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Go here for the article/video: http://www.ign.com/a...m_medium=social "Five years ago, John-117 whispered in the depths of space to reassure a lonely AI construct before once again falling into cryo-sleep. The ending of Halo 3 brought a long, legendary story to a close, the gunshots of war fading as human and Covenant shook hands and parted ways. Now we're just weeks away from continuing the story of Master Chief in 343 Industries' Halo 4. With a new campaign, new multiplayer modes, and the same ol' hero, we return to the Halo universe with Chief in the spotlight. And it's about time. We're more excited about Halo this time around for a couple of reasons. First, the newly assembled crew at 343 Industries seems to get what a Halo campaign is. It's about sandbox encounters -- not the paint-by-numbers themed levels that Reach included -- and it's about Master Chief and Cortana. The visuals are downright amazing. In fact, it's crazy to think that Halo 3 and Halo 4 are separated by five years and yet they run on the same system with the same underlying technology. Halo 4 looks that good. Take a look at our campaign preview video."

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.