First Game:

Given the fact there are 5 brand new abilities, I neglected to really use them, giving me a good idea of what the base game plays. So, the movement of the game feels a lot like Halo 4. Even with Clamber in, the jump height has been increased. The jump is probably as floaty/weighty as Halo 4's despite it being slightly higher. Strafing seems to be at a Halo 4 level,as is the movement speed.

The shooting mechanics are very nice. The least amount of autoaim since Halo CE. There doesn't appear to be any bullet magnetism except for getting headshots. Either that, or the hitbox for the head is fairly large. It's not too much of an issue. I found it comparable to Halo 2.

In short:

Movement = Halo 4
Gunplay = Halo 2 w/o autoaim

Spartan Abilities:

The most familiar of them is obviously Sprint and Thruster Pack. Sprint has been nerfed quite a bit. It's less maneuverable. I won't talk about it's relationship with shielding because I'm sure you all know about that. However, it's not enough. It is however, in the right direction. There were numerous occasions where I forgot the severe penalty for sprinting and absolutely destroyed myself. My proposal to nerf it even more, is to have it so if you are shot while sprinting, you "de-sprint". That removes the ability to run away if you are being engaged. Making it so attempting to flee results in death.

The thruster pack is very natural and fits in very well. It's extremely fluid. I really have no complaints about it other than it can be chained together with sprint for concerning maneuvers. Yes, it empowers the player greatly, and makes it feel great, but often times the player chooses it to aid themselves in escaping. There needs to be some kind of relationship between sprint and thruster pack that limits their use together. I know Ghandi had some interesting ideas. So there's that.

Let's see. Lets talk about Clamber. Didn't really know what to think of it. On one hand, yeah, it casualizes the shit out of jumping and such, but on the other, it opens up so many angles of attack, and creates much, much more vertical maps. Makes some very interesting combat scenarios that I enjoyed a lot. It almost seems counter intuitive, but I would suggest to put clamber spots that aren't so obvious to allow for some skill involved. There spots like that on Truth actually. Took me 10 or 15 matches on Truth to find them all. Partly because they'e not in the main view of the map's flow, which is perfectly fine.

Smart Scope. It's literally just scoping in with a fancy UI. Only one that isn't is the AR, which I think has a slightly slower look speed. Which I don't mind considering it's a weapon that rarely even needs it.

Slide is literally useless. The range is far too short, and it's too slow. Needs to be buffed.

Charge is actually pretty good. Fairly hard to pull off, and the fact you need to be sprinting for a while to do it makes it pretty high risk. Probably does about 65% to 70% damage.

Here's the most controversial ability. Ground Pound. Early on, I determined it was balanced, but by the end of the day, I realized that it's still too powerful. Too easy to hit your target. Aiming reticle needs to be smaller, and the mechanics adjusted accordingly. Another possible way to balance it is to make it so it is only one hit kill when it has been charged up fully. The damage should scale proportionally for how long you've been charging it as well.

Final Game:

By the end of the day, I had integrated the new abilities into my Halo repertoire. It really makes you feel powerful when you know when to use them. I can't really tell you if they fit in Halo's formula or not. It's obviously up to you to determine that. But I will say that these abilities don't feel like Armor Abilities. They are much better integrated into the gameplay. And in my opinion, they are honestly better because everyone has the exact same ability. The visual cues for each of them are easy to spot as well.

Let's talk about the weapons.

MA5D ICWS (Assault Rifle)
Magazine Size: 32 Rounds
Accuracy: Medium-High
Thoughts: Easily the best Assault Rifle in the franchise. It is highly accurate, and dishes out quite a bit of damage. Starting off a battle using Smart Scope will ensure a nice lead in the amount of damage dealt due to the great accuracy bump. Something I noticed is that the trade off for using Smart Scope is higher recoil (reticle shifting up)
Suggestions: Lower the STK by 1, and I think the weapon will be perfect.

M6? PDWS (Pistol)
Magazine Size: 12 Rounds
Accuracy: High
Thoughts: An extremely useful pistol that requires a great deal of skill to use. One of the few weapons where the auto-aim is so low, it might not even be there. 2x Smart Scope allows for slightly extended engagements, but is obviously not suitable for cross-map ranges. The high rate of fire combined with the large magazine size leads to a decent kill time, but anyone who masters this weapon will be able to absolutely dominate the beginning of the match.
Suggestions: None that I can think of. Weapon is very fine tuned and balanced in my eyes.

BR85HBSR (Battle Rifle)
Magazine Size: 36 Rounds
Accuracy: High
Thoughts: My favorite weapon to use. It absolutely dominates at medium range. A very satisfying and well rounded weapon at 4 STK and low auto aim,it makes it very satisfying to pull off a 'Perfect Kill' or 4 shot.
Suggestions: None.

M395 DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle)
Magazine Size: 14 Rounds
Accuracy: Very High
Thoughts: This DMR has a higher rate of fire than previous iterations. Often times found myself losing DMR duels, until I realized that I was pacing my shots at a Halo 4 level. This is another weapon that has such little auto-aim I'm unable to tell of it's really there during combat. I'm also certain that this weapon has no bullet magnetism at all, making it only really useful during cross-map engagements, unless you are amazing at aiming. I really like what they've done to the weapon. Really sets it's niche at long ranges.
Suggestions: Add the tiniest amount of bullet magnetism? (May be my noob side speaking there)

M? SMG (Sub Machine Gun)
Magazine Size: 60 Rounds
Accuracy: Medium
Thoughts: This is possibly the first time the SMG has been useful. This thing absolutely shreds at close range. Using Smart Scope makes it able to contend opponents at the default range of the AR. It's also the most accurate SMG in the franchise.
Suggestions: As long as it's never used as a starting weapon, keep it at it's near power weapon status.

SRS99-S5 AM (Sniper Rifle)
Magazine Size: 4 Rounds
Accuracy: Very High
Thoughts: This sniper has no noticeable bullet magnetism or auto aim. Making it very hard to land body shots. Only got my first true 'Snapshot' today. These traits change quite a bit while using Smart Scope. Auto-aim is at a low setting, and bullet magnetism is at a setting comparable to the Halo 2 sniper rifle.
Suggestions: Lower the auto-aim in Smart-Scope. It's too easy to achieve headshots.

Prophet's Bane
Magazine Size: 100% (10 Uses)
Accuracy: N/A
Thoughts: I can't remember the name 343i is using to classify these unique weapons, but I've been calling them super weapons. This thing is an absolute over powered monster. Just having it out increases your movement speed by 130%. The weapon has a normal lunge range, probably similar to a Halo 3 level. When using Smart Scope, the lunge range triples at the cost of no sprinting. Enemy players are unable to de-scope you while using this weapon's Smart Scope.
Suggestions: Turn down the brightness on this weapon. Way too bright in first person. Keep it bright in 3rd person though, such a powerful weapon needs to be easily seen.

Note: I am not a PC gamer. My interpretations of "no auto-aim or bullet magnetism" may be biased as a result.

The gunplay in this game is fast, punchy, and has quite a skill gap with the very low aim assist. It's easily the best part about the game in its current iteration.

Today was met by some server issues, so I wasn't able to get too much in today, but still about 5 or 6 hours.

I think this will mostly be subjective. On the other two days, I tried to be as critical as possible, taking into account things that didn't personally bothered me.

So, while the servers were down, Chronarch and I opted out to start working towards Helioskrill. We quickly learned that wouldn't work out due to the fact we're an ocean away. So we played some multiplayer instead. First match was Halo CE. I was actually struck with the realization that Halo 5 actually has less auto-aim than Halo CE. That was a pretty big surprise that I liked.

After the servers were fixes, and we got into our first match of the day on Empire, I was hit with the realization that this feels like Halo to me. It was surreal actually. I wasn't expecting that. I don't want you guys to interpret that as me saying, "this feels like Halo for everyone." Because I'm not. After two games with significant changes made to the formula, and the endless barrage of "this feels like Halo!" from numerous sources, I don't feel comfortable telling you all that. Many of you have already made up your mind. And that's alright. I won't urge you to try the game. All I can say is that at least you know early on to not get your hopes up. You now have no need to be emotionally invested.

Anyway, let's get back to the game. So, quite a few times I've seen people point out all the ringing going on. On YouTube and streams, it's hard to discern where it's all coming from. Using my A50s, I was able to tell very quickly. There's two main sources. The first I noticed is actually the sound of your empty casings hitting the ground. 343i have really made leaps and bounds in their sound department, so this game sounds realistic and visceral. The second source is a hitmarker noise. I know many of you are going to groan at that, but looking at it from a game design point, it's not a bad idea. Giving the player any kind of feedback for everything they do is paramount. Of course, this particular pinging might be considered annoying. My game design side is telling me to keep in in and alter it so it doesn't bug as many people. But just as a fan point of view, it'd be acceptable to leave it out.

Moving on. Today I actually noticed that there are no more grenade indicators, which is particularly good. Still hitmarkers on the grenades, but in the current iteration of the game, I think that's alright given how mobile everyone is.

One thing I neglected to mention because I felt it was obvious, is that the seamlessness between the aspects of the game isn't perfect. I don't know how to describe it other than that its rough around the edges. Easy stuff to fix with it being a year out.

Before I finish up, lemme quick talk about the maps. So Truth, in my opinion, is the best iteration of midship yet. It was my favorite map in the beta. Empire was good as well, but it was a bit lopsided in it's flow. Controlling the back of the map that is outside is fairly easy and leads to a relatively easy victory, given how good your team is.

Never talking about the level system, so let me do that. There's two level systems in the game. There's your Spartan Rank, which functions almost identically to how it does in Halo 4. It is used for unlocking cosmetic items only. My only suggestion is to put a bigger emphasis on winning, so you get the bulk of your XP from winning the match, rather than completing it.

The second is your CSR. You guys might remember this from Waypoint back in the Halo: Reach days. It has been completely revamped, and boy does it kick ass. So, first off, is that you need to be placed. To do that, you need to complete 10 multiplayer matches. After that, the game assess your skill level and places you in one of six tiers. There's Bronze, Silver, Gold, Onyx, SemiPro, and Pro. Each one of those then has 3 levels in themselves. IE, I was placed in Gold, so I needed to progress through Gold I, Gold II, and Gold III. After completing Gold III, I would move on to the Onyx tier. Once in a tier, you can never derank out of it. So I can't go down to Silver. You can derank from the individual levels though, so going down from Gold II to Gold I in example.

CSR works based on Performance Points. You gain Performance points if your team wins. If you did poorly, you may only gain 3 or 4 Performance Points. If you do well, you'll get anywhere from 14 to 18. The same goes for your team losing, only difference is that you're losing Performance Points instead. At the end of every match, you are shown how many Performance Points you've gained. Your ranks are shown publicly as well. This ranking system is the best in the franchise I feel. It's no longer arbitrary in when you'll go up a level or down one. And you can see your progress, making you really work towards being better. 

Closing thoughts:

The three days I had playing the Beta were an absolute blast. I was asked if the game would sputter out like Titanfall did. I thought about it a bit, and I think I can say I'm leaning towards no. A huge aspect Titanfall is the want to unlock new items to create the Titan and Pilot you want. Halo 5 is an arena shooter, so there's nothing to unlock. The only motivating thing in the game is to do well. And when I did well, I had a great amount of fun.

If you have the Master Chief Collection, play the living shit out of the beta come the 29th and provide as much feedback as you can. It's our one opportunity to truly shape how Halo 5 turns out come launch a year from now.

Please tell me the Prophet's Bane is a midship exclusive sword skin.

Quote from: GodspeedSnowjira! on December 19, 2014, 01:59:25 AM

Quote from: Sigma617 on December 19, 2014, 01:56:19 AM

Please tell me the Prophet's Bane is a midship exclusive sword skin.

It is. Traditional energy sword was still seen on the leaked footage of the night map.

Oh, thank goodness.

Am I to assume that the Pious Inquisitor is Thel's personal flagship? Or is Midship a different ship now?

Quote from: Sigma617 on December 19, 2014, 02:06:15 AM

Quote from: GodspeedSnowjira! on December 19, 2014, 01:59:25 AM

Quote from: Sigma617 on December 19, 2014, 01:56:19 AM

Please tell me the Prophet's Bane is a midship exclusive sword skin.

It is. Traditional energy sword was still seen on the leaked footage of the night map.

Oh, thank goodness.

Am I to assume that the Pious Inquisitor is Thel's personal flagship? Or is Midship a different ship now?

Pious Inquisitor was destroyed in the book Mortal Dictata. Thel's flagship is likely a CAS-Class Assault Carrier, CSO-Class Supercarrier or something similar. I doubt he would be using a CCS-Class.

Did they give out the codes yet? I'm also able to play it.

Is the plasma launcher back?

Why was that cut

Quote from: Raptor the Kid (24) on December 19, 2014, 05:27:01 AM

Is the plasma launcher back?

Why was that cut

Unfortunately the Beta only has 11 weapons, and we know what they are now. Only two Covie Weapons is the sword and plasma grenade.

Quote from: Mr. Admirals on December 19, 2014, 02:36:43 PM

Quote from: RadicalClass32 on December 19, 2014, 02:10:39 PM

I didn't get access to the game yet.

I don't know what happened.

Standard Beta starts December 29th. Early access, which requires an invite, starts today.

It said an invitational-only early access to people who are in the XB1 Preview Program. Which I am.

Unless it requires exact time. I'm in central time zone.