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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

I am not very good at playing FPS games online

All Acting Regiment

21:21 / 25.05.06

Recently I discovered to my delight that the frankly Sphynx-like internet system at my halls allows me to play multiplayer FEAR online. It fucked me around with Far Cry and called my bluff at Cossacks, but now it seemed that I had the chance to test my mettle against some Yanks. Tally ho, I thought, I'll soon be shooting them, and stuff!

Except I'm shit at it. I don't understand. Everybody seems to run round really fast (is my connection not as fast as theirs?) and be able to kill me in one shot.

What should I be doing?

What is "ping"?

Why are the pistols so good?

Why do they always somehow have the big cannon jobby?

Won't somebody think of the Legba??11??1!!!/111"lfigj""??212???

22:52 / 25.05.06

Hmm, I used to play online a bunch (Battlefield 2 and various Half Life mods). No specific Far Cry tips or FEAR I'm afraid, but here's a good general tip: Always use headphones - being able to hear where people are coming at you from helps a whole lot.

As for ping, that's basically the time delay between your computer and the computer hosting the game. A lower ping means you'll suffer less lag, and get a more accurate view of the game from the server's point of view. Apart from having a speedy connection, the best way to get a low ping is to play on a server local to you. For example I have a ping close to 200ms when I play on servers across the pond, but when I play on a local server, it can be as low as 15ms.

Also, don't be discouraged that you're not doing well. Playing against human opponents is a lot different from playing against a computer, and in Far Cry particularly I imagine the game is old enough for multiplayer games to be full of veterans who know what they're doing, and what tricks they can exploit.

Oh, and try to aim for the head. It's a tip that's good for all online games, and it's probably why people with pistols are killing you. They're also probably in the hands of said veterans, who like to use the harder weapons because apparently it proves something.

22:54 / 25.05.06

(oops - got Far Cry and FEAR mixed around in terms of which one you're playing, but never mind - most of that's still valid)

Jake, Colossus of Clout

03:26 / 26.05.06

Pistols are usually good because they are very accurate, and a skilled hand can plant one right in your domepiece. Typically, an assault rifle or the like does a lot of damage but is less accurate, so has a lesser chance of a headshot. Headshots are desirable, as Mousezilla said. In most games, a headshot is an instant kill, so someone who is really good gets much more mileage out of a pistol than a shotgun or assault rifle.

09:04 / 26.05.06

I'm not a huge fan of online FPS, but I confess to having a secret vice of playng the original Vietcong and the first expansion to Call of Duty online a little bit.

Except I'm shit at it. I don't understand. Everybody seems to run round really fast (is my connection not as fast as theirs?) and be able to kill me in one shot.
From my experiences, I can firstly tell you that you're in much the same boat as every other casual player. There are people out there who literally fucking live online, and so have become so supremely practised at these games that you'd swear they were cheating (that's pretty much why I will only ever play snipers in these games. That class better suits my playing style and mindset, and also removes the embarassment of showing myself to be utterly pathetic in a straight-up firefight).

"What should I be doing?"
Well, it kind of depends on the online mode you play, doesn't it. I personally loathe Deathmatch style games and never play them, preferring CTF (Capture the Flag) games. These tend to introduce a greater sense of strategy and team spirit, which is rather nicer than simply spawning somewhere, dying in the first 3 seconds, then spawning again, then dying, etc.

"What is "ping"?"
Think of it like an echo location system. 'Ping' is literally the time it takes for your PC to send a packet of information to another (usually the server PC in FPS games), and then to get a reply. The lower this number, the better (keeping it under 100-150 usually ensures a smooth game). Too high a ping will cause lag issues, making the game utterly unplayable from an online perspective.

"Why do they always somehow have the big cannon jobby?"
Because they plough hours, days, weeks and months of their lives into this game. They know every map, every weapon pickup, every shortcut.

If you are after a slower, slightly more strategy-focused game, I recommend picking up the original Vietcong from Pterodon (it's about £10 new now). Despite its age, there are still a lot of servers - especially in Europe - that offer wide open maps with plenty of jungle cover. That game is much more about stalking your enemy, rather than rushing around blasting anything that moves.

Kiltartan Cross

10:16 / 26.05.06

What should I be doing?

An observation after watching my not-so-lil' brother play Medal of Honor, Counterstrike and so on - the way the games are set up leads to an almost ritual series of moves in the opening minute or two of each match. Whenever there are chokepoints on the map, you get a situation with players from each team on either side of the chokepoint, both teams are firing and hurling grenades or whatnot at the chokepoint, and anyone dumb enough to try and just run through gets mullered. Usually after a couple of minutes it calms down enough after a few people have been killed off and the rest run out of grenades and so on, and things get a bit more fluid. Maybe half of all FPS seem to follow this sort of mode to me.

Oh, and turn the mouse sensitivity down. Whenever I play FPS, which isn't often at all (I'm not much of a fan... and I'm crap at them), I prefer to be able to look around quickly, but my psycho brother has the sensitivity right down so that he can aim better. And like someone said above, he ends up spending hours playing the same maps over and over...

12:52 / 26.05.06

Me and a friend used to play FPS lan matches 1v1 style, when quake 1 was new

, internet was a bit shit then and hes bring his comp to my house and stay for a week or so, or I'd go to his. We were about evenly matched. Then I learned about strafing and changed my setup, I have strafe left/right binded to the left and right keys and use the mouse for aiming/looking. This makes dodging much easier. The next time we played he would never win and changed his key binding to match.

Key bindings, do you strafe?

13:39 / 26.05.06

Except I'm shit at it. I don't understand. Everybody seems to run round really fast (is my connection not as fast as theirs?) and be able to kill me in one shot.

I don't know whether this applies to PC FPSs as it does to the Xbox, but on the Xbox does have a slight lag if playing from the UK. I've read about it in a few trade mags but I'm not sure if it's a bit of a myth. Apparently it's only a split second (or fraction thereof) but its eough to make all the difference in a game of, say Halo Team Snipers or battle rifle games, when the first shot counts.

Could be a reason for your quick deaths, Legba. Alternatively I find it a great post-game lobby excuse when being sledged.

All Acting Regiment

16:31 / 26.05.06

Thankyou everyone for your advice. I've killed at least three people now, at the rate of one kill to about a squillion me-deaths.

Key bindings, do you strafe?

Ah, well, on FEAR, W is forward, A and D do strafe and you turn and aim with the mouse. But yeah, I do strafe.

P. Horus Rhacoid

19:05 / 26.05.06

Thinking back to my days playing Descent 3 (briefly) online I remember that a lot of people took advantage of the three axes of motion in the game. That is, simultaneously moving up, strafing, and moving forward allowed superfast movemen. The only FPS I've played any significant amount is Deus Ex, but it seems that moving forward and strafing at the same time also allows for faster movement- think about it, you're still moving forward at the same speed, but you're also moving sideways at top speed as well. In Descent this difference was more pronounced because of the three axes of motion rather than two, though also a bitch to steer while doing. Anyway it's just a guess, but I bet the people moving superfast are doing it diagonally.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

19:07 / 26.05.06

Yeah, when I played loads of Goldeneye in college we called it "diagonal running" and it was essential to winning.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:11 / 26.05.06

Also fairly new to this- until now I've only played F.E.A.R. online and usually when very drunk; but just had my first few games of UT2004. Found a nice server- after being killed for about the millionth time in a row I said something along the lines of it being my first time with the game, and instead of the "FUK OFF N00B" shit I was expecting I got lots of good advice and hints from people.

I was still shit, mind. But it felt a bit nicer.

08:07 / 09.06.06

Not directly about online FPSing, but why is look better inverted? Or, indeed, is it better inverted?

Finding both horribly counter-intuitive, which one should I force my measly human hand to adopt? (I'm not admitting I'm shit and stopping, I just sprung for a second-hand XBox).