Multiplayer Shooters 101

Console Games
3D first-person shooters (FPS) have become a mainstay of online action for many gamers. Once strictly the domain of PCs, online shooters are now becoming available for game consoles as well. Xbox Live is a particularly popular service for online console gaming, largely due to the success of Halo 2.

As well as the console hardware and an Internet connection, you might need a network adapter (for the PS2) or, for the Xbox, a subscription to Xbox Live. For more information on multiplayer console games and getting your console hooked up for online play visit our Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo sites.

PC Games
Titles like Quake and Counter-Strike gave rise to a multitude of first-person shooters designed for play over the Internet. These games tend to have spectacular graphics and high system requirements to match. System requirements are always on the box, and making sure your computer meets the minimum requirements is strongly recommended. You'll probably also find recent games in this genre difficult to enjoy without a broadband Internet connection.

The vast majority of high-quality 3D shooters are retail products, but they don't usually charge for online play. In most cases, game servers are operated voluntarily by the community at their own expense. If the popularity of a particular game wanes, choices of servers to play on can become very limited. On the other hand, there's nothing to stop you from setting up your own server.

Server software is provided with these games, giving you options for setting up a dedicated game server (a computer used solely to serve the game) or using one of the players' computers to serve the game. In the latter case, the person running the server will have an advantage in terms of network latency. Some titles allow you to take on the single-player campaign cooperatively with a group of players. A game between friends can be arranged simply by using a password. The upper limit is usually 64 players per server, although massively multiplayer shooters are beginning to hit the market.

Finding a Game Server
Finding a server to play on gets easier all the time. Most multiplayer shooters for the PC now have the software necessary to browse game servers integrated into the game. The server browser will bring up a list of available game servers, show you how many players are on, which map each server is running, and other information you need to choose and join a match. Sometimes a separate program such as Steam is used, and you also have the option to use third-party browsers like GameSpy or Xfire. Links to these and several other game server browsers can be found in the Tools and Support section.

Currently Counter-Strike: Source and Battlefield 2 are among the most widely played multiplayer shooters for the PC. As well, Wolfenstein: Enemy Terrority and America's Army are both excellent free games of this kind that have a large following. More information on these titles is available in the Action Games category.

Patches
Patches allow developers to make bug fixes and updates to a game after its release. While patches are optional for single-player games, when you're playing online everyone in a match must be using the same version of the game. You will often have to patch a game you just brought home from the store to play on the Internet. Patches are made available as free downloads, either on the developer's site or one of the many independent game file sites. Integrated game patchers are becoming a common feature in new multiplayer titles.

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Top Multiplayer PC Games 2010

January 4 2011

There were several big video game releases for which 2010 will be remembered. In the console department Red Dead Redemption walked away with all kinds of awards, as did the single-player Mass Effect 2. In multiplayer PC land Blizzard dominated the scene by reinvigorating an old and beloved franchise as well as releasing another expansion for World of Warcraft. A couple of new military shooters also arrived this year, which could become the norm going forward. These are my picks for the best multiplayer PC games of 2010.

Sequels can be risky because some people want unique and innovative changes, while others demand that the game stay close to its roots. StarCraft 2 manages to walk that fine line nicely, bringing the highly-praised StarCraft series into the 21st century graphically and improving the interface while still offering similar core gameplay to the original. It eases people into the fierce competition on Battle.net and there are a wealth of multiplayer maps to choose from. StarCraft 2 is already an eSports favorite and seems destined for many years of popularity among multiplayer RTS fans.

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Multiplayer Strategy Games 101

Strategy Games
If you like to build up an army and march on your opponent in force, many strategy games for the PC are now playable over the Internet. Rather than controlling just one character, as you do in most shooters and RPGs, strategy games give you an entire empire to attend to, and hopefully, expand. Real-time games like Warcraft 3 and Age of Empires 3 seem to be multiplayer favorites, but there are also a few turn-based games, such as Civilization 4, that can be played online.

Recent titles in this genre feature 3D graphics and require a decent PC to run properly. A mouse and keyboard are the prefered controllers. Once you have the game, Internet play is usually available at no extra charge.

Strategy games are rarely designed for more than 12 simultaneous players, although competition ladders and ranking systems are quite common. For a match with only 2-4 players it is still possible to get reasonable performance with a dial-up connection.

Finding other people to play with gets easier with every generation of games released. Game companies now frequently integrate free online services for this purpose into their products. Once registered with the service, you will be able to find players of similar skill level, set up a password protected game with friends, as well as participate in ladders, rankings, and tournaments. One of the most highly praised services of this kind is Blizzard's Battle.net, where games in the Warcraft strategy series are played online.

Occasionally you will still come across games that require you to enter the IP address of the person you want to play with. They usually show you your IP address in the game interface, so it's not that painful. If you need to know what your IP address is, our Networking site has all the details.

Sports Games
There are many sports simulation games that have online capabilities. Multiplayer football and racing games are extremely popular on consoles, but there are also plenty of PC titles to choose from. Madden Football, FIFA Soccer, Need for Speed, and Project Gotham Racing (an Xbox exclusive) are just a few of the sports games that let you compete head-to-head over the Net.

Note that the prefered controller for sports games is a gamepad, and many of these games are designed with gamepads in mind. While PC versions do offer keyboard and mouse controls, they can make playing a little awkward. Of course, you can buy a gamepad for your PC. Steering wheel controllers for racing games are also available for both PCs and consoles.

Naturally, team sports games like football and hockey are usually designed for two players. There are exceptions to this, and racing games often allow a few more people into the action. Setting up games and finding other players is handled in ways similar to strategy games. This varies slightly depending of the game and the platform, so in some cases you may need to read the instructions provided.

Fantasy Sports Leagues
The Internet has spurned a great deal of interest in fantasy sports. To play you need to create an account, draft a team, and change your weekly lineup. Your team competes with teams built by other players. Scoring is done automatically and is based on the real-life performance of the athletes you drafted. For more detailed information on how fantasy football works, Fantasy Football 101 is a great place to start.

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Battlefield 3 - E3 Multiplayer Preview

The PR machine is in full swing as EA goes head-to-head with Activision over this holiday season's battle to become the number one near-future shooter, with even the main entrance to LA's Convention Centre adorned with the Battlefield 3 banner during this year's E3. Both a first-ever demonstration of the game's tank gameplay and the October 25th release date (giving it a three week head start over Modern Warfare 3) were revealed during EA's press conference, but it was on the showfloor itself that we got our hands on with the game. Battlefield has always been about the multiplayer, and of course this is what EA was so keen to show off at its booth.

EA DICE's veteran Creative Director, Lars Gustavsson, was on-hand to demonstrate all of the new features that Battlefield 3 will include. We'll see a return to the series' excellent vehicle combat, with the fondly remembered fighter jets making a comeback, as well as an all-new tank capable of carrying you and five of your squad-mates around at a time. This could surely be a perfect opportunity to set up some sweet mine multi-kills, or conversely to launch a concentrated attack upon one of the game's multiplayer objectives.

The franchise's famous Rush and Conquest modes are still present, and a supposedly highly sought-after Team Deathmatch mode also rears its ugly head for the first time in a Battlefield game. It's hard to see this as anything other than a pandering to the masses in order to more effectively compete with Infinity Ward's impending behemoth, as all veteran Battlefield players know very well that DICE's games have never been about racking up kills. Whether this focus upon kill counts will hamper the quality of the teamwork and objective-based play of the classic modes remains to be seen, but there is a large and vocal fan-base of the series that is fiercely proud of Battlefield's co-operative distinction from its contemporaries.

Other concessions to the competition are a bombastic, globe-trotting, Neo-Conservative nonsense storyline and customisable dog-tags, to be collected upon knife kills. These playercards, sorry, dog-tags, can show a range of different player information, from clan insignias to air kills to number of stabs, which dynamically update as the player progresses.

In Battlefield 3, players will have the opportunity to gain points without actually killing the enemy, or directly completing objectives. One of the new ways they can do this is by laying down suppressing fire, covering the advance of their team-mates and scoring points for doing so. Also included is a personal torch for each soldier, so that the darker tunnels and caves can be navigated with greater illumination, though this certainly leaves room for tactical stealth play when they're turned off. For the first time in an FPS, we're told, players can now mount their LMG weapons onto pretty much any surface, granting them greater accuracy and stability, at a cost to mobility. Even players who use guns other than LMGs will finally be able to go prone, as the game now lets you shimmy down onto your stomach in the same way Call of Duty has allowed for years.

When actually in control, it feels much more agile than ever before. Strafing and leaping around flows smoothly, and navigating round and over obstacles is both easy and stylish. The city of Paris and its underlying network of subways were the setting for the map we played; Frostbite 2's awesome engine rendered the environments in stunning detail and furthermore, let you tear it apart. Blowing huge holes in buildings and shattering enemy cover is par for the course here, and it's amazing to see the environments crumble as the matches progress.

In a closely-fought victory against other E3 attendees, TVG came out on top, commanding an elite squad of four journalists through each wave of explosive objectives in Rush mode. Countless hours of Bad Company surely contributed to our success, and it's quite indicative of how similar this game plays to DICE's most recent Battlefield release. However, that was always to be expected, and Battlefield 3 looks set to be the biggest and best Battlefield title yet, with minor but carefully placed improvements in every area. As it heads into the last few months of development it will be interesting to see what elements they can conjure up to differentiate it from Modern Warfare 3, which at the moment looks to be almost indistinguishably good.

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