Originally posted by Coaster indavidual
As for the multiplayer in HL2, CSS has its disadvantages becuase of the cheaters and its ruthlessness toward new ppl, but then thats all about the right servers you are in. I'm gonna have to disagree with you about the balance in CSS maps. I have seen maps where the Ts almost always win, but then again I play that same map the next day and its the CTs winning. Its about the team you are on. CSS maps are alot smaller and choke point orientated.
I played CS from beta 6.5 up to CS:S. So that gives me like, 5-6 years of playing. Im very aware of the maps. Ive played maps most people didnt even know existed and the problem with the game is like you said "Choke points". If you control the choke point, you control the game. Also what kills the game is the ability to let people switch teams.
All that ever happens is you get a bunch of really good people who cant stand to have their online stats ruined so they jump from the bad team to the good team and then SLAUGHTER the crappy team. 6 years of that was enough to know it happens at least 80% of the time. Very few maps allow for a crappy team to actually come back to beat a better team. Team stacking is one of the biggest pitfalls of the game next to cheating.
I was also in a clan for about 4 years, local and we played in several online ladders and a few local tournies. The LAN's were the only "fair" games Ive ever played. With the ability to customize your settings in CS right down to your packetloss settings and such people are able to customize how much they lag in relation to you as well as how much they dont. I have seen people use this to their advantage when they report a ping under 80 but to you they lag like a 56k. They see you in normal 80ms lag so that means they can shoot you but you see a warping character flying around. Impossible to hit.
Ive seen just about everything that can happen in CS. If youve only been playing since Source or even since it went "Official" with 1.0, you missed out on the BEST years of the game when cheating was low, people played fair and there wasnt a million and one ways to gain an unfair advantage over the other.
Im still a PC gamer at heart but not online. Its WAY to easy to get caught up in an unfair game and thats not fun. Theres way too many servers to try and pick the right one every time. You are very lucky to find a 1 or 2 servers that are moderated 24/7 and are governered by fair people.
As for Halo2 dual weilding, you just need the right combo. The good combos include: Pistol - SMG, alien pistol - SMG, dual plasmas and thats about it. Im a grenade freak too but it doesnt work all the time. Actually, the best combo so far is use the Alien pistol to take away shield then bust out the Battle Rifle and headshot - boom gone. Very, very effective.