Video game tips--Combat Shooters-Proper Reload

This is my first of several "help" posts. These posts are all to be on the general subject of video game hints, tips and strategies. This post will be mostly based on FPS (first person shooter) and TPS (third person shooter).

As it seems some people do not completely understand these terms I will elaborate. FPS means that in the game you are looking through the perspective of the character which you are playing. You see what they would see through their eyes. TPS is a view in which you see the character which you are playing, and still control their actions (not to be confused with real time strategy or role playing). Now that I think of it their are several games with a sort of hybrid TPS, called Over the Shoulder. This basically means that you see the character but your vision is limited to a certain plain of view, and the character is based not in the center of the screen, but to the side a little, thus giving you a view "over the shoulder". Of course there are some games that have different combinations of these methods.

Now that we have some basic terminology, we continue on to the point of this post, being the subject of combat shooters. These tips and tricks will work on most general shooters, later on I will perhaps post some of my tricks on individual games.

I will start with perhaps the most basic rule to remember: Always reload your weapon if you are not currently engaged. The chances of you killing someone while reloading are slim to none, even if you have a melee/knife attack. Let us envision a short episode. Fred picks up a submachine gun. Fred kills somebody with this submachine gun. Fred used half a clip to kill this person. Fred incorrectly assumes that since he only used half a clip that he will only need half to kill another foe. Fred turns a corner and sees Bill. Fred starts blazing away at bill and is happy to see that Bill's life is going down rapidly. Suddenly Fred realizes that his gun is out of ammunition. It doesn't matter if its because Fred is a lame shot or perhaps The Guardians willed that most of his rounds by random chance missed, or even maybe Bill did some evasion manouvres, the fact is Fred missed. At this point Fred hits the reload button. Depending on the game the reload takes different amount of times, from short and crisp to agonizingly slow. The type of weapon often affects the reload time. While he is reloading Fred is in danger from three basic things. From Bill who now has a chance to nail Fred, from some other enemy player who uses the opportunity to get a free kill, or a random source of danger that the player is nearly always open to. The point of this long explanation is that if Fred had come into battle with a full clip he almost certainly would have killed Bill, and perhaps even another player, if startled by them.

FACTS TO DRAW: if you are currently fairly safe, or maybe just sure that you can evade the fire, reload your weapon. NOTE: do not take this idea to far. You should not reload in ridicules times, like when a enemy is is in the middle of killing you or your friend, or you have shot a tiny amount of your clip.

I will be back with more soon,