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Counter-Strike
New to Counter-Strike? Don't worry we were all once. It took me about a year before I got the hang of the game, or was it a year before I upgraded my computer? Either way, you don't get good quick, and you don't get good without practice.
Q. What server should I play on to learn?
A. Normal ones, play with normal players, you learn the quickest.
I am presuming that you are not new to First Person Shoot 'em Ups, you also have your controls configured correctly (any reference to controls will be to the default ones). If you are having problems getting started or setting up then I suggest you read the manual. Clever things they are.
What, where is the BFG?
Things to remember, this is NOT Quake. Do not expect you will be any good even if you were at Quake. This is NOT Death Match. This game is a STRATEGY game. The most expensive or powerful gun, is probably not the best. If you run in guns blazing true Quake style you WILL die. Unless you opposing team is complemented of total muppets. On the other hand you don't want to stand still. It doesn't do anybody apart from the enemy any good.
There are these rather cool weapons called Sniper Rifles. Don't run in to places in a hurry, people with these will point their gun at you and kill you with great ease. Snipers are dangerous, even in confined spaces they can often not want to die.
From my playing CS there is one thing I would like to express to people, WALK! When running you make noise, it's your feet pounding the ground. You aren't the only person who can hear this, the bad guys can too. All it takes is a single footstep to give yourself away. I have killed plenty of people because they don't have the patience to walk.
I can't seem to hit buggery.
Recoil me friend, recoil. Yes that thing you have no idea about, and is a nightmare to control. Bascially, when you fire a gun you get a kick back and the gun sprays bullets everywhere. You don't really want this to happen as the bullets have a habit of missing your target.
I am not going to list all the complicated details about recoil and aiming tips, this is a strategy guide, not an aiming guide. The best place to hit somebody is in the face, so point your cross hair there and fire. Just make sure you hit. When you are using heavy guns, like Assault Rifles DO NOT point at the face (it may hurt somebody). Point in the chest, exact area depending on the gun, distance of the enemy etc. Then when you fire the bullets will be pushed up and hit the bad guy's face.
A good trick to increase accuracy of any weapon is to crouch, still. You will notice with a sniper rifle if you are moving around like a loony and fire the bullet won't hit the target. It's the same with all guns. You will find crouching especially handy when shooting at long ranges.
This is something that only practice will fix. When I play against my brother I have no worry about what gun I use, because I know he can't control the recoil, so chances are only the odd bullet will clip me. I can rely on this, so make sure other people can't rely on you being a fool and missing.
How to camp without being "lame".
In Quake etc camping is where you sat on the BFG and killed everybody who came anywhere within shooting distance. This is not possible to do in CS, as there are no gun spawn points. You should remember these words when playing:
The above are often mistaken for camping, but are not. Remember this is a strategy game, the object of the game is to survive. If you are playing as a Counter-Terrorist (CT) on a defuse map, one of the best strategy's is to take out the bomb carrier. Once you have him the bomb just sits there waitng for another Terrorist (T) to come along and pick it up. There is nothing wrong in sitting around and watching it for the entire game (although you will probably find it tediously boring). You are guarding the bomb.
In a hostage level the T's have to protect the hostages from being saved by the CT's. The best way of doing this is simply to stay by them, or even use them as bait. It's the whole point of the game. Likewise in a defuse map there is nothing wrong in the CT's sitting in a bomb zone protecting it from the T's.
As mentioned above Snipers are dangerous, if you can kill people with a sniper rifle you are lethal, even worse if you can snipe with a close range weapon. A good idea is to leave a sniper behind the rest of the field to cover your team mates. This may mean the sniper has to climb up to a vantage point and pick people off. Though DON'T stay there when you have no reason to, it's a waste of snipers.
Although CS is not a DM game people will still run into areas rambo style, often taking out a few of your mates in the process. A good way to deal with the front attackers, or scouts is to ambush them. Simply sit behind a box, or in a shadow waiting for them to come running along looking for some frags. As they run past you jump onto them before they can do anything about it.
Killing team mates
This is commonly known as Team Killing (TK). People who do this are TK'ers. Friendly Fire is an option dependant on each server. Some servers will have it, some won't. The problem with the servers that do have it enabled is that you can hurt/kill your team mates. This is not a good thing to do. If you make more than 3 team kills in the game then you will be kicked from the server, and maybe even banned from the server.
If you do kill a team mate you will have to sit the next round out as a ghost. Although this is annoying when you accidently hit a mate in a fire fight when he only had 1% health left, it is also an advantage to you. As soon as the round starts, pop off to the enemy spawn point and see what they do.
Nobody likes a team killer, it is just plain annoying. It isn't even funny.
I'm still stuck
So you have read this guide, and you still have no idea on what to do. The next option is to speak to somebody. Many GSP's offer a game pro service, and their game admins are more than happy to help out new players. Try Wireplay, they have forums, and chat rooms full of people who know what they are talking about.