Mapathy Cure: STIMULUS PACKAGE!

For those of you not aware, there has been a recent outbreak of what has been called “Mapathy” in the Modern Warfare 2 community. I personally have felt the sting of this disease considering I have turned on maps that I once loved, these maps being Terminal, Rundown, and even Derail. I must mention that my hate for Afghan is still alive and kicking.

Luckily, Infinity Ward has discovered a cure for this illness in their most recent form of down-loadable content: The Stimulus Package. The package is set to be released on March 3oth 2010 at the stroke of midnight for $15. This is EXCELLENT news for 360 owners seeing as how we get the package 30 days before PS3 users.

There were rumors that the package would include new perks, spec op missions, challenges, call-signs, and weapons, but these rumors are not true. However, the package will include 3 new maps that all seem pretty legit. The new maps are as follows: Bailout, a map that appears to take place in a residential style area. Storm, another rain themed map that looks like a cross between Underpass and Modern Warfare 1 classic, Overgrown. The final new map is Salvage, a snow thing map that looks like MW1′s Shipment during Winter, sadly. Hopefully the 3 new maps don’t disappoint.

If they do, players will be pleased to find that 2 classic maps are returning. Modern Warfare 1 maps Overgrown and Crash will be playable with the package. I love Overgrown, and even though I’m not too crazy about Crash, I’m just thankful that the World’s Most God-Awful Map, Wetwork is no where this game. HATE YOU WETWORK!

Oh, and here’s the trailer for the new Stimulus Package if you haven’t seen it yet.

Knifing: WTF?!?!

Some of you may be aware of the posts that I have written in the past that pertain to the knifing/running class, however this post is a special kind of gripe about one of the most ambiguous tactics in Modern Warfare 2: Knifing.  As many of you know, in MW2 when it comes to close quarters combat, a lot of the time knifing the enemy is your best bet. Lately though I have found that landing a solid knife is totally unpredictable and inconsistent. From my personal experience there have been many times where I am almost making out with my target and I go to knife him, and I completely miss only to then be turned into the victim. Oh, and this has even happened while I was using the Commando Perk, which is another blog for another day.

In addition to this, there have been times when I attempt to knife an opponent who is rushing me head-on, and somehow, even though I clearly see my character in his knifing animation, he somehow has knifed me into submission. To make matters worse, when I watch the killcam, my character appears to have not even tried to knife at all. This perhaps is the result of a poor internet connection though.

And lastly can someone please explain to me why a throwing knife or lunging knife is a one hit kill every time even against players with Painkiller equipped, while an RPG to an enemy’s chest with Danger Close equipped isn’t enough to cripple a man? In short, Infinity Ward should consider fixing the knifing system even if only slightly, the time in between knives is way too much of a hassle, and even though the tactical knife helps that, I still find knifing to be somewhat of a nuisance at times.

Oh and apparently “knifing” isn’t an actual word. O_0

Full Metal Joke: FMJ

One of the coolest new features about Modern Warfare 2 is the wide variety of weapon attachments that are available to players. One of the newer weapon attachments to the series is the Full Metal Jacket, or FMJ for short, which is similar to the Deep Impact perk from the previous Modern Warfare. FMJ is probably the most often chosen weapon attachment, because like Stopping Power, many players believe that FMJ does more than it actually can. In reality, FMJ is only able to reduce the amount of damage lost per bullet when a player is shooting through some kind of material. These materials include but are not limited to walls, windows, grated floors, and even an enemy’s teammate. Let it be known that FMJ has no effect on the bullet damage done to an enemy who is out in the open. When fired, FMJ bullets usually appear with a glowing bright red tint around them, which actually looks pretty legit and is one of the better features about this attachment.

One thing that is somewhat of a nuisance about this attachment is that in order to gain the Extended Mags attachment for most of the weapons, players must get 40 bullet penetration kills, which for most players is a bit of a stretch. Overall, in my opinion FMJ is next to useless on the weapon attachment pyramid. I would only recommend using this attachment if you had no other options available or if you wanted to score the Extended Mags attachment. To close, I have killed and been killed through several different objects while playing multiplayer and in both cases the FMJ attachment was not equipped. By this I mean, the amount of penetration a bullet can have is still pretty large without FMJ, so put your weapon attachment options to better use and try not to, if at all use FMJ.

Below is a video giving a few tips on how to get 40 FMJ kills pretty fast.

Special Grenades: Stun Grenades

For a while, the only type of Special Grenades that  would use while playing Modern Warfare 2 was the Smoke grenades. However, recently I have discovered a new type of special grenade: the Stun Grenade.

The Stun grenade can be effectively used on a defended location or around a corner. It is typically used in close quarters combat to kill dazed enemies easily. Affected targets move and turn considerably slower than normal, so if a player throws a grenade immediately afterward it is almost impossible to escape. There is an initial flash but vision is quickly returned. This grenade will affect the player throwing it, but not his teammates (unless friendly fire is turned on). The effect radius is smaller than the Flash grenade but makes all targets in the radius extremely vulnerable. Players with 3 may throw them all at the single location, allowing them to travel a moderate distance before the stun effects wear off. This grenade actually possesses elements of a flash, frag and smoke grenade together; the grenade creates a small flash, does a little damage, and creates a negligible amount of smoke (although the flash grenade does so too). The slowing effect is its own unique property. Out of all the thrown objects in the game, the stun grenade is the fastest thrown object next to the the Throwing Knife.

Special Ops: Beast of the Dogs

If you ask anyone who’s ever played Call of Duty: World at War, they will probably tell you that the most annoying killstreak reward in the series, was the 7 killstreak reward of the dogs. When I found out that out of the 15 killstreak rewards in Modern Warfare 2, none were dogs, I was elated. However, this elation soon disappeared when I played the Special Ops mission that is littered with these mangy muts. The name of the mission is O Cristo Redentor and it takes place on a map that is very similar to the online map Favela. The object of the mission is to eliminate all of the opposing militia while harming few to no civilians. Now, this may seem like a simple task, but when set to the hardest difficulty, it is not. For one the enemy militia, is pretty skilled in combat. In addition to this, you have to try to shoot as few civilians as possible. As if all of this was not hard enough, Infinity Ward decides to add ravenous dogs into the mix. For some reason a shotgun  blast to the face is not always enough to stop these vile creatures. Also, the dogs have an attack that pins the victim down, and gives players about 1/2 a second to retaliate properly; if one doesn’t succeed, then they are converted into dog food. This mission is somewhat easier when playing co-op, but barely. Overall, I severely dislike the dogs, and wish nothing but bad things upon them! Oh yeah, shout out to my homie BRANDON HUMDOG for helpin me defeat these filthty creatures!

Below is a run through, of the above mentioned game type. Pay special attention to man’s best friend.