Author Archives: crkdskitzo
Watch Fragmovies!
A mostly undiscoverd art form, fragmovies or montages are a great source of entertainment. There is a huge community of people dedicated to making videos of their favorite games. No matter what type of game you play, there’s bound to a group of people who enjoy showing off their skills. I myself am a huge shooter fan, if you haven’t picked that up, and there are a number of sites I like to visit when I’m bored and like to watch people better than me pull off some of the craziest plays I’ve ever seen. I mean seriously, some of the people that play video-games have GOT to be freakin’ cyborgs or something…
Anyways, here’s of list of my favorite sources of fragmovies and montages.
Tek-9 Cinema
A great source for fragmovies from games that more realism-based. (CoD 4, CS:S) Tek-9 is the top CoD 4 team in the world.
The Movie Vault
Mainly a site dedicated to Source Engine games such as Counter Strike, Team Fortress Two, Day of Deafeat and others, there is also a collection of other games like Quake III: Arena, CoD 2 & 4, and many others.
Link: http://www.TheMovievault.net (redirects to sourceradio, who hosts The Movie Vault)
Own-Age
If your a fan of fast-paced sci-fi shooters, this is the site for you. You’ll find hundreds upon hundreds of Quake, Quake II, Quake III, Unreal Tournament, and UT:2k4 videos. Of course there are other games, but move-so-fast-your-brain-matter-dribbles-out-of-your-ears shooters are the main feature here. (Check out AnnihilatioN, my favorite Quake III fragmovie!)
Halo 3 Forum
This is for all you console fans out there. The videos section on H3F is the best collection of Halo videos on the net. Browse the videos section on the forums for the latest videos made. Also, the Video Help section has some of the best tutorials for capturing from your TV. Not worthy enough for a seperate mention, Halo3Montage.com is also a half-decent source for H3 montages.
Link: http://www.halo3forum.com//videoindex.php
Check out these sites, or google your favorite game and watch some videos. After watching many CS:S and CoD 4 fragmovies, I’ve actually managed to pick up little details here and there that make me a better player, and I hope you can do the same. Well, have fun and once again, Happy Fraggin’!
skitzo
Improve Your Game
Most casual gamers don’t realize exactly how crucial audio and their gaming surface is to their game. If you’re a hardcore PC shooter fanatic, odds are this article won’t apply to you, but if your a beginner or a casual gamer, you just might find some tips here that will vastly improve how you play.
The instant you fire up your favorite game, no longer are you equipped with a “human input keyset” and a “pointing device”, you should think of your mouse and keyboard as weapons of mass destruction! If you spend around 7 hours or more gaming a week, save up and treat yourself to a decent mouse, keyboard, and pair of headphones. Getting a good mouse, mouse surface, and headset are the most important, but if you have the cash to spare, getting a gaming keyboard is nothing short of a good investment.
When purchasing a gaming mouse, make sure that the mouse is comfortable, accurate and resistant to wear and tear from intense gaming. The exact same goes for your mousepad. I cannot stress enough that a good mousepad is just as important as a good mouse. I can personally recommend the SteelSeries QcK+, an absolutely giant fabric pad. There are similarly sized hard surfaces available. A cheaper alternative is to tape waxpaper over card stock on top of your desk. When it comes to gaming, just your desk just won’t do. When fine tuning your mouse, crank the DPI and refresh rate as high as possible, and turn off all mouse acceleration and things like “SmartMove.” Then, in-game, go to the lowest sensitivity you can possibly stand. This low sensitivity will help you be much more accurate. If you have carpal tunnel, or just don’t like flicking your arm around when gaming, you might want to look into a product like a Logitech Marble Mouse.
Audio is key to being good at the games you play, and cheaping out on a headset is not exactly a good idea. Odds are that a cheap headset will break much sooner than a nice set of earphones, and you’ll be stuck buying another. Get some nice 5.1 headphones, you can find them cheaper than you think. Even a decent set of earbuds is better than crappy stereo headphones. If you have a 5.1 sound system, great! Just make sure whatever you end up using, crank the volume up so you can hear details like people reloading, footsteps, etc.
Well, I hope some people will take this advice, and become worthy opponents! I know I did. Happy Fraggin’!
skitzo
Modify your Games!
Garrys MOd for the Source Engine
Has that last round of Counter Strike left a bland taste in your mouth? Did your third play-through of Crysis leave you bored and unsatisfied? Breath some new life into your old games by modding them!
Modding comes in all sorts of forms, from simple re-skins of existing game elements to completely new games made by modding an existing one. (This is how Counter Strike, Red Orchestra, and Team Fortress started!) There is some sort of modification available for nearly any popular game out there today. Some mods change the visual aspects of the game, such as weapon skins for CS:S while others change the way the game is played, like certain mods for Quake III, which change how much health you have and how much damage certain weapons do. Even if you play console games, Halo 3 allows surprisingly in-depth customization through the Forge tool.
Some of my favorite mods include…
Surf Maps– CS:S
ZombieMod – CS:S and CoD 4
Cel-Shaded Halo – Halo Pc
Weapon and Player Skins for CS:S ( I get mine from www.fpsbanana.com)
PAM 4 – CoD 4
I am currently waiting in great anticipation for Black Mesa: Source, a complete remake of Half Life using the Half Life 2 engine.
So, if you’re feeling a little bored, google your favorite game and see what kind of mods are available for download!
Open source, Freeware game – Warsow
Who’s a fan of free stuff? All of you? Thought so.
Recently I discovered an awesome freeware game, Warsow. This breakneck-paced game was made using heavily modified version of the Quake II engine. To me, its cel-shaded graphics and fast, smooth gameplay is PC gaming boiled down to the very basics. Warsow will run at 90 frames a second on nearly any computer worth playing games on, and look awesome.
If you decide to try out Warsow, make sure you take a look at the movement school tutorials at the top of their website. Features have been implemented into the game that allow the player to move incredibly fast by strafe jumping and bunny hopping. These features are unique to Warsow, and although I have seen the principle in other games, Warsow simplifies the process by taking out the need for precise timing.
So let’s see. It’s free, it’s cel-shaded (looks great), it’s open source, it’s fast, it’s fun, and incredibly customizable. If you’re in the mood for some new old-school fast-paced shooter action, or Quake 3 lost its appeal years ago, check out Warsow. You won’t be dissapointed.
skitzo
Upgrade Your PC – The Right Way.
Is your PC having difficulty keeping up with the latest games and applications? An upgrade may be in order. Many people feel that in order to “properly” upgrade their PC, they need every component to be replaced, and the newest, most expensive parts to get the best performance. Nothing is farther than the truth. An extremely respectable gaming rig can be built for less than $500, and I’m here to show you how.
Motherboard, Processor, Memory and Graphics Card. Four components is all most people need to buy when purchasing an upgrade, but this number can vary depending on how old your system is. If your pc is quite old, say 3 years or so (an eternity when it comes to computers!) additional parts may be required to properly support the newer components, such as a new power supply. If your computer is less than a year old, but you still want to play new games without shelling out over $1000 for a new gaming computer, you may only need a new graphics card!
Before upgrading any PC, make sure to triple-check that all the components are compatible. Proper power from your power supply is key. For the example system I will show you, a 500 watt power supply or above is recommended.
Here are some sample components I picked out from Newegg.com
BIOSTAR TA790GX – Motherboard: $99.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ – Processor: $112.99
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB DDR2 800 – Memory: $49.49
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 512MB – Graphics: $169.99
TOTAL: $432.46
THIS IS BEFORE REBATES! At the time of this post, there is a $30 rebate on the memory.
I can personally vouch for this system, as I have the same graphics card and memory, my processor is actually slower, and my motherboard specs are nearly identical. At 1650×1080 I get above 70 frames a second with max settings in Call of Duty 4. Six months ago, that probably would have run you over $1000! So there you have it. Proof that you don’t need a crazy amount of cash to get a crazy amount performance.
Skitzo
Welcome to the Underground. 