Importance Of Sound

From Whisper's Wiki

This post was created because I was sick and tired of people calling me a cheat in game, even though I am the damn server admin.

You would think the constant console spam would be a clue, as to not to falsely accuse me, but never the less....

Some of you may want to know how some of us seem to know where everybody is on the map, here are a few tips:

1. I have spent over $300 on my Sound Card (Audigy 2 ZS) & Headset (BeyerDynamic DT234 Pro's) If I am driving a Ferrari and you are driving a stock standard Hyundai, who do you think is going to win the race? So the first lesson is, sound is extraordinarily important in being able to locate the position of enemies. Better equipment helps, but it is not the be all and end all, but if you cannot tell left from right, you are going to be struggling to be anywhere close to competitive. It is not only what you have got, but how you use it.
2. Counter-Strike Source is a lot more sophisticated with the sounds that are made depending upon where the player has made the movement sound. Map knowledge and experience is crucial. Sometimes a single footstep is all somebody has had to make to enable me to locate their precise position. At the very least it puts you on guard for a particular location that you may not of otherwise paid as much attention to as others.
   Moreover all sounds can give your position away, from reloading, to switching weapons, to picking up the grenade you did not really need. These are all ways of detecting with sufficient accuracy the location of your opposition players.
3. Map knowledge is also crucial in knowing where to look and where to aim. If your cross-hair is constantly pointed at the ground in the middle of the corridor rather than the corner of the corridor from the side the enemy is likely to appear from, then there is no wonder why you get killed quickly, without firing a shot.
4. Map knowledge is also crucial in knowing where the camping spots are, or more to the point the highly probable camping spots are that you should be checking first, especially when you have to make a decision on picking one direction or another. Sound once again can provide the ultimate clue as to what your choice should be.
5. Radar and Death Notices, allow you to know that your teammates have died and from approximately which location. When you combine this with good map knowledge, and sound, you can pick quite effectively after gaining some experience the likelihood of enemies approaching from a certain direction. Then meeting them with a friendly HE grenade that will appear to have come from nowhere, followed up with a flashbang and then some M4 spam and then you have got yourself 4 kills and the enemy has not even seen you, let alone fired a shot.
6. Experience, this is something nobody can help you with, but do not be discouraged by not knowing as much as somebody who has been playing Counter-Strike for 6 years. Counter-Strike is easy to learn, but difficult to master, with each and every map have their own subtle tricks and vagaries that can be exploited by a knowledgeable and experienced player.
7. Shadows = Legal Wallhack. Enable them if you can. Then learn to look for them, which is the difficult task. Learn to avoid casting them, which is very difficult.

Finally, believe it or not, I am not that good a shot, and against the guys who are capable representing this country I can appear to be rather mediocre, which only serves to prove that the level of skill I am at should be realistically achievable by the majority of people who want to play Counter-Strike reasonably well. Cheers Whisper

In any case I use sound a lot in game, this post was specifically for CS:Source but most of it works for CS 1.6 as well.