Playing an 'authentic' role of a SAS member has always appealed to me. Ever since reading the absolutely amazing 'Bravo Two Zero' from Andy McNab, my fascination with the 22nd Regiment has rarely been satisfied. So I knew deep down - even before its release - that Call of Duty 4 would be the next game that became my mini-obsession. And that's exactly what happened. With its relentless set-pieces and Infinity Ward's pedigree, it became an instant love affair for me (spending 8 hours non-stop going for the Mile High Club achievement bore testimony to its hold over me).

Disregarding the blatant cheap design flaws made all the more apparent when playing on the Veteran difficulty, COD4 simply plays beautifully, and I knew from day one that I'd eventually want to produce a speedrun of this game, which is where we stand today.

I've decided to go with the games normal difficulty level - regular - for my first run (as my time and sanity levels dwindle dramatically when playing Veteran) in a hope to get the proverbial ball running for others to follow. The arcade mode lends itself perfectly to this goal, as it has an in-game timer that decreases from a set time (making timing this game a cinch).

The run is certainly far from optimal, in fact, near the very end of the run (most notably 'Hunted' and 'No Fighting in the War Room'), my life's commitments prevented me from really improving on what you see. But overall, I'm genuinely satisfied with the results I've achieved. And I hope you all are too...

Oh, and if your PC can handle SDA's HQ files, then I honestly recommend you get those. At nearly 2 gigs it's a hefty download, but the quality - IMHO - is simply beautiful. Captured using an RGB capture card with a lossless codec and de-interlaced with mvbob. It's 60fps of pure beauty. I promise you that you won't be disappointed with the HQ version...

General Points to consider:

COD4 has a few obvious 'design choices' shall we say, that are exploitable for speedrunning purposes. Many enemies are created when certain 'trigger points' in the level have yet to be reached (most notable in the TV room on 'Charlie Don't Surf' and on the plane on the 'Mile High Cub'). If you don't pass them quickly enough, then more and more enemies spawn, slowing you down even more.

The trick is to learn where they are and then how you can reach them as quick as possible. For the vast majority of the missions, your colleagues are in fact invincible and possess infinite ammo. So it'd be a real shame not to take advantage of this (as seen on the level 'One Shot One Kill'), as they can speed up past certain sections if you can pass the relevant level trigger points quick enough.

Different weapons affect your running speed, so running with an LMG in your hands will be slower than running with the C4 detonator (which I recommend you do if C4 is available to you on that level). It's not a huge difference, but any is better than none!

And finally, you can sort of 'bunny hop' around levels, which essentially preserves your running stamina for FAR longer, whilst still giving you the momentum and speed as if you were still running. Granted, you don't get any faster, but you CAN get around the levels noticeably faster...

• Prologue: 'Crew Expendable' - 6mins 12secs

  The opening level of the game, and one that really sets the tone and pace for the rest of the game. As far as speedrun strategies are concerned, the real timesavers are:

  Standing in front of Captain Price at the first door (to allow a quicker entry),

  Running into the door where Gaz pulls out his shotgun for all to admire. This glitch allows you to enter the next room a few seconds quicker.

  The upper paths of the next few rooms allow you to take out more enemies than going down face to face with them. This is helped even more by the very useful aim-assistance that the game automatically has enabled. :)

  It'd no doubt be quicker to tackle the last 2 rooms by simply flashing near the back end and charging past the enemies (tested on Recruit difficulty).

  Interesting fun fact: In the opening helicopter sequence, the SAS member to the right of Captain Price and the pilot behind him has a different name each time you replay the level! My theory is that the names are either those of the design team, or in fact the actual names and ranks of those from the marines who helped IW with the development of the game...

• Act I: 'Blackout' - 7mins 37secs

  A pretty tight level, even for the length of the segment, but the following timesavers can still be utilised:

  You can skip the whole talking section in the field and proceed straight up to the sniping point and take out a few of the guys there while you wait for your colleagues to get their arses into gear and make their way up to you. This gets the alarm bells going quicker, so you can advance the level faster.

  Not an optimal fight in the next part (the grenade launcher could have been used better), but other than that, no real extra ways to make up a lot of time here.

  The final real timesaver is after you rappel down the wall, if you cut right across the right hand side, straight to the house, you can get the rest of them to the house quicker also.

• Act I: 'Charlie Don't Surf' - 7mins 25secs

  Quite an interesting level this one, as it contains the infamous TV room fight (which is normally an absolute nightmare on Veteran difficulty if you don't abuse the trigger point I mentioned earlier):

  The main route choice here is once you leave the first building you enter. You can head left or right (near the car). Now, in this run I take the right-hand route (which is slower, but easier in most respects). I haven't yet managed to successfully get passed on the left route (even with Flashbangs), but that's not to say it's impossible.

  Getting the guys to even enter the TV station can be a challenge in itself. I haven't managed to find the trigger point to make them do it any sooner.

  Possible on Recruit (but not tried when this segment was recorded), is once you've entered the main TV building, you can simply run into the server room, then straight to the back of the TV room in an effort to flash and kill the enemies in the corner (the trigger point which you need to reach). Quicker than fighting your way through the server room like me!

• Act I: 'The Bog' - 7mins 25secs

  Yes, this does indeed sport the same final time as the previous segment! Segment notes:

  I shoot the guys in the windows at the start as they have an annoying tendency to blow your face off with an RPG.

  As soon as you hear "Good Job" when on the mounted machine gun, jump off it and leg it downstairs, you've done enough.

  As soon as the text stating the tanks have been spotted starts, jump out the window and claim the Javelin rocket launcher from your soon to be fallen comrade.

  By the flaming dustbin (near the tank) lies a fully ammo'd M4. Use this to max out your ammunition.

  Use the auto lock-on facility to snap between the numerous targets surrounding the tank.

• Act I: 'Hunted' - 8mins 1sec

  This level was the last one that I completed (and yea, it shows). The greenhouse/final section was a complete nightmare to get right and it's stupidly easy to get turned into Swiss cheese here.

  I decide to take out the guards by the house through the glass, keeping an eye out for the guard that hides behind the barrel.

  If you shoot the chopper in the field, it triggers off the barn door escape sequence sooner.

  I really messed up shooting the second dog, and ended up having to snap it's neck.

  Flashbangs, crouching (and luck), seem to be the fastest way through the greenhouses to the shed at the end.

  On recruit, I later noted it would have been faster to have stayed crouched behind the sandbags opposite the shed. So this strategy should also apply to Regular difficulty.

  I mess up the switch to the second stinger missile by accident wasting a further few seconds.

• Act I: 'Death From Above' - 9mins 30secs

  I have it on good authority that it's possible to advance the level faster by simply clearing the enemies quicker (allowing the team on the ground to advance sooner). This isn't initially apparent (as it's an on-rails level), but it's something I'll be looking at when I eventually tackle Veteran difficulty. So as for my run, it's solid, but could be done quicker.

• Act I: 'War Pig' - 4mins 25secs

  I'm quite proud of the time I achieved for this level. After originally producing a bit of a useless time, I managed to come across a useful glitch (which as luck would have it, was when I wasn't recording)!

  I then managed to successfully re-create the glitch (after a couple hours of trying), and this glitch ultimately gets the Marines to reach the door faster (in the backstreet where all the cars are lined up). This chopped a good 30 seconds or so off the final time!

  So all-in-all, this is a pretty solid run. Oh, and if anyone wonders why I stare at the ground at the very end, I do that to help speed up the encoding process and in doing so, reduce the segments file-size (less movement to encode).

• Act I: 'Shock and Awe' - 7mins 5secs

  A bit of a strange level this is. On one hand, it starts off fully on-rails, until you jump out and get into the next helicopter. From there, you have to go and rescue the pilot. As far as time-savers are concerned:

  Once you get out of the chopper and run to the building, if you flash them near the entrance, you can sometimes sneak on past them before they even get a chance to enter the building.

  As soon as you reach the Marines on the second level of the building, jump down and you can flash the garage in front of you. Then run-n-gun past the enemy in here, taking the right path out to the Chinook.

  There's not much more you can do when you have to rescue the pilot. The flashbang was used simply to prevent getting a bullet in the noggin' on the way back to the end of the level.

• Act II: 'Safehouse' - 5mins 14secs

  This was quite a frustrating level to run, due to the sheer number of enemies with shotties and other large death-inducing weaponry. The main things to remember for this level are:

  You only need to clear 3 houses in order to get to the barn at the end. This is why I picked the three closest to me.

  Thankfully, even though I flashed myself in the second house by the stairs, the aim-assist was a great help as I had a general idea where the bullet-magnets would be at the top of the stairs.

  It's quite easy to be killed on the way to the third house. The exploding barrels are a real nightmare, hence why I blew them up myself!

  The barn section could be done quicker no doubt, as I lost my bearings a bit there.

• Act II: 'All Ghillied Up' - 7mins 42secs

  This level is quite simply, one of my favourite in ANY game EVER (and the one where I spent the most time working on). The first time I played it (which was on Veteran difficulty), the whole level just oozed atmosphere and very real tension from every pore. Which is why I am equally delighted, yet also very frustrated with my run.

  On one hand, I managed to pull off a nice number of excellent timesavers (including one at the end that was - for me - a real stroke of genius), but on the other, I managed to conjure up an even BETTER run (some 30 seconds better), but I can never now get past the road part to the very end section, as I'm ALWAYS being spotted, no matter what I try!

  So for my commentary on this level (of which I'll go into plenty of depth), I've also included a link to the near-complete run that is almost one minute faster than the one submitted. By doing this, I'm hoping someone else here will manage to work out HOW to complete the level and not be spotted!

  I lose about 1 second lining up the shot at the start, but it can be quite a frustrating sequence of shots to get off right sometimes.

  I again lost a couple of seconds at the next guard as he turned to face me, throwing my initial aim off, forcing me to re-adjust.

  The next big timesaver was at the tanks, where I crawl up towards the busted tank on the right hand side, far away from any guards, allowing me to keep my speed up (but as it turns out, there is a faster way of doing it).

  I'm quite pleased with the next part, as I take out all of the guards without being spotted (meaning I didn't have to wait for MacMillan to finish his slow-ass crawling behind me). I'm extra happy with my double-kill of the guards throwing the bodies. That kill can be a real nightmare to time.

  The next bit is where it went a bit astray. I made it to the entrance to the crawling section, but MacMillan simply didn't follow me, losing me about 1 minute with his messing around!

  However, instead of crawling under the trucks with MacMillan, I crouch and head left and use the P90-SD to take out the guard and the dog silently. Then, staying crouched, I could sneak across the road, bypassing the ENTIRE crawling sequence! In fact, IW planned for such a manoeuvre as MacMillan made a comment that I had never ever heard before I done it!

  Now, normally at the next part, the dog is simply on its own by the tree. However, by being so fast, there was a guard also there, which caught me completely off guard. I probably should have ran on after killing the guard, but snapping the dog's neck was still immensely satisfying...

  Now, the end result is still a massive improvement on my original segment. But... I discovered a few better tactics. The problem now lies with being able to cross the road without being spotted. I've tried crawling, running, almost everything, but no matter what, I get seen. Or, MacMillan is - somehow - being spotted. I can't tell. So for those of you interested in improving this level, please check out the link below:

  http://www.gamerguides.co.uk/cod4_ghilled_up_strat.html

• Act II: 'One Shot One Kill' - 10mins 40secs

  The longest segment in the run by far. Thanks to the help of both Grunty and Failurewarning (in the COD4 topic on the SDA forum), I managed to get a minute knocked off my original time.

  As far as the run went, apart from taking 3 shots to blow off Zackhaev's arm (which only cost 1 - 2 seconds), the rest went pretty well.

  To clear through the first wave of guards by the cars/coaches you need to see which guards MacMillan goes for and take them out quicker, so that way you can both make it to the apartments.

  Not the smoothest of killing just after the first set of apartments, but I decided not to drop MacMillan until just before the Ferris Wheel (to take out the two guards).

  Seeing as it's on regular, I simply take advantage of MacMillan's invincibility and crouch behind him!

  If you can take out the enemies as they come down the ropes from the Chinook's, I reckon it'll help speed up the final part (as I missed a few).

• Act II: 'Heat' - 6mins 48secs

  I'm quite pleased with this level as - apart from throwing out the smoke grenades somewhat late - it went pretty smoothly overall. You can definitely cut some time off by using less smoke grenades and using the cover to hit the tanks a bit quicker, although on the higher difficulties, getting back down will be a genuine pain due to the number of enemies running right for you!

• Act II: 'The Sins of the Father' - 6mins 30secs

  Again, another decent run on a rather random level...

  The petrol/gas station at the start REALLY needs to be secured with 11:00 on the clock to be in with a decent time.

  Keep your ears open for when Griggs (who's up on the tower with you), lets slip a rather naughty swear word (which I reckon might not have been noticed by the censors, as the word is randomly switched between: "Oh S**T!" and "OH F**K!")

  I make a giant mess of the end bit when I accidentally got lost and this cost me 7 seconds. To be fair, I DID retry the level for a couple of hours afterwards, but I never got the same quality up to that point. So I've decided to stick with it, regardless of how blatantly lost I got!

• Act III: 'Ultimatum' - 6mins 28secs

  Coming into the third - and final - act in the game, this is another level which I am very pleased with...

  I used the C4 on the first truck simply for the hell of it as it cost virtually no time and it made me laugh every time I done it.

  I stab the guy in the back in the house as Price has a habit of alerting the guard upstairs when he does it (and that just wastes more time).

  Once I free Griggs, I run with the detonator (to speed me up) straight to the pylon, saving a massive amount of time.

  The next timesaver was a tricky one, as the barrel by the door (near the baddies), has a REAL tendency to ONLY blow up as you pass it (no, seriously). So I took the right hand side of the container and destroyed the barrel as I waited for my health to quickly come back.

  I probably should have ignored the dogs and enemies and just ran right past the trucks to speed up the final part. But otherwise, I was very happy with the end result.

• Act III: 'All In' - 2mins 28secs

  Probably one of my most refined levels (after 'All Ghillied Up'), with a final time that is going to be hard to really improve on (at the same difficulty level).

  You don't have to plant the C4 on the trucks to take them out with it. Simply set it off as it goes over it.

  I throw the smoke grenade as the enemies never seem to come into the smoke or shoot at you whilst you're in it.

  The only real time lost was on the last truck, but it was only 5 seconds or so max.

• Act III: 'No Fighting in the War Room' - 6mins 53secs

  An infamous level on Veteran difficulty, with the many narrow corridors (especially near the very end), proving to be less than funny with regards to how unfair the game can truly be. On Regular, it's not too bad, but it's still very easy to die if you're not careful...

  The branching long corridor just after the stairs can be a real pain. I was pretty lucky that I got away with having to reload.

  The corridor right after this part is what gets most people killed repeatedly in Veteran difficulty. The fact that there's two routes to choose - with people shooting you from behind - certainly doesn't help. This is shown as even I nearly die on regular difficulty at this part.

  I always laugh every time I hear Gaz tell Price that he can try pulling on the door to make it open faster. The retort from Price is also fantastic, and really lends to the characters overall.

  I mess up a little in the final room by not killing the guy behind me quick enough, and my finger slipped off the X button when trying to upload the code on the computer.

  The next part (on the way to the trucks) was a bit sloppy as my aim sucked a little.

• Act III: 'Game Over' - 4mins 11secs

  We're nearing the end now, with this rather intense on-rails section.

  There's not an awful lot to say about this, other than I fire the rockets at the helicopter to stop it hitting me in the face with missiles (throws it off course if you fire at it).

  On the bridge, I decided that Zackhaev wasn't going to get away with just losing his arm, so I finished him off with a nicely aimed headshot.

  But of course, this isn't the end. There's one more - short but fun - level left to go. The one level that - in my opinion - holds one of gaming's greatest challenges. The Mile High Club achievement aka: finish the level in under 60 seconds on Veteran...

• Epilogue: 'Mile High Club' - 58secs

  My target time for this level was sub-1min, which included the time for rescuing the hostage and leaving the plane. Apart from slowing down to reload my P90 and catching myself near the flashbangs, I was pretty happy with the run. I went for the headshot due to my experience with Veteran (where ONLY a headshot will work), and it was faster than shooting him in the leg first.

• Final Time: 1hr 55mins 53secs

So there we are, a sub 2-hr run on Call of Duty 4. I hope you've enjoyed the notes and the run, and if anyone feels like beating these times, please feel free to do so. My next plans for running COD4 include possibly a SS Recruit run and/or a segmented Veteran run (muchos Kudos goes to anyone crazy enough to do a Veteran SS speedrun!).

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed in the COD4 topic at SDA, to ballofsnow for his advice with the encoding and of course to everyone who works hard behind the scenes at SDA. See you all next time!