Gamer's Opine Help?

[owcraftsman]

Hi all.
First off I'm no stranger to gaming but a virgin to online multiplayer.

I want to bust the proverbial cherry.

My Games:
BF2 + SF + EF +AF +
BF2142
CoD2
CoD4
Q4
NFS UG
MS FS cof 04
FC
FEAR
SC
R63
Halo and various others dating back to pong (Atari)

Some I'm selling and the top 4 I plan to play online

The Q's
My gamespy account is expiring should I renew it?
Where should I go to play?
Should I use punkbuster and just log on to servers through games interface?
Best place for patches files?
Best place for tips tricks guides and cheats?
Best place for a grunt **** like my self?

All opinions welcome only thing I ask is no flaming other peeps opinions.

Use your wit to annihilate the competition not your a$$.

[onebxr]

The Q's
My gamespy account is expiring should I renew it?
Where should I go to play?
Should I use punkbuster and just log on to servers through games interface?
Best place for patches files?
Best place for tips tricks guides and cheats?
Best place for a grunt **** like my self?

gamespy, I have never used it. get xfire if you want the same thing with less resources being taxed

to play, just hop on somewhere, we have a server here at HL for COD4 if you wanna start out with that

punkbuster, it is a must for use with some games

patches, go to the creator of the game. I usually go the website and dl all the patches

cheats, a big no no, I have never once used a cheat, why? that defeats the whole fun of the online experience for me. Also could lead to a ban on your account.

best place for you, anywhere you feel comfortable, play a bit and if you dont like the vibe, go to another server, there are a million out there to choose from. another thing is to try and get a good ping (the lower the better)

-1

[PrOLifIC_onE]

My gamespy account is expiring should I renew it?
I recommend getting Xfire (free gaming chat program)

Where should I go to play?
On servers with friends and/or settings that you like. It may take a little time to browse different play-modes to find your preference. For COD4, HL has a server, just keep an eye on the COD4 thread.

Should I use punkbuster and just log on to servers through games interface?
YES, USE PB! You can connect through the game or through Xfire. (Be sure to read my punkbuster comments below, answering your cheats question)

Best place for patches files?
There are many sites that offer DLs for patches. Check the developer's website first. If the DL is too slow or not available there, they usually offer other links (some to paid-subscription sites)

Best place for tips tricks guides and cheats?
Just google the game name and see if you can find a very active forum for the game you are interested in. Youtube has some hint/trick videos. Using glitches (bugs) will get you booted and sometimes banned from servers. Using cheats will get you banned, likely globally banned from all punkbuster servers, so don't even download one to 'see what it is like' because they will not unban you and you will end up stuck only being able to go to non-PB servers that will likely have mostly cheaters (not fun).

Best place for a grunt **** like my self?
Again, find servers and/or clans that have members/players with personalities like yours...

[u beat me to it BXR]

[onebxr]

but yours looks prettier!
-1

[owcraftsman]

Originally Posted by onebxr

but yours looks prettier!
-1

Prettier yes but much the same info. Thanks! for the input to both of you!
I will not be using cheats a quick read on the subject with PB doused that stupid idea.
Yes the the dev sites are to slow.
Does xfire have a DL svc?
What is gaming chat and who would have time to chat in game? text or speak ??
Why Xfire over what comes with the game besides less resources, seems like more to manage?
I've used PBsetup.exe to update PB seems to work great any comments?
as fas as Best place for tips tricks and guides? I know how to use google but were to you guys go.
Yes! I saw the server for CoD4 thread. Do you have to wait til there's a full board or can you play anytime?
Sorry for all the Q's
How do ya know what the settings that are being used? I see what map and #of Players but unclear about some other settings. IE: Deathmatch?

[theburan]

Also, as an alternative to xfire, if you launch most games from steam (there's an add non steam application button on the games page) it'll let you use steam friends in game (works with most games that I've tried).

I just like the look of steamfriends better... and most of the people I talk to are on steam. All the people I have on xfire just play wow... lol.

Just an option.

[screwballl]

Xfire works across all games so no need for proprietary "what we support" type of crap and program bloat. Yes they do have a download service so if there is a new patch that it sees your game needs it can automatically download it (or you can change the options to ask you first). Also if you go in a game, it pauses the download to give your game full bandwidth. It supports text and voice chat. when you get a message it just dings and you press Scroll Lock + X to open the ingame Xfire chat system and can chat when you're dead or map loading.
As for the servers and the text/voice chats, that all depends on the server. I will look to see if our COD4 server supports voice or not... but most of the time the HL COD4 server is set to FFA (or free for all) so you just run around and kill anyone and everyone... but if it gets a bit busier, we can also change it to TDM... you can jump in anytime but since it is a online multiplayer game, it doesn't do much good to run around by yourself since there's no objective other than to kill other players.

As for PB, with COD4 installed, it automatically keeps PB running in the background and will refuse to let you in a server if those processes are shut down.

[owcraftsman]

hmmm that might explain why when trying to multi player BF2142 I get an error.
All the little error type popup window say's is 'Punkbuster" & 'OK' when I click and try to join any server and I can't get on one.
Do you know the name of the PB process exe so I can look for it and make sure it's running? I recall when loading CoD4 being given the option to instal PB with the install but don't remember that with the BF2142 install. But PB gets updated with the PBsetup.exe for BF2142, CoD4 and BF2 so it must be there.

Originally Posted by screwballl

HL COD4 server is set to FFA (or free for all) so you just run around and kill anyone and everyone...

Yeah I don't think I'd like FFA.

[PrOLifIC_onE]

The chat function for xfire is also while not in a game. You can add all your gaming friends and it will tell you if they are online, and if they are, if/what game they are playing. If you have the same game, you can right click on your friend and go directly to their server. I do rarely use the in-game text chat, but occasionally a friend may be getting a hold of you to see if you want to play a different game or go to another server. As far as voice chat (comms), I like using that while playing with friends. If the game has built-in comms, sometimes I use that but I have used teamspeak, ventrilo and skype for that most of time (my preference is teamspeak but the others are good in their own ways).

As far as game types, some servers will stay on one type and some will rotate game types as the server changes maps. But there are other server settings that you may look for too. Like is friendly-fire on or off. Some have no respawning, some will have 3 second or 20 second respawning. After getting used to 3 second respawning, having a long respawn time seems to drag. Is the server a 10-man server, 50-man server or something else? Probably most importantly, are the server admins asshats, whining and kicking people for stupid reasons, or are they mature... And their are many other little settings/characteristics that you may or may not like, you just figure them out as you play. They may not always be deal breakers but when you have thousands of servers to choose from you may as well find a server that you like. Many of these settings can be displayed or filtered when refreshing your server list under your multiplayer, internet tab.

I think PB is different depending on the game. I had to DL the PB update/install for cod4 and install it seperate. In some previous games that I played, PB would auto install/update with the game. Maybe some people had different experiences with cod4 but I had to go to the PB site.

[screwballl]

thats what is nice about COD4... the server admin can set specific maps to any of the game types... so have Crash as Free-for-all, have Bloc as TDM, have WetWorks as capture the flag and so on... or even rotate the game types so within a few hours of playing you can end up playing all the maps in each of 4 different modes. I am thinking of doing this with my own personal server...