I am not trying to promote any kind of weapon favoritism, but I did some test to compare the energy sword to the shotgun. I placed a character in a map with a sword facing an opponent with a shotgun. I moved the sword player just close enough to make the reticule turn red, then had him stop. I then took the shotgun player and shot the player with a sword from that range. I got these results after 10 tries: Highest amount of shots to kill: 8 Lowest amount of shots to kill:4 Average amount of shots to kill: 5.6 I have no problem with the sword, and I think it is a fairly decent weapon as far as fairness and balance goes. The shotgun, however, is incredibly underpowered. In halo 1 you could kill someone with a shotgun from that distance no problem with one shot, but now it would take you at least 4 shots with it to kill a guy. Again, not trying to start a riot here, just let me know what you think.