Every experienced gamer in an FPS game asks for a config from some great player. You don’t need it; you have your favorite Counter-Strike or Quake config memorized, right? Well, the controls aren’t that different so start pluggin them in to F.E.A.R.

Go back to the main menu and go to “Options” again and this time pick, well duh, “Controls” and then “Configure Controls”. Once you are there, I figure you can handle the obvious ones such as Moving, Strafing, Jumping, Ducking, Reloading, Firing etc. Don't forget to adjust your mouse sensitivity. Now what about the rest of these millions of controls that I have never heard of before?

Let’s go over four key ones that you wouldn’t already know but are key to pwnage in this game.

• Holster Weapon – Why would I want to put my weapon away? Actually, there are a lot of advantages to holstering. First off, you run faster. Remember the older versions of CS when having the knife out actually made you move quicker? Same thing here, holstering your weapons means you can beat your opponent to armor and medpacks along with getting the drop on them; Makes me feel like I’m back in CS Beta 5.2 (Newb Alert: THIS IS A GOOD THING). The other positive about holstering your weapon is that you can now punch people, yes PUNCH people. Read “Melee” below to find out cool details about that.



• Use Medpack – Medpack’s, the red (pink, if you jack your gamma) things on the ground, turn out to be extremely useful in combat. Most professional players try to collect one or two and have them ready for when a player gets the drop on them. Mash your handy medpack button to get 50 Health back for each medpack you've got. Top players are often accused of spamming medpacks during combat allowing them to escape or outlast the unsuspecting newbie. That 50 health a medpack gives you makes a devastating difference. This alone will put you above 40% of the idiots out there.



• Melee – This feature alone makes F.E.A.R. Combat worth downloading and playing. YOU CAN DROP KICK PEOPLE!! You read that right: You can jump kick, slide tackle or punch people. You thought walking up behind some random newb and knifing him was fun in CS, try walking up behind someone and jump kicking them in the head. The backflip they do is priceless. Did I mention that all of those moves are one shot frags? That's right, they are--one hit and they are done for unless they have full armor. So go into a server, jump (for Drop Kick) or duck (for Slide Tackle) and then hit your melee button. Hilarity ensues.



• Zoom – I mean, duh, its zooming right? This is in CS! Well, yes and no. In FEAR, it’s a little different--every gun zooms. Zooming reduces the rate of fire in exchange for accuracy. This is so critical that I’d suggest with the main weapons you have zoom on nearly 60% of the time. Any battle that is conducted where you won’t have to move your mouse more then a little, you should be zoomed. So with that said, practice having zoom on and turning it off when you get rushed.

Ok so you have the config pretty well figured out, at least what you need to get started. Now what weapons should you be using? Just like in every game, there's certain weapons that work best for competitive play. For F.E.A.R. Combat multiplayer, these are those:

• G2A2 Assault Rifle – This is by far the best weapon in the spawn/standard multiplayer game of F.E.A.R. Combat. It offers the best combination of close combat with high rate of fire. Using the zoom function it also works pretty decent at long range as well. It's roughly equivalent to the Colt in CS.



• 10mm HV Penetrator (Nail Gun) – This gun is hilarious; I can spend hours just stapling people to walls and watching their body swing back and forth (Really though, we only care about the fragging!!). This weapon is the second best of the spawn/standard weapons. The downside is its low rate of fire makes it tough in close quarters combat. At medium range, it is nearly as deadly as it is effective. Comparison-wise, it does nearly as much damage as the AK-47 in CS and has similar characteristics (recoil, etc).



• ASP Rifle 7.62mm (Semi Auto Rifle) – This is the sniper rifle of competitive F.E.A.R. and while it has pretty good accuracy and damage; its rate of fire makes it too hard to use regularly. I really wouldn’t recommend it for new players and players looking to play in leagues normally avoid it unless the map really calls for it.



• Superweapons – All of the non-spawn weapons in the game are referred to as “Superweapons.” These weapons include a Railgun, similar to Quake, along with a Rocket Launcher and Cannon. Most professional players look down on these weapons because they are so easy to use and not balanced for multiplayer games. But then again, you aren’t in here to play matches just yet; so have some fun, pick up these weapons when you see them on the map, and enjoy splattering the newbs all over the wall. Just remember, if you want to sign up for CAL or other popular leagues, you’ll have to go without them.

That's it. Happy hunting. If you have read and followed this guide you’re better then most of the players in the public servers already. You had fun beating up on newbs in CS before they cheated? Why not try a new game where you can beat up on newbs who actually don’t cheat! I guarentee it. Remember, you can email me at idontunderstandsarcasm@gotfrag.com, if you aren't immediately God of F.E.A.R. Combat.