General Black Ops tips - USING THE RADAR

Black ops can decimate you in so many areas and this can be pretty frustrating to the average player.  The first thing I find that's crazy is when people say they don't use the radar.  WHOA??? 

When you look at the radar (which you should be) you can see the locations of all the other players on your team.  When someone is speaking through the mic, lines will encompass their triangle.  This can help you when someone randomly screams for help but doesn't specify where they are at.

Also, when someone on your team is shooting their triangle will solidify.  When you see a bunch of solid triangles and then one disappears you can tell they were just in a firefight and which direction they were shooting before they died.  If you're close, this will help you locate the close range of where the enemy will be. 

Another way the radar can be used is to guess the enemies spawn.  Take for example "Team Deathmatch" which has "random" spawns throughout the level.  If you look at your radar and all of your green or blue (if in a party) triangles are on one side of the map, then there's a pretty good chance the spawns will switch and you will soon be encompassed by the enemy.  When I notice all my team is moving to one side of the map, I will turn around and be patient.  90% of the time people will start to show up right in my cross hairs. 

As far as basics, when an enemy fires their weapon it will show up as a red dot.  Black ops has a nice piece of equipment called Decoy that will simulate enemy fire on the radar map.  An easy way to spot this is if no green triangles are present in that area and you see 4 to 5 red dots all appearing in a close area, it usually means someone is baiting you into their trap.  Also, if you approach these firing dots, you will notice that the simulated gunshot also sounds hollow.  The decoy always sounds the same and in my opinion is different from the actual guns in the game.

The one disadvantage to the radar screen is the perk called "Ghost".   Players using this perk will not be seen but don't forget the spawning system.  Just because they have Ghost on doesn't mean they won't spawn near their teammates.  So remember when you see a lot of red dots on the radar someone with Ghost could be nearby.

It takes a lot of practice to perfect the radar.  But after you get the level designs in your head you can walk throughout the entire level without even looking at the game play screen.  With all of these tactics (and I'm sure I haven't covered them all) you can see why the radar is so important and why I give the WHOA? response to those players.