I quote from the update concerning weapon balancing: "we saw a lot of people relying on a small number of weapons" "We started experimenting with ways to nudge things back toward the variety of options that we had originally intended." "You have viable options again." "Most players want lots of parallel options and unpredictable situations to get as much variety as possible." "I think these changes make for better multiplayer stories. After a fight in the shipping version, the story is usually pretty simple. Either it’s “I ran around the corner and he had the shotgun and blew me away.” or even worse it’s “I saw him first and starting shooting and then he saw me and started shooting, but I started shooting first.” With these changes, the stories get a lot more interesting and varied. Now sometimes it’s “He came up behind me and started shooting so I ducked around the corner and dropped a grenade and he ran right into it!” or “He jumped down at me just as I was reloading, but he got in too close and I beat him to death with my battle rifle.” The fights last longer and each player has several options." Well, I'm sorry, but I call bull-blam!-. You may have done what you intended to do in the autoupdate, but your matchmaking update just turned it a complete 180! First of all, there are no more options in this game. It's either "snipe" or "be sniped". There is no use for the SMG. I ditch it at all costs. There is no reason to have a pistol. The Battle Rifle can own any pistol combo out there. There is no reason to use a covenant carbine, because it just doesn't match up to the three battle rifles firing on you. No reason to grab a plasma pistol or plasma rifle anymore. They can't kill people anymore. If you kill someone with plasma fire after this new update, you're playing against someone who's new to Halo 2. I LOVED the battle rifle, but only when there was maybe one or two people on the other team that could possibly have it as well. Now their whole -blam!- team has it, and I don't have a chance in hell. I start with a firefight with one, it doesn't matter how far away the others are from it, they're in it too. I don't even bother with the sniper rifle anymore, and the rocket launcher seems to be my own death warrant. The most I can rely on is random grenades. Btw, why increase the power in those when you can't even chuck it far enough to matter? I'm nearly ready to just go sell my game. I loved this game and played it 24/7, but having 4 or more snipers on my ass in every game isn't fun. I don't know how anyone could consider that fun. I don't know if the bungie guys play sniper games all day long or what, but they obviously have no -blam!- clue what people like to play. Options? I don't have any when I play anymore. No choice in weapon anymore. I either use a battle rifle, and fire it faster and more accurately than the guy who's spawn camping me, or just stand there and wait for the kill score to hit the limit. I don't have any great stories to tell my friends anymore. It used to be cool stuff like "Yeah, I jumped down from the canyon and hit him with my sword, and then I pulled out my rocket launcher and shot their warthog to hell with everyone in it." Now it's "Dammit! I had the sword and rocket launcher, and they all killed me before I could even find them." Your stupidest moves, that are causing more grief than any standbying or glitching could cause: 1. You turned BR's on EVERY -blam!- MAP! There were only THREE maps that weapon needed to be on. Three, and only three. Coagulation, Containment, and MAYBE Headlong. When you put the BR on small maps like Battle Creek, you make them nothing less than low-powered sniper rifles. I can't even find cover after I spawn before they've gotten the shots they need. 2. You made so many "Human weapons only" games. I don't care if MLG thinks that's a good idea. If I wanted to join the MLG, I'd join the -blam!- MLG. But I don't like their rules, so I play just straight Halo 2. But oh no, I don't even get a -blam!- choice now. That's great, just -blam!- great! Without plasma weapons, the SMG and pistol are even MORE useless! The only thing that could compete with a battle rifle in medium range was a plasma rifle/smg combo, and that's been -blam!- in the ass now, hasn't it? 3. BR only games. Too -blam!- many. Every other game I play is BR only. "We want to add variety" my ass! So you want to see more skill, huh? More variety? Well take a good -blam!- look, jackasses! 4. TANKS on Skirmish games. How the blue -blam!- do you manage to justify a TANK in a 4 vs 4 game? How the hell can you do such a thing in your right mind? Having a tank is barely justifiable in BTB!!! 5. Stat reset. No, I wasn't a high level. I was a 14 on my very best day. So I don't care about my stats. But at the same time, I didn't want to play countless hours against guys that were 30's and 40's for a REASON. It's -blam!- frustrating as hell. It doesn't make the game more fun, and it ruins the game experience COMPLETELY. If people were high-leveled due to cheating, then they were sentenced to playing against people that were of higher level anyways. The list would have balanced out eventually, albeit much slower. But you wouldn't have frustrated so many -blam!- people. You have made this game fun for pure elitists and Halo Gods, and nobody else. I bought this game for it's entertainment value. And I gotta tell you, it delivered. But now I'm just another heavily unsatisfied customer, that wishes he could turn back time...... You want a suggestion? make a new playlist update for next week, and fast...