New to Online Gaming - Advice Please

[Kev Sharratt]

Hi

I'm getting a new PC and would like to have a crack at online gaming, my wife is particularly interested (she used to love the original doom on PS1)

Here's the bits that I know are OK
P4 2.5Ghz
512Mb DDR Ram 266Mhz

I'm not sure how these stand
15" TFT Monitor
Nvidia Geforce 4 MX420 64Mb TV Out
but I can't realy change these yet

I have the following questions
Do I need 5 speakers (5.1???) so that I can hear someone coming up behind me?
I'm on cable (NTL) broadband is 128K fast enough?
What controls do you use. I have a joystick but have never connected it?
I presume that you log on to a web site, do they charge you for playing?
And finally what games do you recomment, I hear alot on the forums about UT2003 would that be a good place to start?


thanks for your help

Kev
:D

[NJEnviroguy]

1. It helps, although your center channel is hardly used, if you are money crunching, just go with 4.1

2. Yurp

3. Most FPS (first person shooters) use a mouse and keyboard combo. Depends on what you are comfortable with.

4. There are several ways you "log in" to play online games. Some games, such as UT2K3, run ingame server queries and are free. Other games, like Jedi Knight II you can go to websites like "Game Zone" that host the different games. Most are free, just make an account at the site and you are good to go. Ofcourse people are always looking for to make a penny, so you will find sites that charge.

5. UT2K3 is an awesome game, I'm sure others will recommend some more.

See ya :t

[Tick]

This is not so much on what you need to enjoy online gaming! But what you need to know about online gaming.

There are alot of people who cheat! Hackers and script kiddies! The under age children who have no respect for anyone or anything, Talk trash and cant back it up without a cheat! Online gaming blows unless you can find a game among people you know or trust not to cheat!

I am very displeased with the world of online gaming, It is fun for a while until you find out how many people cheat to win at a game! Truely pathetic in my eyes.

Tick

[Optimus Prime]

If you are gonna go for gaming, lose the monitor, and get a CRT. TFT monitors aren't that great for gaming :eek:.

If you are gonna play new(ish) games then i'd advise getting a Geforce 4 Ti4200 128. It costs around £130 but its a good buy.

[Andthensome]

Yup, ditch the MX vid card and get a TI. Also, you might want to get another 512 mb of ddr ram, it's not that big of a deal, but when there's a lot of other players in your vicinity fps can come to a crawl. More ram always helps.

[Optimus Prime]

Hmm, i would disagree, 512 of mb ram is more than enough.

[chubtub]

Like they said above, be ready to meet so of the rudest, meanest people.

However you will also meet some pretty cool people.

It is getting to the point in WarCraft 3 where if they are not swearing at each other then I wonder if something is wrong.

If you want something a tad bit deeper than ut2003, get a massive multiplayer(EQ, Dark Ages of Camelot,etc). I will warn you in advance that either you will really love Massive Multiplayers or hate them.

[Rocketmech]

You can get by with the hardware you have. Upgrade when you decide to get serious about it. There are alot of decent mutltiplayer demos out . Check the sites like Gamespy or Game Zone for what demos they're running and give'm a try. Or if the game queries servers , like NJEnviroguy mentions, eg. UT2k3 , MOHAA, , Spearhead then you can connect without looking at ads. :D

And dont worry , you'll have fun ! :t

[NJEnviroguy]

The nice the thing about online gaming is that if there are a lot of meenies on one server, just leave and load into another server. You'll find a lot of the same people congregate at the same servers, more or less. So, once you find a couple good ones, add them to your favorites and enjoy!

[Optimus Prime]

Originally posted by NJEnviroguy
The nice the thing about online gaming is that if there are a lot of meenies on one server, just leave and load into another server. You'll find a lot of the same people congregate at the same servers, more or less. So, once you find a couple good ones, add them to your favorites and enjoy!

indeed, this is true for most FPS games.

[Izdaari]

Hmm, depends on what kind of online gaming. I see most replies have assumed online RTS or FPS. I don't do either of those, but only online RPGs, so my automatic assumption was you were talking about MMORPGs like Everquest, etc.

Whether that hardware is good depends a lot on what kinds of games you play. Example: a TFT monitor is fine for RPG or RTS, not so good for FPS that depends more on fast action, which may be blurry on an LCD. The games I play need nothing more for controllers than a keyboard and mouse.

For EQ (the one I play the most) you log on not through a web site, but directly to Sony servers. Cost is $12.95 per month for unlimited play time.

A 128k connection should be fine for any of them, but it's more the stability of the connection that matters than the speed -- packet loss is BAD, as is laaaaaag. Also, a lot of times the problem isn't the connection at all, but slow hard drive response due to too many programs running in the background. A good plan for any online game is to shut down everything you don't need before logging on.

512mb should be sufficient for any current games I'm aware of, though with XP or 2k more a little more wouldn't hurt. The GF4 MX 420 is only minimally adequate, so if your frame rates are subpar that's probably the bottleneck.

[NJEnviroguy]

I don't know if it is a trend yet, but the to-be-released MMORPG "Star Wars Galaxies" is uping the ante with vc requirements. I'll take a CRT over a TFT any day, but it seems the newer MMORPG's may be developing into graphic intensive environments similar to FPS or RTS.