THE CENSORSHIP OF 343 INDUSTRIES

343 Industries has now proven themselves as a greasy, disloyal, money-milking corporation with no care for their fans, and no passion for the gaming industry. 

Around the past 24 hours there has been a leak displayed of Halo 5's multiplayer gaming, displaying Sprint and Aim Down Sights. Didn't the vast majority of the community vote against sprint? Didn't just about EVERYONE say "FUCK NO" to sprint? Yet they do it anyway ON PURPOSE to the displeasure of their fan base. Behavior such as this disgusts me, but it gets even worse.

They make the mistake, but they don't want to handle the consequences. My he forums has been in hell for the past day, fans outraged and criticizing 343i for their actions, I don't blame them. This is TWICE IN A ROW now. I forgave them for Halo 4 due to it being their first game but this draws the line. The company has temporarily banned hundreds of forums users for calling them out on their shit, Censorship at it's finest.

Thankfully I can get around their bullshit bans through some special tricks up my sleeve, but regardless, they are being unfair to their fan base, considering that THEY KNEW this was going to happen. I am currently thinking of beginning a massive Halo 5 boycott group, like the one they started for Left 4 Dead 2, but this one is guaranteed for success if I so choose to go through with it.

Later I'll post the image confirming my ban, I'll post the link to the leaked gameplay footage, and I'll also be citing my sources, but as of right now, I'm tired as shit. One thing I will have to say though, as a passionate competitive FPS gamer, I am disgusted. This kind of shit wants me to strangle myself in my own intestines.

Redesigning Halo's AR

The two main problems with Halo 3-4's Assault Rifle is that (a) it's useless and (b) it requires little to no skill. This is my concept for a redesigned AR, which aims to correct these two problems.

Make it classic-style with a 60-round clip, but with little spread, rather its balancing factor would be high recoil (like the SMG's recoil on steroids), so it would be more about recoil management and continuously tracking targets rather than charging and spraying n' praying. It would kill faster than the BR but would be close to mid ranged focus (but somewhat longer range than previous ARs). It wouldn't be a starting weapon, rather that would be the BR's role. The AR would be more or less a reliable weapon for suppressive fire, very powerful with an insane rate of fire, it would have an insanely loud firing noise to intimidate foes. Essentially it would replace the SAW, and would function like an AR/SMG/SAW in one but neither overpowered nor underpowered. It would also have a grenade launcher that could send grenades farther and faster, utilized by pressing down the left trigger while holding the AR with the frags equipped. It would be extremely hard to hit with due to the increased bounciness, rewarding skilled players with its high damage output.

This design gears the AR toward defensive play and suppressive fire rather than mindless charging. It would be a pickup rather than a starting weapon, so it'd be entirely balanced out. Overall perfect idea for a redesign IMO. Let me know what you guys think in the comments, and feel free to follow/subscribe to the blog.

Why Sprint is Bad for Halo

Sprint supporters, I ask you to sit down and have an open mind, please listen to the entirety of this post. You will see why sprint is bad, and I'm sure you won't be able to find any positives to counter against my reasons. This isn't putting you down, this is so you will gain knowledge about competitive FPS. Here is a brief summary of my reasons as to why FPS sucks.

• They lower the base movement speed to compensate for lack of sprint, thus reducing gameplay emphasis on strafing (aka rapidly randomizing your movements to throw off your enemy's aim). Less strafing means the game is less skillful, thus taking away a lot of competitive depth.

• It allows players to run away more easily, pretty much delaying death. In classic Halo, retreating used to be about map knowledge, planning your routes, as well as using grenades to cover your tracks and hold off pursuers, but now you can just tap a button and go into a lengthy dash. If your enemy wants to chase you, they cannot shoot you while doing so.

• Halo used to also be about positioning, but nowadays you receive no consequence for how you choose to run into battle. It used to be strategic, now you aren't punished by death for bad positioning, even if you're playing mindlessly. In Halo 1-3, you couldn't get away with crap that you could in Halo 4, and it's because the classic games lacked sprint.

• Using sprint takes away your ability to participate in combat, so it doesn't really make the game faster-paced, rather this feature completely interrupts the action and destroys the flow of gameplay entirely. The FPS genre is one that is centered around combat. Mobility and combat should not go against each other, rather they should be intertwined.

• They made the maps larger to compensate for sprint, so it doesn't really help you travel faster.

• Sprint also runs out often, serving as a major pacebreaker, immediately killing all of your speed. this serves as another reason as to why it doesn't make the game fast paced.

Conclusion

343i, just bring back speed boost and have it come with sprint. This way it'll further encourage map control and give people what they want, without destroying the game. It does work fairly well as a pickup (I've tested it in Reach, and it's also been done that way on Promod). No matter what though, DO NOT bring it back as a starting ability.

Regenerating Health, Good or Bad?

Despite a good amount of competitive games believing the oldschool medkit system is superior to regenerating health, I personally believe both ways have their own pros and cons, and that it ultimately depends on the pacing of the game as to whether or not regen health truly belongs. The following two paragraphs will further explain my reasoning.

Regenerating Health

In a slower-paced arena FPS such as Classic Halo or Unreal Tournament 2004, I feel that regenerating health would benefit these games more, as the slower movement speed would make the hunt for medkits extremely long, drawn out, and just plain aggravating, the former two being horrible traits for competitive play. Wouldn't it suck to have survived an enemy confrontation, and then having to slowly jog your way a couple miles to get to the nearest medkit? It'd be stupid and annoying. This is the main reason why I feel that regenerating health (or shields, whatever you want to call it) fits best with Halo's overall pace. This is also why I feel that Unreal 2K4 should've adopted regenerating health in a similar manner to Halo. As much as I liked Unreal Tournament 2004, I personally felt that the conventional medkit system really only served as a major pacebreaker. 

Some people say that regenerating health encourages camping, but this isn't always the case. Camping also has to do with poor map design. Look at Halo 2 compared to Reach, it was definitely harder to camp in the former, simply because the maps were better designed against it. With this system you also have to know the map well. You need to learn which areas have the best cover, and you also need to memorize all of the sight lines, while constantly keeping track of the enemy's positioning.

Non-Regen Health w/ Medkits

A speedy game like Quake or Classic Doom, on the other hand, seems to benefit more from the conventional medkit system. In these games, you move ridiculously fast, so the hunt to regain health doesn't take an eternity to finish. The way you have to rush for these medkits really seems to complement the insanely fast movement speed, and makes it so players are almost always moving. Not only that, but it also adds a great tactical element in that you have to know when to rush, and which route you're going to use. Mindlessly charging out into your enemy's line of sight will cause you to die when you're low on health, no doubt about that, rather you are encouraged to use patience, planning, timing, and map knowledge to your advantage. You must also memorize where the health spawns, and in Quake's case, you have to be pretty skilled at trick jumping in order to outrun your pursuer.