COD4 Console Commands are a great tool to improve your Call of Duty experience. To open the console simply press the ~ key which is located directly below the escape key. I see a lot of people online trying to type commands into chat, this doesn’t work, you need to open the console. Then you can type in the commands, note they all begin with the key, located directly above the Enter key.

Lets take a look at some of the more useful and commonly used COD4 Console Commands.

cg_drawFPS 1

Displays your FPS (Frames Per Second) in the upper right hand corner. The higher your FPS the smoother the game runs, the lower your FPS the choppier the game runs.

cg_drawFPS 0

Turns off the FPS display in the upper right hand corner. Note that that 0 turns off any command while 1 turns it on.

cg_drawlagometer 1

Creates a graph in the lower left hand corner of your screen. For the top meter in the graph you want it to be mostly blue. Blue means you are refreshing in sync with the server and everything is going good. Yellow is bad, it means you are out of sync with the server. Don’t panic if you have a little bit of yellow, but you still want most of it to be blue. For the bottom meter you want it to be green. Green means your packet transfer is smooth, red and yellow are bad and means your data transfer is flaky.

cg_FOV 80

This changes your visible field of view from 65 degrees to 80 degrees. It essentially moves you back so you can see a wider area. The drawback is that everything then appears smaller. I don’t know if it is better to have a larger FOV, I think it is mostly based on personal preference.

All COD4 console commands:

Points of interest
=============
com_maxfps “125″
cl_packetdup “2″
cl_maxpackets “63″
rate “25000″
snaps “30″
cg_drawFPS “Simple”
cg_drawFPSLabels “1″
cg_drawLagometer “1″

Commands
/serverinfo – This command shows the server settings and configurations.
/map

– This will load the given map.
/map_rotate – This will load the next map of the rotation. This is set in the ‘sv_maprotation’ file on your server.
/map_restart – This will restart the current map.
/fast_restart – This will restart the current map just like /map_restart but is much faster as it will not load the map again. It will just restart the map.
/status – This shows information about the connected players. This includes the client ID, score, ping, GUID, name and IP address. The ID and name can be used for the following commands.
/tell [player id] – This will display a message to a specific player. The ID is given with the /status command.
/clientkick [player id] – This will kick a player according to its ID (given with the /status command).
/kick [player name] – This will do the same as the /clientkick command, but this command requires the player’s name. However, some names are very difficult to enter (with colour codes etc.), thats why the /clientkick commands is easier in use. You can use ‘all’ as player name, this will kick all players from the server.
/onlykick [player name] – Does the same as /kick as far as I know.
/banClient [player id] – This command will ban a player according to its ID. The player’s GUID will be added to ban.txt.
/banUser [player name] – This command does the same as the /banclient command. However, this requires you to fill in the player’s name, it is therefore advised to use the /banclient command (names can be long or contain colour codes).
/tempBanClient [player id] – This will temporary ban a player using the player’s ID. The length of a temporary ban can be changed in the server configuration file.
/tempBanUser [player name] – This will temporary ban a player using the player’s name.
/unbanUser [player name] – This will unban a user according to the player’s name. If the player’s name appears more than once in ban.txt, you can edit the file and remove the banned player manually.
/dumpuser [player name] – This will give information about the player.
/killserver – As the name says, it will shut your server down.

RCON usage
It is very likely that you are not playing at the same location (IP address) as your server is. Thats where we use RCON (= remote control) commands for. Using RCON is very easy, just add ‘/rcon ‘ in front of the commands above (removing the ‘/’ of those commands). But before you can use RCON, you will have to login:
/rcon login [password] – Fill in the password of the server and you can use RCON commands.

Examples of RCON commands:
/rcon map mp_pipeline
/rcon status
/rcon banclient 5

More (useless) commands
/serverstatus – This will give you information about the server settings and a quick list of online players.
/serverinfo – This will give you some diversified about IW settings on your server and some useless information.
/systeminfo – This will give you a list of the settings your server has.
/clientinfo – This will give you information about the yourself as client.
/showip – This will provide your IP address.
/cmdlist – This will show a complete list of commands available.

AimBots – An automated program like the own in the video above that aims puts your sights quickly and perfectly on the target players head. Most aimbots while efficient at getting kills, are extremely easy to identify because the rate of kills and number of headshots are so unnatural. There are aimbots which try to be more natural looking, but to an observant player they are easy to foil.

WallHacks – A program that shows enemy players silhouettes in bright colors through walls and all types of materials. Wallhacks are often coupled with aimbots to get even more kills. It is more dangerous and difficult to stop when wallhacks are used alone. As long as the player doesn’t make it incredibly obvious that they have an wall hack by getting a huge amount of kills with bullet penetration, they can claim they just got lucky or they saw knew the enemy thanks to a UAV. People that use hacks are usually not this subtle about getting kills, because their end goal is to be the center of attention. If you suspect someone is wall hacking though try equipping UAV Jammer and a silenced weapon, if they continue to get unbelievable kills through walls chances are they are wall hacking. Take a look at the video below for an example.

Speed Hacks – Also related to lag hacks, essentially a hack that allows the player to move more quickly than anyone else. Speed hacks can be done by messing with the data packets as they travel to the server or by simply hacking the game to make you move faster. This can make players move at light speed or appear to disappear and reappear across the map. Lag hacks can be difficult to stop because the player can just claim that the server or his internet connection is causing the issue. Even then though lagging player can just be kicked.

Glitching – The only hack that doesn’t require some sort of external program or support. Glitching is simply taking advantage of problems with the games coding, whether it is jumping outside of the normal map area or being able to see through walls on some buildings. Glitching is banned on most, but not all servers and is easy to prevent and identify if the server has spectator mode or kill cams enabled.

Stopping hacking and aimbots is important for the health of COD4 and any other video game out there. So what can be done to stop hacking? Monitoring systems like Punkbuster are easy to get around and often cause more problems for legitimate players. Unless they improve by leaps and bounds hackers will be able to stay ahead of them. The best solution is vigilant players and server admins. In particular the voting system in Call of Duty 4 which allows a majority of players to kick a hacking player is a good start. At this point though the voting system is hackable to rig the voting which means it to is far from perfect. There is no perfect solution, the best thing you can do is minimize your risk by playing with players you trust and an active administrator.

Something to note about all the Assault Rifles that is often ignored is their range, 1500-2000, the longest of any weapon class.As you might of guess from previous reviews all of our data is coming from our incredible Call of Duty Weapon Stats Chart. The data from the weapon stats chart is correct for all versions of the video game, PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.

Anyway on to the Call of Duty weapon review for Assault Rifles, short version is on the bottom of the page. M16 – Incredible accuracy and damage values, the only drawback being that it is not fully automatic, firing in three round bursts. Within each burst though the bullets come flying quite rapidly at 950 RPM, but once you take into account the pauses between each burst it slows to 450 RPM.

That single three round burst will is guaranteed to take down an enemy with Stopping Power equipped, and without it your odds of a kill are still quite good. The slow bursts can even be a blessing for players new to Call of Duty.

It brings down recoil, conserves ammunition and allows you a clear view without muzzle flash between each shot. For hardcore matches high the damage and low recoil might be a win more, but for normal matches the M16 is amazing. AK47 – One of two Assault Rifles with a 40-30 damage values and automatic fire.

The recoil of the AK47 is high, but nothing that isn’t manageable with smart fire control by it’s controller. Getting that minimum of 30 damage is critical for hardcore because it guarantees you a one shot kil without Stopping Power. For normal matches it is also great because a kill only takes 3-4 bullets, 2-3 if you have Stopping Power.

Their are some unfortunate constraints on the weapon though, equipping either the red dot or silencer brings your damage values down to 40-20. The red dot and silencer might be good, but the lower damage values make plain old iron sights or the ACOG a better choice for the AK47. Overall the AK47 is a good weapon for both hardcore and normal matches.

MP44 -A nice little shout out to older times, but strictly worse than the AK47. It has all the exact same stats except for a lower rate of fire and longer reload time. The only way I can see using it over the AK47 is if you really really like it’s iron sights. M4 -Automatic weapon with low recoil but so-so damage. The low recoil and automatic power is the main selling point of the weapon, nothing besides it brother the G36c can come close to comparing.

The recoil is so low you can literally unload a full clip into a watermelon from across the map without stopping (yeah I tried it). The damage of 30-20 isn’t great but the fact that majority of your shots will actually land on target makes up for it. This makes the M4 a staple for both normal and hardcore game types in Call of Duty. G36c – Virtually identical to the M4, and at first glance it might seem to be inferior. The normally infallible weapon stats chart shows it has all the same stats except with a lower rate of fire.

The one thing is misses though is that the G36 has virtually no gun sway when firing from the hip or with the iron sights. The M4 on the other hand sways like sheets in the wind. Try it for yourself, look closely at both the M4 and G36 when standing still. The G36 will be perfectly still while the M4 quivers in a small ovalish pattern across the screen. This can make it difficult to aim so the there is a reason to chose the G36c over the M4 in Call of Duty.

G3 – One of two single shot firing assault rifles with medium recoil and good damage values. The main issue you have to consider with the G3 is the single shot which makes it not so great in close range encounters. In fact the average person firing a single shot weapon in close quarters has no freakin chance. If you have the leet skillz though the single shot curse can become a blessing.

Single shot weapons on the software level are actual capable of firing faster than every single automatic weapon, it’s just that a normal human can’t click a mouse 1200 times in a minute, the maximum set up on the hardware end. You obviously don’t need to fire that fast, just fast enough to give yourself a chance against automatic weapons. At range the G3 already has the advantage, high damage values with low recoil means deadly accuracy.

The 40-30 damage means you one shot in hardcore and makes the G3 playable in normal matches as well. M14 – A single shot weapon like the G3 only with higher recoil and damage values. Everything said earlier about single shot weapons applies here as well. The big thing you have to consider is the huge amount of damage it does, 40-50 means you two shot anything, anywhere, anytime. In hardcore there is no reason to play the M14 though because one shoting with some damage left over doesn’t give you any extra points. In normal matches though the M14 is great weapon.

The bottom line: All the Assault Rifles except for the MP44 have their uses and are playable in Call of Duty 4. 

Max Packets - The console command “cl_maxpackets 60″ changes the number of packets the player sends to the server. This should be generally be between 60 and 90, depending on your internet connection and computer. For someone with a better computer and faster internet could set their Max Packets with the command “cl_maxpackets 90″. If you mess around with the command a bit you can find the max packets number for your setup

Snaps – Another console command “snaps 20″ determines how many updates the game server sends to the player. This should be set to either 20 for slower internet connections or 40 for faster connections, nothing else. Note this won’t help your performance everywhere because snaps also needs to be set server side by the admin, something you have no control over.

Turn off Shadows – Shadows use a huge amount of resources and do virtually nothing to improve visual game experience. To turn them off click on Options in the main menu, then on click on Graphics which should bring up a menu where you can switch shadows off.

Close all other applications – This means everything including internet browsers, virus scanners, auto updaters and email. Having other applications open means that your computer is not devoting all it’s resources to Call of Duty, which will result in poorer performance.

Buy better Hardware – I know it’s obvious but the better computer you have the better COD4 will run. Not everyone has a couple hundred dollars to drop on more ram and the latest graphics card, myself included. At the very least though you should meet the recommended system requirements, listed below.

• Windows XP or Windows Vista
• 2.4 GHz dual-core
• 1024 MB RAM (2048 MB for Vista)
• Nvidia GeForce 7800 or ATI Radeon X1800
• Sound Blaster X-Fi (Optimized for EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0/5.0 compatible cards)

I hope you found these tips helpful and it results in a better game experience for you.