THESE ARE A FEW OF MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDED WAYS OF GETTING BETTER, THIS VARIES FROM PERSON TO PERSON.
IF YOU HAVE OTHER TIPS AND TRICKS THEN PLEASE BE CONSTRUCTIVE AND ADD IT ON TO THE THREAD AS IT'S HERE TO HELP PEOPLE

So I've seen people asking how to get better at CoD. Mainly it's practice but this is just a few extra tips that are bound to increase your quality and style of play. I hope it helps, please don't flame if you dis-agree... This is here to help.


I played a lot on Decerto with vVvGaming and I'll give you some good and not extremely common tips.

If you wish to a better player all together you should be aiming to play with a competitive mind and use what ever advantage you can gain over the opposition. This can get expensive with equipment such as headsets etc, and I'll break it down into categories of 3, those being "Top of the Range", "Entry Level" and "Cheap".

Headsets:-
-Headsets
-This is one of the best ways to improve your gameplay in games like CoD. Having the sound specified in either of your ears (and in some headsets a surround sound) will allow you to hear and pinpoint exactly where the enemy is. Lots of people underestimate the use of a headset in black ops due to the ambiance of the maps. This couldn't be farther from the truth, if you crank the volume up on your headset you can easily hear people through ninja pro and be able to get an effective turn on someone behind you.

TOP OF THE RANGE HEADSETS - Astro A40's, TurtleBeach X41
The two most popular headsets (Astro being my favoured as it's used in MLG).
More information here: ASTRO - www.astrogaming.com/products/detail/12/A...-System-MLG-Edition/
TURTLEBEACH - www.turtlebeach.com/products/xbox-gaming...s/ear-force-x41.aspx

These headsets are nearly identical and upon using my friends X41's I still preferred the Astro. It's down to personal preference here. as both range around $199.99

ENTRY LEVEL HEADSETS - Astro A30's, TurtleBeach X31, Turtlebeach X11
Again we see turtlebeach and astro competing once again. I used to own the X11 and the X31 and they were fantastic as entry level headsets. The only difference i could tell between the X31 and the X11 was that the X31 was wireless and that's about it. The sound quality was just as good as the X11 but with the added comfort of freedom to move. I used my friends Astro A30's and found them near enough identical to the X31.

Now it's down to my personal preference as I'd see it now. As I play competitive I use WIRED accessories exclusively. This is due to it reducing the LAG between the console and your ears. So when it comes to choosing the X11 and the wireless headsets, it's your personal preference as to whether you'd prefer the freedom of movement with the headset on OR the restriction of movement and the less lag.

Also the prices between the X11 and the X30s/A31's is a fairly large amount. X11 costing $59.95 whereas the other 2 are ranged at around $99 - $129

ASTRO A30 - www.astrogaming.com/products/detail/106/A30-MLG-Headset/
X31 - www.turtlebeach.com/products/xbox-gaming...s/ear-force-x31.aspx
X11 - www.turtlebeach.com/products/xbox-gaming...s/ear-force-x11.aspx

CHEAP
These headsets are VERY cheap and shouldn't be used to play with competitively unless you feel the need to. They're for the casual gamer that merely want's to imrprove the game sound.

Turtlebeach XLC - www.turtlebeach.com/products/xbox-gaming...s/ear-force-xlc.aspx

Either them or you could plugin some standard earphones into your TV and play your sound through them.

EDIT: also check Sennheiser, Steel Series or Tritton for other good makes of headsets (reminder by TRuTHv)

CONNECTION
Get the fastest as possible connection. I pay for a 32mb broadband and I plug ethernet directly into the router. 4bar almost constantly and I'm usually host. This is my separate gaming line, only thing used on it is the Xbox and nothing else, my pc is still hooked up to the normal house internet.

Either that or try and decrease other usage of the internet to speed up your connections.


GLASSES
This may sound really weird to some people, but wearing glasses like GUNNAR OPTIKS actually does help. These aren't cheap so they're an added extra for you but if you get the chance to pick them up I'd recommended it. The decrease the strain on your eyes for long hours spent looking at a screen and I've found they increase my reaction times.

Here's a link to my pair, the "Phantom" model - www.gunnars.com/product/indoor/phantom/


CONTROLLER
Again this is to do with the LAG issue between the console and the actual accessories. A WIRED controller will respond faster than a WIRELESS controller because there is less for the console to process.

TOP OF THE RANGE
This controller is not yet out but I've already pre-ordered it. It's meant for use with a tactical layout so instead of pressing "B" all the time to knife you can react quicker by using one of the 2 extra buttons on the back.

It's named the "RAZER ONZA" and it's beautiful - www2.razerzone.com/onza

Otherwise I'd recommend picking up a wired controller form your nearest gaming store.

SCREEN
I run a 22inch 1080p HD LED tv for a reason. The quality is crystal clear and I can see the whole screen at once.

EDIT: Look for a monitor with a low response time - added by- Sockeymeow

I can't really suggest a certain TV for you but you'd have to look around for one suitable for your needs. I find the TV i use is perfect and it cost around $249

Make sure your sitting directly towards the screen and not to the side, so you can get your accuracy even better, and try not to have distractions in the way of the screen.

If you want a total for my gaming setup it's around $1033 (That's including the year of broadband)

I understand that's not always accessible for people which is why i listed the best alternatives I used before having a job.

Other ways to improve.

Teams - Run in a team, heck you see woody do it all the time, get an organised team and sort out some competitive play and practice practice practice.

Jump round corners to catch people off guard, use your headset to your advantage, use whatever advantage you can, use tactical layout and dropshot, strafe strafe strafe!!. If someone calls you a tryhard it's cause they're jealous that they're not winning.

There will be more of this to come in due time.

(By the way my profile is correct, I AM 17, not a 40 yr old posing as a 17 year old. I got lucky and got a very very very good job making parts for F1 cars, prototype cars (such as the Hennessey Venom GT and many other things such as a sniper rifle prototype for the British Army)


THESE ARE A FEW OF MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDED WAYS OF GETTING BETTER, THIS VARIES FROM PERSON TO PERSON.
IF YOU HAVE OTHER TIPS AND TRICKS THEN PLEASE BE CONSTRUCTIVE AND ADD IT ON TO THE THREAD AS IT'S HERE TO HELP PEOPLE

Some interesting points and I can see you've clearly put a lot of effort in to this.

I'm happy with my monster 50" TV and 5.1 surround sound, I see what you're saying about the small TV as I do quite often miss things on my screen as I'm always having to move my eyes around.

As for the glasses and wired controller

I've never noticed any lag using a wireless controller and doubt many people would find any difference at all.

Obviously something for the real gaming geek I think.

I love playing on my girlfriends dads tv, is just crazy lmao

And yeah I agree with the glasses and wired controller point when it comes to gaming.... I am a geek

awesome information there mate.+karma for you

Thanks ^_^

May i ask what is a good sensitivity to play on? I play on 5 and my accuracy with the M16 red dot is really bad at long ranges , same with other 3 burst weapons.
Thanks

iCounter SniPe wrote:

Sensitivity is a matter of personal preference. Test it like this:

Go into a private match
Find 2 barrols, or 2 other things a bit away from each other.
Shoot at the first things, and then instantly aim and shoot at the other one.
When you can hit the 2 without missing at all, and aiming off. Then it's the right sensitivity for you.

That is how I find my sensitivity

cool thanks

No Sennheiser, Steel Series or Tritton??
And for TV, get a PC monitor that is LED/LCD.

TRuTHv wrote:

Added them in with credit ^_^ completely slipped my mind Thanks!!

Another thing to look for in your monitor choice is response time, to reduce lag between what happens and what you see. Otherwise, I completely agree with what you said, when I started using A40s and started using my PC monitor (22in Samsung 1080P w/ 2ms response time) my k/d went up from a 1.3 to a 2.18

Awesome information, i'm sure it will be very helpful for lots of people. I'm still struggling with whether or not I should buy a gaming headset or not, maybe this could help!

I use Turtle Beach XLCs and they are pretty decent but they are not powered. This means that they are not very loud and you will have problems if you are chatting and playing at the same time. I fixed this problem by getting a signal amplifier, but if I had my time again I'd spend the extra money and get a slightly more expensive headset.

How about FPS Freeks?

Hey champ good thread, altough headsetwise there are alot more than TB and Astros out there.

Read this thread www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1285726

Altough i got astros, and they work good for gaming, but thats about it and when you put out that kind of money it would be nice if they sounded good with music to, so im getting me some Pc360's.

/Pootie

Some really good info in this thread - I'd give some K, but I need to wait 6 hours

As for the Astros - I use them for my PC (with the respective cable) - and loving them..

Not sure about the glasses aspect - would you be so kind as to elaborate some more on this?

Thanks for the tips mate,

As you can see on my profile i'm new on these forums. I just started to improve my gameplay and decided that I should buy a headset.

Now, I have seen the Turtle Beach PX21. The price is between the X11 and the X31.

Is this one suitable too or should I stick with the X11/X31?

Ozun2k wrote:

This is overall the most important aspect in my opinion. Running with not only a team, but a consistent team. Play with the same 10 guys/gals all the time. Get use to where they go, whether they are a strong objective player, or a strong slayer. Let them know how you play, and always communicate.

Great thread .