Meiluy

The biggest problem with the XP cap is it punishes people who want to play the game. Right now Microsoft is running a thing where they reward players who play Halo 4 a lot this month, up to 600MSP to players who play it for 140 hours or more. So, anyone who is actually going for that will most likely hit their cap every day, and have to keep playing with not only no reward, but also the risk of losing access to XP for commendations or challenges that could be completed during that time. Second off, 343 is working alongside Mountain Dew and Doritos for a Double XP campaign from now until the end of Januray. That means that the people who use this bonus get only half the time they'd have otherwise to play before they get punished too. All of this to effectively limit appearance options once you're halfway through the Spartan IV Spec. The cap is deisgned to limit boosters, yet that's still happening with people who AFK in Spartan Ops, so their measure only really hurts people who are legitimately playing the game, not the boosters. As someone said before me, if they want to nail boosters, they should have mods who can ban/reset progress to the boosters who are caught. Not punish the players who want to play some Halo.

... Really guys? Spartan Ops was listed as Multiplayer from the very second it was announced, and the fact that they add a new Episode EVERY week without needing to patch/download is pretty nice. The fact that it requires an Xbox Live Gold account should not come as a surprise, as EVERYTHING that has online multiplayer requires XBL Gold to play said Online Multiplayer Content. For once I'm gonna side with the "Big Bad Evil Company" and say just pay for Xbox Live Gold. It's not that expensive. And to all of the people who complain that it's the only one that has a required subscription for Online Multiplayer, keep in mind they've also been the only consistently stable Online Service for the three consoles. PSN was terrible for the first two or three years, and don't even get me started on how terrible Nintendo's services have been (Maybe that'll change with with WiiU, but so far I doubt they've not tried anything to really improve it, as they're still prioritizing their games for in home Multiplayer, not Online Multiplayer). So, in summation: Buy Xbox Live Gold Membership - Enjoy playing Spartan Ops!

I'm likewise being hindered by this XP cap thing. I hit it in about 3 hours of play today running Matchmaking Spartan Ops while using the Double XP from MD and Doritos. I'm trying to get the armor look I want, as I have everything I want to use (weapons, Armor Abilties, etc) unlocked already. Today is my first real play to level day, as I really want that Oceanic chestpiece (Level 47 required, I'm stuck at 46 because of the cap). Since they make all of the previous stuff available at 26 (just have to save the points for the items you want), it feels stupid to limit how fast I can unlock appearance items. Yes, I know about Specializations, and hope I can make it to my first tomorrow, though with the fact that I capped at 46 when I started at 42, I have a feeling I won't be able to. I feel this was a very poor decision on 343's part. As you said, it hurts those of us who want to play for a good amount of time when we have a day off.

Everytime I do SO on Matchmaking, I get 4,500 - 5,950 XP per run. I work for it, true, so I don't feel like it's too much. However, almost every match I've run today has had someone AFKing, getting only one or two kills at the beginning and then just sitting near the spawn/evac point. It's pissed me off, and I've had to set it up so I don't get them as randoms with the comment system they have. I hope 343 actually pulls a Bioware on this, and reset all the ranks and everything for the people who do it repeatedly. It's BS that they can get so much XP off of our hard work. (The most annoying part of it, most of them were in new Specializations, and I'm at 46, unable to get more XP now do to this random "Online XP Limit Reached")

I disagree with your initial statement. The problem here is we have Master Chief having been in a particular state since the ending of 3. There was no point in which his armor could have been physically altered. As for the second line, Cortana mentioned she'd modified the armor's Firmware, which was used to explain the different HUD (I actually liked that touch, it was an explanation for a change). Also, before anyone else says it, I realized I didn't actually ask a question, merely an observation.

So, I've beaten the campaign, dealt with a number of things that made no sense (most of them because I never read the books, but I shouldn't have to read EU to understand Core), but there's one thing that's always bugged me since the second mission. Part of it stems from the redesign of the armor, treating it as pieces to be used in Infinity Multiplayer on top of campaign. However, something in this game felt out of place: Armor Mods. We have never seen Master Chief use anything like these in any game prior to this (Halo:CE, Halo 2 and Halo 3). While the mechanic was introduced in Halo Reach, it still doesn't make sense that he is all of a sudden using them when he has never done so in game before. It felt forced, almost as if 343 only put it in because they were in Reach. I would much rather have had them not in campaign at all, or have an actual armor "upgrade" take place when he made it to the Infinity. As it is, it doesn't sit right. Also: How is it that Cortana can ID the Promethean Tech before even touching it? We kill a crawler, and it drops a Boltshot, and instantly we know that it is called the Boltshot and has 10 shots before being reloaded...