Console FPS Strategies

Tw4win

I've spent the majority of my gaming life playing platformers, JRPGS, and PC FPS games. Now I have a 360 and I want to start playing some console RPS' but it seems that I suck at them. I find aiming and moving and aiming to be incredibly difficult. Is it just lack of skill/experience with the joystick or am I missing something.

For instance, in Gears of War I'm doing the tutorial at the start of the game and I can't seem to hit a damn thing. Is there an easy way to target while not becoming a target yourself?

Can anyone suggest some "beginner" console FPS games that are easier to learn/master?

Kiwistrike

no. tough it out you pathetic slime.

LewieP

Timesplitters/Goldeneye should be your first port of call methinks.

Algertman

hmmm.....stick with Gears. It's the easiest of the shooters on 360 that I have played.

You can get Quake for dirt cheap.

Stigma

Pro Tip: Gears of War has terrible controls, but you should still be able to shoot things. The only thing you should have an excuse for is sticking to the wrong walls at the wrong times and diving when you want to stick or sticking when you want to dive.

ihd

As with anything, skill comes with experience. Tough it out.

Games with the Halo health-recovery system are fairly forgiving (Gears is one of them, though technically not a FPS), so they're the best to learn on. If possible, play on a HDTV using component or VGA cables, the sharper image and less-annoying refresh rate should make for less disorientation.

Tw4win

Stigma wrote: »

Pro Tip: Gears of War has terrible controls, but you should still be able to shoot things. The only thing you should have an excuse for is sticking to the wrong walls at the wrong times and diving when you want to stick or sticking when you want to dive.

I'm finding that issue too.

Is there a way to fine tune your controls when in cover?

Stigma

Tw4win wrote: »

Stigma wrote: »

Pro Tip: Gears of War has terrible controls, but you should still be able to shoot things. The only thing you should have an excuse for is sticking to the wrong walls at the wrong times and diving when you want to stick or sticking when you want to dive.

I'm finding that issue too.

Is there a way to fine tune your controls when in cover?

Nope.

I recommend playing Rainbow Six: Vegas.
Though you'll probably die alot, at least you'll know it's your own damned fault.

ihd

Tw4win wrote: »

Stigma wrote: »

Pro Tip: Gears of War has terrible controls, but you should still be able to shoot things. The only thing you should have an excuse for is sticking to the wrong walls at the wrong times and diving when you want to stick or sticking when you want to dive.

I'm finding that issue too.

Is there a way to fine tune your controls when in cover?

Fine tune? Note that you've got two accessible levels of sensitivity at any one time in Gears; zooming in also slows down your aim.

Tw4win

ihd wrote: »

Tw4win wrote: »

Stigma wrote: »

Pro Tip: Gears of War has terrible controls, but you should still be able to shoot things. The only thing you should have an excuse for is sticking to the wrong walls at the wrong times and diving when you want to stick or sticking when you want to dive.

I'm finding that issue too.

Is there a way to fine tune your controls when in cover?

Fine tune? Note that you've got two accessible levels of sensitivity at any one time in Gears; zooming in also slows down your aim.

So yeah, I kinda forgot about that and now feel kinda stupid.

On the upside, I think I'll pick up Rainbow 6: Vegas sometime this week...

Lach

I'm going to start working on a regiment of Halo 2 everyday for a month and I'm gonig to chart my progress. I just got into console FPSes and I suck pretty bad, lets see what my little experiment tells us.

Namel3ss

I feel your pain.

For consoles I love RPGs, arcade style games and racing sims. All of my friends enjoy Rainbow Six etc, but I can't get into FPS games for consoles (I love them for PC). The goddamned thumb sticks are terrible excuses for aiming, I can not imagine a worse contraption (exaggeration).

I don't understand it for sure, but I like playing online with friends and whatnot so I stuck it out and can hold my own. It is not the same satisfaction as destroying them at Counter Strike or half life single player was.

FreddyD

Trial by fire:

1. Download joy2key
2. Set up the 360 controller to where you like it
3. Play the bots in Unreal 2k4. The difficulty is automatically adjusted to match your skill level.
4. Make n00bs tremble in terror at your godlike skill

You may have to repeat step 3 for awhile to get to step 4.

Hevach

FreddyD wrote: »

Trial by fire:

1. Download joy2key
2. Set up the 360 controller to where you like it
3. Play the bots in Unreal 2k4. The difficulty is automatically adjusted to match your skill level.
4. Make n00bs tremble in terror at your godlike skill

You may have to repeat step 3 for awhile to get to step 4.

If all else fails, many people make their rise to FPS 1337dom simply by shouting incoherent profanity and accusing everybody who ever hits them of hacking. I haven't tried that myself, but if I'm stuck on step 3 much longer, I might give it a shot. I'll let you know how it goes.

Antibodies

Tw4win wrote: »

On the upside, I think I'll pick up Rainbow 6: Vegas sometime this week...

Yea, you don't want to get into a game where you can be killed in one shot while you're trying to build up your confidence and ability. Try something as forgiving as possible, easy campaigns will get you comfortable but good people to play with online and talk to will be your trial by fire and get you up to speed faster.

Try Halo2 Training with some people, Lach has the right idea. It would help to know what you've played in the past and what your goals are for the future. If you're planning on being a big console FPS guy, Halo3 is where everyone will be for the next year, its good to get a headstart now.

Tw4win

Maybe us N00bs should agree on a game and meet via Xbox Live a couple of times a week for practice?

Lach

Antibodies wrote: »

Tw4win wrote: »

On the upside, I think I'll pick up Rainbow 6: Vegas sometime this week...

Yea, you don't want to get into a game where you can be killed in one shot while you're trying to build up your confidence and ability. Try something as forgiving as possible, easy campaigns will get you comfortable but good people to play with online and talk to will be your trial by fire and get you up to speed faster.

Try Halo2 Training with some people, Lach has the right idea. It would help to know what you've played in the past and what your goals are for the future. If you're planning on being a big console FPS guy, Halo3 is where everyone will be for the next year, its good to get a headstart now.

Yeah, Halo 3 beta was my first real taste of Console FPS multiplayer. (I have dabbled in Gears, but mostly co-op) I love the game, but I suck. So I figured I'd try a little experiment to see if I could prepare myself for Halo 3. I also thought it's be cool to chart my progress like a diet or work out plan.

Bamelin

My history with FPS's starts with Tribes 1 and runs through a long list of FPS games I played on my PC.

The 360 was my first experience with "console" shooters ... it hurt at first. Eventually though you get used to it ... and to be blunt I really enjoy sitting in my beanbag chair in front of my big HDTV, rather than being hunched over my PC.

RTS's are another story however ... I'm having real trouble making the adjustment to console RTS controls.

Stigma

Antibodies wrote: »

Tw4win wrote: »

On the upside, I think I'll pick up Rainbow 6: Vegas sometime this week...

Yea, you don't want to get into a game where you can be killed in one shot while you're trying to build up your confidence and ability. Try something as forgiving as possible, easy campaigns will get you comfortable but good people to play with online and talk to will be your trial by fire and get you up to speed faster.

Try Halo2 Training with some people, Lach has the right idea. It would help to know what you've played in the past and what your goals are for the future. If you're planning on being a big console FPS guy, Halo3 is where everyone will be for the next year, its good to get a headstart now.

R6 is pretty tough, but really it's forgiving compared to old versions.
It has the Halo regenerating health system and I don't think you'll ever die in one shot on the default level.

Yeah, it's still pretty tough. It just has tight controls for taking cover, aiming and shooting.

carbon13

I was in the same boat. Maybe try inverting your Y axis? So up is down and down is up. I can't play console fps's without this, and I used to play pc shooters to death.

Oh and after a while you WILL get good. Just takes time and practice.

Stigma

D :

FaceballMcDougal

Train yourself on geometry wars

seriously... hit 500k+ on geometry wars and you will have the moving + aiming mechanic down

Tw4win

FaceballMcDougal wrote: »

Train yourself on geometry wars

seriously... hit 500k+ on geometry wars and you will have the moving + aiming mechanic down

Not a bad idea...


I forgot about Rainbow 6: Vegas when I was shopping for 360 games this week. The only R6 I ever played was the first one on the PC and I thought it was decent. Not great, just decent. However, my favorite tactical FPS of all time is SWAT 4. It it's anything like that I'll be happy.

There is, of course, something to be said for using a taser on someone and I doubt you can do that in R6

ben0207

Tw4win wrote: »

Maybe us N00bs should agree on a game and meet via Xbox Live a couple of times a week for practice?

I'm up for this. My Haloing has gone way downhill of late

FyreWulff

Try different control schemes, too. I hated Halo's controls until I switched the sticks to Legacy.

Lach

FaceballMcDougal wrote: »

Train yourself on geometry wars

seriously... hit 500k+ on geometry wars and you will have the moving + aiming mechanic down

I suck at Geometry Wars. This would probably help the console aiming a lot, but success in an FPS also depends a lot on how well you learn the maps.

RepoMan1023

I really suggest that you do not get Rainbow 6: Vegas if you just want to learn. It is an incredibly harsh learning curve online. The single player may be all right at the lowest difficulty, but it will probably get very frustrating later on. It is however, very good "training" for average players. I teaches quick reflexes (reticle over target, scoping, etc), some squad tactics/cover fire, and the use of proper cover (aka "getting the hell away alive").

For a newer player, I suggest some of the arcade style of games with the recharging shields or easy health recovery. The best would probably be Halo 2 with the UT games being a bit more on the advance level. Halo 2 can be pretty brutal online, but it has some of the smoothest control schemes to date. If you can find a group of equally skilled players online, it can be very fun.

The only way to improve is to play more. The more you play, the more accustomed you will be to the controls and soon it will be second nature. Try inverting the controls to see what you are most comfortable with.

FaceballMcDougal

Lach wrote: »

FaceballMcDougal wrote: »

Train yourself on geometry wars

seriously... hit 500k+ on geometry wars and you will have the moving + aiming mechanic down

I suck at Geometry Wars. This would probably help the console aiming a lot, but success in an FPS also depends a lot on how well you learn the maps.

Absolutely.

I don't mind getting owned on maps while I'm learning them now that I can "hit stuff".

Just for the record my game improved a hell of a lot when I trained myself to stop using inverted Y axis.... which I did by playing geometry wars.

If you think about it... the right stick which is typically "look" on FPS games is "shoot" on Geometry Wars and shooting to the upper right means moving the stick to the upper right. When I was playing inverted moving the reticle to the upper right meant *lower right* and that is confusing for your brain.

Namel3ss

My geometry wars score is 1.1mill, but I am still crappy at console fps.

Its the lack of thumbstick accuracy. I play with a mouse at 1600dpi, I like having that kind of control.
I don't know, I feel like I am just bitching a ton and my friends always tell me to just learn to deal with it.

"Learn to deal with it"

Seems like there is room for improvement, no?

RedShell

I gotta say, the best thing about Halo games is that player movement is nice and not-disorienting. I like UT, but it really stretches my 'where am I' muscles because character movement is a little complicated. In that sense, you might go all the way and practice on something *even*slower*, like MechAssault or something.

ins0mniac

Alot of FPS, whether it be Console or not, is all about picking and choosing your battles, and in cases like Halo, knowing the maps and weapons.

If you see an enemy, your first instinct is, for the most part "shoot now, ask questions later". But more often then not, you will benefit much more out of strategically approaching the enemy. You're really not gonna hit anything if you're shooting at them from halfway across the map, but you are going to alert him to your position. So wait, approach and wait for the most opportune time to open fire.

Also, if you're running in close range with a sniper rifle and he's lighting you up with some assault rifle fire, who do you think is gonna win?

bruin

It's been mentioned already but it's worth stressing, just play through Halo and Halo 2 single player. They really do control the best of all console shooters. Start off on easy difficulty if you're really having trouble with it.

ihd

A few general points:

Practice speedrunning; if you can outdistance your opponent, you can dictate the terms on which you engage and disengage.

Don't be afraid to retreat if a battle isn't going in your favour. Don't be afraid to hide behind things.

life3

One standout difference I have noted in my console FPS playstyle is that I often favor -strafing- to get my crosshair where it needs to be. I also usually swap sticks from the default such that movement is on my right stick and aiming on the left stick; mainly because I find it difficult to aim and fire on the same hand. Slamming that right trigger tends to jerk my thumb a bit.

JCRooks

I recommend playing only with friends that you know, which are either at a similar play level, or will be nice enough not to pwn you constantly. Better yet, play with friends in team modes. I started off pretty horrible at R6:Vegas, but played regularly with two buddies that were hardcore. Even with my noob ass, we still dominated thanks their skills and lots of communication. (Yes, teamwork in a team setting actually matters, go figure)

The thing not to do is just jump into regular quick-matches (team or solo) and try to learn that way. That's just a recipe for getting fed up and disgusted. At least go single-player, or find a game that has bots, and do that for a while.

Tw4win

I'm going to practice my Gears of War for a couple of days and then organize a "n00b night" for PAers that aren't that good with FPS games on consoles.

Everyone OK with GoW or would you prefer something else?

ben0207

Halo 3?

august

I sucked at console fps games for a while, till me and some friends played Timesplitters for a few days. Eventually magically my brain adjusted my skill from kb and m to the corresponding sticks and I was undefeated the entire rest of the week.

FightTest

Console FPSs are an aberration and you should be proud of your inability to excel at them. The keyboard and mouse were not made for data entry, they were actually a divination of a wise sage who foresaw the coming of the FPS and the need for such items in the future.

(aka I sucked horribly at Halo 2 but instead of caring I just dismissed console FPSs as kids games and went back to my computer)

Zombiemambo

FightTest wrote: »

Console FPSs are an aberration and you should be proud of your inability to excel at them. The keyboard and mouse were not made for data entry, they were actually a divination of a wise sage who foresaw the coming of the FPS and the need for such items in the future.

(aka I sucked horribly at Halo 2 but instead of caring I just dismissed console FPSs as kids games and went back to my computer)

If you are serious....wow.

BaronVonSnakPak

i dont know, i rock the house at geometry wars, but im not the best at console fps games.