I noticed.

: I think that Halo 2's introduction of ally driving and weapon swapping were
: recipes for frustration.

That weapon swapping was fiddly. Nowadays, couldn't they fix it so you can just bark "Soldier! Gimme that weapon!", and the person you're looking at would respond? Not that I do any gaming with voice recognition business, but if it worked like that, I don't think it would be a frustration any more.

: It sounds like they have made some improvements. I would need to play the
: game to know exactly what the changes are like.

I get the impression that you're not expecting to be playing H5 imminently, is that right?

: The improvements seem to be mostly omissions:
: charged pp shots removed/reduced

I know you got a response about that, but I would've thought you'd need more before you could be sure of the situation. Plus, maybe it could vary a lot according to difficulty level.

: grunt suicide stickies removed

Are you talking about the guys who run at you with plasmas fizzing? Because, they're in the game. I saw them in a video.

: Having allies stand five feet away from you and not revive
: you when you call for help is criminally bad.

About this reviving business. In the video I watched, they shine some kind of light. What's supposed to be going on there? Also, what's 343's rationale for introducing reviving anyway? To me, thinking of single-player campaign as ever, it's looking like something of a bogus feature. I'm not sure exactly how things would go in practice, but the thought of lots of people running around shining lights at each other does not mesh well with my concept of Spartan soldiering!