Classic FPS Gaming Maps

AmstradHero here again! The recent release of the Call of Duty 4 map pack has added a few nice additions to its already impressive multiplayer map line-up. While I'll leave a detailed analysis of each map's advantages, disadvantages and ups and downs to Ferris (well, okay, maybe he won't provide that, but I've dobbed him in now!), I feel like I should make a couple of comments about the gorgeous 'Creek'. Firstly, it's visually stunning. Buildings, trees, foliage, a dried creek bed, this map has got character and attractive scenery in spades. Even better, that wonderful eye-candy doesn't impact the performance one iota, and it's still a frantic pace of killing and warfare despite its beauty and large map size. Even better, it's a well designed map. This is one thing that makes or breaks multiplayer maps, and while it's painfully obvious when a map doesn't work, it's not always obvious why.

Rather than producing a monologue of how not to make a map (although I may do that at a later date), let's take a look at some classic maps that have worked. As someone with a passion for building game levels, I would unashamedly say I would have loved to have come up with the design of these three gems.

Counterstrike: de_dust

If you haven't played this map, then either you've been hiding under a rock for the past decade or more, or somehow you've managed to avoid playing one of the most influential FPS titles ever. Not bad for something that was born from a Half-life mod. The elegant simplicity of this level is what makes it work. Even better, it showcases a few great design achievements.

Firstly, it caters for its gameplay. Counterstrike lived and died by its rounds of several minutes. Which means the action has to be tight and fast. If players are sitting around for minutes at a stretch with nothing to do or simply traversing to get to the action (yes, I'm looking at you, Battlefield 2), then it is no good. A round in de_dust could be over in a matter of seconds if things went badly, either leaving you to savour victory, or contemplate brutal defeat. Occasionally rounds would time out, but it was significantly less likely than someone actively winning.

Secondly, it caters for both the aggressive and the cautious. There's the tight inside area for quick carnage, or there's the bridge underpass for a skirmish of sniping and counter-sniping. Both are strategically important, meaning that you're catering for your two character archetypes in FPS games.

Unreal Tournament: Facing Worlds

No list of classic maps would be complete without this map. It's been in every incarnation of Unreal Tournament thanks to the recent addition of it for UT3 - oh, the travesty at it not being included in the shipped version! Why? Because it is unequivocally FUN. Yes, it is a heaven for those players that love sniping, and potentially hell for those that don't, but despite it's massive and imposing sniper nests at opposite ends of the map, this Capture The Flag map again delivers the goods in terms of grandeur and gameplay.While at first it seems like snipers are king, snipers can't capture the flag. So again, it caters for its design. As a pure deathmatch map, it would likely be an abject failure, but its matching of a level made for sniper fodder contrasted against the need for run and gunners to actually achieve the objective needed to win means that it was an instant classic from its inception.

Even better, the game mechanics of dodging (and translocation, if it's not disabled) that are integral to UT mean that sniping isn't the instant fatality provider that it could easily be if this map existed in other FPS games. Not to mention that the potential for countersniping is so high that snipers have to continually monitor their opposition rather than just peppering the running players with headshots.

Quake 3 Arena: The Longest Yard

This level was unusual and innovative for its time in that it consisted of a heck of a lot of nothing. Really and truly, there's virtually nothing in this level. Eye candy is virtually non existent, as is in fact, anything. There's minimal geometry or hard ground for players to stand on, yet it still plays great if you fire up Quake 3 now.

The reason this level is so well designed is due to item placement. If you can control the level in Quake 3, then you have a massive advantage over your opponents. The Longest Yard is a strange and incongruous beast that both enforces this aspect of the game (which is a weakness or strength depending on your opinion - but that is another argument I don't have time for here), but also breaks it ruthless style. The two most powerful items in the level (the railgun and quad damage) are situated in the middle of empty space in clear view (and shooting range) of the rest of the level. Which means despite that you are screaming through the air at break-neck speed with very little ability to kill other people, they very much have an excellent shot at killing you, especially if they've managed to make the jump previously and pick up the beloved railgun.

So there's a trio of classic and brilliantly designed FPS levels. You'll notice a lack of games from recent titles, and you might argue I'm dwelling in a nostalgia paradise, but the truth is that these maps were very influential in the success of their individual titles, and have also influenced the development of levels in all FPS games since. I'm sure if you look in your favourite FPS map, you can see a little fragment of them in there...

(images from moditory.com and gamespy.com)

Call of Duty 4: Fight the Lag

If, while playing Call of Duty 4 on Xbox Live, you see me join a game only to leave 5 seconds later, please don't think I'm some kind of game-hopping n00b.  I have a good reason for visiting game after game like some kind of nomadic... er, nomad.  That reason is lag, which all Aussie online-gamers will be intimately familiar with.  Unfortunately Call of Duty 4 is not immune from this problem.  When I get a good connection (as represented by green bars) the game is fantastic, with the best players inevitably placing well on the leaderboard.  Once the connection drops to yellow- or even worse- red bars, all bets are off.  Skill has little to do with anything, and blind firing with a submachine gun on full-auto is the order of the day.  It's really very disappointing when you empty a full magazine into the enemy, only to see them stop, prop, and drill you through the forehead with a carefully-aimed shot.  All this could have been avoided if COD4 players were provided with some kind of connection filter, allowing us to filter out all games below a certain connection level.  I believe that HALO has this option, as do 99% of online PC games. As it stands, we Aussies have two options: 1. Hope that a friend is online and playing in an Aussie-dominated game (with a spare spot available to join), or 2. Spend 30 or 40 frustrating minutes searching for games, connecting to them, and then immediately leaving upon discovering that you have a woeful connection.  I'm sure that all it would take to end this misery for Aussie gamers is for a small patch to be released providing the connection filter option. In the meantime all we can do is hope and wait... 

(image from pregamelobby.com)

COD4: Xbox 360 Controller > PC's Mouse and Keyboard

I never thought I'd say this, but I have found an FPS that I prefer to play on console rather than on PC. The game is of course Call of Duty 4.  I have previously written about how much better COD4's controls are compared with other Xbox 360 FPSs, but it was only recently that I had the chance to experience COD4 on PC.  The venue was a LAN cafe in Canberra, where I joined around 30 of my workmates for an extended COD4-session. After the usual reconfiguring of controls, I began playing - confident that my previous experience with the game would hold me in good stead. But something was wrong, I just couldn't get comfortable with the controls - a first for me on a PC shooter.  Perhaps it was the lack of additional buttons on the mouse to assign various controls to, but I found that I didn't have enough fingers on my left hand to comfortably access all the functions I needed. Try as I might I couldn't reconfigure the keys any better, leaving me with the shocking revelation: Call of Duty 4 on console is superior to the PC version.  The Xbox 360 controller provides much faster and more convenient access to the controls you need, while not sacrificing aiming accuracy - the scourge of the console FPS since time immemorial. I'm no PC FPS n00b - having played more than my fair share over the years -  so this conclusion is as much of a shock to me as it is to you. It's a good shock mind-you, as it overcomes one of the last remaining bastions of PC gaming superiority... :)

(image from gadgetsandgames.co.uk)

Call of Duty 4: top tips for Claymore fun

As you may have read in my previous article claymores are my friends, I just can't get enough of the little fellas in Call of Duty 4. I have experimented by placing claymores in all kinds of locations, and have employed many different tactics along the way. Here are some of my favourite top tips for claymore fun!

• Unexpected location strategy. I like to place the claymores in seemingly-random spots, usually where they can be partially obscured by grass. This provides a nice surprise for enemies who carelessly dash between supposed empty/safe sections of the map. By the time they see the claymore it's usually too late.
  
• Fall-back ambush strategy. When approaching a firefight, I often prepare for a possible retreat by placing a few claymores along the way. Point them in the direction you are traveling. Just around corners and along narrow laneways are obvious choices. Enter the firefight as usual, but if you feel the tide turning against you start backing away in a fighting retreat. Alternatively you can turn and run- that will work as a lure too. The enemy usually can't resist chasing you, and with his attention firmly focused on finishing you off he will inevitably miss your little insurance policy. Until it blows up in his face that is.
  
• Cover your tracks strategy. Slightly different to the fall-back ambush strategy in that you face the claymores away from your direction of travel. Very reassuring if you end up in a battle to know that you won't be caught from behind. You know what I mean.
  
• Block all entrances strategy. An old favourite for snipers and campers. Simply find a nice safe location with only a few entrances, then claymore the heck out of them. The first you'll know about an enemy attack is a large explosion and 10+ points on your score.

(image from mocoloco.com)

COD 4 pwns HALO 3

Am I the only person who didn't like HALO 3? Sometimes it feels like it, although Zero Punctuation's HALO 3 review gave me hope that there were people out there as underwhelmed as I was.  I bought HALO 3 on the strength of the reviews I had read, but on playing the game found it to be ordinary in the extreme.  After persevering with it for a day or so (and really wanting to like the game), I could put up with it no longer and traded it for Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Vegas.  Now there's a decent game!  

Compared with HALO 3, I  didn't have any trouble getting into Call of Duty 4.  COD 4 grabbed me from the first moment, and it hasn't disappointed since.  The single player game is absorbing and the multiplayer is intense- and with a real strategic side to it.  I was preparing myself to be let-down by COD 4 just as I was by HALO 3 (and COD 3 for Wii, come to think of it...), but it looks like the game reviewers got this one right.  :)

(images from got-next.com and activewin.com)

Call of Duty 4: Martyrdom is fun

I've been playing Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare on Xbox 360 quite a lot lately.  I'm sure you all know from personal experience (or have read in the zillions of reviews on the web) just how fantastic this game is.  So I won't bore you with yet another COD4 mini review.   Although I am mostly getting M21-whipped by 14-year olds, I have managed to progress up through the ranks and obtain new perks, with Last Stand being my favourite.  Last Stand enables you to remain alive (but immobile) for a short time after being 'killed', so that you can exact some pistol-revenge on the enemy who assaulted you.  Maybe I'm just sick, but I can't help laughing each time I put a few 9mm rounds into an overzealous enemy who thinks they're about to finish me off.  Last Stand, however, pales into insignificance compared to the tastefully-named Martyrdom perk.  Martyrdom, as I have found out numerous times, causes the enemy you have just slaughtered to drop a live grenade next to their corpse.  I fall for it every time, with the grenade exploding just as it dawns on me that I should run away.  It's pretty awesome actually, except for the fact that I don't have the perk yet.

BTW, why am I having trouble getting a decent connection when playing COD4?  Occasionally I get green bars, but usually they are yellow or orange.  This doesn't help when fending off the hordes of juveniles with P90s, red-dot sights, and the ability to see around corners.  The joys of Australian broadband maybe?

(image from CharlieOscarDelta.com)