While I really enjoyed the campaign, and the story they have started, I do not think I would have enjoyed it as much if I had not read the books... Frist of all, a lot of people are asking about the Arbiter, and the events after H3, none of it, is explained in the campaign... I am not going to write a big ol' synapsis of it here, but if enough people want to know, I will make a summary of it, just to give you a heads up on the follow through of the games...

It was too damn short! That is my only real moan on it, but, 343i have said that the Spartan Ops series will beef the game out for those not so into MP. This in my opinon is out of order, I know a lot of people who do not use/have access to XBL, and therefore will not be able to play Spartan Ops, and are therefore paying 39.99(GBP) for a 4 hour game, not a good start 343...

Well the first thing I did on multiplayer, was a 1v1 against a friend of mine, who, like me, has drifted from Halo to CoD. We are both (forgive my lack of modesty) very good at FPS games, and therefore get very competetive! Realised straight away that I dislike the lack of basic weapons on maps very much, especially seeing as the BR is locked by default when you start... Anyway, we played the first game with assult rifles and pistols, and a few of the other ordinance weapons on the map, and I have to say, had a hell of a lot of fun!

We then found the "Slayer Pro" setting, and correctly assumed this would open up a few default classes that contained the BR, and the DMR. WOW! I was instantly thrown back into the game I love. At first I was convinced the DMR was overpowered as I was destroyed in every close up battle, but as I reaquainted myself with the Battle Rifle, I found them to be very well balanced.

So after that we played around with some of the new varients, especially "Flood Mode" and decided that we needed a LAN party... So he ran out to get some disks, and I started flashing boxes...

By the evening, I had called everyone I knew who was into the Halo series, and set up for a sick night on Halo.

FFA Slayer
Started off with a game of FFA on Haven (I think). It was sick, really felt like I was playing a touched up rendition of one of the older games, with a whole array of new perks! Not a whole lot was out of balance, which is something I was not expecting after seeing the set up with classes, and ordinance drops.

Flood Mode
Again, had an amazing game on this, although a good portion of the first game was spent with everyone staring at the new enemy skin, really adds a nice level of 'jumpy-ness' to the game (When you are last man standing and see an army of flood coming - Wo!) As I said though, had a few really fun games of this.

The one problem I found with Flood Mode is the Camo available to Flood, was a bit of a pain when they sneak up with camo on... Still, I'm sure there will be different options available on Live playlists!

Grifball
Oh my god... I have never played a game of Grifball like this... As I assume most of you know, they have added a "Throw & Catch" Feature in with Grifball and Oddball gametypes, and this really really changed the game, for the better I might add.
There was so many ways we could run games, and this kept everything constantly fresh. The games are now a hell of a lot faster paced, and we ended up switching the score to 10 to drag the games out a bit. We played about 15 games of Grifball in the end, and most of us wanted to play more, we only stopped so we could test everything out!

Big Team Battle
The last thing we played was a few games of BTB. Was amazing to be back on Valhalla, especially, with the new weapons and vehicle - The Mantis.
Firs off, let me just say, they have nerfed the Mantis, and it plays really well with the map now. It is not as devistating as I first expected (Although there were still several nasty Killstreaks achieved!)
The DMR seems to be much better at long ranges than the BR, even though they are pretty even at close-medium range, so, I was correct with my first thought, it is slightly overpowered.
The Forerunner sniper, of which the name is evading me at the moment, is mad! It's a one body shot kill, and unlike the laser, does not require charging. It also smashed the crap out of Vehichles, I used it against the Banshee to good effect a few times!
The SAW is also quite a nasty weapon at close range, and while playing CTF, I was ruined by it nearly every time I went for the flag! Again, somehthing that has improved since Reach, the CQB weapons actually win CQB fights

Having another LAN Party tonight, so I will update this with more detailed descriptions of weapons, and maybe a few screenshots.