The twin menace

And in door number 2... we have the Dual 96G Elite Berettas, otherwise known as the 'dualies' on the streets of Counter-strike Source. Before the 25% increase in damage for some of the pistols, like any other pistols, the twin Berettas was unpopular, covered by the shadow of the hunting Eagle (if you didn't catch what I mean, I meant the Desert Eagle). But now, with the 25% increase in damage, this pair of destruction manifested saw increased use, and some players even depended on it, like myself (though I depended on it even before the increase). Plastered below is a picture of the weapons as it is in the game. For a bigger view so that you could gawk at the design, click on the picture itself:



Alright, so, from my experience, the Twin Berettas is best used for extended gunfights, as it has the highest ammunition capacity out there (30 to be precise), so there is no need to reload too often, unless you're the polar opposite of a marksman. The rate of fire is respectable just as well- such that the number of bullets fired within a certain time-span is determined largely by how fast your finger is. So, this weapon is for the cowboys who wanted to unload plenty in a short time without stopping. Now that I've introduced the twins, I'll review every single aspect of them. Here goes.

Firepower: The Twin Berettas are not known for their firepower. Even with the 25% increase, the damage is only around 14-15 on average. A headshot would guarantee you around 40-50 damage, which would mean a minimum of 3 shots to the head to pop a guy out of the league, regardless of whether he is wearing a helmet or not, unless you're sniping with these guns from afar. This lack of considerable firepower would mean that it is best to unload as much bullets as possible, but of course not without trying to get a bullet or two into somebody's head, which would save yourself some time.

Accuracy: Well, so you're holding two guns, and you're not exactly aiming through the sights. What does that mean? Reduced accuracy. It applies to the twin berettas, as it is basically a two weapons held using two hands. The accuracy is not the best, but good enough for short to medium ranged combat. In fact, shooting at medium range is no problem at all. Avoid sniping with the twin Berettas- unless you have an Aim-bot to do the aiming for you. For medium range, fire in bursts of two- so far that is the best method I could come up with. At a shorter range, feel free to fire as quickly as you can.

Range: Short to medium range. As it is not too accurate, the twin Berettas are not good for long-ranged combat. But, like any other pistols, you shouldn't get too close to a guy with an automatic weapon. When it comes to that, it boils down to rate of fire, and pistols are semi-automatic.

Clip Size: With a pool of 30 bullets between the two pistols, you could kill two or more persons without ever reloading. Coupled with a larger gun, there is even less need to reload. Therefore, the Twin Beretta is for extended gunfights. With this pair of guns, you could react better to being swarmed.

Ammo Pool: The Twin Berettas uses 9mm bullets- which means, not counting those already in the guns, you would have a spare 120 bullets juggling in your pockets. However, the twins are fed with a form of ammunition that is used by other guns, so make a wise combination of weapons. But that is not to say that you can't put your twin Berettas with the MP5. A round rarely lasts long enough for you to exhaust all your ammo.

Rate of fire: As pistols, the twins are semi-automatic. But these pair of Berettas are some of the more nimble pistols, with a rate of fire that could get as fast as you could click, though it is debatable that the rate of fire is less than that of the 9x19mm Glock.

Reload Time: To reload the twin Berettas would take the longest time of all the other pistols. This makes it suicide to do it while under fire or when you're being swarmed. Conserve your ammo unless you want to be minced meat for your buddies on the other side and a crop for the guy downstairs.

Cost: $800. That is just how much it costs, only $150 more than the Desert Eagle. So this should not affect your choice of pistols, unless you're seriously short on money.

Weight: The Twin Berettas, as most pistols are, are almost weightless. You could easily run into the fray like a preying Lion or run out of the fray like a whipped dog with this pair of destruction-in-a-tubes.

The Twin Berettas should be a logical choice for those who expect to be swarmed, or preferred unloading quantity bullets with moderate quality instead of just quality bullets, as in the case of the Desert Eagle I showcased about two weeks ago. With the 25% increase, expect them to be much more effective, and this effectiveness could be multiplied at least by 4 when their bullet happens to dig into somebody's head. Before I leave, I'll give you a few recaps on what to do with the twins:

1) At point-blank to near range, feel free to unload your bullets at a person as quick as possible, but don't forget to:

2) Shoot the head at least once or twice so that you could kill a person faster and move on to the next one queuing up behind him. But don't concentrate on the head and head only- the twin berettas' accuracy drops fairly quickly.

3) At mid range, do not exhaust your rounds as quick as possible. Fire in bursts of two to four rounds.

4) Forget about sniping a person from afar with this. It is far too inaccurate, and the damage too trivial. But if you want to die a noble death, try shooting a person from afar and rush him at the same time.

So go forth and unleash hell... Goodbye and have fun.

Test results

As usual, I have been shooting and killing all this while, whenever I have the time to do so. Well, I won't bother you with too much speech. I'll just show you how I did so far:

K:111 D:61



K:68 D:38



K:63 D:51



K:41 D:30



K:75 D:45



K:35 D:11



K:70 D:27



K:87 D:36



K:49 D:23



K:84 D:34



K:96 D:45



K:137 D:57



K:40 D:26



K:48 D:24



As you can see, my performance dipped to near-average (Kill-death rate 1 is average) somewhere in the middle. It was due to wrist injury, I swear to you. There are also no editing whatsoever involved. As a result of that, my fingers were weak because of my damaged Tendons, so it was harder for me to shoot. But I returned with a vengeance after that, becoming the most valuable team member time and again. So that's it for now. One or two days later, I'll write an entry about using my favorite weapon of all, the twin Berettas. I will teach you everything I know about it.

Lethal Eagle

As promised before, I will start discussing tactics in Counter-strike. In door number 1, I'm going to talk about the gun that everyone talks about... the gun that everyone uses... and a gun that everyone was killed with. Today, I will share with you the Mark XIX Desert Eagle, aka: 'Deagle'. Here's the gun as it is in the world of Counter-strike. Note the size of this buster:



The Desert Eagle is the one and only widely used pistol in the game, most likely due to its high firepower- which would mutilate any unlucky fellow who was shot by it. As it is widely used, my guess would be that the small clip size, average accuracy and slow rate of fire does not matter- its firepower is its main source of power and popularity. Now that I have introduced this weapon of mass destruction, lets get down to review every single detail about this one.

Firepower: The Desert Eagle packs a huge punch- being able to kill a person in just three shots, assuming that none of those meteors land on the victim's head. Each bullet, as I have witnessed, could deal any damage between 30-40, maybe a maximum of 45, which is higher even than a single rifle bullet. One bullet in the head from this bird, and the person at the receiving end will die- as the damage received would range anywhere between 105-125.

Accuracy: The Desert Eagle is quite accurate, but other pistols are more accurate- such as the glock or the USP. However, the Desert Eagle could still be used at medium range, if you are up to it...

Range: The Desert Eagle is best used at short to medium range. Not too close or anyone with an automatic weapon would murder you. Not too far, or anyone with a more accurate weapon would snipe you out.

Clip Size: One weak aspect of the Desert Eagle would be its clip size- which is only 7. One clip could hold nothing but just 7 bullets. This would mean that the Desert Eagle would need to be reload frequently, and should not be used continuously when you are being swarmed at close range.

Ammo pool: The Desert Eagle is fed with .50 bullets, which is an ammunition type unused by other guns in the game- so feel free to knock yourself out with mixing and matching your arsenal. However, the bad side is that it only allows for 35 bullets to be stored in your pockets, not counting the bullets already in your gun. So inaccurate but enduring people would find their ammunition supply dwindling.

Rate of fire: The pistol is semi-automatic, like all the other pistols. But the Desert Eagle is unresponsive to your clicking, which means it fires slower than other pistols. While other pistols have rate of fires that are determined only by how fast you could click your mouse, the Desert Eagle is slow, whether or not you can click like Flash or not.

Reload time: The Desert Eagle reloads relatively quickly, slightly faster than some of the pistols, but reloading a gun while under enemy fire should never be attempted (when you are in the open, unprotected)- especially when the enemy has an automatic weapon.

Cost: The Desert Eagle is worth 650 green papers, which is quite cheap for the meteors it spew out. I was able to kill 3 men with rifles with just a Desert Eagle- which proves just how cost effective it is.

Weight: This pistol is the heaviest of its lot- your speed would be slightly reduced as compared to other pistols. However, to my opinion, it would be negligible.

Alright, so that's all there is for the weapon's statistics. Anyway, the Desert Eagle used to be the only choice if you want a useful sidearm (though I do used plenty of the other pistols- just that others does not). But now, with an improvement of 25% to the damage that all the pistols other than the starting pistols do, the other pistols have become much more useful indeed- to my joy... (You'll discover someday why I am happy with the extra 25%)

To round everything up, here are some last tips/recaps for you to pay heed to when using the Desert Eagle:

1) Aim for the head- the Mark XIX Desert Eagle kills within a shot if you managed to make the shot.

2) Fire in singles or in bursts of two bullets. The Desert Eagle has only 7 bullets in a clip.

3) But at point blank range, which is around 1m-5m, feel free to fire in bursts of three bullets. Make sure that every shot count. This would normally kill an enemy even if you don't make a headshot.

Well, so that's all- get killing and have fun. Max Payne signing out.

The eternal war

For these few days I have been doing the same thing- putting bullets into certain unlucky heads, defusing or planting bombs, rushing into rooms with a grenade in hand... and putting more bullets into more unlucky heads. Sometimes, I do admit it could be mundane at times- dying in the same place, killing the same guy over and over again. But hey, sometimes, it's worth it. There were some funny moments. Such as when a guy decided to stick himself onto a ledge with super-glue or duct-tape. I don't care, name your sticky-stuff:



But then it is not the 'guy-stuck-on-the-ledge' thing that I am shooting for. Counter-strike Source is simply fun- the challenges you had to face around every corner, where anything from a sniper to a guy with a mean machine gun could jump at you. The trials and tribulations were enjoyable. In fact, there was this once when I was shot in the leg at the very start- in the end, I managed to crawl my way through the entire round, and live to fight another round over again- several minutes later:



It was all worth it really. Sure, sometimes you die without justice and sometimes you live after getting shot in the leg by a sniper without killing the said sniper, but when you really do well, I promise you satisfaction, like my good buddy friend over here (Top right corner, the CT who looked like he's dying to end the round), who survived an epic battle between good and evil:



I'm sure he'll get promoted to a captain... or if he's already a captain, lieutenant. Whatever. Anyway, let's talk about what I'm going to do in the near future. So far, I've been thinking of introducing some of the weapons that I commonly use, to discuss about how to use them, when to use them, and where to use them- among other things. Stay tuned for the article. Max Payne out.