Firstly, the scope. It’s a red dot sight. CALM DOWN, THIS DOES NOT MEAN ADS. What it does mean is that the gun’s effective range has likely been decreased, as the scope is unlikely to have the same level of magnification as a full optical scope. This is likely to help differentiate it and the DMR ( http://www.halopedia.org/images/4/43/Halo5_DMR.png ) so the two don’t conflict as much, possibly so that the DMR is a weaker, longer-range semi-power weapon with the capability of locking down the map if used right, whilst the BR is more utilitarian.
Then, there is what the sight and the paint job connote about the weapon. RDS’s are good at allowing one to pinpoint targets in the dark, where traditional sights would be hard to see. That and the fact the gun is black, lead me to the conclusion that this is a SpecOps variant, possibly used by Locke in his sneaky assassination/artefact retrieval missions.
I still believe that this weapon is the MA5K Carbine, maybe a newer version of it due to the different number of rounds (30 in the MA5K Carbine and apparently 72 in the weapon in the trailer), but overall they both look pretty similiar.
> Surely a different weapon. It has 72 rounds, while the BR has 36.
It’s possible they’re upping the BR to a 6-shot burst rather than a 3 so its capacity for piercing headshots is upped, possibly at the cost of accuracy. It looks a little too similar to the BR to be the MA5K, IMO, but at the beginning of H4, I had difficulty telling the LR and Binary apart, so that’s just me…
The red dot sight probably exists only to emphasize its mid-range niche and allow players to quickly understand that its range is between the AR and the DMR solely by looking at the weapon.
And I personally believe that the BR looks absolutely terrific with it.
> > Surely a different weapon. It has 72 rounds, while the BR has 36.
>
> It’s possible they’re upping the BR to a 6-shot burst rather than a 3 so its capacity for piercing headshots is upped, possibly at the cost of accuracy. It looks a little too similar to the BR to be the MA5K, IMO, but at the beginning of H4, I had difficulty telling the LR and Binary apart, so that’s just me…
Well, if you imagine the weapon on the book cover (which is 9 years old btw.) in a more modern look then it resembles the weapon in the trailer quite good in my opinion.
I know the speculation is fun, but you can only do so much with such little information. I think the only thing we can agree upon is that the previewed weapon – if it goes live in Guardians – is a rifle whose purpose is mid-range utility.
Does anyone know if the MA5K Carbine is a 3-burst rifle? The link above didn’t specify that I could see.
Considering the other images you have in question for the BR being scopeless and with 72 rounds are from a CGI trailer which came out a few months before your first image, which is also the most recent image we have of a BR, the following is my speculation…
343 used the models of the weapons they currently had at their disposal for the CGI trailer. So the BR without a scope was just an unfinished model of the BR. They have every intention of putting the BR, with the “red dot” (or whatever it ends up being) in the game because it was also on the BR in THIS picture. The CGI trailer was just using the assets they had at the time. It was to represent a work in progress. Notice the BR is the only scoped weapon we saw in said trailer… because they probably hadn’t worked out all of the details in their models yet. It was created early in the games lifecycle.
For the red dot being used over the acog or optical scope like in HAlos of the past… What we have seen so far is for the Arena Playlists. Arena Multiplayer is supposed to be fast paced, close range, not too large, but with decent sight lines… I would say, to make the BR be less powerful, they have reduced the range overall so the sniper (and DMR) have a dominant niche and the BR is limited to the Mid Range of the weapon niche.
As for it being the MA5K… nope. It even has the BR skin and we don’t need another weapon cluttering the sandbox. I would like to see the MA5K replace the DMR, but since we already know the DMR is in the game, we know that isn’t going to happen in the near future.
> I know the speculation is fun, but you can only do so much with such little information. I think the only thing we can agree upon is that the previewed weapon – if it goes live in Guardians – is a rifle whose purpose is mid-range utility.
>
> Does anyone know if the MA5K Carbine is a 3-burst rifle? The link above didn’t specify that I could see.
I’m pretty sure it’s a fully automatic rifle, but with more precision than the AR. That is one reason why I wish it would replace the DMR. Halo doesn’t really have a precision weapon that is fully automatic. (I know there WAS the Needle Rife, but it’s obviously not coming back. I am also meaning a weapon that is more like the Lancer from Gears of War).
I feel a weapon that is similar to the Lancer from GoW would be a better weapon to have for beginners so they can be better accustomed to precision weapons. The BR would be it’s equivalent in range, but the BR would win in perfect battles (all shots landing) to compensate for more skill when it comes to landing shots. It would also be easier for people to transfer from the automatic to burst fire in the end since they are used to dealing with a scope already and getting descoped when shot.
All of those pics represent a work in progress. It is most likely part of 343’s BR experiment (no sight, classic or red dot), and a glimpse of a new weapon with a 72 bullet clip.
I would hope 343 would be wise enough to not change one of Halo’s most iconic weapons too drastically. Remember when they made it a 5 shot in Halo 4? They ended up changing it right back to a 4 shot when people started complaining about it.
If anything we need the Halo 2 BR where it’s spread was very tight and it had a good RRR. What happened to the BR being the main mid-range weapon and the Carbine being meant for closer ranges? I always felt it worked better that way.
Halo 5’s BR should not be further reduced in range. Halo 4 should be the limit in how close range they make it. Reducing it’s range any further would destroy the point of the BR. If they’re problem was how the BR overpowered the DMR in Halo 4, the solution is simple. Slightly increase the delay between bursts, so it’s firing rate would be similar to its H2 counterpart, and increase the weapon’s recoil a bit. The DMR’s kill time should still be slower, but it should definitely be less drastic of a difference. Halo 4’s BR killed .4 seconds faster than the DMR. It should be .2 seconds. I also think that the DMR should be turned into a projectile weapon so players will need to lead their shots, making a bit more skillful. The LR would be made hitscan and be transformed into a “jack of all trades but master of none” style weapon, less restricted in terms of its effective ranges and easiest to use, but overall less effective in the grand scheme of things (the select-fire mechanism would be used to accomplish this). Then the Carbine should be reverted back to its closer range counterpart and given a faster rate of fire (to increase its skill gap) and a larger magazine size in exchange for even lower damage…
Here is what it would look like overall:
•Carbine: Closer range utility weapon, requires excellent trigger finger due to its insane rate of fire, lowest damage for this type of weapon, larger magazine capacity, moderate spread, fires faster than in previous games, 9sk or 10sk
•Battle Rifle: Medium range utility weapon, requires more consistent accuracy due to burst fire, has moderate recoil and slight delay between shots, but has tight spread and really good damage, 11-round kill (3.6 bursts)
•DMR: Longer range utility weapon, requires target leading due to noticeably slower projectile speed, no bloom whatsoever, 5sk
•Light Rifle: Jack of all trades utility weapon, select fire makes the weapon fairly useable at all ranges, and it has a slightly smaller skill gap when compared to other utility weapons, but this comes at the cost of generally slower kill times, 5sk when unscoped, 6sk when scoped
Maybe it’s just the reserve ammo? Half of 72 is 36, which is the amount of bullets a single magazine holds. Meaning the BR has a single magazine loaded and two spares.
I’d be more inclined to believe they changed how the gun display works than I would be to believe that a gun that looks almost exactly like the BR isn’t the BR.
> Maybe it’s just the reserve ammo? Half of 72 is 36, which is the amount of bullets a single magazine holds. Meaning the BR has a single magazine loaded and two spares.
>
> I’d be more inclined to believe they changed how the gun display works than I would be to believe that a gun that looks almost exactly like the BR isn’t the BR.
In which way would that make any sense though or rather wouldn’t that be kind of weird? How would the gun know how much spare ammo you have and why would it even display your spare ammo instead of the more important info which is the ammo that is left in the loaded clip?
I’d rather think that it is perhaps an indication of an extended clip, since like you touched on, the rifle, with the exception that is hasn’t a scope, looks exactly like H4’s BR and hence I would exclude the theory of a completely new weapon as well but personally would rather get behind the theory that we perhaps see a modified version of the BR in the trailer.
> I would hope 343 would be wise enough to not change one of Halo’s most iconic weapons too drastically. Remember when they made it a 5 shot in Halo 4? They ended up changing it right back to a 4 shot when people started complaining about it.
The change wasn’t so much because people wanted 2 4shot leik MLGpros, innit, but more to balance it with the DMR. As for drastic change, cough cough fuelrod? Seriously, the new weapons look amazing. Nice to see Halo leaving behind retro-futurism in favour of polymer components, use of non-optical sights and soforth.
> > Maybe it’s just the reserve ammo? Half of 72 is 36, which is the amount of bullets a single magazine holds. Meaning the BR has a single magazine loaded and two spares.
> >
> > I’d be more inclined to believe they changed how the gun display works than I would be to believe that a gun that looks almost exactly like the BR isn’t the BR.
>
> In which way would that make any sense though or rather wouldn’t that be kind of weird? How would the gun know how much spare ammo you have and why would it even display your spare ammo instead of the more important info which is the ammo that is left in the loaded clip?
>
> I’d rather think that it is perhaps an indication of an extended clip, since like you touched on, the rifle, with the exception that is hasn’t a scope, looks exactly like H4’s BR and hence I would exclude the theory of a completely new weapon as well but personally would rather get behind the theory that we perhaps see a modified version of the BR in the trailer.
I’m pretty sure 343 learned their lesson about doing things like COD. Adding weapon attachments would be the nail in the coffin for Halo and I’m pretty sure they realized that. Plus, in a VidDoc, they said there are Fair Starts. Having weapon attachments would be a direct contradiction of Fair Starts the way Dan Ayoub described it.
> > I would hope 343 would be wise enough to not change one of Halo’s most iconic weapons too drastically. Remember when they made it a 5 shot in Halo 4? They ended up changing it right back to a 4 shot when people started complaining about it.
>
> The change wasn’t so much because people wanted 2 4shot leik MLGpros, innit, but more to balance it with the DMR. As for drastic change, cough cough fuelrod? Seriously, the new weapons look amazing. Nice to see Halo leaving behind retro-futurism in favour of polymer components, use of non-optical sights and soforth.
They wanted to balance it and they caught a lot of heat for not making the BR a 4 shot like it should have been. Not having a 4 shot BR was a huge turn off for most people. Notice instead of making the DMR less powerful, they buffed every other weapon? The easy fix would have been to nerf the DMR, but they decided to up the BR to a 4 shot, which would have destroyed everything, so they then buffed the rest of the weapons also. Making the BR a 4 shot was their first priority in that update for a reason.
> > I would hope 343 would be wise enough to not change one of Halo’s most iconic weapons too drastically. Remember when they made it a 5 shot in Halo 4? They ended up changing it right back to a 4 shot when people started complaining about it.
>
> The change wasn’t so much because people wanted 2 4shot leik MLGpros, innit, but more to balance it with the DMR. As for drastic change, cough cough fuelrod? Seriously, the new weapons look amazing. Nice to see Halo leaving behind retro-futurism in favour of polymer components, use of non-optical sights and soforth.
It has nothing to do with competitive players. The BR has been a 4 shot kill since Halo 2. Changing it to a 5 shot in Halo 4 would be like making the sniper rifle a 3 (body) shot kill as opposed to the 2 shot kill it’s always been. The change was unfavorable, and it made the DMR disliked even more than it already was.
And what about the fuel rod? Are you referring to the ugly gritty/steampunk look all of Halo’s weapons were changed into starting with Reach? Whether you like it or not, Halo started with a retro-futuristic themed art style. And it should have stuck with it too, since its one of the many things people identify with Halo. Reach’s gritty style can be found in almost any modern shooter on the market today. The same goes for Halo 4’s tron-like chrome forerunner style which can be found in almost any other futuristic shooter on the market as well.
