- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
The thing I notice that most people overlook is their hardware. If you're serious about gaming, get yourself a nice optical mouse that is conducive towards smooth movement, rather than a jumpy, inaccurate trackball mouse. I can't tell you how much nicer playing a FPS is when you have a nice optical mouse. It makes a big difference that you have to experience. Also, take some time to configure your mouse sensitivity, ingame. This can do wonders for your ability to aim when you're first starting out.
Another thing that might give you an advantage is how you have your graphical settings configured. You want the fastest framerate possible while playing multiplayer, so you aren't surprised by someone else who is seeing things before you. If your framerate is lagging, those are precious milliseconds that your brain can use in order to formulate a reaction to your opponent(s). I tend to use a middleground in terms of framerate. I also use Halo PC for playing single-player mode and pump the details up a bit, since framerates aren't as vital in that case. I use Halo Custom Edition for multiplayer and compromise between framerate and eye candy. Running the two different versions of Halo makes it easy to keep the two settings separate and each version of Halo does what it is designed to do better than the other (i.e. Halo PC is for single-player campaign, Halo Custom Edition is for multiplayer action). ;)
As far a game tactics are concerned, a book could be written on this topic (I think there are a few, actually). Others will chime in with various stragies, but it helps to have a more defining question. You might check out the other thread on the front page about avoiding vehicles while you're here.