Smutler

Reminds me of how true the phrase, "Art imitates life" is. People in real life doing the same on a video game. Of course, my response might receive a retort like, "Are you serious, bro? It's just a video game!" but hey, it's just life. Right? Oh, well. I typically only play SWAT, but every now and again I'll play Slayer. This hasn't happened to me yet, but I've heard of it happening to others along with you.

Reach is my favorite Halo multiplayer game of all-time (no, that's not a typo). Loving Halo 4 right now, however. Don't think I could go back to Reach at this point. A few of the people I played with on 3 and Reach haven't bought 4 yet, so I'm waiting for them to hop aboard. If I went back to Reach and then back to 4, I can only imagine how horrendous I would play. I've never been good at 'converting' back and forth very quickly.

This happens after every new game is released. The same with Halo 2 and 3, the Grand Theft Autos, etc. Every new release is followed by a massive overreaction with passionate, emotion-filled posts, especially during the first week. I now find myself looking at today's date in my timezone: November 11th. The game's only been out for a solid five days. But one can't sling a virtual dead cat without hitting 20 different threads of groaning. Some of the posts are legit complaints that I 100% agree with, and others are merely members raging over the changes in the game instead of looking at the bigger picture (their failure to adapt or make an effort to adjust). A game having more complaints than compliments during the first week (or less than a week, in this case) from its release doesn't say much, as this is the norm. You can say "Told ya so!" to yours truly if the same complaints are being spouted in a year from now.

Overall, I like it for the most part. One of the things I hated on past Halos was when it would be 4-on-1, chasing one guy around for the entire duration of the time limit. It was exhausting. Or being that 'one' guy. I didn't mind it on SWAT on Reach, however. With one of my best friends, we didn't mind being the 'two' when it was 4-on-2 on SWAT, because there were more for us to kill with just one headshot, and a double kill being another click of the trigger away. I think after a few months, we'll all be used to the joining on-going games and people leaving them, and we won't even think twice.

Yeah, patience is key. 100% correct. True about Reach not having the playlists in the first week either. We are getting SWAT in the upcoming week. Reach didn't have SWAT as its own mode until weeks after the release. Before then, SWAT was played within Team Slayer (along with Snipers). I wish 343 would have done that, too, but hey, no biggie, SWAT's coming in a couple of days so I can't complain.

Per the website "The Examiner", SWAT will be added next week (sorry about the text/font and its background. Copied and pasted from the article): Halo 4 for the Xbox 360 was only released just this week and 343 Industries announced Friday a playlist update coming next week. While Halo: Reach enjoyed monthly playlist updates, 343 Industries plans weekly updates for Halo 4. "We will maintain a static set of playlists and feature one or two “rotational” playlists on top of that," community manager Jessica Shea wrote on Halo Waypoint. "We will be monitoring trends and statistics closely so we can react accordingly to your preferences and likes. For instance, if one of our rotational playlists consistently holds a higher population than one of our static playlists, we will consider swapping them out based on player demand. The process will be fluid and based on numbers, and we’re extremely excited about the benefits of our new approach." So what is coming with the first playlist update? SWAT with some changes to both weapon damage and the HUD. Players will be equipped with Battle Rifles, DMRs and Magnums, have no shield or radar tracking, and will not be able to use ordnance drops in this game mode. Here is how 343 Industries tweaked the three weapons for SWAT. DMR – 3 bullets to the chest, 1 bullet to the head Magnum – 3 bullets to the chest, 1 bullet to the head BR – 7 bullets to the chest (this gun shoots three bullets in a burst, so the first bullet of the third burst will kill the player), 1 bullet to the head Here are the maps that will be available in the SWAT playlist. Haven Adrift Complex Abandon Solace

Playing the game all night seemingly every Saturday night and Sunday night with multiple friends and random people we'd meet online (after inviting them to the party chat). SWAT nonstop. Because of the memories, I've never had more fun on any other Halo game (or online FPS in general) than Reach.

I hear you, man. It is what it is. I'll be patient and wait, but I'm finding that I can't play Slayer (or the other modes, at the moment) for more than 4-5 games before shutting my 360 down. It's the fact that SWAT isn't there (yet) and I'm waiting for my usual friends that I play with to get the game. I'm loving and enjoying the game, though, for what it's worth. Just excited to play my all-time favorite FPS multiplayer mode.

SWAT should have been available from the start as well. No idea why it wasn't included in the get-go. Then again, it was like this with Reach. But in Reach, you could play SWAT within Team Slayer as it would come up in the options. And barely over two weeks after Reach released, SWAT had its own stand-alone mainstay playmode. Hopefully it will be that amount of time (or sooner... please sooner!) instead of waiting until January.

Yeah, I'm not surprised this happened. Once I realized the faster pace of the game, the sprint being the left thumbstick (click) and crouch set to B at default, I knew there would be some folks bloviating about "Call of Duty", but outside of that and the loadouts, that's where the similarities end. The game is as Halo as it can possibly get. But the Call of Duty comparisons will continue to roll for a while. Can't wait until the comparison-concocters slow down.

Best mode ever. I like Slayer and all (it's decent...), but SWAT is my favorite multiplayer FPS game mode of all-time.

I cannot WAIT until SWAT is added as a stand-alone mode! My favorite multiplayer FPS game mode of all-time. I just love it. It still irks me that "Oddball" and "King of the Hill" are already stand-alone mainstay modes from the get-go and SWAT isn't. I figured it would be the other way around, you know? But hey, on Reach we had to wait a couple of weeks for SWAT. I believe we finally got SWAT as a stand-alone mainstay mode on its own on October 10, 2010 if I remember correctly. (I just remember that date because it was a Sunday and a couple of my best friends had just gotten the game, so I was pumped to introduce them to SWAT instead of it randomly popping up as an option in Team Slayer.)