I was loving Modern Warfare 2 on Veteran. For what it's worth I think the campaign in MW2 is pretty bollocks, but there's no denying the mechanics, shooting and gameplay is fun, and as it's a short campaign I thought, "why the hell not?" - if I get stuck I'll just stop playing after all?
 
Strangely enough, I've basically beaten the game on Veteran, and not really had a problem. As someone who DETESTS hard difficulties, I was actually enjoying myself. Checkpoints are plenty, reload times after death are lightning, and, no battle ever felt too unfair. "Modern Warfare 2 might not be the best game ever," I told myself, "But Infinity Ward actually managed to make a hard difficulty that doesn't make me want to gouge out my eyeballs. Kudos to them."
 
So last night I figured I might come close to beating the game. I'm on Loose Ends. This close to the end of the game I expect stumbling blocks, especially considering the difficulty, but nothing prepared me for Loose Ends. I'd practically beaten the mission, no issue at all. Downloaded the data on that 56K modem, collected it and - shit, I gotta get to the helicopter. I'm about 80 metres away. A hill between me and the end of the level where, *SPOILERS* you know who pours petrol on me *SPOILERS*.
 
But fuck, what's this, there's no way in shitting hell I'm getting to that helicopter. I've tried everything - running down either side of the hill, chucking flash bangs, hiding behind trees, zig-zagging, shooting the on-coming rush of enemies, throwing grenades, crawling, semi-crawling, jumping, trying to get to Soap (whom I can't find), running more.... I just can't fucking do it. FUCK!
 
It's lucky if I even get over the hill, take out the guy furthest right, drop a couple of flash bangs, and leg it. And I almost make it. But by the time at the bottom the flash bangs have worn off - dudes are pulling at triggers and I'm dead.
 
I hit up the PSN browser and it seems like other people have got stuck here, question of luck, apparently. But fuck me, if I didn't try 50 times I probably tried a 100. There's no way in fuck I'm getting down that fucking hill.
 
It's impossible. And it's pissed me off. After making such a well tuned and rewarding "uber impossible difficulty mode" (no other developers manage this), why do they have to ruin it with one shitty checkpoint.
 
Argh. The most annoying thing is, I can't stop trying to do it. I must beat Infinity Ward and their shitty checkpoint. I hate them for it, but it must be done.
 
Seriously though. Fuck "Loose Ends". And fuck hard difficulities and their inevitable connection to trophies while we're here. I fucking hate that.

That sucks, duder.  I guess I got lucky, as I got through it on my third try or so.

That sucks dude, I feel your pain.  I tried Veteran a bit, at least it wasn't like Modern Warfare 1 where enemies basically just threw grenades instead of fired their guns at you, but the bullet damage seemed punishing.  That part was hard enough on normal I could see the same thing happening with me.
 
Best of luck  though, people have  beaten it I guess, that's all I can say of comfort.

I beat it on Veteran ^_^ You just have to get lucky, chuck flashbangs, crouch, jump, go prone, jump so more, fire from the hip, throw some grenades, throw more flashbangs, and you should make it. Also, you can make it easily if you go up the big ledge on the left side of the hill.

I went through the same thing at that part on Veteran. Basically it took me a good 10 or so tries to get past that part. All I did was run past everyone shooting at me when I left the house and ran all the way to the right while taking bullets and then I got to the hill with my blood splatter jelly indicator completely red. I died and the game autosaved at that part where I was red. Just throw all your flashbangs down the hill and whip out that grenade launcher and shoot everywhere and then run and with some luck you'll make it. 

I beat it one handed while jacking off over how awesome I am.

"

I beat it on Veteran ^_^ You just have to get lucky, chuck flashbangs, crouch, jump, go prone, jump so more, fire from the hip, throw some grenades, throw more flashbangs, and you should make it. Also, you can make it easily if you go up the big ledge on the left side of the hill.

"

" @natetodamax said:

"

I beat it on Veteran ^_^ You just have to get lucky, chuck flashbangs, crouch, jump, go prone, jump so more, fire from the hip, throw some grenades, throw more flashbangs, and you should make it. Also, you can make it easily if you go up the big ledge on the left side of the hill.

"

Thanks for all the responses. I can't find the ledge on the left side. If I'm facing the checkpoint-marker-majig, there's just a fence far left. "

Marionco is right. I also got stuck multiple times in the same area playing it through in hardened and yet on veteran I managed it first try.
 
The secret is to let Ghost mop them up and purely assist with grenades/flashbangs and preferably a light machine gun (so you can spray constantly) while staying a safe distance behind.
 
When it tells you to grab the data, wait behind the tables nearest the window at the front of the house. A few more enemies will come through the doors but after a minute or two they will stop and Ghost will tell you he's 'cleared'. Once leaving via the front door with two LMG's and fully stocked on grenades/flashbangs, make sure you stay behind him and that he's visible. Let him attract as much attention as possible so you have easy pickings.
 
The principle error for this level is getting out of the house infront of Ghost. The enemies will make you stop and as a result get hit by a mortar.

Yea that level seems to be the hardest out of a very easy veteran campaign. I got screwed over to by getting a checkpoint that spawns me immediately getting shot by 4 people, had to jump in crawl mode run, hit the sniper to right, crawl, throw flashbang at guys down hill, run like a mofo, shoot 2 guys, flashbang, random grenade, random grenade, more running like hell screaming aaaaaahhh, get to helicopter from some miracle. Took quite a few tries.

" I beat it one handed while jacking off over how awesome I am. "

 Basically what I did was follow behind Ghost and it seemed to keep me alive. Of course it's possible that I just got very lucky, but that's what did it.

" I beat it one handed while jacking off over how awesome I am. "

That was the toughest spot for me too. Just run like a motherfucker and make sure you flash the guys in front, once they're flashed don't bother going after them, but when you see them infront of you just hip-fire them and keep them under pressure. The guys at the back will own you if you're taking too long.

Wait for Ghost to be behind you thats what i did then i flashed and ran and hard and as fast as i could

When you get to that hill I stuck to the right side, threw my flashbangs and sprayed a LMG everywhere

I ran out the side of the house and then spam flashbangs while running along the right edge of the map and down the hill. You should hit checkpoints along the way.

That's funny, because I heard flashbangs were the way to go. They are highly recommended, though I forgot that I had them and didn't chuck any. It took me about 5-6 tries but I got it done. Keep running and shooting everywhere you see. You should beat it eventually.

I remember that part, i just ran down the hill first try. I barely got hit a couple times but i didn't die.

That part is a serious bitch. I think I just ran for it with fingers crossed, only stopping to pop idiots directly in my path.

That said, it takes a fair amount of luck to get through that bit.

that's funny because I thought that was pretty easy, I only killed like 3 guys and then just followed Ghost.

I actually had a much easier time with guarding the laptop on veteran than I did on normal. The second time I was much smarter with my use of claymores, which helped a lot. Plus I used an RPG to take out a helicopter or two. Anyway, escaping, eh... I ran as fast as I could, and used the barn and stuff for cover. Then I got a nice checkpoint right before that spot where you run downhill. I died a couple times there, but then was a little more patient and capped all the guys I could before making a run for it and succeeding.

I got lucky i just shot and ran and thanked god when the mortar hit me

My advice would be just to run and gun while occasionally throwing a flashbang, but try picking up enemy weapons as you kill them. Not having to be idle for (even a short) reload time can make it so much easier to keep shooting and not get hit as much. That's how I got through it, if I remember correctly... I did it the first time so I didn't really have the opportunity to try a bunch of different tactics. Hope it works if you haven't already beaten it.

This is also the only spot I got stuck on veteran. I finally made it through when there was some random bale of hay I could hide behind to regen hp then make a sprint for it, some dudes spawn after that iirc but I managed to kill them. Not saying it's easy or anything, cause yeah that part sucks and is totally unfair, but it is doable.

This was also one of the spots I had to repeat the most. I just went prone a lot and threw flashbangs down the hill. Eventually I got lucky and made it, albeit blinking red and almost dead.

I killed everyone on the hill with about 3 grenades from the grenade launcher. I had more trouble on hardened then i did on veteran.

i found the worse mission on veteran was the part on the oil rig with the smoke grenades everywhere. for this bit i ran gunning what i could but you have to watch out for a guy on the far far left. he kept killing me. on his own in a field with perfect vision of me. get him and you should be fine

It took me ages to do this bit, I actually restarted the level so I would have all of my flashbangs and grenades when I got to this bit.  I literally threw them all while spraying with akimbo TMPs in the enemies general direction.  I think the best thing to do is to stay to the far right and keep moving.  Don't stop if you get hit just throw another flashbang.  Once I worked out how to keep up constant fire from the TMPs I did this section in one or two goes.

yea, that one made the anger sharks go crazy for me

I can't even be bothered to complete the game on Hardcore.

took me about 5 goes. i just ran like fuck and fired a couple of rounds off at the start. just lucky i guess

took me about 5 goes. i just ran like fuck and fired a couple of rounds off at the start. just lucky i guess

I'm probably worst off since that bit took me more then fifty goes. Then again, the average life span of each reload was about five seconds so it wasn't too bad. I'm just glad I beat the game on Veteran. I'm not doing anything like that ever again. It's even more annoying when you actually do reach the helicopter though considering the storyline and all. >_> But yeah, flashbangs help a lot.

" The principle error for this level is getting out of the house infront of Ghost. The enemies will make you stop and as a result get hit by a mortar. "

I'm playing through Veteran now and just finally beat that stupid snowy submarine level (forgot the actual name of it). Stupid time limits.
 
I'm worried about playing Loose Ends now though. I had a hard time with that level on Regular.
 
EDIT: I just beat it. It was a bitch but not as bad as I was expecting. I died like 7 times at the end. Died a few times at the beginning too.

easily the easiest call of duty on veteran