Search and Destroy: A King Among Peasants

Too often I feel as though my posts are dedicated solely to the weapons, attachments, and perks of Modern Warfare 2. In order to change this trend, I’ve decided to write about one of the few unsung heroes in MW2: The Search and Destroy game type. hands-down this is probably my favorite game type of all and rightfully so. Search and Destroy (both Core and Hardcore) is a game type unlike any other in series. To start the rules of the game are as follow:

• 1 life per round

• 2.5 minute time limit per round

• 5 second arm time for bomb

• 45 second fuse

• 5 second defuse time

• First team to win 4 rounds wins the match

In order to successfully win a round, players on the defending team have to defend their bases from the opposing teams bomb planter for the duration of 2.5 minutes. While on the attacking team, players must successfully plant their bomb at 1 of the opposing teams 2 bomb sites before the 2.5 minutes have passed. However, this is not the only way to ensure your teams victory for a round. If one team manages to kill every member of the opposing team, they will win that round. This is because in SnD, everyone is only given ONE life per round, which makes all of the players involved about thrice as cautious as they would be if they were playing a less-manly game type (Ground War for example). In addition to this, the amount of XP gained per kill in Search and Destroy is astronomical. It’s definitely safe to say that SnD is a man’s game type and is in a League of its own in the game type world. The best thing about Search and Destroy?? There’s rarely, if ever, a bunch of prepubescent tweens playing this game type and trying to sully its good name.

The Perk, The Myth, The Legend: Stopping Power

As many online Modern Warfare 2 player can tell you, the perks are definitely an essential aspect of the game, and often mean the difference between life and death. Research has shown that the most commonly used and arguably the best perk in the Call of Duty series is Stopping Power. The Stopping Power Perk increases the amount of damage of a user’s primary and secondary weapon by 40%. At first glance, this perk may seem like a God-send, and even I have to admit that I was a firm believer that Stopping Power = Instant Win. However, after reading up on this perk, I now know better. Essentially, SP’s 40% boost only means that in order to fully cripple an enemy, the SP user only needs 1 less bullet than if they had not been using Stopping Power. Because of this, Stopping Power is a near useless perk on weapons that have a high rate of fire. In addition to this, because most players are not aware of how this perk works, it is often used on weapons that have very little to no benefit whatsoever, and have basically wasted their 2nd tier perk choice. The weapons that are guilty of this are the FAL, WA2000, UMP45, Dragunov, and the shotguns. Sadly, the pro version of the perk only increases the damage that bullets deliver to enemy vehicles like Chopper Gunners and Pave Lows. So the next time you decide to choose Stopping Power as your Red Perk… DON’T!

Dualies Boy, Dualies!!!

For this post, I decided to gripe about something that is probably the equivalent of Hell on Earth In Modern Warfare 2, the Model 1887 Shotgun a.k.a Dualies. First off, I’m pretty sure the name of this game is Modern Warfare 2, can someone please explain to me why this game features a weapon that clearly originates from the 18oos? Well Yeah. As if this is not bad enough, some moron at Infinity Ware thought it would be a good idea to allow this monstrosity of a weapon to be Akimbo-ed, or dual wielded. I swear, this is where the Models really take a turn for the worst. Once wielded, the user of Dualies can kill anything just by pointing the weapons at an enemy, sometimes pulling the trigger is necessary, but this is a rarity. Even after supposedly being patched, the Dualies are still ridiculously powerful since most of the slumdogs that use these weapons will simply put on Bling with Akimbo, FMJ, and oh wait, Stopping Power too, just in case. Not only do the Dualies wield God-Like power, they are also abnormally accurate, unnecessarily mobile, have incredible range, and reload so fast that they would put Sleight of Hand to shame. Probably the most annoying thing about Dualies is the really stupid sprint that comes along with their usage, I’m sure these old timey weapons are light and what not, but to be able to full on sprint is just plain stupid. At least I can take comfort in the fact that this idiotic sprint makes the player look as though he/she is frequently anally violated.

Classic Cool: Sleight of Hand

In the awesome online world that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 there are a multitude of features that are both tried and true, and have a special place in my heart. But out of all of these features, the Sleight of Hand (SoH) Perk reigns supreme. Of all of the features in this game nothing has proven to be more reliable and I find that I can always fall back on this gem of a perk.

First off, the Sleight of Hand Perk. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this Perk’s ability, Sleight of Hand reduces the time spent reloading weapons to half the normal time. This may not seem like much at first, but in an actual battle (especially close quarters) SoH can often mean the difference between life and death. In addition to this, SoH Pro reduces the time needed to aim down the sight of your weapon. It is definitely safe to say that SoH is one of the most underrated perks in the entire game, but that’s exactly how I like it.

When combined with other perks and attachments, SoH tends to take on a whole new persona. A perfect example of this is the SoH Pro and Lightweight Pro duo. With this, the user can aim almost instantly, sometimes before the opponent even has time to react, because of this the Soh/Lightweight combo is a viable replacement for the Stopping Power Perk. Lastly, having a silenced weapon combined with Sleight of Hand, makes flanking the enemy a Run and Gun players dream come true. If executed properly, one can eliminate an entire enemy team without them ever being aware of the killers presence.

The Yellow Perks Pt. 2

In my last post I discussed the first 3 Yellow Perks in COD4: MW2, Commando, Steady Aim, and Scrambler. For this post, I will describe the latter half of the Tier 3 Perks, Ninja, SitRep, and Last Stand. As mentioned in earlier posts, the Ninja Perk allows the user to become invisible to all Heartbeat Sensors (http://blogofduty.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/weapon-attachments-heartbeat-sensor/)  on the map. This perk becomes pretty much useless if no players on the map are squirrely enough to use the HBS. The pro version of the Ninja perk allows users to move silently, making sneak attacks all the more do-able. The next Perk is probably my favorite of all the Yellow Perks, SitRep. Probably the most underrated perk in the game, SitRep highlights any and all enemy explosives (C4, Claymores, Semtex, Martydom Grenades) as well as Tactical Insertions. After destroying 120 forms of enemy equipment, players are granted the Pro version of this perk, which amplifies the noise that enemy footsteps make while silencing your own and your teammates. It should be noted that SitRep and Ninja will cancel each other out if the opposing player is using these perks. The last Yellow Perk on the list is Last Stand. This is a rather unique perk because it is activated only after the wielder dies. After a normal death, the user pulls out his pistol and can shoot freely until the 10 second time limit is up, or until the user is hit by even the smallest enemy attack. The Pro version of this perk allows the player to use their equipment while in last stand (grenades, throwing knives, etc.). To close, it is commonly accepted that the Yellow Perks are useless, despite the fact that if used properly, they can be just as practical as the Red and Blue Perks, it just takes patience and a decent amount of skill.