without being left behind.
Finally, during your 30 seconds of waiting to respawn, you have the option to view one of your team mates through their eyes. Watch what they do. Think about what they do wrong and what you'd do differently. See if they charge too easily or hesitate too much. Don't treat online gaming like linear, formulaic single player games. Always think and try to learn from your mistakes.
You're playing the wrong games (Score:3, Informative)
While they are fabulous games, they are not for beginners not willing to take a few thousand gibs before they make top 5 in a full server. I you're not prepared to commit the time and take an prolonged asswhipping until you get the rust out, try BF1942. The vehicle aspect and adjustable bot play allows even the newbiest newb to find enjoyment. More specifically, Desert Combat is the mod of your eye.
Only in DC can a first timer drop a Scud into a highly skilled pack of clanners and smear them across the terrain.
Perfect Timing (Score:3, Informative)
Download the demo when it comes out and you'll be getting in on the ground floor with a new game that no one else knows any better than you. And there won't be any cheats yet either since it's a new game, although that will most likely not be the case in a few months time.
Legends! (Score:5, Interesting)
Loosely based on Tribes...
http://hosted.tribalwar.com/legends/ [tribalwar.com]
find a good community that plays.. (Score:4, Informative)
PlaneShift OSS MMORPG (Score:3, Informative)
Quit your whining. (Score:4, Funny)
While people using cheats do exist, they're not nearly as prevalent as you seem to think, you're just unable to accept that people are that good.
Take Quake 3, for example. I got tired of having my butt handed to me by people with the railgun. So, I limitted myself to *only* using the railgun. In time, I got pretty good. With more time, I got really good. With even more time, I got fan-freaking-tastic. When you're single, don't own a home, and have a 1-megabit pipe into your apartment, it's amazing how much time you can dedicate/waste on those things!
So, what did that get me? A bunch of whining cry-babies yelling "Aimbot! Cheater!" every time I killed them. After they did it enough to annoy me, I'd chase them down and kill them with the gauntlet. At that point, they'd generally just leave the game.
steve
Advice for FPS Newbies (Score:5, Informative)
Play on lightly populated servers. Generally, the LEET get bored on these and move on to higher frag opportunities.
Watch for hacks. There are plenty of servers that allow cheats. Read the MOTD. Often servers will identify their exploit policies and installed mods. It won't take you long to realize if you've fallen victim to wall hacking or other exploits. Observe the other players during your dirt-nap to see if they're cheating.
Get a fast video card, plenty of RAM of of course a decent processor. Lower the vid. quality if necessary to get a decent frame rate; a consistent 60 FPS+. Lots of folks disagree on this because your eyes can only detect something like 32 FPS+ or less, but trust me on this. Lots of other factors come into play and a high frame rate removes other bottlenecks and quickens reaction time.
Buy a decent mouse. USB Optical mice work best in my experience, and there are mice available that are specifically designed for game play.
Listen to the environment. Get a decent surround speaker system. It is a great advantage to hear a shot or footsteps with 360 degree accuracy. If you can't afford this, play with good headphones. Remove distractions.
Don't drink beer. I haven't formulated a precise equation, but you can expect your frags to decrease exponentially per ounce of alcohol consumed. Other intoxicants will lead to misplace your icons.
Day of Defeat (Score:4, Informative)
Another game to consider is Ricochet. It has few players, but there are no clans and it's extremely fast-paced with no teams, just everybody vs. everybody. Of course, as a newb you'll get your ass kicked in ways that you didn't even know possible, but you'll catch on.
Team Fortress (TFC) is cheap, easy, and fun (Score:3, Informative)
No matter what game you play, tho, make sure of the following:
1. Snipers - learn how to snipe, for God's sake - they rock
2. Encourage team play - CS is great, but all it takes is a server with Friendly Fire turned on to make everyone unhappy - BF1942 usually has this turned on to drive me crazy.
3. Make sure you are enjoying yourself - I have played a lot of online games, and at the end of 2 hours was pissed off something fierce. Then I thought "WTF am I doing?!" and promptly moved on.
4. You play on the same server regularly and get to know people a little. Doesn't hurt if there is an active admin who can kick nincompoops, either.
Good luck, and if you see RevCo online - just log out and save yourself a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
*generally
Day of Defeat, anyone? (Score:3, Informative)
Certain objectives reqire two teammates to complete on some maps. And did I mention that the elaborate, detailed maps are some of the best maps I've played in any game? Many maps are Cap'n'Hold, a "king of the hill" like variant of Capture the Flag, some are Attack or Defend (one side has the objective to blow something up before time runs out, the other team has to wait for time to expire before their shit blows up...), some are mixes of the two - one map has one side seeking plans from a downed plane (a la one-flag CTF), the other team has to blow up tanks with shoulder- mounted Rocket Launchers before the other team caps the plans.
Sure, less people play it than CS, but this can be a good thing - I've found players are of a better calibre than CS. They don't cheat as much, they appriciate good teamwork, and don't TK as much when Friendly Fire is on.
I used to play some FPS games on Dial-up, up until about a year or two before we got DSL. Things were great when most gamers only had Dial-up - I used to play A LOT of Quake 2 (especially ExpertCTF) on Dial-up, and during one of my binges, found my name on theclq.com's listings of the top ExpertCTF players in the world for a week (in the top 150!). But then the prices of DSL started to drop, and the early adopters were rewarded with lower latency, fewer dropped packets, and an easier time lining up sniper rounds.
I've also been playing a lot of Team Fortress Classic - again, less players than CS, but a better player you'll find, usually.
And Practice makes Perfect. FPS games are no exception. Sure, some are born with killer instincts, but the rest of us have to learn the maps (and appropriate tactics) on our own.
If yer ever playing DoD, and you bump into "The Outsider" (me), "Kagenin" (me again), lulu (my girlfriend), or "General Spanky" (my sister's boyfriend), say "Hi!" or something.
Kagenin
BF1942 (Score:3, Informative)
Also, why not learn it like the rest of us did? Keep playing against the guys who keep getting head shots on you, and if you practice long enough, suddenly you start getting head shots on them.
Nobody ever got better at a game by playing against a bunch of people who are worse than them.
Response from another casual gamer (Score:5, Informative)
In general, I will echo some comments already made: (1) if you are just starting out, don't assume excellent players are cheating; chances are, they are just much better than you. (2) Don't be intimidated. And don't be afraid to suck, because you will suck mightily for a long time. (3) It's probably not a good idea to play round-based games at first, because you will spend a lot of frustrating time waiting for the round to end if (when) you are the first person to get killed.
More specifically, if you need to buff up your aiming, dodging and moving skills, play Quake 3 against the bots on the second hardest difficulty level until you are consistently winning the map. You just need to build up your twitch-gaming skills.
If you want to play C-S, here are some specific tips to help you avoid common newbie mistakes:
(1) Concentrate on staying alive, not racking up kills. Don't lead the rush into a hail of bullets. You learn a lot more by staying alive through a whole round than you do trying to get one kill right away and then waiting out most of the round after dying in the first rush. Plus you can actually learn your way around the map.
(2) Contrary to your instinct, don't bother playing with other beginners. You will learn more playing with advanced players, because your mistakes will be punished and your good habits will be reinforced. If you only play against bad players, you will only develop bad habits.
(3) Use headphones, unless you have a top-notch surround-sound speaker set-up. With headphones you can get a better sense of directional sound. It makes it easier to locate people by the sound of their footsteps or gunfire.
(4) Use controlled, 1-3 bullet bursts. You can stand right next to a guy, and if you empty your clip at him in a long continuous burst, there's a good chance he will blow your head off before you kill him (I have seen this happen, and it has happened to me).
(5) Learn to compensate for recoil. The easiest way to get used to recoil is with the AK-47. With the Ak, aim at your enemy's upper chest and fire a short, 3-bullet burst. You'll find that the third bullet will most likely be a headshot.
(6) Learn the Buy menu. Don't worry if everyone is long gone by the time you finish buying your gear in your first few rounds. Once you figure it out, you'll be ready to go with the team.
(7) Don't use the sniper rifles. Just don't bother. You don't learn anything by hiding and trying to pick off targets from a distance.
WWIIonline (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Massive Map. The map is of Western Europe; you could spawn into Holland, and walk all the way to Switzerland if you wanted to (1/4 scale - with accurate elevations and terrain features that nearly match the real map of Europe) - this would take you days, if not weeks to do this. There is no 'zoning' between smaller areas like in other online games - and the map is humongous compared to any FPS currently on the market. You don't have to worry about running into a wall when you are trying to maneuver - and battles don't end up being 'frontal assaults through a bottleneck' - with interesting results and possibilities for offense and defense.
2. Visual Distance. The edge of the 'fog' curtain at the edge of your vision is 6 or more kilometers away. You can see men with your avatar's naked eye out to 2 Kilometers, ground vehicles out to 3 kilometers, and much larger vehicles, such as ships out to the edge of the fog (6km or more). Optics, such as binoculars or telescopic weapon sites allow you to see further for each type. Tank battles typically occur between 500 and 2000 meters.
3. Damage System. The damage system is very realistic - going so far as to break up different parts of your infantry avatar (head, torso, extremities) - and apply damage based on the physics of the weapon that is impacting the 'part' of the body or vehicle (or both).
4. Combined Arms. The game includes Air, Land and Sea forces that all operate on the same battlefield; while there are a few games that do this (such as Battlefield 1942) - none have the same feeling or realism that engagements in WWIIonline have. Whereas in an infantry based FPS (like Socom, or the Rainbow 6 series) - you can pretty much ignore the other components, in WWIIonline you must work together with other branches to succeed. Calling in an airstrike on an enemy position, or doing an amphibious assault (river patrol, destroyer and transport ships currently modeled), or flying as a pilot, or being a ship commander, or a tanker, or an infantryman (sappers, riflemen, light machine gunners, and soon rifle grenade equipped infantry - plus smoke and frag grenades - as well as knife) and all working together move the map.
5. No Gankers. You can not kill your own side. That being said, that does take away from the realism a bit - but more than makes up for it in the playability department - unlike other games where griefers use team killing to get the choice equipment, or just disrupt the gameplay.
6. Night and Day. Currently the system has a fast clock that has a 'day' that lasts 6 hours (don't quote me on that), and a night that lasts half that time (3 hours?). There are clouds - but currently no weather effects - but that is planned for future development.
The game begins with a 'map reset' - where the starting 'frontline' positions are set to the defaults. The game commences immediately and the map runs 24 hours a day 7 days a week until a winner is declared. The winner is the side that captures the vast majority of the enemy's towns (large towns/cities count more than small towns - but are also harder to take). Maps last anywhere from a week to several months. After a winner is declared automatically, the map is reset and the war begins again.
The equipment is based on WWII types, with a more historic approach than other games (such as BF1942) that start off with the Tiger tank (for example). Instead you will learn to use the PZII, PZ38, PZIII, Sd232 on the Axis side, and the Sumoa, Char 1B, Renault, and Panhard on the French, and Matilda, A13, and Vickers on the British (they
FPS tips (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Ok, no, really.. (Score:5, Funny)
If someone shoots you a lot and you cant seem to touch them, that means their cheating. Its always best to call them a cheater out loud. This will show the other players that you just want to play a fair game.
Monopolize. If your playing on a level with any 'scarce' items its probably best if you get to them first then run directly over to the enemy side and open up! Just to show them how leet you are (they'll apprecaite you donating the weapon too).
Talk shit. Players really respect a player who knows how to talk shit. If your losing, insult the enemy team! This goes great along with accusing enemy players of cheating.
Finally, if *your* using a cheat its probably best to start accusing enemy players of cheating *as soon as you log in*. Your team mates will apprecaite this and admire you for your honesty.
Don't forget to bunny hop! Good gaming!
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).
"The worst part of multiplayer games... (Score:4, Informative)
If you're wanting to avoid these crackshot players who've been playing since the day the game came out, you're going to have to start playing the day a game comes out. What's worse is that a lot of these people are just darn good at FPS anyway. A team game might be just what the doctor ordered in that case, except that it means getting into clan.
My suggestion, and one that I haven't seen mentioned, is to first find an FPS with a much smaller following. Tron 2.0, NOLF 1&2, for example, are great games with such small followings that even though they're really great, they're so desperate for other players that these guys will take you by the hand and help you get good if only to have fresh blood.
I remember then the now completely forgotten Legends of Might & Magic came out, I happened to get a free copy at work. Think Counter-Strike + Might and Magic but suckier. The thing is that there were only 5-10 servers, but everyone was really nice and a very tight group, and they were more than happy to show newbies the ropes. Even though the game design really blew, the community made it much more playable.
So, to summarize, my first suggestion would be to get in on day one on some upcoming FPS, maybe Far Cry. My second, and more realistic, is to find one of these small FPS games you like and just jump in. =)
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.
What are you talking about? (Score:5, Informative)
ISDN? Give me a break. All modern broadband is better for gaming than ISDN.