You mostly missed Spartan Ops. It was a mixed bag, but definitely something I'd like to see more of. It was a good experiment, or test of the waters regarding episodic content. I think on our forums, it was mostly well received in this regard. The negative being it was very repetitive, but hell, so was Firefight. The story in that segment is something you'll want to brush up on- it is tied to the main plot and some interesting things happen.

Regarding DLC, it is required (or will be soon) for almost every playlist, just like it was for Halo 3. There are only a couple I think that don't require it, but I forget what they are.

Dominion is gone, might come back rotational. I liked that GT and think it added a new depth to objective. If they merged the good of Dominion with the good of Invasion I'd have the perfect objective gametype :P.

If you want to get the DLC, I'd highly suggest getting the GOTY edition of Halo 4 that will be out soon (if it isn't already) as it has ALL dlc with it (maps, skins, emblems, etc) and is a better deal than buying them individually. Out of the DLC I really like Monolith and Predition.

Regarding the gametypes, my opinion is that they are better than when they started last year. The DMR is no longer the be-all-end-all of rifles. The BR and Carbine will fuck your shit up. If you are an AR hater, prepare to hate more as it is beastly. I've got a film in my file share of me using only it, a shotgun and hologram on the pit remake just trolling some other players. (Snipe said something to me about it being a new gametype/new way to play for him, no rifles haha) .

Automatics do more damage, are more accurate, but auto-aim for them is wayyy down.

Grenades are piss filled water balloons that just make people angry.

The boltshot was nerfed to be more balanced. If you get killed with it now you are bad and should feel bad.

The overall pace is faster, movement wise. There is a good mix of Infinity (ordinance) and non infinity gametypes in the hoppers. In non-infinity games weapons are scattered around the maps like the days of old but I couldn't tell you where most of them are haha.

Vehicles are not really fun to get in unless you like to explode, since everyone can have a PP now and spooge EMP on your rampage. That probably doesn't matter much to you haha.

Ricochet is...fun. Like stupid griffball fun. Nice to blow off steam with or play with friends. It'd be great for a LAN, honestly.

BTB is the most popular playlist, surprisingly. I like it, but which it had a better tilt towards objective games. That's just me though.

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If you are going though campaign again, I encourage you to play it in a "cinematic" way if that makes sense. Take your time to examine the scenery, the characters, the encounters etc.

Bones and I have had many discussions on the "fun" of the campaign and are pretty much of the same mind in that it is fun, but you have to approach it knowing that it ISN'T Halo 3, CE, etc.

343 does many things right, and they do many things wrong.

The one, true , overriding factor though is this: Any Halo game is more fun with friends.