The most popular misconception of computer gamers is that they are un-athletic. After all, gamers don’t really run, jump, or doing anything physically exhausting except inside the computer screen of course. While that may be true, computer gaming requires tremendous physical skills that most people are not aware of. I equate the skills that gamers have to the skills that race car drivers have. Each sport requires tremendously quick reflexes as well as precise hand and eye coordination. And no other game genre requires those skills more than first person shooters (FPS). More so than RPG’s or RTS’, FPS’ are about split second decision making and rapid movements. I can argue that a great FPS player has reflexes and hand-eye coordination as good as any NASCAR or F1 racer.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. A video then is probably worth a million. There's really no subsitute for live action footage to show you how things are suppose to be done. I can write for hours on end without capturing the true essence of a fight scene as a good video can. In this lesson, I'm going to show you a video of me playing, and I'm going to walk you through it to explain the good and bad of Greedy's game.

How can you immediately tell if a player is a noob or not? Easy--if he stands still taking bullets to his chest willingly, without moving or trying to dodge them. When I first played Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, I had no idea how much my life could be extended by simply moving left and right as someone was firing at me. Who would of knew the simple act of pressing the “A” and “D” keys could be so beneficial to one’s life? After all, in real life, who can dodge bullets anyway? So, why bother moving when it hurts your aim? Well, this isn’t real life; this is FPS. In ET, by simply strafing, you can dodge enemy fire, and dramatically improve your kill-death ratio. Today, we’re going to go over the basics of strafing.

A covert ops lies within your crosshairs. You’re a medic. You lick your chops. Easy kill. You run towards him, hoping for a clear head shot. He hears your foot steps, scurries away. Should have shot him earlier. You pursue. He turns the corner, you follow. Then, a big surprise stops you dead in your tracks. Around the corner are three of his friends, armed and ready to riddle you with bullets. Instead of being the predator, you are now the prey. May God’s grace be on your side as the first bullet comes your way.

How good are you, really? There’s only one objective way to find out—look at the stats. Of course, with the plethora of numbers that Wolfenstein gives you, it can be confusing to read and interpret the results. After all, which numbers are important and which are meaningless? Let’s cut through the clutter and find out.

Imagine this. You’re in the middle of a fire fight. You and the enemy are exchanging heavy fire. Both sides have taken damage. Then… click click, you’re out of ammo. Damn! You panic. I’m dead now! Suddenly, another click click. Your opponent has run out of ammo too. Thank God. You breathe a sigh of relief. I have time. But what do you do next? Do you reload your machine gun then fire away or do you take out your pistol and immediately return fire? Tough choices. Fact is there are no easy answers to this question. Whether or not to reload your more powerful machine gun in favor of switching to your weaker pistol depends on the situation. Let’s go over some scenarios where it would be advantageous to do one over the other.

Whenever people think of John Rambo, they see images of a badass soldier, who without hesitation or fear, dives into the battlefield with guns blazing. While he is certainly not afraid to mix it up in front of enemy fire, Rambo is really more of a tactical fighter than a straight up shooter. If you remember the Rambo movies, he spends most of his time ambushing his enemies or camping at a strategic location and picking off baddies from there. Only towards the end of the movie does he lay the smackdown and really give it to them. Now, I don't come up with Wolfenstein strategies from watching Rambo, but I bring it up to make a point: use your head before using your gun. By carefully camping at strategic locations, you can kill lots more baddies and suffer fewers deaths.

The GDF medic in Quake Wars is a lot different from the medics in Wolfenstein. Whereas in the original ET, medics ruled the game, GDF medics here are more of a support unit. Gone are the days when you can go Rambo on a crowd of people. As a GDF medic, you have to play smart and pick your spots to fight because you're not as powerful as you use to be. Let's go over the basics of what you need to know to survive on the battlefield as a GDF medic.