RedStarRocket91

I never noticed that - great find, Abased Eidolon!

Well, this was a short thread! Good work Tyrael

I'd like to see this. Using Warthogs is just too open to exploitation and resource-intensive while stationary turrets are no good for 360-degree combat and can wreck carefully-planned set pieces if they're detached. Plus, maybe we'd get stationary gauss turrets? That could be great fun!

This is a great idea! A lot of players just go into matchmaking alone and don't know their teammates and foes by name, and this would make it much easier for them to work out what's happening. This really can't be that difficult to implement, I'd love to see it as part of the finished game!

This is well and truly deserved! Congratulations Choot Em, this has definitely been a long time coming!

I think I read somewhere that the problem was more with trying to generate lots of Forge objects at once rather than just map size - it'll be good if they've managed to fix that. At any rate, it looks like there're going to be more than one new Forge canvasses to play with, so if it is a problem with map size, that should indeed behave better!

Depends on whether we're talking Matchmaking or SpOps, and whether or not we can actually have Shotguns as primaries or not, as was suggested a while back. In Matchmaking (NO SHOTGUN): Assault Rifle and DMR (because I like to be versatile, and I'm competent with both) Frag Grenades (because I can't stick people) Hard Light Shield (for if things go wrong) Firepower (so I can have two primaries) Sensor (because I prefer to let enemies come to me and prepare accordingly) In Matchmaking (WITH SHOTGUN): Shotgun (because it fits my playing style perfectly) Magnum (to give me a chance of surviving long-range attacks) Pulse Grenades (because I like to use 'nades for area denial rather than raw damage) Auto-Sentry (because it's a good distraction while I sneak up to give them a Shotgun Hug) Resupply (because I like to go into fights at full strength) Wetworks (because what's more scary than a ninja with a Shotgun?) In Spartan Ops: DMR (because I like to hang back against enemies with travel-time weapons) Plasma Pistol (because you never know when you'll need to deal with vehicles) Frag Grenades (because I can't stick people) Regeneration Field (because I'm a team player) Requisition (because certain situations respond better to different weapons) Ammo (because when I get a special weapon, I want to use it liberally) I think that's pretty much it - as you can probably tell, I have a very, very odd style of play!

So this would ultimately bring Bungie back under Microsoft's control? That's not something I expected to see!

It's fantastic to have something as big as THFE taking an interest in us - this is great news, a big welcome to all of you and I hope you feel at home here!

It's going to add one heck of a twist to Infection games, that's for sure. OT: Three members in Majestic Squad, wonder if they'll be your other teammates in Campaign? It's interesting that John is the only one who's actually named. Also, I wonder who 'Anderson' is, what happened to his first name? The other officers aboard both have full names, why doesn't he? Outstanding find, Azaxx!

I've never understood this. In every previous Halo game, there's been an option to activate some sort of low-light visual aid in co-operative game modes such as Campaign or Firefight (be it weapon-mounted flashlights, helmet-mounted flashlights, or night-vision) and yet they've been disabled for multiplayer. That would be fair enough, but the button to activate them isn't being re-assigned to anything else. Why cut something out if you're not going to replace it? If someone wants night vision or a flashlight on, that doesn't really affect gameplay unless it's particularly dark. And even then, what's the harm in someone trading stealth for situational awareness? It's a tactical choice, just like crouching instead of running.

This seems like a good idea. One-on-one, a Magnum is realistically going to lose against pretty much any other weapon provided the latter is being used properly - unless there's a very major skill gap (and if there is, no mechanics in the world will improve the situation). Flag wielders are still going to be darn vulnerable and aren't going to be able to take on enemy teams alone, but it'll be good for them to actually be able to help out a little in a firefight, rather than just walking in the opposite direction very slowly.

They are indeed in Halo 4, just not in multiplayer. Which is what I was referring to.

This is a great idea! There are literally hundreds of role-playing maps in Forge World, and forcing weapons could make them that bit less reliant on honour rules - I'd love to see people using this in their maps

I'd forgotten the Warthog turret - that actually sounds okay in the newer games, but then you go back to the original and realise just how much worse it is. The MA5C was actually probably a slightly weaker gun overall in terms of kill times and kills/magazine, but it just felt so much worse. I can only guess they were going for more realism, but as you say in games like Battlefield or CoD they have realistic sounds and still manage to retain a powerful feel. The Halo 3 Magnum was okay, and the Spartan Laser felt great. Rest were definitely lacking, though.

Well, that's disappointing. It's a shame people with Silver (or whatever the new equivalent's called) can't access it, especially considering that it's included in the price of the game. If you pay for it, you should get it, regardless of what other services you are or aren't subscribed to. There's no reason it couldn't be played via split screen or LAN. Doubly disappointing in the absence of a Firefight. I've had a lot of fun with that over the summer, while my ability to get my Xbox online has been restricted. I just hope the campaign has plenty of replay value, or that Custom Games has enough value to keep offline players interested.

I'm with you on this. One of the reasons I keep going back to my copy of Halo: CE is that the guns just feel more powerful than in Anniversary, despite actually being identical in terms of gameplay. Each shot just makes you feel that little bit more badass when you're shredding through a group of Grunts - in Anniversary, using the Assault Rifle feels like you're using, well, an assault rifle. But in the original game it felt more like you were shooting hammers out of a cannon. A very, very large cannon. I'd like to see the new weapons having a little more bass added to them. The DMR in Reach felt like it packed a bit of a punch, but from Halo 2 onwards the human weapons in particular just sounded a bit pathetic. It didn't matter that the Assault Rifle in Halo: CE was horribly inaccurate and relied more on just holding the trigger down than actual skill, because it felt like it was awesome. Same thing with the Carbine on ODST: it wasn't any more powerful than the regular Halo 3 version, but the little changes to sound at night made it a bit more intimidating. Also, welcome to the forums!

Darn it Biggles, it's football and you know it is! OT: I'm probably going to remake a few of my favourite maps from Reach. After that, I'm thinking of trying to port a few maps from Gears of War 3, as I think they're really well designed and could be hugely fun in Halo.

It's probably just a weird coincidence - you may be having trouble with packet loss or low bandwidth. If it keeps happening, you could try getting in touch with Xbox Live directly, as they're the ones who run the review system. If that still doesn't work, try making a note of certain players' gamertags and reviewing players after you've finished playing for the day so that it won't matter if you get disconnected after each one. Wish I could be more help, but good luck for getting it fixed!

I think I'll be spending an awful lot of time with the 'Wetworks' specialisation. There are going to be an awful lot of players wondering how their opponent could be so bad at assassinating them even with a special perk in a few months' time, I can tell you!

This is exactly the kind of thing that the new loadouts and perks would work well in - plus imagine how much more valuable an armor ability like Hologram becomes when ammunition is limited and you can't be so carefree about exposing yourself to hostile fire. The only worry is how you'd prevent campers. Putting power weapons on the map might help, but that could easily backfire and lead to one team being essentially unbeatable, or everyone just charging around like lunatics and playing like it's a regular Slayer game. Turning motion trackers off might help remedy it, but that would take a lot of the tactical play out, as people would just be able to run around at full speed instead of needing to crouch and move slowly to avoid detection. Promethean Vision would help, as would some sort of enhanced motion tracker powerup, but while the former is certainly reasonable enough as it involves a trade-off, the latter has associated problems. As for players committing suicide, here's an idea - if a player does so more than once in a game, everyone else gets an option to boot them, and whether or not they go depends on how many 'yes' and 'no' votes they get. Or perhaps they just aren't allowed to spawn in for another round. All that aside, I'd love to see this included in Halo 4, and if it was done well, it would quite probably become one of my favourite gametypes. Great idea!

One of the fun things about the new Forge system is the introduction of 'Player Trait Zones', which can be used to alter the stats of any players who enter them. There's already been a great deal of excitement about this, with the most common idea being the manipulation of player movement abilities to create low-gravity zones for use in space-themed maps. It's something which has a lot of potential, and is definitely going to lead to some completely new styles of playing. But while this is definitely a fun idea, I believe there are even more interesting ways that these zones can be used. There are many ways these zones can be used to make gameplay more interesting and maps and gametypes more unique. - Levels set at night-time could feature players garbed in black instead of an impractical red or blue: similarly, snow levels become much more tactical when everyone is well-camouflaged! - What happens when your armour is exposed to high levels of radiation or electricity? Perhaps your shields slowly decay when you're in a particularly hazardous environment - adding a touch of realism to levels based on reactors or high-technology areas! - It's hard to throw a punch in zero-gravity - you'll get knocked away from each other instead of doing any damage. Make your low-gravity areas more interesting by removing melee damage! - Training courses ahoy! Shake up your combat by forcing players to use certain weapons in different areas. - Allow zombies to sneak more effectively through the air vents by giving them active camouflage for as long as they stay within. Make things even more fun by restricting human motion tracker activity to certain spots! - What if we're playing with 1950's rules of radiation? Make your players faster and healthier by buffing their movement and shield strength whenever they're in certain areas! - Add a warning system to your infection maps by tagging players in certain areas with waypoints - an interesting way of replacing the motion tracker! These are of course only a few of the ways in which player trait zones can be used to make gameplay more interesting. Let's see if we can come up with a few other ways that this new feature can be used to help our fellow forgers come up with exciting and original maps!

There should be 'No' option in the poll which autobans the people who vote for it

That's a very good question. Though could you explain to me exactly why someone who's competitive would be happier about losing badly than someone who's casual? If there's a good matchmaking system in place - which actually matches players of equal skill together - then good players will fight good players and weaker players will fight weaker players. There's still no problem there. Besides, you're making the assumption that all casual players are bad and all competitive players are good. I'm a rubbish player most of the time but I have a fairly competitive mindset, while I have a friend who considers himself to be very casual but regularly wins matches pretty much single-handedly. There's nothing wrong with playing to win - it's a way of thinking I respect and indeed, share. Very few people go into a game wanting to lose, and those who do are generally either trolls or griefers. But if someone's more interested in just messing around or have their own personal goals ("I want to assassinate everyone on the other team at least once and don't care if I die twenty times in the process" or whatever) than winning, that's also fine. Desire to win =/= skill.