That article claims it was 343's decision. I find that somewhat difficult to believe. I'm pretty sure it's MS that decides what goes down with the whole Halo thing.

Online chat hasn't been bad on Live since they instituted Party Chat. With that said, I'd rather see assholes automuted for everyone's benefit, or even banned to play with other assholes for a week than a lifetime ban.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm defending sexism, because the shit that gets said really is inappropriate. However, I think some responses are too extreme, a lifetime ban would fall into that category of responses for me.

Is anyone else liking Spartan Ops as much as I am? Seriously, free campaign extensions, daily quests, medals, challenges, this game is digital crack like I haven't played in a long time. Now if I was only better at multiplayer...:)

I haven't personally played any multiplayer (or really any of the game at all), but my brother got hold of it and has been cleaning up. It looks like fun. Typical Halo "weaken them with bullets and grenades then melee the snot out of them" goodness. There are a few possible balance issues as far as the weapons go, I question the implementation of the progression system, and at least two bizarre bugs have shown up (both in Flood mode)... but those are minor nitpicks from someone who has just been watching others play.

Haven't seen anything of the Spartan Ops. Sounds very cool, though. Is it basically just regular free DLC?

I finished the campaign a few days ago. What an amazing game. It's epic from beggining to end. Certainly the best game i have played this year so far.

I still haven't played Spartan Ops. I'll give it a try.

Oh, to those of you who enjoy Halo don't forget to watch the Forward Unto Dawn live-action series on Machinima channel. It's pretty good and tells part of the story of Lasker, one of the characters in Halo 4.

It's free episodic content. I think the bulk of it is contained on the 2nd disc and new episodes of 5 missions each (so far) are released each week. They can be played single or multiplayer, as one might expect. All your multiplayer unlocks are good here as well, anything you can do from the Infinity kind of mushes together in one big bag of XP and badass-edness, some is pvp, some is extended single player/co-op.
Yes it was, and holy crap the ending!

Yeah, that sounds like loads of fun

Yeah the first series is what they worked on after it went gold in september the videos are all on the disc but some of the level code is streamed to you. It's really pretty good it's like having a whole second campaign added over time for free. Apparently season 1 is 10 weeks long (so 50 missions) though theres some debate about if season 2 will be free (343i seems to want it to be free but they still have to pay XBOX fees for stuff on live...)

Even if they charged 5 bucks for it it'd be one of the best DLC deals going.

Almost SR 30! For me this is good. I think Big Infinity Slayer is my preferred game type in this one, but that's probably because I suck too much to really succeed in something like Regicide. The good news is even I can get a run and top score in the occasional game, so you don't need to be some Halo/Shooter expert to have fun.

Also, the new Spartan Ops, Episode 3 unlocks in a little over 12 hours!

yeah Ops, Flood and Big are by far my fave modes.Spartan Ops is doing something... friends that had already moved onto BlackOps this week are asking for play times for Spartan ops tomorrow...

Got it the day it came out still in the shrink wrap

That is a tragedy, it really is easily in the top 5 games out this year (top spot goes to Spec Ops: The Line).
I started multiplayer Spartan Ops today, talk about making it even more fun, seeing how gonzo you can be on Heroic/Legendary is great fun.

I am so completely sick of FPS games, I don't ever forsee playing the apparently amazing Halo Reach, let alone 4.

Also, I think Borderlands does Halo better than Halo does.

Completely different games, bro.