Never played ce, why cause my opinions different. Look boyo if you need my halo resume here it goes. When halo came out just about every Saturday for well over a year I'd get done with work go to neighbors house an LAN party till dawn. I remember as good as the magnum zoom was, there is no way it was sniper quality. That's just your memory screwin with ya. If you don't believe me just youtube halo ce 2001 multiplayer, even zoomed in on blood gulch from right cliff side the scope is meh when aiming at structure. Maybe you remember it better in pve where there wasn't room for a sniper to stretch his legs. As for it putting out more damage. both guns kill in the same number of hits just TLW gets those shots off faster.