Gaming nostalgia, a look back at the most memorable games I’ve played (part 4)

Ever since I pumped a quarter into my first pinball machine I’ve been a gamer. To help kick off the new year I’ve decided to have a look back at my gaming past…

PART FOUR: THE NEXT GEN

Xbox 360

So bongo, bongo, bongo I don’t want to leave the congo. Oh no no no no no. Bingle, bangle, bungle I’m so happy in the jungle I refuse to go. Don’t want no bright lights, false teeth, doorbells, landlords. I make it clear. That no matter how they coax him. I’ll stay right here. ~ Civilization, Danny Kay with the Andrews Sisters

Fallout 3 is a game I will remember playing on my deathbed. It’s a masterpiece. I had the previous iterations of the series on PC way back when, but I never got into them. Fallout 3 had me entranced for hours, days, months even. I’ve always had an obsession with apocalyptic settings and this is a well crafted story surrounded by a living and breathing virtual world. I’ll never forget that moment in a burnt out supermarket when a Raider announced over the speaker system that he and his pals were gunning for me. Or the pang of guilt I felt when I realized I wouldn’t be able to save the sheriff and a little virtual boy would have to spend the rest of his virtual existence without a father. If you don’t like this game there is something intrinsically wrong with you.

Of course, you know, I have to mention the Bioshock games here, that wonderful and immersive voice acting will stick with me for a long, long time and be the yard stick I measure all future games to. But I’ve bantered enough about them on this blog, so let’s move on.

And the last game I’ll mention is Batman: Arkham Asylum. It’s the gameplay mechanics that stand out the most and the talented Mark Hamil voicing the Joker is a bonus. This is the first superhero based game that I feel really lived up to its namesake. Taking down the bad guys in this game was just as fun as killing Nazis. Hang one from a gargoyle, wait for his buddies to come investigate, swoop down and BAM! Two for one. This too was another well voiced and immersive game.

An honorable mention should be extended to Rock Band. More so for personal reasons. It was this game that helped me get over the grief of losing two dogs. Creating a band based on my pets, calling it Graham and the GUNKS (I spent a lot of time grooming Graham, specially his ears which always had gunk in them) and playing bass as Oliver Twisted (our wheaten terrier that passed away a year before we adopted Graham) was a good healing process for me. Even if the game has worn thin on me now I will always remember the GUNKS.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

Let’s hope the Mayans were wrong…

Gaming nostalgia, a look back at the most memorable games I’ve played (part 3)

Ever since I pumped a quarter into my first pinball machine I’ve been a gamer. To help kick off the new year I’ve decided to have a look back at my gaming past…

PART THREE: THE REIGN OF SONY

Playstation 2
The only games that stood out for me on this console were GTA Vice City, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Dynasty Warriors 4. Vice City provided me with much needed stress relief at the time, there was nothing like the mayhem a floating smiley face would allow you to wreak on the pixelated denizens of Vice City. This game saved quite a few of my co-workers lives back then (I’m not a violent person by nature, believe me, these guys were assholes.) Metal Gear Solid 2 was a great game and the first–and last–stealth title I’ve played all the way through. I think it was the political and social aspects of the story line (information is power, the control of the flow of information) that made it most memorable for me. Then there was Dynasty Warriors 4. I had a bang up time playing this button masher. I remember having so much fun playing this game that I’ve tried various iterations of it on the 360 to no avail. I recall the gameplay and graphics being far superior on the Ps2 than what I’ve experienced in the various versions available for the 360. Maybe it’s because when I played DW4 I was still smoking weed and had access to Humboldt quality dope but after viewing the gameplay video on YouTube I’m convinced the graphics and gameplay of DW4 for the PS2 are far superior.

Xbox
Another GTA title, San Andreas, will dominate my memories here. Wasting time exercising your virtual toon with virtual weights on a virtual beach was oddly, quite fun. Mercenaries was hella fun too. Blowing shit up in North Korea was a satisfying experience. Not that I really have anything against North Korea, I just liked blowing shit up. Fable was another standout here though Fable 2 would disappoint me (don’t promise an open world and then put me on rails.) And I shouldn’t forget Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2. Wielding dual light sabers was great.

I nearly forgot about Spider-Man 2. I’ve always been a HUGE Spidey fan, even back before being a Spidey fan was cool. The best thing about this one was the web slinging. I must have spent hours just web slinging across Manhattan… A guy has to have his hobbies, right?

Gaming nostalgia, a look back at the most memorable games I’ve played (part 2)

Ever since I pumped a quarter into my first pinball machine I’ve been a gamer. To help kick off the new year I’ve decided to have a look back at my gaming past…

PART TWO: THE ERA OF PERPETUAL UPGRADING

PC Gaming
Enter the mid 90′s and my obsession with building the perfect computer to play the perfect game, NHL 97. The moment I saw the 3d graphics on the back cover of this game I had to have it. I spent about $300 that day, for the game and the necessary upgrades so my PC would run it. Then there was Interstate ’76, give me disco on its own back then and I’d puke, feign a headache and ask you to turn it off. But add in cars with machine gun and rocket launcher attachments that could spill oil slicks from their rears and throw in some fantastic game play mechanics and suddenly the name Groove Champion didn’t sound the least bit cheesy. This game made me respect Disco. Maybe that’s why I’ve been listening to Abba lately…

And then there were the WW2 games, like Medal of Honor Allied Assault, a game I’ve played through more than once on a few different systems. There’s something about killing Nazis that never gets old. I also remember, in great detail, the hours I spent playing Red Baron 3D, probably one of the greatest flight sims ever. I can still hear the the creaks and moans of my wooden plane as it strained against the tight turns of combat. I can still see no man’s land as I flew over it. And how could I ever forget the one game in which I didn’t mind playing as a Nazi, Aces of the Deep. Patrolling the Atlantic for supply convoys was so much fun, despite the guilt I felt because my Grandfather had been a merchant marine in the war.

Then there was EverCrack, I mean Everquest. I have vivid, vivid  memories of playing this game, memories that often leave me feeling like I was actually in it. Most of them involved sitting around a safe area with a group of people, chatting and waiting for our health and mana to replenish so the puller can pull another beast for us to slay. Or sitting around the Freeport gate yelling for a group. And then there was that whole losing a level and two days worth of experience because some idiot trained a Sand Giant on you while you were resting in the Desert of Ro. Not sure how many keyboards and mice I broke in fits of rage due to this game but it was quite a few. Evercrack was definitely designed with the sole purpose of keeping you playing and paying monthly. The quintessential classic skinner box. Then came Asheron’s Call, I think I remember this one mostly because I got to play it a lot with my brother, Bowin. It was a great game and a lot more forgiving than Evercrack, though not as diverse in character building. But the fact that you didn’t have to rely on a group all the time was a huge bonus.

Gaming nostalgia, a look back at the most memorable games I’ve played (part 1)

Ever since I pumped a quarter into my first pinball machine I’ve been a gamer. To help kick off the new year I’ve decided to have a look back at my gaming past…

PART ONE: THE EARLY YEARS

ATARI 2600
I was a latecomer to the Atari scene. By the time it became affordable for my working class parents the ColecoVision was the latest and greatest thing. Regardless, I was happier than a pig in mud the day I got it. The only games that I really remember vividly playing for hours on end were the arcade classics; Asteroids, Pac-Man, Missile Command and Defender. I also remember the painful blister I got on the crook of my thumb after playing for 3 days straight. No, it didn’t stop me from playing.

ColecoVision
My parents picked this one up for me when they saw it at Odd Lots for dirt cheap. I was never a big fan of this system, I always thought the controllers were perfect examples of human engineering skills gone horribly wrong. It was as though they designed them with the sole purpose of fitting them neatly into the system’s casing, any case for the practical use of them was abandoned for the sake of aesthetics. The only games I remember playing on it were Venture, Donkey Kong and oddly, Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle… I was heavy into Dungeons & Dragons so computer gaming was taking a back seat at the time.

Nintendo Entertainment System
I started working full time at the age of 16 to help my mom out. Nintendo was the first system I bought with my own money and the only game that really stands out in my memories is Zelda. Was it the gold covered cartridge or the fact that you could save the game? I don’t know, I just remember playing it.

Sega Genesis
The moment I purchased the 32X for this system its life span was finished, this near turned me off consoles forever. Still there were a few good titles for it. I’ve never been much of a fighting game person (I hated Mortal Combat) but I played the hell out of Eternal Champions. My first basketball sim was on the Genesis, I can’t find record of it on Wikipedia, the earliest one they show from EA is Live 95 but I know I had one as early as 1990 or 1991, this was also the last basketball game I would enjoy playing. The Genesis also introduced me to my life long obsession with hockey sims. NHL Hockey is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played and, back then at least, each new year’s iteration got significantly better and better. NHL games had me feeding the EA corporate machine money with every new release for years to come. I even tried out EA Sports Rugby on this system, but only being able to pass the ball backwards when I needed it to go forwards was a little too much for my logical brain to handle!

CAMPING: The FINAL & ONLY Definition

WHAT IS A DIRTY CAMPER?
The only time a player can legitimately be called a dirty, low-life, scum-of-the-earth camper is in a Team Death Match or Free For All game.

Finding your own corner of some room or an enclosed space on a map with your ADS trained on the only entrance to the area in these game modes takes ZERO skill and is just poor sportsmanship (even when there are two entrances.) If everyone one did this in these game modes we’d all be sitting around pulling our peckers for 15 minutes. While some of you may find that fun, I find it just gets the controller all sticky.

THAT WHICH IS NOT CAMPING
Setting up camp near an objective, a flag in Domination, the flag in Capture the Flag, the bomb site in Demolition or Search & destroy, the M-COM station in Battlefield, IS NOT CAMPING. This is defending or guarding your objective.

Patrolling an area (larger than a room, about 1/4 of the map,) going back and forth and eliminating any enemy that tries to piss in your territory IS NOT CAMPING. This is controlling or holding down an area.

MIGHT AS WELL TALK ABOUT SPAWN TRAPPING
It is only spawn trapping if an ENTIRE team is camped in your spawn grounds keeping your team pinned down. Not a very sporting strategy but a viable one in certain circles.

ONE or two guys wreaking havoc and confusion in your spawn grounds are not spawn trapping you. Seriously, how can one or two guys spawn trap an entire team? Unless your team sucks that bad it’s not possible. Those guys are keeping you busy while their teammates attack the objective. Providing a small distraction is sound military strategy.

HOW TO DEAL WITH CAMPERS
If the camper is having a good day (notice that I did not say he is “skilled,”) the little shit probably has host advantage (in Black Ops.) The only thing you can do here is warn the rest of your team where his lair is and avoid him. No sense in you adding to his slow and steady killstreak, of which you can be sure will end in dogs.

In Battlefield the situation is not as cut and dry. The maps are larger with lots of prime sniper real estate. A skilled sniper overlooking–or a lone wolf controling an area near–your objective must be dealt with. And they are probably going to have to be dealt with more than once. Avoidance is not a viable solution here.

Use a camper hunting class. In Black Ops, Ghost Pro, Hardened Pro and Hacker Pro. Equip a Silencer and use Counter Spy Plane. Ghost Pro and the silencer keep you off the mini-map. Hardened lets you shoot through walls, campers will always hide in a corner to reload. Hacker Pro keeps you invisible to Motion Sensors, a favorite tool of professional campers. Hold on to your Counter Spy Planes and throw them up only when there is a Blackbird in play. Professional dirty, scumbag campers are killwhores, they won’t run something as useful to the team as the Blackbird, they’ll be running something like Attack Chopper and Dogs. Equip C4 and use it as an extra grenade. Toss it inside a camped room and set it off right away.

In Battlefield 3 there is absolutely no such thing as camping but there are those jackass snipers who like to hang out in the boondocks and pick your team off one by one. Anything that keeps your team from accomplishing its objectives becomes part of said objectives. On some maps dealing with skilled snipers is as simple as informing your own snipers to look out for him and kill on site. If someone has spotted him and/or you are absolutely sure of where his lair is, you can have someone blanket mortar the area. On some of the larger maps it may be necessary to dispatch a squad to deal with him.

Noob tube the fuck out of him, ’nuff said. In Battlefield 3, hop in a tank or some other ordinance ladened vehicle… You get the picture.

Learn the maps. Once you know the maps better you’ll be more aware of where campers like to take up residence. Go into Combat Training in Back Ops and learn to think like a camper. Those bots in combat training always use the most traveled routes. Finding the best places to hide and pick off a bunch of easy targets running by will show you where the best spots are to camp in any game mode.

Also look for the obscure, out-of-the-way camping spots. The ones that overlook the roads least traveled. These places are haunted by the lowest type of camper there is, politicians and lawyers have more scruples than these campers. I’m talking about the chicken-shit, avoid all confrontation, my-testicles-haven’t-dropped-yet, feckless camper. These guys equip sniper rifles and ghillie suits, hide in bushes on the outskirts of the map killing the odd passerby, and patiently build up a killstreak that will end in dogs. You need to find the alternative routes to these places because he will get you every time you come back at him from the same direction, mostly because that’s the only direction he’s looking in.

Once you’ve eliminated a camper from an area, stick around. Find a place to lay low. Campers are generally idiotic creatures of habit. Rest assured, he’s coming back. That should be another easy kill for you. Alternatively you could leave a claymore in that area if you’re fairly sure of the path he’ll be taking to get back.

In Battlefield 3 there is no safe way to learn the maps. Just relax and keep playing. Enjoy yourself and don’t let the game frustrate you. You’ll be surprised at how much faster you’ll get the hang of things simply by enjoying yourself. It is just a game.

WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN ACCUSED OF CAMPING
Just because you get called a camper by some guy frustrated with his inadequate performance or some dumb-ass, clueless teenager does not mean you’re a camper. Stop rushing off to some internet forum to whine about how you got called a camper when ‘you’re not.’ It’s just going to be another useless thread on the same old tired topic of camping and, quite frankly, it makes you look guilty. If you’re questioning whether or not you’re a camper then so are the people reading your post. Brush off his comments and try not camping in the next game.

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH CAMPERS?
I would like to hear how you guys deal with campers, please leave a comment if you have the time. Not only will you be helping the gaming community, you’ll also give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

1/04/12 EDIT: Removed my Treyarch/floating apple gripe because it added nothing to the article and Quo said it made me seem bitchy. I also added some Battlefield specific information.

Tips for Playing To Win With General Population

I’m writing this because I hear a lot of self proclaimed “great” players whine about how they can’t win when playing with general population. If they are such “great, uber” players then shouldn’t they be able to carry a team to victory no matter what the odds? I’m here to tell these people, your team doesn’t suck. You do. Well, more precisely, your attitude sucks. I believe you have a decent chance to win any game if you have a good enough player who is a better leader than he is an egotistical shit.

Don’t be a Captain Sobel. These asshats are the reason no one uses their mics in Black Ops. Everyone wants to win but what most of us want is to just have a good time. Please respect that. Good natured jibing is one thing, abusive, foul-mouthed taunting is another. Yelling and screaming at people, despite what you see on reality TV, accomplishes nothing. The one thing great leaders have in common is confidence. Great leaders inspire confidence in others by encouraging words and positive action. Yelling and screaming at people makes you look infantile. Lack luster. Pathetic. Just because you don’t see anyone with a mic on does not mean that some of those people are not listening. A lot of them are and they are waiting for leadership. The truth is yelling and screaming just brings everyone on the team down, you may have 30 kills in that game your team lost but all that whining and whinging from you during the match contributed more to the team loss than the kid who got 3 kills and 40 deaths.

Mike Keenan didn’t rant and rave, he simply told his boys they should be proud of themselves. He told them to play hard and enjoy the moment.

Don’t be that guy on the team that thinks he’s “Gods Gift to Gaming” and everyone else on the team sucks. He’s not part of the reason the team is losing, the rest of you are. Being confident is one thing, being an asshole is another. In the 1994 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Rangers needed to win the next 2 games or loose their shot at the Cup to the Devils. Before game six Mark Messier stepped up to the plate and guaranteed the win. Mark scored 3 goals in that game and the Rangers won. When Vancouver forced a game 7 after the Rangers had been up by 2 games Mike Keenan didn’t rant and rave, he simply told his boys they should be proud of themselves. He told them to play hard and enjoy the moment. That this is what they all dreamed about, playing a seventh game on home ice to win the Stanley Cup. The Rangers broke 50 years of “bad luck” and won the cup. There is no arguing that there was a boat load of talent on the Rangers that year but the Canucks weren’t a bunch of scrubs either. Leadership won the Rangers the cup that year, above all else it was the leadership that prevailed.

All men and women may not be born equal but that does not mean they don’t have the right to be treated as such.

If your team is doing bad, don’t get frustrated, don’t yell into the mic for people to get out of your way. Encourage the team, nurture them, guide them… LEAD THE WAY. Call out enemy positions, tell them you need someone to help take Flag B, say confidently “Who is going with me to get that flag?” You’ll be surprised at how easily this approach will turn the tide of the game. Talk to the team even if you think no one is listening. Talk TO the team, not AT them. All men and women may not be born equal but that does not mean they don’t have the right to be treated as such. Treat people with respect and mute the ones that don’t return it. Never waiver from your determination to win, never whine and show weakness. If no one showed up to help you cap the flag don’t ask, “where the fuck where you guys?” Say, “OK that’ didn’t go as planned, lets try this again, who’s with me?“

As the self proclaimed messiah of gaming it falls on you to gauge what the team is doing. If three or more guys are focused on capping then be the stalker. Circle the map and take out the enemy on their way to the objectives. You have to adapt to your teams play style. If you can’t go from being a rusher to being a tank you won’t do well in gen pop, you have to be versatile. You have to be the one to try and make up for your team’s shortcomings.

If you can’t do this, do us all a favor then; STFU about how great your are.

Gaming Scribble Sh33ts

You may have noticed I added a new widget to my sidebar. It’s a Box.net file sharing widget. Just scroll down a little and you’ll see it. I have uploaded some documents to this file sharing service that some of you gamers may find useful.

As I have mentioned before I only buy used games. Most used games come sans instructions. So I created Scribble Sh33ts. A simple diagram of a controller that you can use to quickly jot down the control scheme to your used or rented game for quick and easy reference without having to dig through the game’s menus.

I also created some Scribble Sh33ts for PC gamers.

You’ll find all these docs in the  Scribble Sh33ts folder of the b33m3r’s DOCS Widget. All the documents are in PDF format. Just click on the link to download the file and you’re ready to print it out whenever you need one.

So what’s in the Scribble Sh33ts folder?

• 360_Scribble – Xbox 360 Scribble Sh33t. 2 to a page/printout.
• Belkin_n52_Scribble_v1 – Belkin SpeedPad n52 Scribble. Single control layout. 1 per page/printout.
• Belkin_n52_Scribble_v2 – Belkin SpeedPad n52 Scribble. Multi control layout. 1 per page/printout.
• PC_Keyboard_Scribble – PC Keyboard Scribble. Not just for games, use it to jot down the shortcuts in your favorite programs (Photoshop, Writer, Excel, etc.). 1 per page/printout.
• PS2_Scribble – PS2 Scribble Sh33t. 2 to a page/printout.
• PS3_Scribble – PS3 Scribble Sh33t. 2 to a page/printout.
• Xbox_Scribble – Original Xbox Scribble Sh33t. 2 to a page/printout.

Black Ops: Class Warfare & Escalation

LOADOUTS OF THE SO CALLED PROS

I came across this article over at IGN regarding the class setups that the “top 5″ Black Ops players use. You don’t have to go check it out, I’ll sum it up for you. They all use the FAMAS. Just 5 privileged kids, playing all day with what many consider to be a noob gun. I’m not saying that the FAMAS is not a good gun or that you should not use it, I’m just saying the article is a waste of time and internet space. I really didn’t need IGN to point out the glaringly obvious. For me the FAMAS runs out of ammo too fast making running with Scavenger a necessity for my play style.

I’ve changed my Fantome class a little bit. I now equip him with an AK47 and a silencer. I like the extra stopping power the AK47 gives me and the silencer reduces muzzle flash and makes it a lot easier to handle. Without the silencer I would not be able to hit the broad side of a barn with this gun. I’ve replaced Warlord Pro with Hardened Pro on Fantome as well. It’s easier to take out a camper by shooting him through a wall. People say the less flinching aspect of Hardened pro helps out in 1v1 battles but I don’t notice much of a difference.

I’ve also started using a rush class. I call him Zippy. Lightweight/SoH Pro/Marathon. Equipped with a silenced AK74u. I’ve gotten quite good at getting into enemy territory and causing a bunch of havoc before they even realize I’m behind them. I’m thinking about trying Warlord on this class and adding Dual Mags for the extra ammo.

ESCALATION WILL BE OUT MAY 3rd

The previews look pretty good, the new Zombie map has me intrigued, and that’s coming form a guy whose probably spent a whole 30 minutes playing the zombie mode of Black Ops. I heard in interviews that these new maps are more “sniper friendly”. I’m not sure what that means, how can you get more friendlier than one shot one kill even when firing from the hip? The recent patch had some sniper fixes in it. I hate it when they patch things like this and don’t tell you exactly what they did. I’m not a big fan of snipers in multi-player shooters, I think they unbalance the game. I have to unload an entire clip into someone just to get them into Second Chance while his buddy can no scope me from 30 feet away and I’m dead. So I’m a little worried that they may have made sniping easier and the new map will be inundated with the little buggers.

The new maps look pretty good and I am looking forward to them.

The Only Playing Tip You’ll Ever Need

JUST HAVE FUN WITH IT... But learn the maps too.

I hopped onto Black Ops the other night for the first time in two weeks. You know what? I had fun. I even made 2 new friends. I played Ground War all night into the wee morning hours. Some games I did really well and other games I was terrible, but I did not rage quit or get even remotely frustrated. I just chugged along, laughing and joking with my new found friends and having a good time. It is a game after all.

A fella named Tim was nice enough to leave a comment on one of my previous Black Ops posts. Tim seems to think he’s the worst Black Ops player ever because no matter what he does–follow on line advice, combat training, etc.–he keeps getting fragged 15 times with only 5 kills to notch on his gun. Tim feels that other players just seem to look his way and he’s dead.

Well Tim, you’re not the worst Black Ops player, you should have seen a couple of the games I had last night! Tim, the reason those players can just look your way and you’re dead is simple. THEY KNOW THE MAPS.

Tim, you don’t know the maps my friend.

Of all the gaming advice I’ve read and followed for Black Ops none of it is as important as learning the maps. Don’t run blindly, try shooting from the hip, blah, blah, blah. LEARN THE MAPS. Everything else will fall into place once you learn the maps. Learning the maps does not mean you know where the Temple is on Jungle. Learning the maps means that you know the Temple area in Jungle is a good place to call in care packages, that there is a sniper spot on top the generator in WMD, that the path through the Mansion in Villa is the “road least traveled”, that placing a claymore in the room that leads out to the catwalk on Summit and on the small set of stairs going into the Factory on Radiation will almost guarantee a kill, that going up the middle on Launch is usually safer than circling the map. Learning the maps means knowing all the camping spots, the sniper spots and their lines of site,  knowing all the choke points and ambush spots. This information comes subtly to me now, almost subliminal. Gently tugging at the tendrils of my thoughts when I’m “in the zone” and nagging at me when I’ve overlooked them.

What’s the best way to learn the maps? I don’t know what will work for you. We all learn in different ways. I’ll tell you what worked for me. First, you have to be having fun. Forget about stats, about kills, about deaths, about assists, even forget about winning and losing. It’s a recreational game, not a job. If you’re having fun consequently you will learn faster. Mute all the asshats who take the game far to seriously right away, they are too much of a distraction.

OBSERVE AND ABSORB WHILE HAVING FUN

When I was learning the maps I played Domination games 24/7. People’s movements are predictable in Dom games and you don’t have to worry about your 6 as much. Makes it easier to observe and absorb whats going on around you. Everyone has the same 2 goals, capture those flags and keep you from recapturing them. Simple.

I never ran with my team, I’d duck into a corner to avoid that lucky Tomahawk throw from across the map, and then set out slowly and methodically behind my team. Watching the routes they took. Noting where they got killed. Watching for the routes the enemy’s rushers took and thinking about how I can get behind them. I paid attention to my kill cam, how I died, why I died and how I could prevent it from happening again.

I sacrificed the win during these times of observation. I played no objective. I stuck to the perimeter of the map, circling it, learning it. Making note of the camper spots, how to avoid them, how to effectively attack them. I paid close attention to the routes the enemy took to get back to the objectives. I did not give chase. I sat back. Counted. Made mental notes of where and if they bunched up. I looked for effective choke points to ambush them next time. I’d place claymores along their routes and made mental notes of which placements were the most lucrative. Once I could circle the map with a proverbial blindfold on I ventured through its center, finding the safest routes through trial and error.

You have to learn the maps. You have to learn how real people play those maps. I don’t believe you can do this in Combat Training. You can improve your reflexes in Combat Training but those bots don’t move the way real people will move in an objective based game. You have to learn the maps. Map designers forge these maps with ebbs and flows that people will naturally follow. People will use the same routes and generally the same tactics they use in Domination in virtually every other game mode. The difference is playing Domination will make it easier for you to learn because everyone else is preoccupied with the objectives.

Observe and absorb. Look for predictability. Snipers hustling to their favorite sniper spot. I assure you, 9 times out 0f 10, if you fragged him at that spot, he’s on his way back to it. Look for Rushers running the same path again and again. Remember that Claymore spot on Radiation I talked about earlier? I got the same 2 Rushers 5 times each in one Dom match last month, just by placing a claymore in that spot every time I re-spawned. Knowing the map is also about knowing your enemy. This will vary from game to game and lobby to lobby. Even after you’re familiar with the basic traffic flow and habits of a particular map, always take the first few moments of a game to sit back and really study the enemy.

Sure, don’t sprint everywhere (but do sprint across open expanse of a map if you can’t avoid it), stick to cover, keep the edge of the map to your back (especially in FFA games), boost up the difficulty in Combat Training to sharpen your reflexes, gradually turn the look sensitivity up to further sharpen and speed up your reflexes. Do all these things. None of it will help you one bit if you don’t know the maps.

I’m not a 1337 player, not by a long shot. I got frustrated just like you do. I thought I sucked because I just was not as reactive and quick as the other players, and that is somewhat true. I thought that the only way I’d get better was if science found a way to give me the reflexes of a 12 year old. When I finally stopped worrying about how good I was at a silly game I started to notice things I had not noticed before when I was all preoccupied with trying to aim faster and see things quicker. I noticed the patterns of the maps, the patterns of the players. Then I started to get better. I could not get better before because I didn’t know what I was looking for. I’m not a 1337 player, but I can hold my own.

Just sit back, relax and have fun playing the game. Just pay attention to the things I’ve mentioned while you are playing. Observe and absorb. Keep at it and you’ll know the maps in just a few short gaming sessions.