So that there’s no confusion, this is not really a review. Now that’s out of the way…
You may have seen the KontrolFreek FPS doo-dahs being pushed by everyone and their dog lately. This sudden ramping up of viral marketing can be put down to one of two things – they’re either the best thing since thumbs, or there’s commission to be made. Or maybe both. – Yes, I’ve linked to them, but it’s a direct link, no referal codes, if you go there I get nothing, if you don’t go there I still get nothing.
But on with the “review”. It’s only fair to point out that I do not have, nor have used the KontrolFreek FPS thumb dingles. I have read what other people including Donncha, SeaNanners, PyroPuncher and others have said about them. What interested me more is not whether or not they turn you into an MLG Pro player overnight, or turn your 26-3 stats into 75-1, I was into the physics of it. If it worked, how does it work.
But before we get into that, allow me to introduce to you the Cheap Freaks FPS*. It retails for no pennies and is available free in most homes.
*Some assembly required.
What’s in the box?
Well…nothing, but here’s what you’ll need:
A child’s drink bottle (or any that has those little plastic caps on top), your console controller, and some blu, or white tack – white is the choice of Pro’s.
Assembly
First, take the clear plastic sealer cap from the top of the bottle. Place it to one side and then drink the contents of the bottle – glug, glug, glug. You can use the bottle for other projects as “Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Beginners” or “Fun With Hydro Rockets”, otherwise recycle it.
Now get your blu-tac, or Pro white-tac and roll out a small sticky sausage to fit the circumference of your analogue stick. If you want to be super precise you can use the following formula to work out how long that is: 2 π r
Once you have your sticky sausage, place it toward the outer edge of the analogue stick. You can now get the plactic cap and place it on top. You may need to adjust the placement, but the good thing about this is that you can place the cap to whatever is comfortable for you. And it will look something like this:
It’s ugly.
Ugly is not the same as useless. As long as something does what I want it to I’m not particularly bothered what it looks like. So does it work?
That really is the big question…..
Well here’s my experience. It didn’t help my k/d. In fact, it was worse during my testing phase of three games. So obviously that makes it useless right? Wrong! My k/d is bad because I’m a bad player, my k/d was worse because I was looking for engagements. To explain a bit more, here’s my conclusion:
My Conclusion
The Cheap Freaks FPS does what it says on the tin in my experience. And if my crappy no-monies version works then the proper KontrolFreeks FPS must also work (but look better). I normally play on a Sensitivity setting of 2 or 3 when playing Call of Duty 6 – Modern Warfare 2. With my Cheap Freak attached I was playing on 7 (I incremented up to that). I could probably have gone higher, but didn’t feel the need as the concept had been proven to me.
They don’t make your game better though. No add-on will ever make you a better player – that is completely down to the individual. What it does is give you more control – especially fine control for tricky aiming. Having come from PC gaming this level of control is something that I have sorely missed. If you’re fine with your controller as it is, then these products will not be of benefit but if, like me, you find your aim is erratic then give it a go – either the Cheap Freaks if you don’t mind looking like a street crazy, or the KontrolFreeks if you like to video yourself playing.
Would I buy the proper version? For $10 yes I probably would because I noticed a significant difference when using my Blue Peter version. But since I live in the UK I’m not likely to buy them as I abhor postage charges, nor the $ to £ conversion that suppliers use (“$10….well, we’ll sell it for £10. No one will ever know…..”)
Hey! What about the Science bit?
M = Fd
Okay. How they work…..it’s all about leverage. The nubbins on the controllers are quite small so the shaft (lever) is short. This means that small movements of the nubbin/lever translate into large inputs. So when you extend the length of the lever the fulcrum/pivot relationship is altered in such a way that you have to move the nubbin more to gain the same amount of relative movement as before.
So when you run around the corner and get surprised, instead of wildly flailing and firing at the sky, your knee jerk reaction becomes a smooth arcing headshot. BOOYAAAH! as JunkYard would say.
Found this helpful? Good. Found it really rubbish? Well, you read this far so it can’t be that bad ;-p
****EDIT/UPDATE****
After playing last night (Friday 5th March 2010) for over an hour the Cheap Freak went out of position due to the white-tac getting warm and through the pressure of use. White-tac or blu-tac is not designed for this purpose so the flaw is not in the material, but in my choice of material. The issue was a lateral shift which hindered my movement control. So I’ve removed the Cheap Freak and reverted to my old sensitivity setting of 3. In this test, for me, the concept of the KontrolFreek FPS has been proven and if I come across some of these for the equivalent of $10 then I’ll be investing in them.
Peas and loaves.
Find me on PSN – evaDlivE
Is Quickscoping a Random Event?
March 9, 2010So this post is about quick scoping and no scoping. I was inspired to write it after watching the following video and then reading/participating in the comments. The video isn’t really that interesting unless you enjoy listening to someone complain constantly about how crap MW2 is, but here it is for context:
Recently I’ve put my lack up success in Modern Warfare 2 and pretty much every other FPS down to my awful aiming. It’s as good an excuse as any and is something that only I can have an effect on. So I’ve been looking at how the more successful players aim in game and in most cases they make it so that the enemy is within the onscreen crosshairs before ADS (aiming down sight). This means that they already have a bead on the enemy and they are not chasing them across the screen with their sights. But what has that got to do with quickscoping and no scoping?
Bear with me because in order to fully explain this it may take some time. On screen (unless you’re playing hardcore) you have the cross hairs – four little white blocks towards the centre of the screen:
The Crosshairs can be seen in the centre of the screen around the number 1
When the Call of Duty series started, one thing that they did well was to increase the realism of firing your gun. So no longer did your bullets go in a straight line from the barrel of the gun to the horizon.
No more Laser Guns
Instead, when you fire without ADS (aiming down sight) your bullet will follow a trajectory from a random point within the crosshair area to replicate muzzle sway:
The Hit Area
If your taget is across the map then your chances of getting a non-ADS kill (or even a hit) are greatly reduced. But in the event that your enemy fills the “hit” area then you will hit them – not accurately, but a hit nonetheless. And as Bruce Lee said “A hit is a hit!”. If you are lucky your hip fire will strike them in a critical area scoring a multiplier before they are able to return the favour. The ONLY way to accurately hit your target is to ADS, or scope in if you are using a scoped weapon:
ADS - the best way to fly
The crosshair accuracy increases if you crouch or go prone – in most cases it will noticeably contract. Accuracy is reduced when you are moving which you can see on screen as the distance between the crosshair points expands.
So now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get on to no-scoping, and quick-scoping (NS and QS from here on). I don’t have a problem with people who no-scope or quick-scope, but I do think that on the whole those who say it is all about skillz and being 1337 are teeny tiny bit delusional. People who NS and QS in MW2 utilise two things in their “skill” whether they realise it or not – luck, and the helping hand of auto aim. When your crosshairs are filled by your target, or they occupy a large proportion of it then your chances of hitting that target are increased. When you scope in, the auto aim “snaps” you towards the target if one is close to the center of the crosshair. Combine with that the fact that the sniper rifles do a lot of damage and you increase your chances of getting a kill even further.
To illustrate the random spread of fire when no scoping have a look at this quick clip from Hutch:
As you can see, the guy he’s trying to shoot is in the middle of the crosshairs, but due to the random spray element the bullets are missing him….. Which neatly brings us on to the whole Sniper Rifle hitmarker complaining that people – mostly quick and no scopers – are complaining about. I’ll allow YouTube comments from the first video to explain how I feel about hitmarkers with the Sniper Rifle (I posted before about getting hitmarkers when using the silencer).
I missed off the ‘t’ in ‘event’ in the last reply…. Anyway – that’s pretty much how I feel about quickscoping. If it was total skill then the quick scoper would not get hitmarkers and their shots would be upper body/head. But that is not the case because they are effectively in between hip firing and ADS. If you watch any QS videos you’ll see that in most cases the scope doesn’t even come up far enough to see the enemy in it….is that aiming?
One thing you’ll notice is that QS and NS posters on YouTube will generally post montage clips of their 1337 skillz. Invariably they show every hit getting “One Shot Kill” or “Headshot” – but these are montage clips, meaning they are the best bits. If you watch videos from QSs who post full matches they you will see them miss, sometimes a lot.
But generally they put it down to lag, or Infinity Ward messing up – but it’s not. Try aiming, that’ll fix the problem in a heartbeat. I particularly like the commentaries that go: “So….um…..yeah. I’m sniping and….. oh my god look at this! A hitmarker?!…..and then he kills me. Infinity Ward, you need to fix this, like, immediately as this is the single thing that makes me want to quit playing this game right now, along with noobtube noobs, commando noobs, Assualt Rifle noobs, SMG noobs, pistol noobs, shotgun noobs, rocket noobs, thermal noobs, grenade noobs, semtex noobs, claymore noobs, C4 noobs, hardscope noobs, turret noobs, prone noobs, jumping noobs, camping noobs, running noobs, chopper gunner noobs, AC130 noobs, last stand noobs, martyrdom noobs and nooby noobs. So……um…..yeah”
In my opinion and experience, is Quickscoping governed by random chance? Yes, yes it is. I’m fully prepared to be proven otherwise, but so far I have not found one person who can consistently get upper body or head shots while no or quick scoping. Even so called Quick Scope tutorials are vague at best on how to do it. My own no scope and quick scope tests indicate the bullet spread remains random compared to actually aiming.
Peas and loaves.
Find me on PSN – evaDlivE
Posted in Gaming Opinion, youtube | Tagged barrett, call of duty, cod6, commando, commentating, commentators, help, hutch, modern warfare 2, mr360games, mw2, no scope, noobs, quick scope, silencer, sniper, video, youtube | 6 Comments »