DrDorado

Not to mention that the Kill-Cams now render staying stealthy useless. I can update my team on the wherabouts of a lurker immediately. Not complaining, but maybe KillCams should only be in Slayer. That's a deathmatch thing to me. In CTF staying hidden is absolutely key.

The thing that really blows me away is that these people complaining about the fundamental changes to gameplay (I think everything is awesome) have NOTHING to say about how limited the playlists are. I cringe every time I hear someone tell me that they will update the playlists LATER. I KNOW THAT. What I notice is that 343i gutted playlist standards. They didn't have to do THAT. I call out every naysayer of the new design who doesn't recognize the one thing that can be amended quite easily is the playlist types. Adding 2 a week and taking them away solves nothing. The core of the lists is a shadow of what the old core used to be, namely in player-number support. It's just so simple. Let the people have 1 v 1, 2 v 2, 3-man MultiTeam and 8Man Objective back. Because most of these people have nothing bad to say about all the sweet new design features. They just want to be allowed to play the way they want to play. Something very wrong with the way people try to stifle democratic process on here. I wouldn't have signed up for these forums if I didn't notice something so SIMPLE was fundamentally broken- An arbitrary gutting of something made standard by a decade of franchise. I noticed this because good friends sold their copies for BLOPS2 in a week. I am simply trying to spread the good word of Halo4, but it's hard when friends say "Nah man, they dropped 8-man support. That Slayer s*** is boring and you know it." -Kind of hard to argue when that's true. I think 343i did a fantastic job. Someone just made the ego-maniacal decision to gut the matchmaking playlists and re-introduce them at a painfully slow rate, when Bungie offered a core standard that we all came to expect. Cheers.

I'm just trying to keep my pals interested in the game because they are dropping like flies to freakin' BLOPS2. With the way 343i is handling things, there is little indication things will get better any time soon. It's all focused on Slayer, because that's what the statistics point to. I kind of want to backhand them for taking that approach and ignoring what Bungie made standard. There's PLENTY going wonky with this game. My only point is, don't be arbitrary with playlists- it's the one thing that is so easy to get right.

Halo 4 is still getting mocked for it's lack of 8 v 8, 2-Man (Double Team) and 3-Man (Multi-Team) play. 343i seems to be operating on a corporate 'commitee' style directive and this is just pathetic. To pretend like Halo fans haven't built teams of long-lasting friendships on XBOX LIVE only to load up Halo 4 for two weeks running and find ZERO NON-SLAYER 8 V 8 GAMEPLAY (Every competitor shooter franchise offers this) and ZERO SMALL TEAM SUPPORT. What if it's only me and a pal online? No doubles? We DO NOT WANT TO GET STUCK IN A MATCH WITH USELESS TRAILER TRASH ADD KIDS. What if it's only 3 of us because everyone else has dropped off for the night? WE DO NOT WANT TO BE FRUSTRATED BY PLAYING WITH RANDOMS. What if we have a full 8 people online, but half of them are bored by (Or insulted by) constant Slayer? WE MAY BE THE MINORITY, BUT WE ARE SICK OF DEATHMATCH. This is NOT 2004. Deathmatch is FOR KIDS. Why, 343i, are you continuing to base your playlist decisions on ARBITRARY STATISTICS from a userbase that WILL ALWAYS BE DOMINATED BY LITTLE KIDS WITH ADD AND NO FRIENDS OR WILL TO PLAY OBJECTIVELY? Why punish us? Why design such a fantastic game and CONTINUE TO PRETEND THAT S*** LIKE TEAM SNIPERS WASN'T, IN FACT, THE MOST HEAVILY DASHBOARDED GAMETYPE IN REACH? Talk about MINORITY- Adding Team Slayer when a crippling gameplay factor is that HALO CANNOT SUPPORT 8 V 8??? Why don't you fill your roll as the BEST OBJECTIVE-PLAY FRANCHISE IN CONSOLE SHOOTER HISTORY? If you people are so pumped on Call-Of-Duty, you should go apply for a job with Activision. I am so sick of waiting for 343i to give us what BUNGIE MADE STANDARD. END THE ARBITRARY PUNISHMENT OF INTELLIGENT OBJECTIVE-PLAY HALO FANS. Please! Please end it now!

Wow, there are a LOT of dumb people in here. 1-Flag and Neutral Bomb are HALO STAPLES- If you don't know that then you simply missed out on the experience BY NOT HAVING ANY FRIENDS IN YOUR FRIENDS LIST. Do you know why people like us love the classic 8 v 8 Objective gametypes? Because we have crews of ORGANIZED, INTELLIGENT PLAYERS on our friends lists. 343i dropping 8 v 8 support for Objective games is a total breakdown. I like how the second kid to respond thought this thread was about how many hands were on the flag. What a moron. Wow, I mean... wow.

Good points all around, Mangos. This only brings me back to my major point these days; So many of us just want the full number of player slots back. It feels like we can't even judge the game honestly yet, because we haven't been "allowed" to get it running fully up to speed, which for my people and all the Clans we know simply comes down to 8v8 full Objective playlist support. We just can't say how we feel about the game until we've been matchmade into a CTF with proper player support. I am simply astounded that this is the first Halo game since Halo2 that seems right on track, fresh and well designed- And then they go and drop the "you can't play with all your friends" atom-bomb and it all goes to s***. It just seems like such a focused, petty thing to do. We aren't even complaining about the game. It's just that until they "Let us all into the game" by restoring proper 8v8 objective play, the franchise is on stand-by. Amazing. Restore BTB to full status and bring back Doubles and MultiTeam so any sized team can play. ANY SIZED TEAM. And 343i needs to stop pretending that just because the majority of ADD sufferers prefer Slayer that that is all they need to support. 343i could soon be remembered specifically for this one small, CRUCIAL f***up, which is such a shame considering how right they got everything else. Just plug it in and let us play, 343... just plug it in and let us play...

I think the game overall is awesome, it's just insulting that there is no 8v8 Objective gameplay. That's a massive part of what made Halo great. Pretending that Halo4 cant run 8v8 is tantamount to saying Halo is basically over. Nobody wants to play Slayer all day, that's what COD is for and why it's all little kids playing it. Just give us Multi-Team and BTB-Non-Slayer and we're good. Just let matchmaking run properly. LET PEOPLE PLAY THE GAME. They can't just break us up into 4v4 because none of the development staff have more than three or four friends apiece. I mean s***, my clan is a massive crew of friends and we'd have a hard time whittling down to an 8-man let alone breaking up 8 guys into 4 or 5 man teams. Let us play together.This isn't 2004.

Add BTB: Objective for crying out loud

Really, REALLY!!?? ANOTHER 4 v 4??? Convinced 343i and all it's Kotaku have no friends. No 8 v 8 Objective... SO 2004. Absolutely shocked and appalled that they'd do another small team list with no simple 8 v 8 CTF. Objective gaming was already getting the middle finger by 343i when they announced the dropping of Assault (These people obviously never played Counterstrike with a real team operating with them... or Halo2, 3, Reach for that matter...) and now they just keep throwing the bird up to loyal fans. It sucks pretty bad splitting up an XBL party just because 343 doesn't have the common sense to maintain a classic playlist for the franchise.

Halo Lover- 343i would certainly deserve it if the game was capable of running full 8 v 8 Objective gameplay. I know too many people already disgusted by having been disrespected so hard opening week... they better get BTB: OBJ running and fast... 8 v 8 is standard on XBL. STANDARD!!!

A lot of people are losing interest and it's been like four days. I already have friends selling their copies because of what 343i has done to team play. It's all about lone-wolf little kid Slayer now. I hope to heck they address this by adding 8 v 8 Objective playtypes immediately before a certain 'competitor shooter' launches. At least my Clan is willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but many people are already jumping ship. Come on 343, get your s--- together. So much great design, then to kick fans in the junk just because you don't see large numbers of demand for anything but Slayer...

Not to mention f---ing 8 v 8 Objective types, PERIOD- I agree with you. But some of us have more than 5 friends on Halo4 or any game for that matter. Kicking friends from the party because 343i says we can't have 8 v 8 is pretty freaking crazy.

The only obvious thing missing from this game is pretending that 8 v 8 isn't standard in every other game on the market. BTB as Slayer-only is disrespectful to the fans who have been on this since the old Halo2 days. I foresee a lot of Clans moving on to (Shudder) Black Ops II for it's non-deathmatch team-oriented playtypes. Guess Halo is for mindless OCD kids now. YAY SLAYER> NOT

I think the real issue here is that "Big Team" is only Slayer. PATHETIC. With no 8 v 8 Objective playlists, Clans will begin immediately dropping Halo. This just HAS to be restored. 5 v 5 CTF as the biggest they can handle... smacks of unprofessionalism.

You obviously don't have a decent crew. Adding the Mantises may change the game, but it's a new game and let's not let this distract us from the true tragedy of 343i Halo- The blatant omission of full 8 v 8 support. As if 8 v 8 isn't f---ing standard in every other shooter on the Market. 8 v 8 with only Slayer? It's not just five year olds playing this game.

Games' broken until they bring back 8 v 8 Non-Slayer gametypes so that large crews/ Clans can operate. If they don't then I see competitive teams moving on from Halo.

Nothing to complain about at all but the lack of full 8 v 8 support. Slayer as the only option- Game breaker for Clans. And now we move on. Halo 4 is obviously helmed by people with no one on their friends lists.

Maybe you guys haven't established the friends list I have over the last oh, six years or so- But where the heck is 8 v 8 non-Slayer support. This game is going down if they are hog-tying people into playing Slayer as the sole full-player-numbers mode. Plain and simple.

Bring back BTB Objective playlists. 5 v 5? What is this, 2003???

SkummGumm you don't get it. With this approach they have a 'mob mentality' and that means whatever the little kids are in is going to be treated as what 'we all want'. How on Earth can you have only one 8 v 8 playtype. So now Halo is just a 5 v 5 for Objective... Except Dominion, which I find really wears people out and causes a lot of yelling... and it's just 6 v 6. 343i could seriously ground this franchise by pretending f---ing 8 v 8 wasn't established as "STANDARD but SIGNIFICANTLY LESS PLAYERS THAN PC" back in 2007. Now we are pretending that 5 v 5 is Big Team. Someone drive down to 343i and march around with a sign that says "Respect the damn fans".

It's really just the total lack of BTB-related Objective matches. Slayer got old in 2007. Seriously, how can you hog-tie Clans into booting several players out so you can fit into a 5 v 5? Total embarassment. A decision made by people who haven't built up Clan-sized crews of FRIENDS over the years. Friends being key.

Freaking Big Team Objective>>>!

It will be rad to finally have full team support. It's been really tough when we have a 5 man CTF crew running, then a buddy signs on and we're relegated to playing Dominion, then another signs on and all we can play is Slayer. Then people start logging off because Slayer is boring... so we end up with a 5 man again... then another Clan member signs on and it's back to Dominion... It's like Halo4 is in 'standby mode' until they get full 8 man team support running. Can't tell you how excited we'll be...

Well it's been like two days, I'm not complaining here- just pointing out how missed such a big matchmaking feature like BTB: Objective is... I am sure it will be amended when they tame the server ops... Or whatever the reason for omitting it was... to quote Lando Calrissian: "We've got to give (them) more time!"

It surprised us too. It has to be a temporary thing while they iron out server issues etc. Slayer is great for kids and people with acute OCD, but for TEAMS who waited months or years to get back on board the Halo Bus once again it seems downright fascist to say "Only five of you are allowed on the Objective Bus. If you want to play with all your friends you all have to get on that bus over there." (Points to a bus filled with snotty faced screaming kids) lol. 343i must just be biding their time sorting the server out. At least that's what we'll keep telling ourselves since the only way to repay all this fine work is to stay positive... and patient.