FPS Trainer Aims at Making You Kill Better Online

[Greg Tito]

FPS Trainer Aims at Making You Kill Better Online

A new free to play game will allow you to compete online in games like CODBlops without feeling like a noob.

FPS Trainer is the brainchild of Play2Improve, a game design outfit based in Dundee, Scotland. The designers at Play2Improve realized that not every gamer is instantly good at shooting other people in matches online. In fact, the company believes that less than 40 percent of gamers play multiplayer shooters because the rest of us are intimidated by the skill needed to compete. FPS Trainer uses a first person interface with an AI teacher and hints and tips from professional FPS players like Paul "Astz!" McGarrity to help you get better at shooters. Today in Edinburgh, Scotland, you can play FPS Trainer and meet the development team and Astz! at the HMV Gamerbase [http://www.gamerbase.com/?a=edinburgh].

The game is currently free to play through your browser using the Unity Engine and will get you up to an intermediate level. I imagine that FPS Trainer will likely support itself by offering training in specific titles like CODBlops or Halo: Reach for a fee, but that is pure speculation. Currently in alpha, FPS Trainer [http://www.fpstrainer.com/login.php] will have its beta release in January 2011.

Right now, the FPS Trainer is pretty basic. It presents you with the trappings of a shooter, guns ammo, health and armor pickups, and there is a British voiceover which clues you in when you are running low on ammo or when a new health pack spawns. You move around and shoot with the mouse like you do with PC shooters, but I think that this product would benefit from console controller support. It's pretty good for an alpha build, and Play2Improve stated philosophy is to "release early, release often" so that they can receive feedback and improve the service.

It's a great idea, but I don't think that the execution is there yet. Head over to FPSTrainer.com [http://www.fpstrainer.com/] to try it out and let the team know how to improve it.

In addition to making us better gamers, Play2Improve aims to create educational tools with the first person technology that is a hallmark of shooters and action adventure games, such as its IRT Trainer that instructs players how to effectively capture images with an infrared camera.

Source: Game Politics [http://www.fpstrainer.com/]

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[Chrono212]

This is cool as I know a lot of people (and I would have included myself a while ago) who don't like multiplayer because of the pretty big learning curve from just pw3ning NPC's.

Then again, you have to take the training wheels off some time

 

[Wintermoot]

hopefully this makes me better at COD

 

[Armored Prayer]

Thats pretty neat, though I'm a pretty good player this would definitely help others who are not.

I should tell my buddies about this. They could use the training.

 

[josemlopes]

They should teach some tips, like aiming for the head, be the minimal amount of time in the enemy screen, stuff like that, not just the controls.
If they do that then its preety cool.

EDIT: Just tried it and it very messy, I know that its an Aplha but it only can teach you how to play Quake or Unreal. The maps are very confusing with the neons. There are easier ways to learn how to play COD or Halo, like having a friend that can teach and give you tips about the mechanics of the game, the maps and the weapons.

 

[Distorted Stu]

Im making my two of my mates and my dad play this. Its the only reason they dont play COD with me because htey are scared someone will rip them a new A hole online.

 

[Sparrow]

Nothing can help me not suck at COD. Nothing.

It presents you with the trappings of a shooter, guns ammo, health and armor pickups, and there is a British voiceover which clues you in when you are running low on ammo or when a new health pack spawns.

This is pedantic, but what? You can't have a British voiceover. You have British people, you have Britain, but you don't have a British accent of any kind. Are they English? Scottish? Welsh? Throw me frickin' a bone here.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

I've spent two minutes sitting here trying to find an analogy that describes my thoughts on this thing, but screw it--this is an FPS game for the completely uninitiated. If anyone should use this, it should be younger gamers' parents and grandparents.

If you want to get good at something, you get better through constant repetition. Call of Duty is in no way similar to Unreal Tournament, yet they're both called 'First Person Shooters'. But if you've never played the opposite, you're going to find it a drastically different experience, and very little (except the aim and click reference) will carry over.

In short, this is an interesting idea, but pointless. If you want to get better at Call of Duty, keep playing Call of Duty. If you want to get better at Unreal Tournament, keep playing Unreal Tournament. If you want to get better at a racing game--etcetera etcetera--but even racing games are different from other racing games! Different gravity, different driving mechanics, tires may or may not be attached to the road--every game, while today looking identical to other games of the same genre--has at least some kind of varying mechanic.

If I pay money for one game, I'm not going to pay money for another game so I can learn how to play the first game--I'll just play the first bloody game to begin with!

Wow, this topic is making me irritated for no particular reason! Time for some calisthenics!

 

[mjc0961]

If that color scheme in the photo is the only one available right now, I think I'll pass. I'm not the greatest, but I'm also not terrible enough to suffer through that bright red and white nightmare either.