: People are that shallow and the Internet magnifies the intensity of the
: behavior.

: Queue all the H4 haters who will now jump in with a tiny number of valid
: points, a huge number of inconsequential points and ramp them up like they
: are Hell's spite to gaming. I have my care cup in hand.

You never read my review of Halo 4 from last February, did you? I was "hating" on Halo 4 before it was cool. Well, actually I wasn't "hating" on it, just criticizing it when I felt it needed to be criticized. I still gave it a 7/10, which on my scale is still pretty good, and I did praise it for the things I felt it did well. But while Halo 4 wasn't bad, it was disappointing, and I feel that there are more than "a tiny number of valid points," as you put it. There are some pretty damn big points there, including but not limited to:

• Unbalanced multiplayer that's a result of adding COD-style player investment. Adding custom loadouts (Create-A-Class), which now include two new slots for "Tactical Packages" and "Support Upgrades" (perks), and requiring everything that goes into the loadouts to be unlocked by earning Spartan Points creates imbalance by effectively destroying the level playing field that had been the rule in Halo until now. Custom loadouts are also tougher to balance properly as there are now more variables to take into account in regards to a player's starting abilities, especially now that there's perks. It's just unnecessary complication.


• Ordnance drops — the Halo version of the Care Package kill streak in COD — were a bad idea. Instead of map and resource control being important, it was all about hoping the Random Number Gods showed favor to you and not the enemy. At least when the game first came out, map ordnance was all about being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time; later changes made weapon drop locations consistent and timer-based like in previous games. Personal ordnance still involves a lot of luck. Maybe if you're down a lot, the computer will be nice enough to give you a rocket launcher or sniper rifle, but sometimes it'll keep giving you and your teammates low-level gear like speed boosts and Needlers while it gives the winning team lots of power weapons, thus allowing them to dominate even further.


• A lot of features were missing: Saved films for Campaign, Campaign Scoring, multiple gametypes & gametype variants, including One-flag CTF, Invasion, Assault, and Race (some of which were added, albeit many months after the game was released), Firefight, various custom game options, various usability aspects of Forge (e.g., fine-tuning by clicking in the left stick), film rendering and online screenshot sharing, playing as Elites in MP, and various other things.


• A massive shift in art design, including multiple visual retcons. Whether it was the Chief's armor and the Forward Unto Dawn mysteriously shape-shifting sometime between Halo 3 & 4, or the radical shift in the physiology of Grunts and Jackals, these changes serve to break immersion by making Halo 4 look like it takes place in an alternate continuity.


• A new faction is introduced, complete with their own weapons, yet said weapons are basically just re-skinned versions of weapons we already have in the UNSC and Covenant arsenals, thus making them overly redundant. This was a huge missed opportunity.


• A story with no payoff, a flat villain, and no building towards Halo 5.


• The lack of a Forge World equivalent that offers both lots of space and varied environments.

I don't know about you, but most of these are a pretty damn big deal to me.