Video game tips--Combat Shooters-To shoot or not to shoot?

Todays post is on combat shooters.

Though the talent comes naturally to some people, others have to be conscious of a certain habit. This habit includes (but is not limited to), shooting at anything that moves, the second that you see it move. This is seen especially in free for all games. You might think that doing this will give you a greater chance o getting a kill, but this usually is a bad idea for several reasons. For one thing you will almost certainly be wasting a lot of ammo. Also you will be revealing your location to players who may or may not be more experienced than you. But most importantly you will probably be dieing fairly often, since you will be subsequently getting into more close quarter combat, and in cqc its often more who hits the button first, and not actual skill.

Video game tips-RTS-Unit Spamming

In RTS games there are often either certain units that are really good, or really good for the price. Whenever possible it is a good idea to lilt your army, so that you embody your opponents weak areas. However sometimes your opponent is in no special way lacking in troops in any way more than you. In these cases having catch all units that are affordable and expendable is a great boon to your cause. Be careful in your choices however, and when possible switch the type that you spam, to mix your foe up. Sometimes units that seem fairly weak can be made quit lethal, when combined with several more of its type. This is often especially true in the ranged unit cases.

One other tool that you can use is to either know or have at hand a list of all the types of units that your enemy has at there disposal, for your enemies particular culture/race/civilization. For most games there can be found on the internet complicated and extensive lists of all you could want to know concerning the units, and the units's abilities, for almost all RTS games. And while I am not sure about you, I think that the more complicated, the better.

Enjoy.....

Video game tips--Combat Shooters- Rolling On

One of the ways that many players are killed in combat shooters is by standing still for an extended time, particularly while sniping. You see every time that you kill somebody they get a general idea of your location. No matter what role you are in you should almost always be moving. If you are sniping make a rule of thumb to follow; two or three kills then move on. There are of course circumstances in which it would be unwise to move, but these situations should be easy to interpret and react to.
Sometimes however you can use to your advantage the fact that most players can get to expect that no one would stop and camp from an obvious spot. Overall its just a good thing to keep in mind when you are playing.

May the Force be with you.....

Video game tips-RTS-Rushing

As the title implies, todays post will be on strategy games.

In many strategy games there is something that is overlooked by many new players. It is a tactic called rushing. Rushing has two basic meanings: resource rushing, and combat rushing.
Resource rushing involves making a gamble that the amount of resources you could obtain in the long run justify temporarily overextending your economy and military, so that you can obtain early in the game a key resource (note: of course this only applies to RTS games that include a form of resource). Many players ignore resources because they are to cautious to go for them. The line between mediocre and advanced players is often the ability to discern when to play risky or when to play cautious.

Combat rushing involves (to various extent) overextending your military and economy, to attack your opponent. In its more extreme it involves literally putting all your eggs in one basket. Now if you are a experienced player this tactic will often work on players of lower skills. They will often be simply incapable of competing with adequate speed to the attack. However this tactic can be much less effective against foes of similar or greater abilities. Still however you can sometimes pull it off, and it sure looks fantastic when you can.
Military rushing in its more moderate approach basically involves keeping a steady stream of harassing troops flowing towards the enemies outposts and any weaker units/buildings. This tactic is highly advised in all situations, as it typically will not put you in a position of no return. Also if your opponent is a typical player they will be doing the same. An object worthy of note is that in all cases mentioned, there are cases were people do things differently to either a) simply be different. or b) throw you off of what they really are trying to do. Sometimes a experienced player will do things completely irregular, and in such cases you will have to act according to your wisdom. But be that as it may these should serve as a good starting guideline of when to rush, and when not to.

(You were right Calvin... that was easier)

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,