Buying a New FPS - Primary Weapons

One of the first things that you should evaluate when you have a new first person shooter is the primary weapons. What kind of spreads they have, their recoil, the trajectories, the damage they do, how fast they reload, etc. will help you out immensely in the long run. This doesn't take very long and is certainly worth the while, so I recommend doing it before you take your new guns online.

Spread: You can test this simply by firing your gun of choice at a wall in single-player mode or on a closed multiplayer server. You should watch to see how much it spreads at close range, middle range, and 100 feet or so. The important thing to do here is aim, but don't correct yourself. Aim at the center, but don't move the reticule once you hold down the trigger. This tells you how accurate your gun is and how reliable it is to hit at close, medium, etc. This can also give you a hint as to how far away and in what role you should use that weapon.

Recoil: Recoil is as easy to test as spread, and just as important, because it determines how far up or down your shots go. This can be tested in the same set of shots as spread. Anyway, shoot at a wall, and check to see how far up or down the shots go. This can be used as a benchmark to help you aim. With sniper rifles, be sure to take this into account when you're shooting. Do this from 50 and 100 feet, which, again, will help you determine what the use of the weapon may be.

Trajectories: How far can you shoot this gun? This can be a hard one to test, and the only way I can think of is to shoot on a barren stretch of land and look for the bullet hole. Either that, or get a friend to stand at a given range, then keep moving back until you can't hit him anymore. This isn't as important as recoil or spread, but if you know the trajectory of your gun, you know just how far you can be and still snipe that guy, and if you know the trajectory of your enemy's gun, you know just how close you can stand without getting shot.

Damage: Will this kill a guy in one hit, or will it take a bunch of shots to bring him down? This is the only test where you need another person. Equip the gun, then shoot them; first in the leg, then kill them. Then shoot them in the torso. If that doesn't kill them, make it so. Then shoot them in the head. You kill them in between so that you can test how much each individual shot does, instead of as a whole. This can be very time-consuming, so get a patient friend.

Reloading: This isn't really something to be tested so much as something you have to know. You must know that if you shoot a LAW and there are still people around, then you have to switch weapons and shoot with that. It's better to overestimate than the other way around, because if you're caught without a gun, you're as good as dead.