the ground pound stuff is about the only misgiving I have with H5 so far. I think it would be fine if it had no AoE, but as shown it takes out anybody within melee range. I think a better way to have done the ability would be to have the spartan boost toward the ground, and if you melee'd, you could do extra damage. but it would have to connect, and there would be no lunging. I also think the aiming target thing is useless. your spartan should just go where you're looking.

on the other hand, I think the ability gives players more of a height advantage, which makes verticality more important in maps. specifically, to use that height advantage you have to *spend* it with ground pound. so it might make the game more vertically interesting. there's a trade-off with maintaining the high-ground and shooting from it, versus using the comparatively more powerful ground pound move and losing your height.

lastly, it is my hope that ground pound is integrated into vehicle boarding. if you pound into a vehicle's seat, your spartan better do something REALLY cool. like rip the driver out of a hog and throw him into the gunner, killing the driver and knocking off the gunner.