I am not going to pretend not to insult your gaming manhood... but RC, you were missing out if you never mastered the brutal Mauler+Melee combo. Jesting aside, the mauler, and dual maulers in particular, were insanely powerfull-hardly useless in the "sandbox" if you knew how to use it. No offense. The needler actually filled a nice role and the Covenant Carbine had a very high ROF and was extremely effective in skilled hands. Spikers were also quite nasty up close and often found in pairs in maps (i.e. dual wield). And in the context of the "sandbox" plasma pistols were one of the BEST weapons against vehicles.

So yeah, I pretty much disagree up and down! As for the "Rifles" the game made a lot of sense:

Butt of Gun (Melee) <> AR <> BR <> Sniper

In melee range the gun's butt rules. At AR's ideal ranges it really owned BRs--surprise two opponents up close from behind and an AR can score easy Ks. The BR was servicable up close and deadly if you got the first drop, but really excelled at skilled mid-to-long range encounters if patient players. The Sniper was ideal at long range and while usable at medium range you ran the risk of BR players constantly taking you out of your sights.

Each of the primary rifles had clean transitions and clear roles. The ranged combat of the game's primary guns was *common sense, knock on the head stupidly simple.*

As for calling it a sandbox... I love the term coinage but most Halo maps are more Quake/UT the sandbox ;) I know Bungie likes these kinds of terms but unless we are going to start calling MW and BF sandbox as well then I am not sure the term should be abused. If anything Halo games have been more Quake than Sandbox. I suggest Bungie call it the toybox as GTA owns the Sandbox (TM) name :P

Yes, and the BFG was balanced too. I don't hate the hammer, but claiming it takes skill and strategy to get hammer sprees is just nonsense.

No, it's really not. It's easy as hell to get 10+ kills with the hammer in one life. Stay out of open lines of sight against ranged weapons, sprint, jump, hammer. The end.

It doesn't take a tactical genius to figure that out. It's my third placed weapon in grab bag without even attempting to abuse it (behind the pistol and melee). The kills just get out of control when you're using it.If you're smart enough to stay out of the line of fire (which doesn't take "skill") and to equip sprint with the hammer, you'll get far more kills with it than you would with the rocket launcher.

I've always treated the Hammer as a power weapon and opposing players/teams should react accordingly. It's not impossible to counter, especially when fire is co-ordinated but it is difficult.

The range on the thing is massive though, I think that'll get tweaked.

I sorta hope it isn't :P I adore how OP it is. It's so much more effective than the hammer in Halo 3. Not only is the effective range better, but in Halo 3 the hammer has this tendency to push objects and people away without doing full damage. I never feel that in Halo Reach. When you combine the fact that it's just better by default with the fact that you can sprint jump or evade at your opponent, it becomes far, far more deadly than any melee weapon in Halo's history. The sword is great too, but the hammer is just better. The opposite was true in Halo 3.

I wouldn't put the shotgun in the same category as the sword and hammer. The shotty, as great as it is, is hardly a power weapon. It has ridiculously short range, and unlike the melee weapons, no lunge.

How does latency give you any more of an advantage/disadvantage with the shotgun than any other weapon?

I have a feeling you're just reiterating the Gears of War hipshot crying without actually thinking about what you're talking about.

Shotgun was definitely affected by latency in previous Halo games. Isn't it hitscan now though?

Everything is affected by latency, but my point is, latency aside, what's going to beat the shotgun at point blank range? The only time I could imagine it coming directly into play is when you're playing a game where everyone has shotguns, and thankfully it's a pretty limited weapon.

Ah, I see. I love all shotgun games! But I take your point. In previous games mind, a melee would sometimes kill me when using the shotgun though it was rare. Should be rarer now, in theory.

Yea, shotty only games are fun :) Covy Shotguns would be a blast.

I can just imagine the bitching about evade in that game! It's be like Gears all over again! :)