I kinda wish his name was Master Chef (was voiced by Raekwon)... My week with Halo 4.

I'll never forget that fateful evening when I set up my X-box live account those many years ago and embarked on the first of many Halo 2 benders.  It was a different time, a simpler one.  It was still a novel concept to lambast a 12 year old boy with an undeniably yokel sounding accent for his imagined sexual transgressions with his sister after he had called you a nigger or faggot for beating him.  And while I'm still occasionally called a nigger or faggot while playing video games on line, it just isn't the same.  Dare I say it the shock of the slurring and engaging in the head to head with grown men and tweens and accusing them of suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome has, sadly, abated.  My fond memories of hate speech in the frontier days of online console multiplayer may also be indicative though of my growing apathy towards the genre of online shooters.  Last year, I purchased Modern Warfare 3 as it was on sale right after Christmas, and as I have a big boy job I figured what the heck.  I played the campaign and enjoyed it's unabashed silliness as I do, but I rankled at the thought of getting into the time suck that is competitive multiplayer.  Then came Halo 4 last week. 

After braving yet another midnight release at my area Gamestop, where I have become famous for drunkenly photobombing their Resident Evil 6 release (I was at an open mic beforehand, drink a lot), I had it in my hands.  Anyway, yadda yadda played the game for a few hours the first night, was impressed by the graphics.  This continued throughout the week and into the weekend.  It was nothing new really, as Halo multiplayer had taken up a fair amount of my time, but then on Saturday it happened.  I stopped caring, far far faster than I thought possible.  Granted, I have not played the campaign yet as... it's a pointless anecdote.  Anyway, by and large it's a better looking Halo with some tweeks and balance things.  It does have the loadout and customization options that are demanded in this day and age, and I'm fine with that honestly.  I like to reload a little quicker and the like, and it's 2012, so it's a must.  It's just as I played it I noticed a few things. 

1) I'm sick of playing the same five maps on slayer.  So fucking sick of them.  Sure, I've tried to mix it up and play some objective based games, but the bulk of my play time is slayer, and it's incredibly repetitive.  Also, the new maps aren't really that memorable in comparison to some of my old favorites like say Lockout or Zealot/midship/etc.  Sure, I enjoy the simplicity/murder of Haven, but it's been 6 days, and I'm getting bored by the levels already.

2) Fuck you in the eyeballs for offering me new levels to buy on day one.  Usually I'm pretty cool about these unfettered cash grabs; this situation is merely exacerbated by how I'm already sick of the new levels.  I don't want to give you another 25 dollars to extend the playtime I'm not 100% sold on, but will continue to play indefinitely as, it's what you do.

3) It looks pretty.  It really does.

4) Still getting used to the balance.  Hope you like getting shot in the face from across the map with the DMR; it's going to happen, a lot. But yeah, still getting used to the balancing of it all.  Sword got nerfed which makes me sad; they brought back the BR, but it's kinda assy.  Needler is still above board.  Snipes feels off.  Some of the new guns are kinda neat.  I don't know my main issue is that I find myself falling in love with a new gun for a little while for a couple of rounds and then go back to stinking with it.  It's up and down really. 

5) THe customization options are pretty neat and I will say that the ordinance system is mercifully not a game breaker like in COD.  What? I mean attack dogs break the fucking game.  A lot of the higher level kill streak rewards in COD games kinda break the game.  At least with the ordinance it's like you get a Shotgun or Overshield; it's handy but not going to ridiculously sway a match. 

6) It's got a playlist for everything, so that's cool. 

7) Spartan Ops is thoroughly okay.  Yeah, it's all right.  Novel idea with the updates to the story.  It's like Spec Ops in COD. 

So, yeah.  Halo 4 is pretty nifty.  I don't know my languid praise may have to do with my waning fascination with competitive shooting people on the internet, or not.  If you like Halo, you've already bought it, and if you don't, well that's justified, and I mean Call of Duty comes out at midnight tonight, so you're good.