True Combat Elite mod for Wolfenstein Enemy Territory (for the price of free)
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Sub heading: using offensive grammar, run on sentences, and some made up words.
I never really enjoyed Counter Strike. I acknowledge it's grade A beef with one of the top ten persistent player communities of all time for realz. I won't even argue against it being the ACME online shooter of all time, but with the caliber of players in CS, the time it takes to get good enough to, you know, have fun, is eerily similar to getting a second job and I already have one of those.
For the past year I've been looking for a replacement shooter for the price of free, yes free as in less than any suspicious item you'd buy in a dollar store. In this pursuit I went through boot camp with Americas Army but eventually grew tired of having ten minutes sucked out of my life never to return every time I died. I subsequently went through shooty arcade shooter land with Combat Arms, which I loved until I grew to loathe gun rentals and repetition. I'm now making up for lost time with, stay with me, in air quotes, the "True Combat Elite Mod" for "Wolfenstein Enemy Territory." Bolth Wolfenstein and Combat Elite are free downloads at GameSpot.com and despite being old school they are just a hell of a lot more fun than many modern multiplayer shooters.
What does Combat Elite do right I ask rhetorically so don't answer..?? The answer is it takes the best bits of Americas Army, Combat Arms, and Counter Strike. The firefights are intense mixes of run and gun and belly crawling, the maps, lots of them, are balanced and full of ways to flank an enemy, and the graphics are exactly what you want from a shooter, detailed enough to entertain, but not so detailed as to make your server jump out a fifth story window. Actually some of the levels look retro which will give you a hint of nostalgia as you put two into your foes chest. I encountered little to no lag during matches of 28 players or more. The intro interface is intuitive, the weapons selection before each round is simple, and at any given time there are a multiple great games running on the servers.
Combat elite includes an impressive selection of maps, from wrecking someone's party cruise boat, to deserts, warehouses, and urban warfare. The maps have functional doors, ladders, and crawl spaces plus various materials with various bullet stopping abilities or lack thereof. There are nice visual touches such as graffiti and static military vehicles. Maps come in all shapes and sizes to satisfy everyone from the shotgun junkie to the dirt sucking sniperzz. Respawn times are reasonable and maps change as often as your attention deficit mind can handle. The maps are multistory and often firefights will rage from one side of the map to the other as teams continually flank and snipe at one another. Friendly fire is on but being shot in the back by a teammate will trigger a complaint window that lets you vote towards the offending player's ejection, they can do the same to you if you revengescrew' them back.
There are a large variety of weapons to choose from in Combat Elite and they all sound absolutely incredible. The assault, spec ops, and sniper classes all have unique weapons, but they are well balanced and all classes are competitive. What's enjoyable about Combat in Elite is that the air in front of you is absent of the magic floaty aiming reticle. Iron sights, dot sights, and scopes are the only way to fly. This largely eliminates the redundancy of shooters where sights slow down aiming. The best touch is that many of the assault rifles and sub-machineguns have fluorescent dots on their iron sights which make fast aiming a charm. Weapons are not customizable but you will definitely find yourself switching through a sizable variety depending on which side of defeat you're on. Also of note is how players get their lean on. Leaning is a core component of Elite and due to the speed at which bullets will end your pathetic bunkering attempt, is highly recommended/satisfying. The best compliment I can give Combat Elite is it's balanced, nostalgic, and a hell of a lot of fun.
