Image credit: Infinity Ward, Activision, Eurogamer.

I, for my sins, enjoy parry mechanics. I use 'parry slop' lovingly as a shorthand to refer to action games I want to play which feature parrying as a predominant mechanic. I am also a Call of Duty campaign enjoyer, and those games rarely feature any melee combat, let alone something as advanced as parrying. So, to say I was genuinely surprised to see Modern Warfare 4 bring the two together would be an understatement.

Yes, that's right. In case you haven't jumped into the Modern Warfare 4 campaign early , it has lengthy segments where your only weapon is your fists. In fact, those hand-to-hand encounters can only be finished by learning the parry timing; whiff it or mess it up, and it's an insta-Game Over. You've been able to punch people in COD campaigns before, of course, but none have the depth - or frequency - seen in Infinity Ward 's latest.…