It's as iconic as the Assault Rifle and for me it symbolises the Elite along with the Energy Sword. It's a shame to see it go especially considering how ugly and boring the replacement weapon is. The weirdest thing is that they could have kept the Plasma Rifle but simply updated its gameplay characteristics, as they do with EVERY SINGLE OTHER WEAPON, rather than canning such a classic design. Why keep the Plasma Pistol and not the Plasma Rifle? Weird. Why bring back the Concussion Rifle of all weapons and not the Plasma Rifle?? Even weirder. Honestly when I realised that the Plasma Rifle was not in H4 that was the first big warning alarm in my head that Halo 4 might actually be bad or disappointing.