I haven't watched the IGN thing, my girlfriend is sleeping and I don't have headphones for my laptop. We are out of town.
My thoughts on load outs are that it is only for choosing armor perms. I do not think Bungie will go the route of choosing your weaponry. Map control for power weapons is a very large part of Halo multiplayer, I doubt they are going to change that. Perhaps for the players vs AI modes, they will allow some weapon customization, but I doubt it.
As for modes, I think Spartans vs Elites is a set of multiplayer modes. And Invasion and Invasion Slayer are subsets of that. Invasion will be a series of objectives that need to be completed, similar to Battlefield games and UT. There is a chance that AIs might be involved in these matches. Objectives are pretty much confirmed due to a generator being blown up as an objective in the video.
Jetpacks are neat. They seem to be the armor perm variation of the portable grav lift. The armor perm shown used when the ghost tries to splatter the player looks neat. Still not sure if it is just a shield or if it was something that caused an explosion.
Animations are looking great. The shot of the guy going down at around the 0:45 mark looks great.
The new anti-vehicle weapon looks cool.
Headhunters looks like another cool old-school FPS mode for playlist hoppers.
The hill visual affect is much better, you can actually see what is going on inside it now :)
Elites are a completely different size now, much bigger than before, so we can assume they will be only available in Spartan vs Elite game types as balance issues with hit boxes and such will cause issues.
Like Shadowrun, the name of the map section you are in currently is displayed next to the radar. This will eliminate my calling out to team mates with section names I have made up and them asking what the hell I am talking about :)
DMR is looking so damn cool.
Accuracy degradation is shown.
Pistol is looking more powerful, hopefully not Halo:CE powerful, but a little more beefy should be good.
Roll maneuver is neat. Still have questions though. Is it Elite only? Is it only when you have no armor perm?
Grenade launcher is looking cool. Apparently you can stick people if you hit them directly. Looks much more powerful than the brute shot as the shot fired in the video hit way behind the enemy and it still killed them. That is, if the enemy was not hurt already.
Brute hammer is back :)
Beam rifle had some wierd change. Looks like the beam might be constant now or longer lasting now or something.
A Bungie staff member stated that the words in the video were rendered in engine via a "hax" :). Forge allowing letters possibly? Machinima fans would like it. Bungie make it happen.
Assassinations are looking like a great way to taunt the enemy. Sinlge tap assassinations(like previous games) are confirmed to be in by Bungie and these new ones(button must be held for these) are just ways to rub it in on opponents.
No idea what active roster is. Could be an option for drop-in drop-out matchmaking. Not a fan of this, but at least it would be an option for people. Perhaps it is in reference to some sort of persistent online campaign of Spartans vs Elites? Perhaps it is in reference to a clan system of some sort?
Multiplayer information still MIA:
Still now sign of the new Falcon aircraft that Bungie is stating is like the warthog of the sky. This was in reference to how sweet it is to control :) I am actually looking forward to this thing the most.
Firefight has not been mentioned. Although it is likely based on Bungie statements that it will have matchmaking this time around. This probably means campaign will as well. Both fantastic things.
Forge improvements. Will it be a fully featured map creator this time?
Replays. Not sure how much they can improve on this as it was pretty feature complete in the last one. Perhaps a render to video from the XBox instead of the Bungie web site. Perhaps a video editor feature.
Matchmaking information. Will they allow map veto before loading the map in memory? Will ranking work the same way? Will there be any server lists for those who like customs?
Will there be a repository in game that contains user created content such as map variants, game modes, screenshots, replays, etc? A Forza 3 like system would be very cool. Remove the need to go to Bungie.net.
Exactly how customizable is your Spartan?
Bungie.net integration? Bungie has always been industry leading in the amount of stats they collect. ODST stat tracking is completely insane. I expect the trend to follow with Reach. Perhaps make the stats viewable from in-game as well.
