I'm not super impressed with the DMR, but I'll give it time. Not only is it weaker than the BR, but it feels less accurate too.

The pistol owns; the AR is still sorta weak; all previously dual welded weapons feel much more powerful. The new plasma rifle rules.

Yeah, but that's part of the problem I have with the DMR--Not that you have to be careful or controlled, but the rate of fire that produces. The Battle Rifle was just.. better. It's made me go for the plasma pistol more often. You can really feel the elongated encounter time, especially with this and the needle rifle. Is that supposed to replace the carbine? Is the Focus Rifle the new Covy sniper? Are the grenade launcher and Spartan Laser the only other weapons? I know I've seen them in screenshots and videos, so perhaps they'll put that in the other beta maps.

It's really interesting how they tossed power up items and deployables and combined them into a couple these armor abilities. Hell, it's just interesting how they discarded so much from Halo's growth and still managed to make it grow. I don't really do miss dual wielding, but I do sorta miss the brute weapons. I loved the mauler! The game feels so familiar and so new in a lot of ways. There's a couple of things I'd like to see before it could be my favorite Halo, but it's getting there. I hope the custom settings are even more varied from Halo 3, which was already incredible. The stuff that people can come up with in that game is amazing.. and even the variety they introduce into play lists is great.

The game is begging for an all Covy Slayer playlist. It's seriously amazing. Fast, sticky fun! It's just too much fun. Oh, and jetpack's rule.

The game is awesome. Is it the Halo? I think it probably will be.. but Halo 3 still rules.

I just played some free for all. Slayer Pro is a great game type. I don't know why it's not in grab bag too! I think it's better than SWAT, hell, I'd love an all Team Slayer Pro play list too!

Covy Slayer needs to come up more :)

Over all I continue to be impressed with how they've gone all in and attempted to reinvent Halo while simultaneously making it feel like.. Halo! It's great. It feels very fresh and very Halo all at the same time.

It's weird though, because in many ways, it's anything but simple. I like the idea that they went back in time and then took a different path.

SWAT is a playlist in previous Halo games too. It's no shields, no health, headshots and DMR's (and pistols) and no frags and sprint only. It's not much different than SWAT in Halo 3. But I really do like Slayer Pro a lot more, and I would kill for a Team Slayer Pro playlist in the final game. And as I've said several times before, a Team Covy Slayer playlist, because that just rules too. I also can't wait to see the variety in gametypes they come up with, and what we come up with. I presume we'll be able to make new loadouts for our gametypes too. Rockets and rocketmen anyone? Who knows what people will create!The NR (Needle Rifle) and DMR are pretty much on the same page in terms of damage and time-to-kill, and rate of fire and cone of fire, etc. Its spread also increases with every shot, which is a wild change from the carbine which had no spread and no recoil. They're both "more realistic" guns than their previous counterparts, and they both do less damage it seems than the BR or Carbine too. Personally I'm not in love with the damage but I like the handling. It's not better, but it's definitely different.

And custom games would defeat the purpose of beta testing if they're really collecting data on weapon balance and stuff, and additionally server load and match making performance, but it would also serve to test other functions of the game too. It all comes down to what they want to accomplish with the Beta.

Oh and every weapon looks nice! It's shocking how much more badass the Plasma Repeater is over the original Plasma Rifle for example! Much more menacing!

AR sucks.

Covy Team Slayer rocks.

The AR does suck.. but man.. it has always sucked. At least it's not an SMG! If they just slightly increased the damage on the AR and DMR, it would be perfect. I'm talking Halo 3-like increases, nothing dramatic. I'd almost say it's necessary, considering the ridiculousness of melee now. I mean, honestly, if someone charges at you with sprint, and has absolutely no intention of shooting you, they can often pull out the win if you lean on your AR instead of responding with as many melees as quickly as possible! Hopefully Bungie continues to tweak the weapon balance. There's a lot of development time left and I can hope that none of this is set in stone.

It's already perfectly playable, but is it too much to ask for perfect?Yes, yes it does.

I'm actually looking forward to playing some games with you guys! Although my Halo skills are rusty to say the least, I do remember the awesome games I played with Phaethon and Grift in the first weeks of Halo 3...

And I still owe Acert at least a couple of games

I probably got 4 good hours into the Beta today. The general impression is really good. This is Halo, yet definitely different. The best part really has to be that I don't think I have played a 4v4 game with so much action. But it isn't "Oh, great, I spawned with 10 people around me" action. How the spawns are setup, map layout and objectives, weapon range, radar, etc you can always find action. With the sprint, active camo, and jet pack you can always get into it quickly. Because you can spawn with a friend you can more easily work as a team as well. Kudos Bungie.

The armor abilities really breath new life into old standbys. e.g. I have the most intense, and fun, game of Team Crazy Hill in may years. The last King of the Hill I really thought was great was MW1 Headquarters; this may be more fun. It is very fast paced and with Camo, Jet Packs, and Sprint there are so many ways to infiltrate and hold a hill. It is a blast to fly over, drop a couple nades and then descend down--or even use this as a defensive tactic by flying around and over the incoming enemies and flanking from the rear.

SWAT is a blast.

3 Pole (Territories) was also a ton of fun. I love BF and always thought Halo missed the boat on offering a Conquest/Territories style game that was refined. Territories was horribly unpopular in Halo 3 because it was the same old: everyone rush to a zone, throw nades, and hope you get there last to take the territory. In 3 Pole in Reach it is first to 300 points and you really just need to hold 2 flags. The ability to sprint, fly, and disappear really add new strategies. The map (Powerstation?) has a lot of catwalks and cubby holes with great evelation grading downward so there is a lot of strategy and map control involved--making a beeline on foot while tossing nades is a good way to let the more tactical players get easy kills.

Stock pile is ok once you figure out the maps but the objective markers need to be redone to be more visible and usable. I am sure I will get used to them but they aren't very helpful to noobs. I still hate CTF. Why cannot I fly with the flag

I am loving the elites more and more and have found that blocking a sword slash is uber cool. Melee is going to play out VERY different this time around.

There are areas that need a lot of work. MENUS need to be revamped. They work but they could use some simplicity. Cross hairs, especially the pistol zoomed in, are very difficult to see. Like Robert said hit registration could use some work. This is a Beta but it should be noted that Net code needs a lot of refinement. A LOT of host changes as well as a lot of lag. I had a lot of head shots with the DMR in Swat that simply didn't register as well as a lot of nades thrown right at enemies go through them only to teleport BACK to the player at times.

Anyhow, this has been a lot more fun than most retail MP products. The Halo Trifecta is really great and the armor abilities really expand the game. Bring on the HUGE OPEN maps with vehicles and 32 players... oh, that is the new Activision version

I do hope Forge will allow a lot of flexibility. I can already can see how cool it would be to change abilities on the fly or even use more than one at a time. I also want a PRO SWAT mode where cross hair expansion is added for movement and body position. I can dream these into my economy check list? Anyhow I look forward to Invasion and the gameplay really makes me think COOP should be a blast. Hopefully we see 6 player coop, but I bet it will be 4 player and each one get a single armor ability.

You do!

Actually between the B3D group and the guys here I am pretty sure we can populate our own 16 player games.

That's been my general impression too, and I think they really accomplished something special here. I do think that some weapons need to be tweaked, but overall it's quite good. Maybe it's just my experience with Battlefield talking here, but I actually think the registration is quite good for a peer-to-peer game. I've seen much worse net code in recent history, at least. I like SWAT too, but I don't think it's any better or worse than the Halo 3 version of the play list. Personally, while it's fun, I'd much rather play Team Slayer Pro, for reasons previously stated. I feel like there's an equal amount of skill involved and I like having the option to use the Needle Rifle and grenades.

Something that no one has really mentioned, that I think is increasingly important: the changes to the spawn system. The fact that you can cycle through your teammates in most modes is a wonderful little addition to Halo. It's such a subtle thing that it might get lost among all of the more dramatic changes, but it's a godsend, especially in modes like one flag CTF.

Oh, and while I like one-flag, I've always thought it was the worst CTF varient in Halo. I wish others came up more.

Didn't know armor lock could do this...

I'm really starting to dig that ability
Looks kind of handy during a headhunter match aswell..
Can help you become the last man standing and allowing you to score a large number of skulls.

Yea, I can see that. I've been using the jetpack most in headhunter though. It allows you to get the drop* on people. I really don't love these maps, but powerhouse is sorta growing on me. Sword base takes way too long to navigate on foot unless you can sprint, roll or fly. This is especially true in the 1-flag configuration with all of the jump jets closed off. I mean, really, you have to go around the level like 80 times before you reach your base again!

*sorry

Yeah Jetpack seems most handy on paper for Headhunter. Especially seeing that you've got an icon above your head with the number of skulls you've got on you. Everyone is going for the player with the 3 or higher above his head..

Jetpack might give you a quick escape... (and gives you the ability to get a last second score)