Part 2 of the FPS series on Perfect Dark.
I don't know what I'm talking about right now. I figure I might as well give you a little advice if you feel like you need it for Call of Duty: Black Ops and whatnot. I guess this can be applied to many other games as well or even sports. So here goes:
* Losing a lot and getting in a slump. If you really are playing way below your expectations, the natural reaction is to play even harder which may make you play even worse which leads to extreme frustration. Really, go outside for a walk and don't talk to anybody to contain the anger. Let the anger go away before you return back to normal life. Your skills won't go away overnight so don't be ashamed to take a little break (maybe a day, a week, whatever works) if you're sucking bad.
* Sometimes you may be a victim of lag. If it means getting less angry, then use lag as an excuse. At least try joking about it.
* If you're really afraid to feel the shame of a loss, then deliberately put yourself in a crap position. Like give up the host spot, play against a larger team, or use an inferior gun. If you lose, then you can always say, "Well, I was in a bad position." Although only do that when you aren't 100% dead set on winning cause shooting yourself in the foot is a STUPID idea. Use this in "practice" mode.
* If you fall behind in a crucial game DO NOT PANIC. One of the worst things people do in ANY game, whether it be racing, FPS, fighting, etc. is that when they are losing, they do really stupid ass things like rush in, waste ammo, don't think things through, etc. I see this all the time and even I'm guilty of it occasionally. Really, try to wait out the guy and hope that he screws up. This reminds me of three stories:
1. This is one of the only times I played Daytona USA 2 multiplayer and it was against some cool black dude and his friends. Never seen them before but they looked like they knew what they were doing. So we're pick Beginner course, Phantom cars, MT. Okay, so I'm leading in lap 3 then I just rub the outside wall in the last turn and fall behind. Okay, panic mode? Well, I just wait the guy out. I know that my regular laps are faster than his and sure enough, he wrecks twice in laps 5 and 6. So that gave me a cushy lead and I won. Sometimes, you have to be more consistent than anything.
2. I was playing my friend on Call of Duty 4 (online so no screen-watching). We were playing Shipment (the smallest map in the game) with MP5's. So we were creeping around the map trying to find each other first (not really camping) and he spots me first and then I'm behind 1-4. So I say to myself, "He can't get THIS lucky in the future." Then I creep around, keeping a defensive (as opposed to camping) stance and I kill him a few times in a row. Sure enough, his instinct is to spray ammo and sprint across the map, giving away his position. Relatively easy win from there.
3. I was playing another friend in Madden '09, this time in the same room. He was the Cowboys, I was the Bucs. He doesn't play often but I did so I had an advantage. So I forget what happened up until then, but I throw an interception he returns for the TD. Then he gets a fumble or something--all I know is that he was up seven on me. But then, not getting any turnovers until then, I thought "He's gonna screw up EVENTUALLY, he's not that good at this." Sure enough, he throws his share of interceptions and I kept running the ball and playing steady O. Then he was forced to pass even more and make stupider mistakes which led to a cozy win on my part.
Speaking of #3,
here's a good rule of thumb from Tecmo Bowl:
4. Not Taking Your Damn Points Will Come Back to Haunt You. For the love of god, just take your damn points. Do not go for the glory of a TD or try to force anything in there. Once you get inside the 40 just say to yourself "ok, now come away with some points." Of course all bets are off if you got LA, since LA has Bo Jackson. Going for the TD and not getting it, especially early in a game, will always lead to a 3 point loss. The lesson here? Take Your Damn Points. Take them, or you'll pay for it later. Of course this law is regularly broken by all players no matter how many times you say I'll just take my damn points. Anyways, Take Your Damn Points.
So basically, the rule is to not hurry anything UNLESS you are nearly out of time and you HAVE to make a big play--like run headfirst into enemy fire for that last kill or take that final turn slightly faster than usual. I hope you learned something here.
* On the other hand, if you keep making the same mistake over and over again, then you will need to re-evaluate the situation. Remember the saying, "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice...WE WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN!!" If you end up making a mistake that makes you kick yourself, you better damn well learn not to do it again. Like from every match (especially ones you lose), try to think of ONE thing you could've done better and learn from it.
* Keep your back to the wall. SERIOUSLY, KEEP YOUR BACK TO THE WALL. Last thing you need is someone sneaking up on you because that's free points for him. So basically, always maneuver in such a way that you can watch all approach points.
* Something else that compliments the above statement--ALWAYS STAND NEAR COVER. If it's a crate, a wall, a pillar three inches thick, just have something to put between the line of fire you can heal, reload, deflect bullets or whatever. Hiding behind railings, crates, or anything that can conceal part of your body from the enemy is a good idea too, obviously. Regardless, you should never stay out of cover for too long. This tip is much more apparent in Call of Duty since there's a lot more objects to hide behind.
* This is vital in games like Call of Duty or Counter-Strike where it takes time to line up a shot from run to shoot. ALWAYS walk slowly so that you can draw up your aim faster than the other guy. Seriously, just play a normal CoD deathmatch and count how many times the guy will just run into your line of sight, see you, and then lose because you had your gun drawn first. Also, walking is quieter than running, so use that to your advantage.
* Even better is if you're creeping around a corner, SWEEP SLOWLY AROUND and expect a guy to pop up always so you'll be ready. Never, ever "assume" the enemy won't be there or you'll pay. If you're going to turn the corner, you want to detect him before he does. And this is one advantage you'll have over campers (who are forced to concentrate over a long span of time while you don't).
* Contrary to what I said above, you're supposed to ACT FAST always. Be decisive. Basically, still move slow, but try to make up your mind and go do something to help the situation always. Never spend time doing nothing--always be trying to complete little goals in your head at all times. This is important in Perfect Dark in which you need to sprint for the best weapon, grab ammo and shields, tactically cut off other players, whatever it takes.
* Don't camp. Move around in the same area if you must and follow the above rules, but camping almost never works. Plus it makes you very unpopular.
* Always try to remain unpredictable. It doesn't mean replacing good strategies, it just means taking different routes, cover locations, whatever it takes to at least irritate the other player. This is especially important with proxy mines, Laptop sentries, etc.
* If you're playing in a huge deathmatch game, you win by getting to the set score, not by having the best kill-death ratio. So you want to move around and not camp so you can frag the most people, but never rush. You want to be like a venus fly trap--you want to get those suckers to run right into your line of fire (going back to the "wait for screwups" strategy). Also, if you go slow, you'll seldom receive fire by more than one person which is good since multiple people shooting at you at once usually means death. Pick them off one by one.
BE A VENUS FLY TRAP
* Aim sensitivity. We're going back to gamer frustration again. One of the dumbest things you can do is change your sensitivity by a large amount. The last thing you want to do is screw up your equilibrium. Drastic changes to sensitivity MAY help in the short-term, but not in the long-term ever. High sensitivity isn't always better BTW. Did you know that the professional CS players have very LOW sensitivity with LARGE mouse pads to compensate? Change sensitivity in small increments at a time and then your brain will adapt to it much quicker. If you want to go back to your old changes, then go ahead, be my guest.
* Know the maps, know the guns, cause knowledge is power. It certainly helps a heck of a lot.
* Always be a considerate player. You're a human being first and foremost. Don't need to make an ass of yourself over a game when there's more to life than just that. Of course, it's still very hard to do this, I know. Besides, you don't want to get too emotional in a game anyway since too much stress will interfere with your ability to play.
* Practice, practice, practice. Play against bots or in these crappy little DM servers--just get a lot of time in to get used to the flow of the game and learn to aim for the chest/head region (the neck) and control recoil.
Not much else to say. Hope it helps.
Link to my Perfect Dark Multiplayer Guide.
Anyway, that's about it for FPSes for a little while. I'll get to some Daytona stuff relatively soon.
