I’m no longer good at first-person shooters

"First-person shooters used to be the video game genre I enjoyed most. Lately I’ve come to the realization that I’m no longer skilled at this particular type of game," writes Postmedia's Patrick O'Rourke.

[pat_11_5]

Sometimes I wish I could still compete in the genre, but I guess I just don't play FPS games any more.

[eyeDEVOUR]

its just because modern shooters arent skill based anymore...
I suggest you play H-Hour when it gets released for some good ol socom2 style gameplay

[MidnytRain]

What about Counter Strike?

[Detoxx]

Lmao.

[Shadonic]

True, Bungie's new title will most likely be skilled based. I listened to their podcast and while there going down the custom loadoutish route there very clear that there aiming for balance and competitive play. It's going to be kind of like Halo with pickups except there in the forms of ammo for your other 2 weapons.

[itBourne]

Yah, you cannot really compare modern shooters to past ones. It takes no skill to get a kill now days. Oh how I miss the Halo or RFoM days, when some srub would shoot me in the back and I cld turn around, out strafe him, and kill his ass. It seems like that is gone forever = (. Damn you Call of Duty!!!

[wishingW3L]

if only people stopped complaining about bullet spongers this wouldn't have happened. But when you're a scrub that can't aim then...

[Shadonic]

Yea at least in the new Halo you can still kind of make a comeback on bad players.

[Matt666]

Well were do you draw the line between bullet sponging and the BS factor because you got one extreme like COD where people can survive a 50 Cal or you got the other extreme where you get killed really easy bya 9mm from miles away. Can't game developers actually do there research and make a decent FPS.

[3-4-5]

I've played so many FPS games over the years that I can't NOT be good at them.

I can pick up any FPS game and be better than most players in that match just by default. It's ingrained into my memory of how FPS games should play.

Does that mean I'm elite or amazing? NO, but I can run with almost anybody and contribute in a positive way and be near the top.

I just stopped getting mad about other's being better than me and it allows me to enjoy the game even more now.

FPS games = frustration

Your not going to avoid it, so minimize it and enjoy the game at whatever skill you are.

[tigertron]

I keep the amount of FPS games that I play/own to a minimum so I can invest more time into them.

[GoPanthers999]

It takes a round or 2 to warmup. Definitely focus on one shooter at a time and play regularly.

[Chrisgamerguy]

I was so good at halo 3, mw1, and mw2. Most shooters after that i have sucked at. I'm hoping i can get back into the shooter game with titanfall

[DanielGearSolid]

Me neither... The hand eye is not what it used to be. I'm the same age as you btw so maybe there's a science to this lol

[pat_11_5]

That's exactly how I feel.I'm hoping Titanfall gets me interested again.

[Minute Man 721]

What I hate the most about these new shooters are the sniping and hit detection

[Shadonic]

360 no scope bruh

[LAWSON72]

The only shooters I ever put serious effort into was Halo 3 and Reach. I have not been into shooters that much in a while to actually get good at them. I don't think I will find any game as competitive as Halo 3, and that is why I wish for a PC port

[sGIBMBR]

Halo 3 was where competitive FPS was at mate. It was my fav shooter last generation. I am now done with Halo though after Halo 4, it was awful, and without an MLG playlist I'll never touch another Halo game again.

[creeping judas]

Yep the older you get, the slower your reflexes are. I enjoy playing MP FPS games, but I find I am not as good as I used to be. I get excited when I get a KD ratio above 1 in a match. Usually I'm in the .62 percentile.

[Fluke_Skywalker]

I'm 33 and still regularly top the scoreboards in BF4, I play in a clan that contains only guys my age and older (right up to 58), and we usually kick all the asses.

My younger brother who is 28 is an absolute demon at Counter Strike, I've seen him with a score of 44 kills 2 deaths in CS:GO and anyone who plays CS knows that's bloody impressive.

It's not about age, it's about desire to win, and skill.
Just don't play COD either, if ever there was a shooter with nothing to do with skill, COD is it.

[FragMnTagM]

I am 29 and I regularly top the scoreboards in BF4. Am I as good as I used to be? HELL NO! I still enjoy my shooters though.

When I first started gaming online with shooters, I very rarely got more deaths than kills. My k/d in BF is somewhere around 1.0. When I was younger, that would probably be around 2.0 or so.

Sucks getting old, but I still enjoy playing games from all genres.

[djplonker]

Meh they have been done to death Battlefield 4 is the only fps I can play now (excluding day z) and I dont think that will change until destiny!

[Shadonic]

I can't wait for Destiny

[Sketchy_Galore]

The only online competitive FPS I ever really played a lot was the very first Halo. Most of the reason I don't play online much these days is probably honestly because I suck but the one feature I hate in all modern competitive multiplayer is the perks or upgrades. For me the perfect purity of a team of Blue guys facing a team of Red guys in Blood gulch with a jeep or two and a flying vehicle on each team, that's just a perfect set up.

These days even if you have played the map enough to know all of the subtle little waist high secret nooks and crannies to hide in and get an easy kill of somebody who hasn't played as much of this particular map, you can still get wasted by some guy who's personally unlocked and selected the perk of seeing you through walls or shooting through solid objects or instant teabagging you or whatever. It no longer feels like an evenly matched play ground because you don't know what fancy perk your opponent is using.

I loved knowing what you were up against. Storming across Blood gulch like the beaches of Normandy. Knowing you were facing the exact same team and the only difference would come from who played better. These days victory seems to rely on who has chosen the better perks for this particular map. You start your little beaches of Normandy storming but oops, looks like your opponent has selected that they can automatically target you whenever you begin storming across somewhere as if it were a French beach, unlucky.

[kiz2694]

Im only good at one FPS at a time, i used to play cod and bf, but stopped cod cos it was messing with my play style in BF.

[sGIBMBR]

If you played on consoles that might be because BF on 360/PS3 is only 30FPS, while CoD is 60FPS. You might cope a lot better now that FPS games are all pushing the same frame rate, which is 60.

Or you just might be a person that can only take to one game at a time, and I'm talking s**t haha.

However, I feel that you sacrificed the right game ;)

[shammgod]

I was never good at them...Spray and Pray, 40% of the time it works everytime!

[thereapersson]

SU-PER...

SO-NICS!!!!

[shammgod]

Bring back the SONICS!

[BABY-JEDI]

I've been playing Killzone Shadow Fall MP against players who are 120+ games ahead of me. I'm regularly in the top 30% but there are a lot of teams out there. I'm still trying to find my ideal character class types for the various operations. This is turning out to be rocket science LoL
; )
Which I like

[HacSawJimThugin]

I think the author made an excellent point in terms of age. Shooters(competitive)just don't interest me as much as they use too. They have become stale and redundant and I'm looking elsewhere to get my fix nowadays. RPG's, action adventure, RTS, pretty much anything that is fun and innovative.

The ppl I use to burn the midnight oil with online don't play as much anymore or they have given up on gaming altogether. The glory days as far as I'm concerned are well behind me(because parenthood and other stuff lol)and the social landscape has changed sooooo much.

Now I'm like screw a k/d ratio and whatever else I use to care about, I'm in it for the love of the game,even more so that I use to be.

Granted, Destiny and Titanfall are on my most anticipated list but my approach to them will be a lot different than what it was with Gears 1 or Halo 3.

[NintendoYouth]

The secret of playing FPS games is you have to not give a shit about KDR.
KDR will ruin a fun game with machismo BS.

But its up to the gamer not the game to make the mature decision.

[sGIBMBR]

I don't think getting older makes you any worse at FPS games, or games in general for that matter. I just think it's the fact you get a job 40 hours a week, have kids and eventually you just find yourself not playing much anymore.

I am 25 currently and I've been playing online games (FPS's mainly) since I was 9 years old, I first started on Delta Force on the PC! I've always had a knack for playing FPS games, whether it be on M/Kb or controller. Easily maintain a +2.0K/D, sometimes even a 3.0K/D on the easier FPS games.

The most challenging FPS game I have played was Halo 3 MLG playlist. The players that used to play this playlist were incredible, I never managed to hit 50, only 48, but I guess 50 was for the MLG pro's, those guys are on a totally different level.

The game demanding most of my time right now is Battlefield 4 on the PS4. Still pushing my 2.0K/D ratio (2.32 exactly as I write this, with a SPM of 799) which is quite good, but there's a hell of a lot better out there!

However recently learning that my girl friend is pregnant, I feel as though my best days are behind me! Losing your touch is not because you get older and physically/mentally can't compete anymore, it's because of other commitments you make as you get older. If you carry on playing games the way same way you did as a young adult into your 40's I bet you can still maintain every bit of skill.

[Spartan119]

I can still hold my own online but im nowhere near as good as I use to be. I went onto bungie.net the other day and was looking at my old Halo 2 stats. Most games I was 1st place or in top 3 scorers. These days kids and shift work really limit the time I can spend online. I can still easily finish campaigns on Legendary/Veteran but online MP im sad to say my time has passed