A 21-second video of a hand ignites a sizzling debate over the FPS 'tac sprint'
"Walking. Sprinting. That's all we need," declared the prophet JoovYT, a YouTuber with a bone to pick with how we sprint in shooters these days.
In the 21-second video captioned "My Battlefield 6 wishlist," Joov makes a fierce case that Battlefield 6, and any other FPS for that matter, need not offer two different sprint speeds.
Well, "makes a case" might be an overstatement: he just insists that tac sprinting is bad while waving his hand around, but he brings such an unexpected fervor and heat to a minor topic that, yeah, I actually know exactly what he means, and he's right for saying it. That might explain why the X post has reached over a million views in a day with hundreds sounding off in support (and some naysaying, too).
"Tac sprinting" is when you can press the sprint button twice to run even faster than a normal sprint—characterized in Joov's video by an erratically oscillating vertical hand to symbolize a gun. The mechanic first showed up in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 and has since been adopted widely, most notably in Battlefield and Delta Force.
"This (waving his hand steadily left and right in a walking motion), and then this (waving his hand downward in a sprinting motion), and we're good," Joov continues in the video. "But as soon as I see this, and then this, and then THIS (waves his hand vertically upwards), I don't wanna play the fucking game."
The passionate responses to Joov's video are surprising, considering I've never heard much chatter at all about this specific and sort of minor feature before.
"Tac sprint is the greatest feature added in FPS in the last few years. What is this man talking about?" wrote Warzone player SICKYCOD on X.
"No he's right, you guys are booing him but he's 100% right…" added ItsJabo.
"Someone finally said what I've been trying to say about Cod/Battlefield," wrote Caseypolitan.
With no follow-up from the great messenger to explain his stance, I can only infer what irks Joov and others about the tac sprint.
There's the argument that the tac sprint was originally created to accommodate Call of Duty: Warzone's humongous battle royale maps, but outside of that context, it needlessly speeds up games that are more fun when they're slower, like Battlefield.
I subscribe to that: The availability of a superhuman speed burst at any time can make close-range firefights more erratic and random, which works out OK for CoD but feels goofy in Battlefield, a series that still attempts to be grounded. Battlefield maps are also huge, but if you wanna get around faster, that's what vehicles are for.
Then there's the fact that tac sprinting exacerbates an already terrible FPS habit: sprinting when you don't need to, and getting killed because of it. Call of Duty (and the tac sprint by extension) programs us to be in a rush to hunt down another target, but you can go far in Battlefield by taking a beat and jogging instead.
More than anything, though, Joov and the wider public could be reacting to the tac sprint's rapid adoption. It's like Activision and EA got together and changed a fundamental aspect of FPS movement without checking with all of us first. They were so caught up in whether they could double the speed of sprinting that nobody asked if they should, etc.
The good news for Joov and his followers: Early leaks of Battlefield 6 playtests have a lot of normal sprinting, but no tac sprinting that I've seen.
Is this whole thing low-stakes? Sure, but it's the sort of minutia that's fun to debate, and Battlefield's not the only one going through it. Last month, Halo Infinite made the excellent case that FPSes don't always need a normal sprint or ledge clambering either.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Digital Trends
26 minutes ago
- Digital Trends
Marvel Cosmic Invasion's tag system lets me finally feel like a beat-em-up pro
As a kid, there was never a trip to a movie theater or bowling alley where I didn't sink at least a handful of quarters into whatever beat-em-up arcade game was on site. I was enamored with The Simpsons arcade game and bewitched by TMNT, but the one that ate the vast majority of my quarters (okay, my parents' quarters) was the X-Men arcade game. Even looking at a screenshot of those majestic pixel-art graphics gives me phantosmia of slightly burnt popcorn and hot pretzels. I never had the skill or quarters necessary to get beyond one or two stages in those games, but that never diminished my love for beat-em-ups. I still like checking out new entries when I can, but love watching combo videos even more. Seeing one or two people work in perfect harmony with the game's mechanics to juggle, bounce, and style on those poor NPC enemies is an art form that I never thought I'd be able to participate in. Recommended Videos That was until this week when I got to play the first two stages of Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Be your own sidekick Coming from developer Tribute Games and Dotemu to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Switch 2, and PC, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is more than just a love letter to the old arcade beat-em-up genre — it is the culmination of everything I want it to be. If you've played a beat-em-up before, you will recognize the core systems here. You pick your favorite superhero from a final roster that will consist of 15 heroes to brawl through sidescrolling stages against waves of enemies and a boss at the end. Your bread and butter buttons are a standard combo, special move, and ultimate ability to pull out in a pinch, but it is the layers Marvel Cosmic Invasion puts on top of the core formula that made me feel more like a pro on my first shot than I ever did in other games in the genre. My demo only featured two stages and a roster of 9 out of the final 15 heroes, but that was more than enough to give me a taste of the possibilities this game has. I knew one of the core features of Marvel Cosmic Invasion was the Cosmic Swap system, which would let me swap between two different heroes rather than be stuck as just one for the entire game. I assumed that would be a cool way to keep the game from feeling stale, but not be as transformative and integral to the moment-to-moment flow of combat as it ended up being. I chose Wolverine and Phyla-Vell as my initial pairing as a way to try something familiar and something new. Wolverine is the raw ball of fury I expected, rushing in with claws, leaping onto enemies to stab them, and charging up a big cross slash. Besides my default combo, I instinctively found a launcher by hitting attack and jump at the same time, as well as the aforementioned charge attack by holding attack. There was no tutorial or explanation on how to play in my demo beyond the control layout in the menu, so hopefully that is included in the full game to explain some of the less-obvious moves to those who aren't familiar with the language of beat-em-ups. That was all standard stuff. It felt and looked amazing, but didn't show its hand until I messed with the Cosmic Swap system. This isn't just a button I press to swap characters when I get tired of Wolverine's moves, though it could be used that way. This is more akin to the tag system in a fighting game like Marvel Vs. Capcom, where I can hold the assist button plus press one of my attacks to summon my backup character to inject one of their moves into my combo with or without swapping to them depending on the button. This cracked open the combat system in a way I'd never been able to even approach before. I found myself pulling off complex and extended combos almost on instinct by calling out an assist move when I left myself unable to continue juggling an enemy with my primary character. By pure accident, I was pulling off the types of combos I had only seen in clips online. I want to stress that I've never been able to do more than some basic combos before, but on the first stage in this Marvel Cosmic Invasion demo I managed to rack up a combo of over 200 purely by experimenting with all the moves. I can only imagine what two or more people, each controlling multiple characters, will be able to pull off. But the tag system didn't just make me feel like a pro because it let me dominate enemies that, for the most part, are there to be styled on. It also removes the most aggravating part of beat-em-ups, which is when I end up on the wrong side of a combo. Marvel Cosmic Invasion doesn't tone down the frustratingly long amount of time I am stunned when I do find myself getting hit, but instead of forcing me to grit my teeth and bear it, the tag system gives me an out. If I find myself getting hit, I can call in my assist to interrupt my attacker long enough to break out of the stun and strike back. Or, I can completely swap out to my second character to bypass the hitstun. Once I had ingrained that lesson into my toolkit, I always felt like I had an option in every scenario to turn things around. I would say the Cosmic Assist system is a little overpowered, but I think that's the point. It does come at a cost — a meter that drains as I use it but refills upon hitting an enemy. But unless I spammed it, that meter would stay replenished without having to think much about it. There were only two bosses in my demo, and even fighting them I never came close to death. Who knows how the difficulty will ramp up later, but I don't think Marvel Cosmic Invasion leaning on the easier side is by any means a bad thing. It lets average players like me feel like I'm making the most of the combat systems. Every time I experimented, even when I wasn't sure what attack my assist was going to do, I was almost always rewarded for it. Marvel Cosmic Invasion launches later this year.
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
The Only ‘Wednesday' Season 1 Recap You Need To Watch Before Season 2
Netflix is about to release the first half of Wednesday season 2, the three-years-later follow-up to its second most-watched series ever, second only to Squid Game. Given that it has in fact been three years, you may not remember what exactly happened over the course of this series. Wednesday is moody and evil but not really evil. She goes to a magic school. She has a werewolf roommate with rainbow hair. She can see the future. There is a big CGI monster. Uh, the rest of it is sort of fuzzy. So, if that's the case with you, there's a video you might want to watch, along with the other 300,000 people who already watched it, Netflix's Wednesday , 2:40 summary of the season 1. This may or may not play before you start season 2, but I've had plenty of instances where they just throw you right into the deep end without one, so you might as well refresh yourself ahead of tomorrow: However, two minutes is two minutes. While I don't think you have to go any deeper than this, if you want a more in-depth recap of the season, I found one that's 10x as long, getting far more into the detail over the course of 20 minutes. That would be from YouTuber Binge Bot, who actually released this two full years ago, for whatever reason, but it's newly relevant today. You can check that out below if you want: Wednesday will test Netflix subscribers patience, to see if viewers return for a show that hasn't been seen for three years. Netflix has started a press tour including a 'black carpet' event in a way that they almost never do for series. The focus of that has mainly been on Jenna Ortega and her various goth outfits and the fact that she now has blonde eyebrows (not on the show, however). It seems exceedingly likely that Netflix wants Wednesday to run as long as possible if they can keep both Tim Burton and Ortega on board. That will of course require tens of millions of dollars, but this is a golden goose for Netflix, and with Squid Game and Stranger Things both ending, the other two parts of Netflix's three biggest shows ever, Wednesday is very important. Netflix has not found another ongoing series nearly on par with it since its release. A new, huge series was the limited series Adolescence , but that was meant to be a one-off, and no second season has been announced, despite being a hit. So, we'll see how it all goes tomorrow. Brush up on season 1 before then. Follow me on Twitter , YouTube , and Instagram . Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .
The Verge
2 hours ago
- The Verge
What's better than one Nintendo Direct? Two.
The Switch 2 is here: everything you need to know about Nintendo's new console See all Stories Posted Aug 5, 2025 at 1:19 PM UTC Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Ash Parrish Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Ash Parrish Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Nintendo
