Anyways...

: Several clearly different games that 343i happened to connect on the same
: interface. There's nothing broken-up and "indecisive" about Halo
: 1 by itself, or Halo 2 by itself, or Halo 3 by itself. These are very
: different games, not slight variations on a single core game with one
: feature missing from one or another.

: Obviously that's a fuzzy boundary, but it's not meaningless.

: That said, I agree that MCC will have some degree of the problems I outlined
: ; I'm not sure why you're throwing this "what the fuck is H2A and MCC
: blah blah" stuff at me, considering I never even commented on the
: matter. There are going to be strange inelegancies in the experience
: caused by having everything immediately available and in some cases
: combined.

I was more talking about the multiplayer and how its been how you described in a nutshell, What I'm saying is that compared to the MCC which is pretty much a broken up playing field for all types of halo players that my suggestion of a 2 area representation of H5's multiplayer doesn't sound soo bad. if people want core halo gameplay they get that but if people want to see what 343i has to offer in changes to halo's gameplay then that should be offered too. I don't feel that this "has to be one way or another" strategy that the 2 sides of the fanbase want isn't gonna go anywhere because no matter what 1 side is going to be disappointed. we'll all still be playing the same game with the same maps and playlists, sharing the same files via file share, looking at the same theater mode, playing the same campaign, and having fun in the same custom games, what I'm asking is just for a little balance between the 2 competitive sides of this fanbase, don't think its allot to ask.

: That's fair. It's also fair for me to say I believe they expanded it too
: much-- and then they expanded it more after the game actually came out.
: The system of armor abilities, support things, and the other more active
: things, whatever those names were... the system of armor abilities and
: armor mods is too big and complex for my liking, and the problem of not
: knowing what armor ability someone has is even worse with these mod things
: because there isn't anywhere you can look and see them, as opposed to
: being able to tell someone's armor ability if you can see their back (and
: yes, I realize you can't tell what grenades someone has either, but I'd be
: OK with that changing, some indicator just that someone has grenades,
: even, would be nice and not at all game-breaking, I think).

I guess I'm on the opposite side because I like not knowing what my opponent is going to throw at me but you're basically asking for armor abilities and Specializations to be more shown, which is fair. meh I really don't know how a Specialization can be shown though, secondary emblem on the chest perhaps? :\

and its about time for grenades to be apart of the spartan armor, like on the hip or something and having them decrease visibly when they are thrown. hell its a better excuse then just you summoning them out of hammer space when throwing them.

: So to turn it around on you, if you want a game with an unbalanced
: clusterhump of perks, custom loadouts, and the like, why not just go play
: COD? Why not let Halo be Halo, at least in terms of core gameplay? There's
: plenty of ways to change things up without wrecking competitive balance in
: MP. Maybe more interactivity in the environments. Maybe bring back
: Invasion as a truly large-scale (16v16 minimum) conflict on huge MP maps.
: Maybe really expand what Forge is capable of so that players have greater
: flexibility in defining custom play spaces. Y'know, changes that would
: actually be good, not changes designed to capitalize on the industry's
: obsession with sacrificing balance for the sake of the almighty rewards
: schedule. Besides, when was the last time anybody did anything truly
: innovative in an FPS anyway? Let some other studio try to push the
: boundaries of FPS MP. Not every game has to try to reinvent the wheel, not
: that Halo 4 was doing that at all in the first place, mind you.

Because I don't like COD, simple. but I don't feel that Halo should stays as a dinosaur FPS either, regardless of how you feel about innovation they has been some things that FPS has delved into since 2004 that have been good ideas. and as Metalingus627 said COD may have lost allot of its core players by doing what it did but its gotten supernova appeal for the changes its tried and until now with ghosts it hasn't failed it (though in ghosts' case, its them just C/P exact same features of a previous game and reselling it). I don't think COD would've got the appeal it got if it stuck with, say, its COD3 gameplay all the time.

But at this point anything "new" Halo does people are going to say "You're just copying *blargblargblarg*" because yes it all has been done before and the only way to truly innovate now is to be artistic or "out there", something soo oddball it wouldn't even fit in the definition. what we gotta do now is work on finding the balance between the "core" and "change" halo player fractions and expanding the features we implemented in the previous games or reinvent them.

As DEEP NNN put it, it sounds like you want your sense of "balance" to be applied to everybody and thats really not fair because we all have a difference sense of balance, mind you I'm not campaigning for Halo to adapt more COD features I think what we have now is enough to build on unless some game changing thing comes along that changes FPS forever. but, I do want Halo multiplayer to learn and grow and stay as a modern FPS to attract new fans to this great universe then to end up like counter strike where its only played by its fanbase and otherwise stays in its own corner.