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So having a single list of playlists seems a bit redundant to say the least especially when you have to scroll to see a playlist, that's not very good in terms of HCI, as you should always be able to see the playlists at first glance. In my mind the way Halo 3/Reach separated the playlists into groupings makes the lists much more manageable and dynamic. Below are suggestions to playlist groupings with suggested defaults and maps for use. CSR Playlist FFA Standard - Mainly slayer with lower chance of objective types. Team Slayer - Basic team slayer Team Snipers - Team snipers Team SWAT - Team SWAT (1 loadout only?) MLG - TBA see my suggestions for playlists as a whole below. (Small maps + community maps) Doubles - See below as well All CSR playlists should playout as classic Halo games (same loadout at start, weapons on map, no abilities? no ordinance, reach kill limit not score) Unranked Slayer playlists Infinity slayer Big team infinity slayer Multiteam Unranked FFA (rumble pit) Objective playlists CTF Oddball Big team objective Skirmish Community Griffball Action sack Flood If you want to add any suggestions or questions please leave a response below.

EDIT: BEFORE YOU READ THE REVIEW (now that it has gotten a bit of attention) I just want to let you know I am not really enjoying multiplayer right now. Every game just seems really stressful. It feels like 95% of the gun-fights I get into if I'm not perfect I lose. Also I think I'm running into organized teams because I'm ALWAYS fighting more than one enemy when I'm deliberately trying not to and I rarely survive when I'm "one-shot." I don't know if this is because 343 has failed to separate social/ranked but for me; the kind of person who plays to "play" and not so much "to win" the game it's been pretty frustrating and I actually haven't played much at all for the past few days/week. In Halo 3 I ran into people who were better than me but it was never so bad that I had to try my best every single gun-fight. I got to SR-41 in like the first week so that might be why? The following review seems really positive but I think the ranking/match-making system is pretty messed up for someone like me who wants to "pug" games (even with friends). I guess it's the same for organized teams because they run into people they just stomp on. I will be reviewing the maps, the guns, armor abilities, perks, instant respawns, gametypes and armor. Look for titles in bold. If you want to get an idea of what kind of Halo player I am check out my stats: Halo 3 Rank/Stats http://www.bungie.ne...ayer=sindronian Halo Reach Rank/Stats http://www.halowaypo...onian/haloreach Halo 4 Rank/Stats http://www.halowaypo...indronian/halo4 Firstly, I loved the campaign except for a few things (like the didact boss fight. Why wouldn't 343 take advantage of their talent and make it amazing? Not enough time? Who knows). The multiplayer is FUN (well at first I thought it was! It's Reach all over again). Theatre doesn't even work for campaign yet (I think?). The fine editing tool from Reach is gone which honestly, nearly ruins forging for me. No, magnets do not entirely replace the tool. That's really unfortunate. It's too time consuming without it. What were they thinking :/ Now for the war games review! GUNS I FEEL SHOULD BE PRAISED OR SHOULD BE CHANGED: Before you read the following reviews about guns I should say I have been getting a CRAPLOAD of lag in Halo 4 and have had very few games without at least a little bit of lag. So my observations about how the weapons behave may be a little inaccurate but I think it's ok. DMR - Great weapon. I personally like the look of it in Reach better but it still looks cool. The bloom is perfect IMO. You only have to pace your shots at very long distances (VERY, long). Now, is it over-powered? Just a little bit. The gun is way more effective just beyond medium range which is the way it should be. At medium range I do believe it is better than the BR not because of the bloom reduction or damage but the rate of fire. I'm not sure about a solution. Tiny decrease in rate of fire may fix it. Then again we don't want the DMR to feel like a semi-automatic sniper rifle either.The BR realistically should be a winner at medium range and it is often not. Decent sound. Change to performance needed. Please note: INCREASING BLOOM WILL NOT CHANGE THE DMR FOR THE BETTER. IT WILL SIMPLY MAKE IT A FRUSTRATING AND ANNOYING WEAPON AGAIN WHICH WILL JUST NERF IT COMPLETLEY. BLOOM IS NOT THE ISSUE. Frag Grenades - They have a small blast radius because there exists a perk to increase it. What makes a lot more sense is to have the grenades at normal blast radius and have no perk to affect radius. IMO. BR - Fantastic. I was never a BR fan in Halo 3. However I always used it over the assault rifle when I found it. I never played Halo 2 online so that probably explains why I don't have an attachment to the weapon. I really do like it in Halo 4 though. More than the DMR simply for the feel. The DMR's bloom allows for headshots on the outer circle of the expanding reticle which just feels like BS to me and almost like you can shoot someone around a corner. The BR performs as it should at medium range and I believe its feel is spot on. No BS. Concerning it's shape it looks great. Overall it is visually a bit strange though, but only compared to other BRs from past Halo games. To be blunt it sounds like crap. At least it doesn't need balanced!. Assault Rifle- PERFECT. It is finally a real weapon along with decent sound. It melts at close range AS IT SHOULD. It barely wins out fights at medium range but stands a chance and it's useless at long range. Great job 343! I only use it if I'm using firepower though Carbine - Looks and sounds great. One less headshot to kill might fix it. Landing all of those shots perfectly is not realistic while with the DMR and BR it is realistic because it's 5 shots and not something like 8. Which is why the Carbine is too weak. Carbine should be an issue for the BR at medium range. Binary Rifle - Sweet addition. Not OP at all (seriously). Low ammo and clip size along with a laser sight only the enemy can see AND a huge reticle balances it. This gun is probably the sweetest thing you could pull out of your ordinance minus the Incineration cannon. Incineration Cannon - Awesome. My favourite weapon in Halo 4. Sometimes I feel I don't get kills with it when I should though. For example I've hit a guy directly and the blast just knocked him back (pretty sure he didn't have overshield). I love the weapon and it acts differently from the rocket launcher and is more desired. It's forerunner, it should be better. Rocket Launcher - Sound is a step down. Why can't I lock on? If that's over-powered give the vehicles more durability. Two things about this gun could be changes but only one thing HAS to be. Either buff the radius of the explosive or make the rocket travel faster. That's all. Sticky Detonator - Sad this is the replacement for the Reach grenade launcher. The first explosive weapon I ever used in a video game that was rewarding to skill and perfectly balanced. Not enough people could use it well, so they took it out. Really unfortunate. My favourite weapon in Reach. The sticky detonator is an easier to use version. The blast radius is huge. I don't really see anything wrong with it. It's a real power weapon. Like a rocket launcher from Reach. Be afraid of it. Needler - I don't think people realise this is a power weapon now. I mean, it was always a power weapon, but a pretty weak one. Now it's something you should be really afraid of. I really don't think there should be more than one that drops at the beginning of a match COUGH - that impact 343 forge world variant which I haven't even played yet but I think there are 3 needlers on it (WTF) Storm Rifle - Reduce the spread. Vehicles - Damage is perfect. Ghost and Banshee cannons aren't useless like in Reach and are a tiny bit more powerful than Halo 3. I think it's great. Durability not so sure about. Since there is a "fuster-cluck" of power weapons on the map thanks to the ordinance addition to the game I think they could be a little more durable. The problem with this is that the one player who doesn't have a power weapon is screwed. Verdict Human weapons - great job, some need changed. Promethean weapons - great job Covenant weapons - great job, plasma is scary now that it travels so fast (does it travel faster now? Idk, turrets hit me more at super long ranges). Spread could (SHOULD) be decreased for some guns. Great job 343 never have we had such a balanced level of weaponry along with such variety. Vehicles - Give us a forerunner vehicle and a falcon you sillies. Vehicles are balanced but could be more durable MAPS AND SPAWNING - Great. Some people feel like there are not enough maps. There will be. I still haven't gotten to play a few (forge world variants from devs). - Less needlers - Favourite map is Solace. Second best is Haven. Ragnorak remake is awesome. - Spawns are great. Only had a couple bad ones. Instant Respawn doesn't help. EDIT: Spawns aren't that great (lol). - Don't integrate community forge world maps into matchmaking, leave it to the professionals. They will never compare to real maps even if the colours could be changed. If we get 3 voting options of garbage forge world maps every time we try and play war games like in Reach the game WILL break and get REALLY boring AND no one will play it. INSTANT RESPAWN When did anyone ever ask for Halo to be a fast-paced game? We asked for sprint, but only to make it more intense. It worked, while increasing the pace to an appropriate degree. If we want to be killed by the guy we just killed two seconds ago we would play "that game that shall not be named." This feature does not belong in halo and is not NEEDED and will not SELL halo any better. ***BTW INSTANT RESPAWN BREAKS KING OF THE HILL ON SMALL MAPS GAMETYPES IN GENERAL - Firstly I want to talk about the social vs ranked playlists. Why are people complaining there are no ranked playlists and the game isn't competitive? I think (may be wrong) every gametype matches you up according to skill and rank (maybe just rank?). So it seems to me what's missing is a social playlist lol. I've already been getting my ass kicked playing regicide because I'm playing against people way better than me most of the time. I don't want to fight people my own level I want to plow noobs lol. Please correct me on how this works! In halo 3 did the social playlist match you up randomly? I thought I remember separate ranks for each social playlist. What made the social playlists social? The ranked playlist matched you up based on your highest skill which was based on wins/losses right? Halo 4 will be ruined for me if I can only play with people my level or above that will just be stressful lol I need to practice on noobs. when did people ask only to be matched up with people their level why would 343 do that? - There weren't enough shipped with the game IMO, despite the reasons for holding some off. - Oddball is a playlist? Lol. - Headhunter is an epic gametype and 343 could have made it better and brought it back, along with Invasion. - VIP dammit. Slayer/Big Team Slayer - Good. More map variety please. The same 3 maps come up a lot. King of the hill - It sucks because of instant respawn. So hard to control the hill. Unless you are T^2 or Kampy himself. CTF - I don't like it because I can't drop the flag. Flagnum? More like, the-good-luck-defending-yourself-against-any-other-weapon-weapon Regicide - Pretty awesome! Regicide gave me my first killtrocity. This is how it works: You're the King with a power weapon - Awww Yeuh You're the King without a power weapon - This sucks Verdict Not bad 343, not bad at all. ARMOR ABILITIES THAT SHOULD BE MENTIONED Active Camo - OH, 343 WHY. Why is this an armor ability??? IT IS SO ANNOYING. WHY DID YOU BRING IT BACK? People literally sit behind a rock crouching with camo, wait for me to pass and beat me down twice, not once in the back because most who use it are idiots (You're not an idiot I'm just mad-bro). Some people use it to snipe. Good, that makes it over-powered. I hate this thing it is second-worse to armor lock. Now it doesn't even jam the radar. While the jamming was annoying at least it told you the damn person was there! Now we have no idea! Thruster Pack - It is sick! Despite it being a tiny bit under-powered it has saved my life a lot and makes me look awesome while using it! This is my favourite and WAY better than evade in every way. Props 343. Give us half a meter more and it's all good. For those wanting the distance of EVADE, shut up. That will make it overpowered. Hardlight Shield - I think it's OK. Not over-used otherwise it would be REALLY annoying. It is not needed and doesn't add much. EDIT: This armor ability totally choked me at a killtrocity (potential naire) Promethean Vision- I think it's good. I don't really use it and it doesn't seem to be overpowered. I can understand why this would be good but I've played Halo so much I just know where people are it feels redundant using it unless I'm looking at people out of my radar range. PERKS THAT I WANT TO MENTION Shielding - Shields regen slowly because there is a perk to increase the rate. No. Make the regens normal and have the perk increase them by a tiny amount. The default regen is so slow...like REEAAALLLLYYY slow. Grenade Perk (forget the name) - Shouldn't exist. Radius is so small I almost feel forced to use this perk. - I think the rest are ok (or are they). ARMOR - Venator armor: Did 343 make camo so OP just so people could get this armor easier? Uhhh... - Wow. There is a lot of armor. - It all looks really awesome except for the Helmets. Some people like ugly helmets. 343 are addressing those people. There are a lot of great helmets too. Overall best looking armor out of any Halo game by far. - I can understand how some pieces may be hard to differentiate Reach was a little better at this but Reach failed in proportion. The sizes didn't make much sense. I guess it's going to depend on opinion for the armor. At least there's tuns of it. - Colors. Good variety. They are not washed out like in Reach but solid. Great. Proportion - Everything is sized beautifully. Unlike Reach's "world of warcraft" shoulder pads. Variety - There is so much and enough of the pieces are cool. Thank you so much 343!!! Emblems - Where are they? ---ranks up--- Oh there they are. Where are the new ones? ---ranks up--- Oh...I can't comment on the emblems they are weird. There are a decent amount of them and there are new ones. Some returned some didn't. Nothing new here. Visors - Wow, dayum, freaking AWESOME! Hard to get and awesome looking! You nailed the spot 343. Stances - Sweet new addition! No harm done! INTERFACE - Step down from Reach. Better than most games. Good enough imo. Bugs - Haven't run into any except for achievement/completion bugs. - Accommodation bug, SUPER annoying! Not tracking correct number of accommodations! - Spartan Ops achievement issues. Specifically Chapter 1 mission 5 survival achievement. - Some generic rank reset bugs - Haven't run into anything game-breaking Final Verdict - Really worried about this social/ranked playlist thing. I don't want to get my ass kicked every match because I always get joined up with people my level or higher. This could potentially ruin the mutliplayer. My highest skill in Halo 3 was 40 but I mostly played social. - A lot of network issues. I haven't had issues with other games but Halo 4 lately has been pretty hard to play with the amount of lag I am experiencing. For some reason just after the midnight release I had no network issues. Other than that I am impressed. I highlighted my serious issues and some other nit-picky things. Thank you. Great job. I think a lot of people posting about this game have missed bringing up the good things about it. Hopefully this accomplishes that. Care to add to my review?

Sorry if this has been asked before or been addressed. Are there any plans for campaign matchmaking like Bungie did in Halo Reach? It just made things so convenient if you wanted to play campaign with a bunch of other people at whatever time you wanted. Really great for a guy like me who either has friends that don't have a 360, or the ones that do are really busy and only available at times I'm not available. And yeah, you can go online to some forums and post that you want to start a campaign up, you might get lucky and there will actually be people who want to play at that time that just so happen to be browsing the forums at that time as well, but typically what happens is, you get responses 2-3 hours later (from people who want to play).

Would you like to see a Head to Head (1 vs 1) playlist featured in Halo 4 Match Making?

I am wondering if anyone knows how to get "Don't Touch That" or "You Blew it Up!" ? My problem is that, after hours and hours (and weeks of trying) I have yet to find a single DLC map come up in matchmaking where I can get these. The others are hard but not impossible given that there is a DLC Slayer playlist (and the Infection gametypes take into account DLC). Still, I am really bothered that I paid for the DLC and can't play the maps. The only reason I paid money for the DLC was to get the full achivements like I did for Halo 3 (which was really difficult!). Now I have 77 of 79 achievements in Reach but I do not even have the opportunity to try for the achievements...

Please for the love of god 343i, I would love nothing more than to see an MLG FFA playlist in Reach. I realize they tried it in Halo 3 and it was basically an epic fail but I think it would be SOOOOO much better in Reach and a lot more people would play it. I know the majority of my friends list would play a lot of FFA. I'm primarily an MLG player and thats pretty much the only reason I play Halo: Reach. And if I have friends on that want to play MLG then I'll play MLG playlist with them but if no one is on or I don't feel like playing MLG playlist I would play MLG ffa playlist so I really think you guys should consider adding an MLG FFA playlist please!!!!!

Update: I mailed these ideas to 343 Industries themselves! FloodFight: I think there should be a new version of FireFight called Flood Fight. Where you square off in survival against waves of Flood. A re-imagination of Firefight, or kind of like Halo: CEA'S Mission: The Library. It could also maybe become a New Infection Gametype, where players square off 8v8. One team are players who spawn as Flood Forms who try to Infect you. While the other team are players who spawn as Spartans trying to Survive until the Round is Over. A good idea in the comments was: ODST Playlist: An idea of mine, is to make a new Playlist called "ODST". Where it is basically the same as regular matchmaking, but everyone are ODST's. The health system would be based off the game Halo: 3 ODST. And maybe when the Game starts, You and your team spawn in Drop-Pods. I think that would be pretty epic. Here are some Game-Types I came up with: ODST Team Slayer - 4v4 Slayer ODST Rumble Pit - Free for All ODST CTF - 4v4 Capture the Flag ODST FireFight - Classic Firefight ODST Swat - 4v4 Team Swat with the Killer ODST Magnum It seems like it would create and attract a New Halo Fan-Base. And suit some of the Halo Universe who love the playing style of Halo 3: ODST, more than regular Halo. It would create a whole new community, and you could play something a little different if you ever got bored of playing as a spartan in Multi-Player. All 343i would have to do is make a custom gametype for the Game Mode. As for having your guy look like an actual ODST.. It would be fairly simple. Just make a 3rd species preference. Its just like how you can choose between playing as a spartan or an Elite, except that you can only use it in the ODST Playlist.

I love firefight but I want the classic ODST style where all you had was you, your friends and a lot of SMG's. All I see when I play firefight now is a bunch of people using jet packs and rocket launchers. I just want a one where you need to have a plan. I know that not that many people out there would like this but I think it would be a good idea.

So, since I got the Anniversary maps, I've been busy forging on a couple of them. Anyone know if there is a way yet to submit community made maps for the Anniversary playlists? Because I've already seen quite a few community created maps already up in the Anniversary playlists. Anyone know how people are submitting their maps for the playlists? Have there been like, contests or something? Or is there an thread or site where you can submit your map for review and consideration? And I'm not talking about the community maps submissions that used to happen on Bungie, I'm talking about 343.

halo needs to have the competitive players and the fun players serperated in order for everyone to enjoy the game so this needs to happen DERANKERS AND QUITTERS RUIN THE GAME for players that are dedicated so we need to fix these issues so that so we need to get rid of this so that halo can progress MLG PLAYLIST -A ranking system similar to halo 3 after a couple wins you level up with 50 or so being the highest -Banning someone for weeks or even for life from THAT PLAYLIST ONLY if they are caught quitting -A report system for derankers so that person is banned and easier track people -A surrender option similar to leauge of legends when a person quits- giving the team that is now 3 down the chance to surrender without any repercussions of loosing experience BUT if that team of 3 chooses to stay they loose the same amount of half of the exp for that game -count lost connection and people turning off there xbox's count as a quit -FASTER GAMETYPE UPDATES FOR MLG make this game with mlg in mind is all i can say and will keep posting about this game make it the most competitive thing out there