All washed up, kid
"Something more substantial", my ass. Here's what happened. I remembered that I have a Quake Live account, so went over there to play a couple quick games. The peers, however, wiped the floor with me. Couldn't even survive long enough to pwn some obvious noobs - and my average accuracy was something like 5%. Horrid. This is what has happened to me because I stopped playing FPS games for nearly a year... Indeed, I stopped playing action games in general, and went completely out of shape.
This is not a front that I can accept a surrender at. Years ago, I had some relatively glorious successes in BF2 and UT2003 (I also played the original UT a lot). My best skills were probably evasive action and tackling (short-to-mid range takedowns of moving enemies). Spited by my sudden failure, I did the logical thing and stayed up until about seven in the morning playing Quake Live. Pleased to say that I'm refreshing my kinesthetic memory and no longer die nowhere near as frequently, and my accuracy has gone up to about 9% average. Still miserable, though. I should be easily capable of at least 15%.
Aside from that, Quake Live has a bunch of new maps now. Some are quite pretty. Colorful, well-decorated, with pretty lighting... Then again, I'm going on UT2003 standards here, haha.
I can give you a few important pointers, if you're a noob and want to get into FPS games. FPS and the like are really the equivalent of sports for computer geeks... The improved hand-eye coordination as a result of play is helpful, as is the boost to your perception and multi-tasking abilities. Basically, the most important thing is to keep moving. You stop, you die. Campers forget this very important lesson; there's nothing wrong with being a camper, but you must remain mobile and at least move from one camper nest to another. Weapons in abstract FPS like Unreal and Quake don't get any less accurate when you move, and a skilled, boosted enemy won't have any trouble replying to your sniper fire with rockets. Second in importance is cohesion. Stick to your teammates; indeed, if you're completely new, simply follow one of your guys around (just not too close). Help him kill whatever he's killing; find someone else to follow when either of you dies. Chances of survival skyrocket if two players encounter one enemy, as opposed to a one-on-one encounter; faced with superior numbers, the enemy will place a lot more emphasis on flight as opposed to fight. Just by being there you accomplish this.
Finally, practice attacking moving enemies. It's harder than you might think. A good rule of thumb for new players is, when you're leading a moving target, double the compensation distance (i.e. aim in front of your enemy, then double that gap, since your estimation is probably too small). Also, when using a weapon which does splash damage (e.g. rocket launcher, flak cannon, grenade launcher), aim at the ground and walls where your enemy is going to be. Firing dead-center at him is nigh guaranteed to miss. When using rapid-fire guns, learn something I call the "jimmy hands" technique: rapid twitch-flailing of your aiming reticule in a small horizontal arc. It's a very simple way to improve your accuracy against especially slick operators. Feel free to disregard whatever; losing is fun, as they say in Dorf Fortress. You can find a bunch of Quake Live tutorials over at holysh1t.net.
This is not a front that I can accept a surrender at. Years ago, I had some relatively glorious successes in BF2 and UT2003 (I also played the original UT a lot). My best skills were probably evasive action and tackling (short-to-mid range takedowns of moving enemies). Spited by my sudden failure, I did the logical thing and stayed up until about seven in the morning playing Quake Live. Pleased to say that I'm refreshing my kinesthetic memory and no longer die nowhere near as frequently, and my accuracy has gone up to about 9% average. Still miserable, though. I should be easily capable of at least 15%.
Aside from that, Quake Live has a bunch of new maps now. Some are quite pretty. Colorful, well-decorated, with pretty lighting... Then again, I'm going on UT2003 standards here, haha.
I can give you a few important pointers, if you're a noob and want to get into FPS games. FPS and the like are really the equivalent of sports for computer geeks... The improved hand-eye coordination as a result of play is helpful, as is the boost to your perception and multi-tasking abilities. Basically, the most important thing is to keep moving. You stop, you die. Campers forget this very important lesson; there's nothing wrong with being a camper, but you must remain mobile and at least move from one camper nest to another. Weapons in abstract FPS like Unreal and Quake don't get any less accurate when you move, and a skilled, boosted enemy won't have any trouble replying to your sniper fire with rockets. Second in importance is cohesion. Stick to your teammates; indeed, if you're completely new, simply follow one of your guys around (just not too close). Help him kill whatever he's killing; find someone else to follow when either of you dies. Chances of survival skyrocket if two players encounter one enemy, as opposed to a one-on-one encounter; faced with superior numbers, the enemy will place a lot more emphasis on flight as opposed to fight. Just by being there you accomplish this.
Finally, practice attacking moving enemies. It's harder than you might think. A good rule of thumb for new players is, when you're leading a moving target, double the compensation distance (i.e. aim in front of your enemy, then double that gap, since your estimation is probably too small). Also, when using a weapon which does splash damage (e.g. rocket launcher, flak cannon, grenade launcher), aim at the ground and walls where your enemy is going to be. Firing dead-center at him is nigh guaranteed to miss. When using rapid-fire guns, learn something I call the "jimmy hands" technique: rapid twitch-flailing of your aiming reticule in a small horizontal arc. It's a very simple way to improve your accuracy against especially slick operators. Feel free to disregard whatever; losing is fun, as they say in Dorf Fortress. You can find a bunch of Quake Live tutorials over at holysh1t.net.