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Ok, so ever since the First Look Trailer, I have been seeing many threads complaining about how Halo 4 will be copying COD. First off, Halo 4 will be like Halo 4. That's why its called Halo in the first place. 343i knows what they're doing and will make whatever decision is for the best. Beside's, half of their team is made up of Ex-Bungie Employees, and even fans. Also, the perks you've heard about, aren't even called perks. Frank O' Connor said that those were just the names reporter's gave it. And yes, armor will affect gameplay, but not the way most of you are thinking. It will most likely be small things like "2% more jump height" and stuff. Lastly, as you all know, Halo 4 will be introducing custom classes/loudouts. No this will not be like COD. 343i even when out of their way, to state that players wouldn't be able to choose power weapons as their starting weapon. But instead, they will most likely be able to choose simple weapons like the Battle Rifle, DMR, Assault Rifle, or magnum as their starting weapon. This has actually long been a fan request since Halo 2. So yeah, stop complaining guys. Halo 4 is in good hands. 343i is taking it into a new direction, and change is good. We need to all stop looking a the past games and move forward. Thanks for reading, TheL337destroyer

I'll start off by saying that I've been a fan of the franchise since Halo: Combat Evolved, and that I'm currently studying game design. These are my impressions of Halo 4 so far after spending roughly five or more hours snapping up every tid-bit of information on the net and from E3. I'm going to focus on the things I DON'T like, there are a lot of things I'm excited for about Halo 4 including Campaign, Spartan Ops, the fact that they brought the BR back into the sandbox, etc. Please realise that I'm writing this for the love of Halo. ARMOUR ABILITIES should be removed, or toned down. They slow down the gameplay too much, they imbalance the gameplay, they're unnecessary for a fun, engaging experience and most importantly they go against the core principle of halo gameplay, that everyone has the same abilities (when I say that, I'm talking about moving, shooting, reloading, jumping, etc.) and everyone starts off a match on equal footing. I'll go into a bit of detail about the new armour abilities and why I think they're unnecessary. -Promethean Vision, the radar is a classic Halo staple, and gives players everything they need in terms of player detection. Seeing through walls also focuses the player on visual detection too much and detracts from the simply awe inspiring sound engine that's been in every Halo. -Active Camo, not sure if this has actually made the cut or if it's coming back as a powerup from an ordnance drop, in which case I wouldn't have too many problems with it. But in it's armour ability form, active camo slows down gameplay A LOT, promotes camping and is activated too often, making radar redundant. -Hardlight Shield, for those that don't know is Halo 4's version of armour lock (what I like to think of as the spanner-in-the-works of Reach) and appears like a riot shield. It's much more toned down than armour lock however most of the same problems remain. It promotes defensive gameplay, ergo slowing down gameplay, and makes 2v1 situations (traditionally always an interesting dynamic where the underdog always has that chance for the double) untenable for the lone player. It is also far too useful in team situations where focus firing should be rewarded as an active component of gameplay and is instead punished by the press of one button. -Thrusterpack is implemented like a toned down version of evade from Halo: Reach. It detracts from the gameplay because it makes grenade placement and aiming redundant when combined with the new grenade indicator (just like the jetpack did in Reach) ergo slowing down gameplay, it promotes double bashing, it makes close combat weapons like the sword and the Promethean shotgun overpowered as players are able to rapidly close distance between targets, it makes escaping far too easy and thus promotes elusive playstyles, slowing down gameplay even more. -Hologram, from what I've seen it seems to be implemented the same as it was in Halo: Reach and the same problems remain, it doesn't really add anything to the gameplay as players will use it EVERY fight, it's possible for it to trick a skilled player but most of the time it's just a small irritant, therefore it's unnecessary. -Jetpack (I really hope this doesn't make the cut) it has all the same problems as thrusterpack with the added problem of having to make all maps abuse-proof and an unhealthy redundancy of power weapons like the rocket and sword. PERKS are not as bad as armour abilities, but still unnecessary. They also go against that main tenet of core halo gameplay. SPRINT, sprint is unnecessary because; 1. Halo has never needed sprint to produce dynamic, fast, fun and engaging gameplay. 2. It rewards players for playing elusively, thus slowing down gameplay. For example it makes the important positional gameplay of Halo 2 and 3 redundant because players can high tail it out of situations with sprint that they should really be punished for entering. 3. It makes close combat weapons like the sword overpowered. 4. It promotes double bashing. The RANKING AND EXPERIENCE SYSTEM of Halo: Reach that rewards mindless playing. I'm not against an exp system that gives unlocks and shows how much a player has played in a holistic sense, but I'm more of the mind that it NEEDS to take second place next to a WORTHWHILE RANK that accurately displays a player's LEVEL OF SKILL. RANKED PLAYLISTS should not be thrown in the same category as "social" playlists like the Arena in Halo: Reach. It should have it's own category to make it seem worthwhile and important and encourage players to try it out. This was one of the main reasons the Arena in Reach is a wasteland, along with the fact that the rank attained in the Arena isn't visible outside that playlist. If armour abilities, perks, loadouts and unlocks absolutely must be in Infinity Slayer, then so be it, but RANKED PLAYLISTS should NOT have these, they should remain a more pure, traditional halo experience that I'm confident 343 can deliver. BLOOM is another major element that ruined Halo; Reach for me, it introduced far too much luck. Rather than promoting skilful shooting as it was intended, it rewards players that spam the trigger and get lucky with the bullet-spread at the more common encounter ranges. From what I've seen and heard, bloom isn't as major an issue in Halo 4 as it was in Reach but I'd like to see it removed and have distance dps modifiers implemented in a different fashion. tl;dr To sum up, and continue, SUGGESTIONS FOR HALO 4. -Remove armour abilities from the game, if they must be in, give them a long cool-down, for example 60- seconds, so that they're only usable in every 4th or more encounter rather than every encounter. OR, simply have them in a separate playlist from everything else. -Remove Sprint, Bloom and Perks from the game. -Ranked playlists separate from "social", without armour abilities, perks, bloom and with fixed loadouts. -Ranks attained in ranked playlists that are worthwhile, accurate, and given a priority on a player's gamer card in-game. -Maps to bring back from the franchises' past (me faves) Guardian, The Pitt and Sanctuary. Although I love a lot more, there's no point listing everything. -A no-scope medal! Thanks for reading.

Heres a bit of a rant about two arguments I am always reading. 1) "But that's not Halo!" -Traditionalist Halo player complaining about changes. 2) "Adapt" -Progressive Halo player complaining about people complaining about changes. Neither argument means much of anything because neither argument really says much of anything about the nature of the change being made. The first argument isn't as bad because there are a few cases when it actually applies...for example, I personally don't think the perk system in Call of Duty detracts from Call of Duty but it certainly does not belong in Halo, so I guess its okay to say "But that's not Halo!" but then (for example) when people talk about something like universal sprint or 1st person vehicles, people say "but that's not Halo!". Yeah...its not Halo because it hasn't been in Halo. Might as well say Brutes "aren't Halo" (before Halo 2) or Forge isn't Halo (before Halo 3). What I'm wondering is what is this strange intangible "Halo-ness" which we are comparing these new elements to? Then you get people saying "adapt", like when talking about changes in Reach. This is even worse than the previous argument because at least saying something wasn't Halo was making some sort of value judgement about something...with "adapt" we could be talking about any change in the book and the progressive Halo player might blindly insist that the change is for the best and that we should blindly keep singing the particular Halo game (and its developers) praises even though people might very well know in their heart of hearts that the new element is at best neutral in terms of improving the game and at worst completely stupid. Point is, the community should just judge a particular element by its own merits, not based on a need to freeze Halo as it currently is, or to deceive yourself into thinking that the last Halo is as good or better than the last.

We need to be strong HALO community and not allow for 343 to make the same mistake BUNGIE ended up doing. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE bring back a ranking system - makes the game have a meaning. GET RID OF BLOOM - it ruins the game. Get rid of perks or at least Armor Lock who ever thought that that was a good idea, well we all know, LOL. Bring back the BR or a gun similiar what on earth was the replacement in REACH. IF none of this is considered HALO will simply goo bust people prefer COD or Battlefields and the only originality Halo had was lost in Reach when they stupidly tried to copy them with EXP systems and STUPID perks. I would love to speak to 343 and Im sure millions of experience HALO gamers would too. One more question who actually plays REACH anymore?