I have tried my hand at a variety of games on PC including mainly first person shooters, RTS games and MOBAs (a.k.a. DotA clones.) Here are a few FPS games I want to talk about in this post. I can give a long list of stuff that I hate about each game, most of which revolves around sucking at it.
My issue with FPS is the lack of skill and game/map sense required to even be remotely good at them. I lack the game sense, skill at aiming, map sense and whatnot to succeed in any FPS. This is going to be more of a rant about why I hate certain FPS games than anything. If you are going to reply with insults towards my skill level, fucking bury your hatchet as I'm already aware of this.
Quake Live:
Watch any competitive Quake Live game and you will witness two players strafe jumping masterfully like fucking madmen at 140mph.whilst utilising their expert game-sense, map control and aimbot-like twitch shooting. While I have great respect for professional QL players like Rapha, I try to enter a Duel (after much trial and error using Quake Live's godawful duel finding interface that will often put me in a game with 2 other people and me having to wait 15 mins for my turn), and every result is the same no matter how many hours I play a day of the game. Gang raped 0 - 22 or 1 - 22. I can rarely get a frag in before BAM, blown my fucking brains out with two aimbot-precise rails to the temple.
Also with Quake Live, I have to deal with the lame interface, bad optimization (since they put ads on the site and added a premium service, I've had to sit through TWO loading screens just to go Fullscreen every time I want to join a game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
I got this game as a christmas present. After about 5 hours of playing the multiplayer, I feel completely and utterly demoralised. To sum up each multiplayer experience for me:
My k:d ratio is about 1:3 - 7. For every one kill I do get, I will often die 3 - 7 times just to get it.
I find deathstreaks to be completely and utterly worthless at my current stage in the game.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
The game is an absolute joke. You encounter a guy, draw out your SMG, unload a full clip of ammunition into his face and have to reload as a result. What does he do. Moves a little closer and BANG. INSTAGIB WITH A SHOTGUN STRAIGHT TO YOUR FACE.
Tell me, am I doing something horrifically wrong here?
Unreal Tournament 3
This was a semi-recent purchase for me, and let me say I have HATED it so far. The campaign mode feels dull and boring and a bit excessively difficult considering I have the difficulty settings quite slow. Less my fault and more the fault of the terrible AI companions that continually rack up deathstreaks.
The multiplayer is even worse, based on what little I have played of it. First game, destroyed 0 - 24 in a 1v1, next few games kicked from the server almost instantly for no reason. By then I gave up.
On January 06 2012 13:33 amazingxkcd wrote: What about c.s 1.6? Its a good fps, if not the best
Do not get me started on counter-strike.... I mainly played Source and I was a fucking joke at that too. I have even had moments where I'd walk from my spawn point having bought everything I needed and BAM. Headshot with a fucking AWP through several walls halfway across the map.
The worst part is you cannot find any sort of guides or tutorials on how to get better at CS. I tried the idea of trial and error and 99.925% of the time any assault I'd make regardless of if I'd use a Flashbang or not would fail.
In that case, there are only 2 possible scenarios:
1. Hax. Not like most admins would have given a crap if this guy was hacking. 2. Expert game sense. This was de_dust2 after all, the most overrated, most overplayed map in FPS history, and given several years you could probably do something like this.
Do you at least have a fundamental enjoyment of FPS games? If so, keep playing until you hit people around your skill level and play some premades. If you hate being roflstomped but still enjoy fps games, you don't need to always hit the pubs. Make some friends and play with them.
My issue with FPS is the lack of skill and game/map sense required to even be remotely good at them. I lack the game sense, skill at aiming, map sense and whatnot to succeed in any FPS. This is going to be more of a rant about why I hate certain FPS games than anything. If you are going to reply with insults towards my skill level, fucking bury your hatchet as I'm already aware of this.
Well I just don't know what to tell you. Half of your complaints about games are exactly that, that you aren't good enough at them to be competitive with other players. That's honestly the main focal point I got out of your blog, from both Quake Live and UT3.
So, it's unfair to tell me not to talk about it... I mean, people have been playing Quake 3 for years; of course you need a bit of practice to take them on. Play other game modes (I like FFA death match).
As far as the ads go, true; I dislike them too (though I block them).
In your Quake Live console, which you can open by pressing Ctrl+Alt+`(tilde), type in the following:
r_noFastRestart 0
This will allow you to switch from windowed mode to full-screen mode without loading again. What you do after this is go to your main page and click 'Settings.' Then go to 'Game Settings' and tick Off on Play Fullscreen. Join a game, QL will start in Windowed mode, which you can turn to fullscreen with a simple Alt+Enter.
Quake Live will remember your last session's setting, so be sure to Alt+Enter when the match ends. If you forget to do this, you can just go back to Game Settings on the main page and turn off your fullscreen before joining another room.
EDIT: Also, if you want a more convenient console-open key, just type in
com_allowconsole 1
Next time you want to open the console, simply press the `(tilde) key instead of having to press Ctrl and Alt.
EDIT 2: Sometimes you will join a QL game to find all your settings have been set back to default. This could ruin your aiming because your mouse sensitivity is subject to changing as well. What you want to do is join a game and open up your Menu by pressing the Esc key. Go to your advanced settings and change everything you want to change. Then close your menu and open up the console. Type in:
writeconfig autoexec
This will create a .cfg file in your Quake Live Appdata folder that saves all the settings. When QL starts, the plugin will search for any file named autoexec.cfg in your Appdata folder and change all the settings during the loading screen.
You can also create general manually-loaded configurations by typing in:
writeconfig <name of the file here>
So for example, I have a couple of .cfg's I use depending on if I'm off with my aim. I just name them whatever I want, like:
Because of how dead the Quake scene is, you have two dramatically different tiers of players: godly and awful. Odds are your inexperience in Duel is going to cause you to get paired up with people (the few that are actually still playing Duel) that have been playing it forever simply because there are a limited number of people still playing Quake Live to balance out the skill gaps. I don't know how long you've been playing DM style FPS games, but if you don't have strafe-jumping or the timings of the spawns down, you're dead. Also, keep in mind you're trying to compete in a game that has over 10 years of history so the players still sitting in servers are likely to be hardcore.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 isn't a good example of a solid FPS game. As you've said, Killstreaks were basically Infinity Ward's way of saying that anyone can play the game and get frags. The game itself seems to reward camping, stupid tactics, and guarantees that either the best will be dramatically better than everyone else, or that a terrible player can end up ruining the entire game experience for everyone out of sheer luck. Keep in mind, and please don't think I'm speaking arrogantly here, that my commentary is coming from an individual that top frags in most FPS games and played competitive CS for like 8 years.
Something worthy of note is that there are actually very few good FPS games out right now. Counter-Strike is there, but the scene is dead. Odds are it will frustrate you immensely if you try competing on ESEA or in a league. BF3 isn't bad, but the gun recoil is drastic and the likelihood of you getting randomly hit from a mile away is very high. If you don't have much experience with controlling recoil in FPS games, BF3 will probably make you suicidal.
I'd suggest you check out games like TF2 which are usually instant respawn or DM style. They have elements of a lot of other games like Quake and even Counter-Strike, but are enjoyable enough not to get angry at losing in public servers. You'll also find some really high end players in the game that still compete in some leagues, but more than anything, it will help train you for faster paced games and will better your mechanics.
TLDR: Play games which have more vibrant scenes. Test out TF2 to get used to a faster-paced gameplay all the while bettering your mechanics. A lot of games out right now (some of those you listed) require you to either have extensive experience playing the game (i.e. Quake/CS) or take questionable risks in your style of play (i.e. peaking corners unnecessarily, ignoring cover, etc.).
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
Yeah, I don't see how Black Ops OR Modern Warfare 3 seem to have an e-sports scene when the game is pretty...um..."simple"?
Run around, when you see someone press L1 and R1, auto-aim, probably kill. If not, you die. The game really seems to favor the kids and youngings that enjoy screaming in the mic, yelling about perverse topics that they don't understand. I enjoy trollling them at my friend's house, when I have that rare chance to play.
And the teens that play it- no problem with respectful players just having a good time- but when you start talking sht about parents and stuff, calm down. It's a freakin game. I wouldn't recommend this game for anyone, seems MOST (not all) of the players there (with a mic at least) is not ESRB's recommend rating- "Mature" (lol)
I played Combat Arms and it's Nexon-owned (I was part of the Maplestory Private Server development section and I've seen enough of this in 3 years) -> which means (A) unscheduled patches (B) delayed patches (C) if you don't hack in the game, you're behind (D) every game, there is at least ONE hacker. No joke. Combat Arms, Maplestory...(E) Support tickets are slow (my friend's been sending a ticket every month for 2 years and every time they reply their 'servers are busy') and (F) money hungry, but every company's like that. Basically my experience in Combat Arms was "wait why am I dying to a knife? randomly too, and why is everyone dying to a knife in 3 seconds spawn too?". Needless to say, I stopped FPS gaming lol (after I hacked on Combat Arms once or twice ^.^)
My friend told me to play TF2, so I tried it, I don't really enjoy the cartoony graphics, but I can understand why some people like it. It's really...quite a change in graphics, gameplay wise...heh.
After experimenting with FPS games...now I play Starcraft and Skyrim <3
Note: Somewhat of a rant on Call of Duty series; I understand that there are pro players and they do practice and get really good at the game, but I feel like the game is either pro or average with everyone else. And you're usually playing with the average people, which makes it seem like the game is "easy".
Edit:
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
Not rewards, but help that person gain a handicap so it won't completely ruin the gameplay experience for him. Do you think in Mario Kart, the person in last place, after getting back to first, will get even more ahead? No, he becomes the target for blue shells, red shells...and he can only have bananas.
Basically, in Call of Duty, instead of helping "bad" players by helping them get back on their feet, they just let 1st place get higher and higher. In which, the bad players quit the game because they can't enjoy it anymore.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
If a game doesn't have a comeback mechanic the game should literally end when one player gets an advantage, rather than making the other players suffer through an insurmountable and increasingly large advantage. killstreak is the opposite of that
Sooo... you are saying that these games are bad because you need to be good to enjoy them? Your first sentences sound as if it is random who is good or not, which is certainly is not. There is a pretty high correlation between time spent on the game and kdr. I for example am really good at most shooters but suck at Starcraft (plat/diamond), but I can still much appreciate the game and the players.
I think the main problem is that you are not playing against players on your skill level, not necessarily the game mechanics themselves - even though you obviously feel some discontent, seeing how much worse you are than pro players. This however only shines through as you get some deeper understanding (cs) of the game or when the moves are pretty flashy (quake, more than others). You should also think about why you play games in general? To win? There are countless threads about it.
UT3 and to some extent QL: the playerbase is relatively small and accordingly it is much harder to find people at your skill level. Unless you want to spend some serious time on them, you shouldn't even start those games now (imho). While I think the recent CoD's aren't great games to be played competitively and have problems beyond gamedesign, there are still pretty decent for beginners. I think your criticism totally hits the wrong points about the games. You want bad players to be rewarded and good ones to be punished? Deathstreaks for example are not ment to really help you win the game, just make you fell suck less and help you psychologically. Oh well..
Also there are about a million video and text guides on most shooters just google "modern warfare guide multiplayer". You shouldn't care too much about equipment and stuff rather about where to throw grenades, how to aim and shoot (don't fire your whole clip at once), where to stand&go and most importantly understanding your mistakes. Of course you can also improve without trying, just by grinding hours. Get a friend and that should be more fun.
@ guy above me: personally i feel tf2 is a terrible game to be playing as it has no potential to ever be an esport (broken medics in actual team games), but that's just me
Overall you just shouldn't do stuff in your free time that you don't enjoy.
e: try playing shooters on a PC instead of consoles
I played Combat Arms and it's Nexon-owned (I was part of the Maplestory Private Server development section and I've seen enough of this in 3 years) -> which means (A) unscheduled patches (B) delayed patches (C) if you don't hack in the game, you're behind (D) every game, there is at least ONE hacker. No joke. Combat Arms, Maplestory...(E) Support tickets are slow (my friend's been sending a ticket every month for 2 years and every time they reply their 'servers are busy') and (F) money hungry, but every company's like that. Basically my experience in Combat Arms was "wait why am I dying to a knife? randomly too, and why is everyone dying to a knife in 3 seconds spawn too?". Needless to say, I stopped FPS gaming lol (after I hacked on Combat Arms once or twice ^.^)
Why would you play these games? Also, you call other players kids and hack yourself :D I shouldn't be posting here...
On January 06 2012 14:23 Yamulo wrote: I don't actually play cod anymore, and I have never watched it, but I know for a fact that MLG black opps does not have kill streaks.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
If a game doesn't have a comeback mechanic the game should literally end when one player gets an advantage, rather than making the other players suffer through an insurmountable and increasingly large advantage. killstreak is the opposite of that
Well the killstreaks can work as a comeback mechanic. But rewarding a player for dieing seems pretty silly. I also think the killstreaks should be reworked (they should reward the player with more experience/score imo), but no game should have something like a "comeback" mechanic.
As far as the OP, I think you are just not good at fps games. CoD is probably the easiest fps game to pick up and play. And have the ability to aim is like having good macro in SC.
On January 06 2012 13:33 amazingxkcd wrote: What about c.s 1.6? Its a good fps, if not the best
Do not get me started on counter-strike.... I mainly played Source and I was a fucking joke at that too. I have even had moments where I'd walk from my spawn point having bought everything I needed and BAM. Headshot with a fucking AWP through several walls halfway across the map.
The worst part is you cannot find any sort of guides or tutorials on how to get better at CS. I tried the idea of trial and error and 99.925% of the time any assault I'd make regardless of if I'd use a Flashbang or not would fail.
When you say this I can immediately say it's not Counter Strike Source, wallbanging is not even viable through walls like it was in 1.6. If you're speaking about being sniped through the double doors from T spawn down mid that's a totally different thing. While I agree there lacked tutorials and guides there wasn't really anything that could replace actual practice time.
And calling CS a joke when you have mainly played Source is a joke because that game shouldn't even be called CS.
Also, you call other players kids and hack yourself :D
Yeah man I had to hack because I naturally SUCK at FPS games, I forgot to add that in, lmao. If you've watched me play Combat Arms, you'd see me jump out of my seat every time I get a kill.
Hacking is the only thing that would give me a chance :D And I'm 15, still a kid (kind of)
TF2 is the only FPS I like because many characters can be played with reasonably low skill. Pretty much every weapon in the game except for a few exceptions is close range, meaning anyone with an eye will get some kills and contribute.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
If a game doesn't have a comeback mechanic the game should literally end when one player gets an advantage, rather than making the other players suffer through an insurmountable and increasingly large advantage. killstreak is the opposite of that
im not a cod fan - the opposite if anything - but you dont get the killstreak or a major advantage untill you get a couple of kills, or only minor advantages. the game isn't as black and white as you think, and it'd be absolutely stupid if it was. you can easily trap or use some sort of twitch tactic to be more effective better then the opponent for a kill - hell, thats all cods about really, you do that untill you have a killstreak. killstreaks dont make you do more damage, they give you external advantages i believe, and it isn't really connected to the map control aspect
in quake if you die you'll lose map control. there is a huge amount to do with map control as well as accuracy in this game. if you have map control you can pick up the items before the opponent, and be in an awesome position, for example, grenades on ztn. the opponent generally aims to set up a trap, and tries to take an advantage off that in a fight, to try even out the item advantage, and then can contest for map control.
games shouldnt be forgiving to be competitive. i loathe cod, but i must disagree with you regarding the cod statements.
edited cod bit for clarity. it was still readible, dont be snide.
I'm playing RAGE and Space Marine right now and I'm finding that I really enjoy them. I also really liked Crysis 2 as it just felt really smooth and having a range of powers to activate via the Nanosuit was pretty fun as well. While I've drifted away from shooters more recently I'm starting to give them so more play time.
Seems to me like you might just need to sample a wider range of the games the genre produces. Because FPS's produce SO many games it can be hard to sift through the ones that you like.
Question: what about the Half-life series? Perhaps the greatest FPS series of all time. Fucking amazing story, innovative weapons, etc. Also, did you play anything from when the genre of FPS what first emerging? Like Goldeneye? Surely among those games there is one you like.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
If a game doesn't have a comeback mechanic the game should literally end when one player gets an advantage, rather than making the other players suffer through an insurmountable and increasingly large advantage. killstreak is the opposite of that
im not a cod fan - the opposite if anything - but you dont get the killstreak or a major advantage untill you get a couple, or only minor advantages. the game isn't as black and white as you think, and it'd be absolutely stupid if it was. you can easily trap or just twitch better then the opponent for a kill - hell, thats all cods about really, you do that untill you have a killstreak. killstreaks dont make you do more damage, they give you external advantages i believe.
in quake if you die you'll lose map control. there is a huge amount to do with map control as well as accuracy in this game. if you have map control you can pick up the items before the opponent, and be in an awesome position, for example, grenades on ztn. the opponent generally aims to set up a trap, and tries to take an advantage off that in a fight, to try even out the item advantage, and then can contest for map control.
games shouldnt be forgiving to be competitive. i loathe cod, but i must disagree with you regarding the cod statements.
I've played plenty of quake and I like it but I don't consider the crushing disadvantage losing map control gives you to be good design. It's at odds with the fact that you play 10/15 minutes no matter what. You can spend a long time playing out a game that simply isn't going to turn around.
Your explanation of killstreaks is rather incoherent so I don't understand what you're trying to say there.
This is more about you sucking and less about the games... why take it out on the games? You talk about how people don't need skill to be good at the games to do good, but if that's the case, then why do YOU suck so badly at these games?
Basically you're completely unqualified to make the complaints you're making. Quit being such a scrub.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
If a game doesn't have a comeback mechanic the game should literally end when one player gets an advantage, rather than making the other players suffer through an insurmountable and increasingly large advantage. killstreak is the opposite of that
That would make games of StarCraft pretty goddamn short.
That being said, purposefully including a slippery slope mechanism into your game is absolutely fucking stupid, and should be avoided if all possible. (Obviously, not possible in StarCraft, absolutely possible in CoD.) In the same line of thought, comeback mechanics are equally dumb and should be avoided.
On January 06 2012 13:51 EG.lectR wrote: You're playing bad or dead FPS games.
Because of how dead the Quake scene is, you have two dramatically different tiers of players: godly and awful. Odds are your inexperience in Duel is going to cause you to get paired up with people (the few that are actually still playing Duel) that have been playing it forever simply because there are a limited number of people still playing Quake Live to balance out the skill gaps. I don't know how long you've been playing DM style FPS games, but if you don't have strafe-jumping or the timings of the spawns down, you're dead. Also, keep in mind you're trying to compete in a game that has over 10 years of history so the players still sitting in servers are likely to be hardcore.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 isn't a good example of a solid FPS game. As you've said, Killstreaks were basically Infinity Ward's way of saying that anyone can play the game and get frags. The game itself seems to reward camping, stupid tactics, and guarantees that either the best will be dramatically better than everyone else, or that a terrible player can end up ruining the entire game experience for everyone out of sheer luck. Keep in mind, and please don't think I'm speaking arrogantly here, that my commentary is coming from an individual that top frags in most FPS games and played competitive CS for like 8 years.
Something worthy of note is that there are actually very few good FPS games out right now. Counter-Strike is there, but the scene is dead. Odds are it will frustrate you immensely if you try competing on ESEA or in a league. BF3 isn't bad, but the gun recoil is drastic and the likelihood of you getting randomly hit from a mile away is very high. If you don't have much experience with controlling recoil in FPS games, BF3 will probably make you suicidal.
I'd suggest you check out games like TF2 which are usually instant respawn or DM style. They have elements of a lot of other games like Quake and even Counter-Strike, but are enjoyable enough not to get angry at losing in public servers. You'll also find some really high end players in the game that still compete in some leagues, but more than anything, it will help train you for faster paced games and will better your mechanics.
TLDR: Play games which have more vibrant scenes. Test out TF2 to get used to a faster-paced gameplay all the while bettering your mechanics. A lot of games out right now (some of those you listed) require you to either have extensive experience playing the game (i.e. Quake/CS) or take questionable risks in your style of play (i.e. peaking corners unnecessarily, ignoring cover, etc.).
Hope that helps!
Basically this.
Quake and CS are undoubtedly the two best FPS games in history, but they're so old now that the only people you'd be playing against are 10 year vets, as was pointed out. It's hard to find the fun in a game where that's the case.
COD is basically a joke. UT is bad too.
I'd suggest BF3, although I've played competitive CS for many years so your experience might be different than mine. The recoil might need some getting used to depending on the gun, but the game is deep enough that I'm pretty confident that if you dislike that aspect, you'll find something else that you'll enjoy. Also, the scene is brand new, so there won't be nerds running around clearing servers.
The funny thing is, playing CoD you may go 3/25 or 6/19, but try playing a game like Halo, you'll do even worse. The games you list are pretty bad/casual, and to be honest it sounds like FPS's just aren't your thing. My understanding is that you play all these games on PC, meaning you are using your keyboard to move and a mouse to shoot.
Have you played CoD on Xbox or PS3? Are you any better? Or do you do you already play on Console and you just suck at both? It sounds like your hand-eye coordination and reaction times are the problem, not the games you are playing. It's okay, you aren't the only one who sucks at FPS games, there are millions like you. At least you're not alone??
I feel as if the FPS genre is really breathing its last for a few years. As many have said, there's this dichotomy of player types in the community right now. You got the run of the mill CoD players, and the vet CoD/Quake/Tribes/etc. players fucking everything up. There's no middleground right now, and there's not enough of a following to warrant those vets having a legitimate pro scene.
Call of Duty is not a particularly hard game to get into. Its the only FPS i have played extensively other than War Rock (which is probably dead now), in MW2 I was in the top 10,000 of the world leaderboard in score and kills before hacks were introduced.
MW2 was the first FPS I REALLY played, and I picked it up very easily. Enter a Teamdeathmatch, learn spawn points, 2.00 k/d.
I stopped playing Call of Duty because it didn't keep me entertained like Warcraft 3 (i only played 3v3 though ^^)
Seems like you're not putting enough time and effort into these games; I think you've played under 6 hours of each from your original post. I'd say it takes about 24 hours of game play to start to even catch on and this number is increases the older you are. Just steer clear of FPS because it sounds like you have a mental block preventing from dedicating yourself, a negative attitude from the get go, or you think you're supposed to be naturaly good at them. If you insisnt on playing one though I'd recomend Halo Reach for casual play because any game on XBOX LIVE is not suitable for competitive play or BF3 if you play on the smaller maps (ex: operation metro) only it's like the MW series with out kill streaks and with some teamwork.
Sounds like you're a casual gamer playing hardcore games. If you want to get good of course you need to put in the time. Quake and CS is filled with oldschool veterans that play it all day everyday.
Either play some CS zombie/gun game or some TF2 like people recommended. Even playing single player Halo, Portal and HL2 is pretty fun.
On January 06 2012 13:33 amazingxkcd wrote: What about c.s 1.6? Its a good fps, if not the best
Do not get me started on counter-strike.... I mainly played Source and I was a fucking joke at that too. I have even had moments where I'd walk from my spawn point having bought everything I needed and BAM. Headshot with a fucking AWP through several walls halfway across the map.
The worst part is you cannot find any sort of guides or tutorials on how to get better at CS. I tried the idea of trial and error and 99.925% of the time any assault I'd make regardless of if I'd use a Flashbang or not would fail.
And calling CS a joke when you have mainly played Source is a joke because that game shouldn't even be called CS.
With QL you basically chose the BW of the FPS scene. It sounds like you need to find and play the SC2-FPS instead, so that you can feel good about your play without any significant effort put in.
That is not to say that one game is easier than the other (how can you even compare the difficulty of two multiplayer games?). It's just that with BW/QL it takes time before your game even distantly resembles the game of a professional player.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
If a game doesn't have a comeback mechanic the game should literally end when one player gets an advantage, rather than making the other players suffer through an insurmountable and increasingly large advantage. killstreak is the opposite of that
A comeback mechanic is one thing; punishing players who play well and rewarding players who play like shit is an entirely different concept. Going by the OP's logic, whenever anyone goes on a killing streak in dota they should lose gold? Whenever I kill one of your expansions in SC I should lose one myself?
Uhh.. so you hate FPSs cuz you suck at them and you had to make a blog about it? LOL Anyways, get TF2 and play on Valve servers, the skill level there is so horrifyingly low that even you could probably have some fun. Oh and play Pyro, that class doesn't really take any skill so you should like it.
All I have to say is: play Halo. Rechargeable shields = more time alive, less time dead, you're rewarded more for being bold and trying to get map control (you get shot and you can back off, recharge, and try again), and it takes more skill to outgun the other player - even if they get the first shot on you, you can still come back and win it (it's rarely a one-shot-death). For these reasons, I've always been a fan of Halo, whereas other FPS games generally drive me crazy because it's a "oops! Someone snuck up on you. Auto-death FTW!!!" kind of situation. While I'm aware that these issues should disappear in the competitive scenes of CS and CoD due to good team map control/awareness, that's something you can't depend on when you just pick up those games to play them for fun. Plus, it makes for a more dynamic competitive experience, and is much more thrilling and entertaining to watch as an average spectator. You might just be like me, try Halo - or just don't play FPS very much.
You seem to have a problem of gaming mentality to be honest, do you hate everything you are bad at?
You have listed a few games there and pointed out reasons why you hate them but they are all down to you not being good at them, all FPS games require a largely similar skill-set. This skill-set can take some players longer to achieve than others and hence you have players of varying skill level. If you are a low skilled player in any game of a genre then chances are you wont be a god in other titles in said genre... Searching for games that you will be good at is a very lazy quick fix to the fundamental problem that you are bad and you need to learn how to play FPS games, sadly even your quick fix has failed to return successful results. My suggestion to you therefore is this, stop buying new titles thinking that they will be in tune with you and thus you will be awesome, hunker down with a single title, 1.6 if you want to actually get good, source bf3 or Quake if you want to be 'ok' and put in the hours learn the tools and then get better.
However you could just be really bad at FPS games due to things like, various medical conditions e.g. problems with eyes. Or just by having really bad hand eye coordination. If that's the case well stick with Modern Warfare.
Coming from someone with years in the 1.6 pro-scene and years in the CS:S scene. To all the people hating on CS:S, its a different game sure 1.6 is better but don't hate on C:SS considering you were prolly trash at both of them...
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
If a game doesn't have a comeback mechanic the game should literally end when one player gets an advantage, rather than making the other players suffer through an insurmountable and increasingly large advantage. killstreak is the opposite of that
im not a cod fan - the opposite if anything - but you dont get the killstreak or a major advantage untill you get a couple, or only minor advantages. the game isn't as black and white as you think, and it'd be absolutely stupid if it was. you can easily trap or just twitch better then the opponent for a kill - hell, thats all cods about really, you do that untill you have a killstreak. killstreaks dont make you do more damage, they give you external advantages i believe.
in quake if you die you'll lose map control. there is a huge amount to do with map control as well as accuracy in this game. if you have map control you can pick up the items before the opponent, and be in an awesome position, for example, grenades on ztn. the opponent generally aims to set up a trap, and tries to take an advantage off that in a fight, to try even out the item advantage, and then can contest for map control.
games shouldnt be forgiving to be competitive. i loathe cod, but i must disagree with you regarding the cod statements.
I've played plenty of quake and I like it but I don't consider the crushing disadvantage losing map control gives you to be good design. It's at odds with the fact that you play 10/15 minutes no matter what. You can spend a long time playing out a game that simply isn't going to turn around.
Your explanation of killstreaks is rather incoherent so I don't understand what you're trying to say there.
edited the killstreak part, it was already comprehensible but lazily written. if you cant understand it now you probably dont understand the basic concept im trying to get across.
also, try play a duel on ztn, i see its your most played arena/game type. you have map control on the map, you're at a commanding lead, but traps such as hiding behind RA and etc can easily pull you back into the game, ive made plenty of comebacks on that map.
I don't hate FPS. I'm just not very good at them, like OP. Also I don't find them very interesting, to me they reward mouse precision and reaction speed too much. I also find them to have a lack of depth.
What do I mean by lack of depth? Well, an RTS like sc2 is an impossible problem to solve optimally. We can't create an AI which even nearly competes with pro players on an even footing. With FPS games, competitive AI's are easy - aimbot for example. It doesn't require much calculation to get very good results in an FPS.
Friends OP, FPS is all about playing with friends. Get a few friends together, crack open a beer and roll into some random pub server, its pretty much impossible to not have fun. Having people to play with who already know a game will make you get better at it many times faster than just hopping in and hoping you figure it out. Also you game choices are pretty poor. QL and UT are pretty dead so youll wait ages for games and then get raped, and COD is COD. CS1.6 is the same way, youll just get fucked, so if you want to play go for CSS. Youll find your problems with it are about 30% aim and 60% game sense if you dont know the game at all. Find a mate whos played it a lot and they can show you the ropes, get you pushing a 1.0 kdr in no time at all. If you dont fancy that, BF3 is an option but i dont know much about it as im still using windows XP. Id recommend TF2, its free to play and the average pub player is god awful, you should have no trouble finishing decently at the end of a map even if you dont know which end of your gun is the dangerous one. If you dont have any friends that play FPS to join but fancy giving it a try and learning some games then feel free to PM me for my steam info, i play with a dencent group of uk/swedes, nothing too keen just pubbing usually with skype banter. We normally play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (like i said i cant play BF3) and TF2, but we also play CSS, DOD:S, L4D1/2 and random indie games (eg. Magicka) for varieties sake.
I can't win at quake so it is a terrible game. HA !
Listen, when you start a game you will always get destroyed first. Some people are faster learner but don't expect to pub stomp within one week if you don't have a long experience with the game or the genre as a whole.
The funny thing for me is that i think i enjoyed even more bw and Sc2 when i was completly noob, when the game was new for me. Same for FPS i got absolutly destroyed in Quake FFA ( the easiest lol ) or Urban Terror TDM/survivor but i kept playing, now i'm still not good but i know the maps and my K/D isn't as bad. If i'm terrible at one game i'm even more motivated to play lol.
On January 06 2012 19:58 jrkirby wrote: I don't hate FPS. I'm just not very good at them, like OP. Also I don't find them very interesting, to me they reward mouse precision and reaction speed too much. I also find them to have a lack of depth.
What do I mean by lack of depth? Well, an RTS like sc2 is an impossible problem to solve optimally. We can't create an AI which even nearly competes with pro players on an even footing. With FPS games, competitive AI's are easy - aimbot for example. It doesn't require much calculation to get very good results in an FPS.
I can't agree with this. After playing 8 years of CS, I never found aim that important. I had a shitty mouse, no mousepad, even the fps was below 60 and I would never play aim maps because I sucked at them. I would outplay my opponents by gamesense, perfect map knowledge and team awarness. I would always have an idea on where each member of my team is and if they died or reported an enemy I would keep that in mind and calculate how long it could take them to reach my position by each of the possible routes. Then after a couple of rounds I would start having a feel for where each player could go/hide/position themselves based on their behaviour in previous rounds. With all this in mind I could think of the best way of coming back at the enemy, possibly avoiding being seen and needing to see them to kill them. You could often beat a team with a few cheaters in it - aimbotters and wallhackers included. Killing 10 bots with aimbot that would kill you 100% of the time they see you is the easiest thing in the world if you're any experienced.
On January 06 2012 18:24 andycz wrote: Uhh.. so you hate FPSs cuz you suck at them and you had to make a blog about it? LOL Anyways, get TF2 and play on Valve servers, the skill level there is so horrifyingly low that even you could probably have some fun. Oh and play Pyro, that class doesn't really take any skill so you should like it.
Sorry what now? Pyro is one of the most skill requiring classes(1. Sniper, 2. Demoman, 3. Pyro, 4. Scout, 5. Medic) in the game and there is no way you can be effective with just W+M1(Move forward with Flamethrower shooting flames all the time basically). Airblasting correct players at correct times and angles, aiming Airblasts to hit their rockets back at them instead of just pushing them at random places, Airblast rocket jumping, Flaregun which is one of the hardest weapons to aim with etc.
Anyway, if you don't like FPS games, you don't like FPS games. You don't need to force yourself to play games you don't like. Based on what I have read(the blog and the comments), TF2 is basically the best FPS game for you IMO. Even though the previous paragraph might have scared some people, it's fun when there are a lot of actually bad players in that game to play with and improve that way.
I honestly don't understand. You think the games don't take much skill, yet even that low skill requirement, you don't have? WTF? Can someone explain, theres no way this post is as stupid as what I think it is.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
No offense, killstreaks are absolutely retarded for a competive game. It creates this snowball effect. But modern warfare is fucking stupid anyway. There is a reason there are no killstreaks in competitive CoD. Man, competitive cod, cracks me up every time.
This is the problem with new generation of gamers, no one is willing to put the effort into getting good anymore. It's sad being a quake player and reading stuff like this :\
I like to play BF3 just casually. Sometimes I'll just feel like messing around/shooting some peeps/blowing shit up for 20 minutes before going to bed or something like that. I'd say my skill-level at FPS is decent. I can usually get a 2:1 KDR in almost any FPS online for the PC. Some games even far better than that.
Now there's still times where I jump on BF3 and just go like 6-25 in a round and want to punch a hole in my LCD screen. Like there's situations where I'll round a corner and me and some guy on the other team will line up at the exact same time and before I even finish zooming in he's already head-shoted me 3 times.
I know all FPS games have hackers/aim bots and I've played some were consistently kids say they don't hack, then a year later when mass bans come out they get permed. To be honest I'm 24 now, and I just don't care. No body is going to care about my KDR or some FPS game's stats in a year, month, week, day, or even a few hours later after playing it. If some kids need to cheat to feel good about themselves its not a big deal I just still have fun with it. Even if they aren't cheating it's almost not impressive that they're that good at BF3 or FPS's in general.
BF3 is the best FPS I've ever played. There's decent support of the game too, and balance changes happen pretty fast. Or at least faster than blizz.
--
as for Unreal Tournament 3. I have to be honest with you, I really think I bought that game back in like 2008. Played it for a month, thought it was 'eh' and just threw it under my desk. Can you still even connect online with that thing? UT was awesome in 2003-04 or whatever year it was so popular.
IF you don't like MW3 then you probably won't like bf3. It will take you a long time to get used to it. I just figured out how to fly a JET and its even harder trying to shoot down people.
On January 07 2012 00:43 Nebula wrote: This is the problem with new generation of gamers, no one is willing to put the effort into getting good anymore. It's sad being a quake player and reading stuff like this :\
The good part is that if you decide to play a game that is demanding, you don't get to work with 12 year old kids all the time.
On January 06 2012 13:29 Clbull wrote: I have tried my hand at a variety of games on PC including mainly first person shooters, RTS games and MOBAs (a.k.a. DotA clones.) Here are a few FPS games I want to talk about in this post. I can give a long list of stuff that I hate about each game, most of which revolves around sucking at it.
My issue with FPS is the lack of skill and game/map sense required to even be remotely good at them. I lack the game sense, skill at aiming, map sense and whatnot to succeed in any FPS. This is going to be more of a rant about why I hate certain FPS games than anything. If you are going to reply with insults towards my skill level, fucking bury your hatchet as I'm already aware of this.
Then start practising your aim and get better at the core mechanics of these games or stop playing them and find a genre you can enjoy. I'm not sure why you are ranting on a public forum where you know good and well people are going to argue with you.
Quake Live:
Watch any competitive Quake Live game and you will witness two players strafe jumping masterfully like fucking madmen at 140mph.whilst utilising their expert game-sense, map control and aimbot-like twitch shooting. While I have great respect for professional QL players like Rapha, I try to enter a Duel (after much trial and error using Quake Live's godawful duel finding interface that will often put me in a game with 2 other people and me having to wait 15 mins for my turn), and every result is the same no matter how many hours I play a day of the game. Gang raped 0 - 22 or 1 - 22. I can rarely get a frag in before BAM, blown my fucking brains out with two aimbot-precise rails to the temple.
Also with Quake Live, I have to deal with the lame interface, bad optimization (since they put ads on the site and added a premium service, I've had to sit through TWO loading screens just to go Fullscreen every time I want to join a game.
If you are mad that you are bad at Quake, then get better. The interface aside, you have to actually put effort into that game to be good at it. You need to know the maps, you need to time pickups, and you need to be able to aim. In fact, if you can aim, the next game you talk about is so ridiculously easy because it takes minimal aim to even kill someone.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
I got this game as a christmas present. After about 5 hours of playing the multiplayer, I feel completely and utterly demoralised. To sum up each multiplayer experience for me:
My k:d ratio is about 1:3 - 7. For every one kill I do get, I will often die 3 - 7 times just to get it.
I find deathstreaks to be completely and utterly worthless at my current stage in the game.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
The game is an absolute joke. You encounter a guy, draw out your SMG, unload a full clip of ammunition into his face and have to reload as a result. What does he do. Moves a little closer and BANG. INSTAGIB WITH A SHOTGUN STRAIGHT TO YOUR FACE.
Tell me, am I doing something horrifically wrong here?
Yes, you aren't playing Barebones, where those are removed.
If you hate it so much stop playing game modes with it. The CoD competitive scene does not use Killstreaks, and while I can't speak for the console scene, the PC scene rarely uses Perks, except for in Hardcore.
Some things that make you better at CoD:
1) Aiming (obviously). Lead your enemy, don't point right at them (unless they are still or moving towards/away from you).
2) Shoot, then think. Honestly, unless friendly fire is on or you don't want to give away position, shoot.
3) Look at the map a lot.
4) Learn the maps (applies to every game ever).
5) If you are surrounded by allies, likely your enemy is not there. By extension, do not look in the same area as your teammates.
6) Don't go through open areas unless you HAVE TO and hug the edges of the map. That is the safest way to play, although you will not get a lot of kills you will die less and have more oppurtunity in the end.
As for killstreaks, hide from them. Look at where the chopper is and hug a wall so that it can't look at you or go inside. Have a class for taking them out if it bothers you so much. With things like Predators, well, you either get inside or you don't and you may be the target or not. Best advice is, try not to run towards your teammates. Some things you just have to see and react to immediately and it takes time to get used to it.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
If a game doesn't have a comeback mechanic the game should literally end when one player gets an advantage, rather than making the other players suffer through an insurmountable and increasingly large advantage. killstreak is the opposite of that
im not a cod fan - the opposite if anything - but you dont get the killstreak or a major advantage untill you get a couple, or only minor advantages. the game isn't as black and white as you think, and it'd be absolutely stupid if it was. you can easily trap or just twitch better then the opponent for a kill - hell, thats all cods about really, you do that untill you have a killstreak. killstreaks dont make you do more damage, they give you external advantages i believe.
in quake if you die you'll lose map control. there is a huge amount to do with map control as well as accuracy in this game. if you have map control you can pick up the items before the opponent, and be in an awesome position, for example, grenades on ztn. the opponent generally aims to set up a trap, and tries to take an advantage off that in a fight, to try even out the item advantage, and then can contest for map control.
games shouldnt be forgiving to be competitive. i loathe cod, but i must disagree with you regarding the cod statements.
I've played plenty of quake and I like it but I don't consider the crushing disadvantage losing map control gives you to be good design. It's at odds with the fact that you play 10/15 minutes no matter what. You can spend a long time playing out a game that simply isn't going to turn around.
Your explanation of killstreaks is rather incoherent so I don't understand what you're trying to say there.
edited the killstreak part, it was already comprehensible but lazily written. if you cant understand it now you probably dont understand the basic concept im trying to get across.
No, you really just are not putting any effort into conveying your point of view. I don't see the relationship between cod and quake at all in this example, except that both have a snowballing mechanic which is questionably beneficial when the game is time limited rather than kill limited. Quake's is more severe, what is your point...?
also, try play a duel on ztn, i see its your most played arena/game type. you have map control on the map, you're at a commanding lead, but traps such as hiding behind RA and etc can easily pull you back into the game, ive made plenty of comebacks on that map.
On January 06 2012 19:58 jrkirby wrote: I don't hate FPS. I'm just not very good at them, like OP. Also I don't find them very interesting, to me they reward mouse precision and reaction speed too much. I also find them to have a lack of depth.
What do I mean by lack of depth? Well, an RTS like sc2 is an impossible problem to solve optimally. We can't create an AI which even nearly competes with pro players on an even footing. With FPS games, competitive AI's are easy - aimbot for example. It doesn't require much calculation to get very good results in an FPS.
I can't agree with this. After playing 8 years of CS, I never found aim that important. I had a shitty mouse, no mousepad, even the fps was below 60 and I would never play aim maps because I sucked at them. I would outplay my opponents by gamesense, perfect map knowledge and team awarness. I would always have an idea on where each member of my team is and if they died or reported an enemy I would keep that in mind and calculate how long it could take them to reach my position by each of the possible routes. Then after a couple of rounds I would start having a feel for where each player could go/hide/position themselves based on their behaviour in previous rounds. With all this in mind I could think of the best way of coming back at the enemy, possibly avoiding being seen and needing to see them to kill them. You could often beat a team with a few cheaters in it - aimbotters and wallhackers included. Killing 10 bots with aimbot that would kill you 100% of the time they see you is the easiest thing in the world if you're any experienced.
You could be right. That was just my thoughts based off the limited experience I have with FPS. I just don't think they are fun, so I never bothered to learn this intricacies, perhaps they are deeper games than I thought.
I haven't read the replies but you realize in competitive play the killstreaks and perks typically are turned off. Honestly it's the same as any game. It's easy to learn, but hard to master.
My issue with FPS is the lack of skill and game/map sense required to even be remotely good at them.
I think you mean the *amount* rather than *lack* of skill, etc. because otherwise it seems like you're saying anybody can be good at fps without trying which is just silly.
Actually this post comes at a perfect time because lately I've been playing UT2k4 with a bunch of friends. I'm in the ideal environment to improve/learn: 1 guy, A, about my skill level another guy, B, who can 20-0 me and a third guy, C who can 20-0 B
It's perfect. The game is so much deeper than I originally thought, I've really grown to respect it. Note, I have like no aim at all, but I feel it's not as important in ut2k4 (compared to say cs), due to map/weapon/buff control, as well as positioning and effective movement playing a huge role. I guess it's fairly similar to quake in a lot of ways, although the movement is less complex (no strafe jumping, just dodge-jumps and wall dodges and stuff, which are still impossible to master for me lol)
It seems like the OP has a strange attitude towards competitive gaming.. why do you get upset when you lose? Over the past month I've played B a ton, which started off as 20-0 rapes, all day erry day. Maybe 20-1 if I got lucky with a flak or bio shot early on. And I kept playing and kept getting owned. One of the very first days we played like 6 hours and I've lost every single game and got 6 kills over 6 hours. I counted =(
But by now my game has improved so much, it's crazy. Simple results speak for themselves: my last game against B was losing with a score of only 6-8. It's not just time spent playing, leading to aim getting better (in fact I don't think my aim improved at all), but I'm actually thinking about why I'm dying, how to best take advantage of my current situation, etc. My gameplan advanced so much from my initial "get lg, stay long-range and snipe the hell out of him while timing 100, and grab a flak for short-range spam".
So much depth in this game, and I'm only scratching the surface, like only recently I memorized all the pickup sounds of weapons/ammo and immediately vastly reduced my dying/walking into shock combos because my map awareness skyrocketed as a result. Not only am I timing the 100 but the 50 and the weapons (as best I can, still ton of improvement left in the timing area), focusing on weapon deny, abusing the maps much more, and only now am I starting to use all the weapons (like link/minigun etc) as opposed long range:lg, short range:flak strategy.
man ut2k4 is so much fun, and I've never won a game against B yet
I'm kind of confused. You provide an intro saying you don't like how FPS don't need any skill or mapsense to be good at them, and then you go on a rant about how you are not good at them. It is seeming like you are just calling everyone else bad too.
You hate most FPS games because "of the lack of skill and game/map sense needed to be remotely good at them" yet in all three examples you're getting absolutely destroyed. You've failed to give a reason why you think the games take no skill, instead you give examples of people being miles ahead of you in terms of skill. All you've done is prove that your bolded point is false.
I have a decent amount of Call of Duty experience and I can tell you it's an easy game when it comes to aiming, but you have to have a certain level of map awareness. You need to know where to be and where the enemies are coming from. Killstreaks are also not allowed in MLG.
As for the killstreaks it raises the skill ceiling. Instead of everyone getting around the same amount of kills because some guy who gets raped 5 or 6 times kills the best player on the other team with a predator missile the players that are actually skilled are rewarded further. Lets put your Black Ops paragraph into Starcraft terms. Why can't bad players in Starcraft spawn with an extra three workers? Or have an emergency nuke the other player's base button when they're 2 bases behind? Because it would even out the game which isn't good for spectators. All of a sudden everyone would be equal.
I'm sorry but this thread just got under my skin a little...that's all. I love FPS'es and sure, they don't take as much practice and preperation as Starcraft, but there's a lot of FPS haters around here, not cool. Lets not forget that most FPS games are played in TEAMS and while the individual skill part of the game may be one-dimensional and "easy" do you understand how hard it is to get three other people on the same page when the games are THAT fast-paced?
it took me a year to get to D+(diamond equivalent of BW) on iccup, and about 240 games lost to this one friend i kept practising with, and 1 game won. out of the 240 or so games. hardwork man =( you'll get more enjoyment if u play with someone you know or someone who's on the same skill level as you. btw u should try tribes ascend for fps, its like quake but more team oriented, also its very fun even if you're getting owned, since the mechanics in that games are fun to execute regardless of outcome. if that still fails, go play a story based single player fps, HL/HL2 and other valve fps tends to have this feature, also there is the Deus Ex series, and the new one kicks ass especially, too bad i only played it on easiest difficulty, but thats what makes it fun i guess :D
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
No. YOU are absolutely fucking stupid. You think games should reward people who play badly and punish people who play well? With this kind of opinion you have absolutely no right to talk about competitive games.
I have to disagree. The only thing that is stupid is thinking you need free kills as a reward for playing well. If you want kills, you should have to earn them the hard way, not point your cursor at a glowing dot which results in an intsa-kill, no skill required. I actually do well at CoD, and I hated the killstreaks and refused to use any that could actually kill you.
To the OP: CoD sucks (cept for Zombies), Quake is beast-mode, UT is hit or miss.
I would advise playing some single player in the game you want to improve at (unless it is CoD). And don't be afraid to put it on grandma mode. Or try more relaxing types of games.
On January 07 2012 09:04 Cham wrote: I'm kind of confused. You provide an intro saying you don't like how FPS don't need any skill or mapsense to be good at them, and then you go on a rant about how you are not good at them. It is seeming like you are just calling everyone else bad too.
The exact feeling I was having when I first read this blog. I see that a lot of people have already addressed the fact that public matches are in no way representative of what you'd find in a competitive match, killstreaks aren't in competition, as well as many other notes. So thank goodness I don't have to go through all of that. Anyway, here's my take on things, coming from competing in console shooters previously for 5 years (including Black Ops at MLG).
It really depresses the hell out of me when I see posts like this. Shoving down these regurgitated ideas that COD is a poor, non-competitive game when the OP has no comprehension of HOW competitive COD is played. Not knowing that killstreaks are not and have never been involved in tournament settings in its entire lifetime is just a simple testament of how uneducated people are about COD. It's very frustrating. If you have such an issue about pub matches, that's fine. Don't play it or play it to the point where you can actually strafe-dropshot and aim with a level of consistency. It's not that hard - or at least it shouldn't be, once you actually learn to play. Shotguns aren't even an issue in the game when you have the game sense (soundhoring, spawn tracks, etc) and even then, the second a shotgun comes to your face you should switch to an Assault Rifle and volley positions so that you can slap him back a few more times. But I digress...
Regardless, take the 4 biggest pubstars against OpTic or Leverage (considered the top teams present in COD) and the pubstars would get obliterated. The skill gap is there, the skill is there, the challenge is there. Although it isn't nearly compared to the complexity of what you'd find in Starcraft or a PC twitch shooter, that comes with the limitations of the console hardware and the fact that COD has made millions off marketing console over PC.
To shed some honesty, I do hate playing MW3. Black Ops was a better game, competitive wise. As a former competitor, I was shocked to see how poor MW3 was going to pan out. It still has yet to impress me, even after the spawn changes and the lag fixes. But that does not mean I can't respect the game for having some credible skill. I could sit in pubs all day and get +30 every match, but I have yet to pass Losers 8 at MLG. The game requires skill - learn up.
And before I forget, OP: the fact that you admittedly suck at the game that much and you're trying to assert your point about skill just boggles the ---- out of me. Let me put it simply: Actual Competitive COD is an objective, heavily based team game. Its challenges lie in team-communication, spawn tracking, game awareness (stressing this one because it's more important in this game than most people realize), and weapon manipulation. Public games are composed of casuals trying to inflate their K/D by whatever means possible, regardless of win or loss state.
I think you need to find some people who can help you get better at a faster rate, instead of playing alone (if you are). It sounds like you haven't put very much time into these games. Being good at any game is done by the same means aka you practice a lot. It also sounds like you are very lost in the games you are playing and I mean that in the most general form. Do you know what you should be doing when you spawn in? What is your goal? Try to watch other players and learn from them.
On January 06 2012 13:29 Clbull wrote: I have tried my hand at a variety of games on PC including mainly first person shooters, RTS games and MOBAs (a.k.a. DotA clones.) Here are a few FPS games I want to talk about in this post. I can give a long list of stuff that I hate about each game, most of which revolves around sucking at it.
My issue with FPS is the lack of skill and game/map sense required to even be remotely good at them. I lack the game sense, skill at aiming, map sense and whatnot to succeed in any FPS. This is going to be more of a rant about why I hate certain FPS games than anything. If you are going to reply with insults towards my skill level, fucking bury your hatchet as I'm already aware of this.
Then start practising your aim and get better at the core mechanics of these games or stop playing them and find a genre you can enjoy. I'm not sure why you are ranting on a public forum where you know good and well people are going to argue with you.
Watch any competitive Quake Live game and you will witness two players strafe jumping masterfully like fucking madmen at 140mph.whilst utilising their expert game-sense, map control and aimbot-like twitch shooting. While I have great respect for professional QL players like Rapha, I try to enter a Duel (after much trial and error using Quake Live's godawful duel finding interface that will often put me in a game with 2 other people and me having to wait 15 mins for my turn), and every result is the same no matter how many hours I play a day of the game. Gang raped 0 - 22 or 1 - 22. I can rarely get a frag in before BAM, blown my fucking brains out with two aimbot-precise rails to the temple.
Also with Quake Live, I have to deal with the lame interface, bad optimization (since they put ads on the site and added a premium service, I've had to sit through TWO loading screens just to go Fullscreen every time I want to join a game.
If you are mad that you are bad at Quake, then get better. The interface aside, you have to actually put effort into that game to be good at it. You need to know the maps, you need to time pickups, and you need to be able to aim. In fact, if you can aim, the next game you talk about is so ridiculously easy because it takes minimal aim to even kill someone.
I got this game as a christmas present. After about 5 hours of playing the multiplayer, I feel completely and utterly demoralised. To sum up each multiplayer experience for me:
My k:d ratio is about 1:3 - 7. For every one kill I do get, I will often die 3 - 7 times just to get it.
I find deathstreaks to be completely and utterly worthless at my current stage in the game.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
The game is an absolute joke. You encounter a guy, draw out your SMG, unload a full clip of ammunition into his face and have to reload as a result. What does he do. Moves a little closer and BANG. INSTAGIB WITH A SHOTGUN STRAIGHT TO YOUR FACE.
Tell me, am I doing something horrifically wrong here?
Yes, you aren't playing Barebones, where those are removed.
If you hate it so much stop playing game modes with it. The CoD competitive scene does not use Killstreaks, and while I can't speak for the console scene, the PC scene rarely uses Perks, except for in Hardcore.
Some things that make you better at CoD:
1) Aiming (obviously). Lead your enemy, don't point right at them (unless they are still or moving towards/away from you).
2) Shoot, then think. Honestly, unless friendly fire is on or you don't want to give away position, shoot.
3) Look at the map a lot.
4) Learn the maps (applies to every game ever).
5) If you are surrounded by allies, likely your enemy is not there. By extension, do not look in the same area as your teammates.
6) Don't go through open areas unless you HAVE TO and hug the edges of the map. That is the safest way to play, although you will not get a lot of kills you will die less and have more oppurtunity in the end.
As for killstreaks, hide from them. Look at where the chopper is and hug a wall so that it can't look at you or go inside. Have a class for taking them out if it bothers you so much. With things like Predators, well, you either get inside or you don't and you may be the target or not. Best advice is, try not to run towards your teammates. Some things you just have to see and react to immediately and it takes time to get used to it.
1) Are there any ways I can deliberately practice my aim? And what do you mean by "lead" your opponent?
2) A good point. I adopt this mentality anyway.
3) Often doesn't help unless a UAV is up, but sure.
4) True, I've been playing a lot over the last few days and I got slightly better at map sense.
On January 06 2012 13:29 Clbull wrote: I have tried my hand at a variety of games on PC including mainly first person shooters, RTS games and MOBAs (a.k.a. DotA clones.) Here are a few FPS games I want to talk about in this post. I can give a long list of stuff that I hate about each game, most of which revolves around sucking at it.
My issue with FPS is the lack of skill and game/map sense required to even be remotely good at them. I lack the game sense, skill at aiming, map sense and whatnot to succeed in any FPS. This is going to be more of a rant about why I hate certain FPS games than anything. If you are going to reply with insults towards my skill level, fucking bury your hatchet as I'm already aware of this.
Then start practising your aim and get better at the core mechanics of these games or stop playing them and find a genre you can enjoy. I'm not sure why you are ranting on a public forum where you know good and well people are going to argue with you.
Quake Live:
Watch any competitive Quake Live game and you will witness two players strafe jumping masterfully like fucking madmen at 140mph.whilst utilising their expert game-sense, map control and aimbot-like twitch shooting. While I have great respect for professional QL players like Rapha, I try to enter a Duel (after much trial and error using Quake Live's godawful duel finding interface that will often put me in a game with 2 other people and me having to wait 15 mins for my turn), and every result is the same no matter how many hours I play a day of the game. Gang raped 0 - 22 or 1 - 22. I can rarely get a frag in before BAM, blown my fucking brains out with two aimbot-precise rails to the temple.
Also with Quake Live, I have to deal with the lame interface, bad optimization (since they put ads on the site and added a premium service, I've had to sit through TWO loading screens just to go Fullscreen every time I want to join a game.
If you are mad that you are bad at Quake, then get better. The interface aside, you have to actually put effort into that game to be good at it. You need to know the maps, you need to time pickups, and you need to be able to aim. In fact, if you can aim, the next game you talk about is so ridiculously easy because it takes minimal aim to even kill someone.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
I got this game as a christmas present. After about 5 hours of playing the multiplayer, I feel completely and utterly demoralised. To sum up each multiplayer experience for me:
My k:d ratio is about 1:3 - 7. For every one kill I do get, I will often die 3 - 7 times just to get it.
I find deathstreaks to be completely and utterly worthless at my current stage in the game.
Killstreaks are overpowered and absolutely fucking stupid. What a great idea, rather than give say.... the guy who's had a 7 deathstreak a helicopter as a handicap to even out the game a bit more and allow a comeback, let's give a guy who gets 7 kills in a row that fucking copter so he can rack up a double digit killstreak with absolute ease. Or worse.... let's give a guy with 25 kills in a row a fucking nuke to end the game with. I may have said in my previous post that Mario Kart is not a good e-sport or competitive game, but at least Nintendo does one thing right, and that is handicap the people in a lower position to make games a little more volatile and allow comebacks to occur. It makes me wonder how the actual fuck Black Ops made it into MLG's Pro Circuit when the game pretty much seems like "First person to get a killstreak wins."
The game is an absolute joke. You encounter a guy, draw out your SMG, unload a full clip of ammunition into his face and have to reload as a result. What does he do. Moves a little closer and BANG. INSTAGIB WITH A SHOTGUN STRAIGHT TO YOUR FACE.
Tell me, am I doing something horrifically wrong here?
Yes, you aren't playing Barebones, where those are removed.
If you hate it so much stop playing game modes with it. The CoD competitive scene does not use Killstreaks, and while I can't speak for the console scene, the PC scene rarely uses Perks, except for in Hardcore.
Some things that make you better at CoD:
1) Aiming (obviously). Lead your enemy, don't point right at them (unless they are still or moving towards/away from you).
2) Shoot, then think. Honestly, unless friendly fire is on or you don't want to give away position, shoot.
3) Look at the map a lot.
4) Learn the maps (applies to every game ever).
5) If you are surrounded by allies, likely your enemy is not there. By extension, do not look in the same area as your teammates.
6) Don't go through open areas unless you HAVE TO and hug the edges of the map. That is the safest way to play, although you will not get a lot of kills you will die less and have more oppurtunity in the end.
As for killstreaks, hide from them. Look at where the chopper is and hug a wall so that it can't look at you or go inside. Have a class for taking them out if it bothers you so much. With things like Predators, well, you either get inside or you don't and you may be the target or not. Best advice is, try not to run towards your teammates. Some things you just have to see and react to immediately and it takes time to get used to it.
1) Are there any ways I can deliberately practice my aim? And what do you mean by "lead" your opponent?
2) A good point. I adopt this mentality anyway.
3) Often doesn't help unless a UAV is up, but sure.
4) True, I've been playing a lot over the last few days and I got slightly better at map sense.
1: You ca only improve that by repetition, IMO. Also, by "leading" he means: if the enemy is sprinting to the left, put your cross-hairs or cursor where they will be in a second (further to the left) rather than where they are right now (as in, putting your cross-hairs right on them). Think of it as throwing a baseball to someone who is sprinting. If you throw it to where they are right now, it will miss because they will have moved on. If you "lead" them, it will land in their hands right when they get to the spot that you threw it.
3. The map thing is HUGE. I know, it seems like it's not a big deal unless UAV is up, but it is. Every time someone on their team shoots, it shows up on the map. Knowing when they are shooting is actually more important than knowing direct location. It also allows you to keep track of your teammates, which in turn helps you keep track of your enemies (they will probably not be where your teammates are unless there is a firefight). It also helps you develop in-game peripheral vision, and it helps you learn the maps and their secrets.
4) Map sense, like everything else, just takes practice. Play enough and you will be able to tell before the match even starts where the most likely kills are going to be, the danger zones for both teams, where to best position yourself to protect and deal maximum damage, etc. It's different for everyone but I usually take 4-7 games on a map before I am comfortable with it, 10-15 before I feel like I have a good sense of positioning.
Play some domination in cod to learn the maps best because you'll spawn all over. I only play snd with my team. Here's an example of my skill. I'm not the best, but our team is great. Most fps are team games. Occasionally you'll have a player that will drop 30 kills every single match, but usually to spread out. Communication is key. Hell if I play in pub servers I usually turn sound off because it's useless.