Except The DMR

As previously reported, 343 Industries have been slaving away on a major Halo 4 multiplayer patch to balance the arsenal against the Designated Marksman Rifle. The kill time for practically every weapon has been reduced, along with sweeping damage and fire rate increases across the board.

We've got the patch notes below ahead of its deployment on June 3rd.

343 Industries are working on a new Halo 4 patch to re-balance several loadout weapons, in order to make them slightly more powerful and situational.

It's difficult to be sarcastic about begging to be monetised when some folk really are clamouring for it. Halo 4's executive producer Dan Ayoub has suggested that 343 Industries might be mulling over the possibility of including cosmetic microtransactions in subsequent Halo games.

We sometimes complain about how weapons in games are often rather unimaginative. As it turns out, there's a good reason for this: apparently we just don't like new and original things.

According to 343i's creative director, Josh Holmes, Halo 4 could have seen more "sci-fi" weapons such as a stasis gun or grapple harpoon, but apparently testing showed that no-one really wanted a deep sci-fi experience.

• What: Halo 4
• Where: Zavvi
• Current Price: £18.99
• Halo 4 Price Comparison
• Halo 4 Review

I'm surprised at how quick this has dipped below the twenty pound barrier considering it's such a first-party hit. Not that we're complaining as it's about time the stragglers caught up to the rest of the world and checked out 343 Industries' fantastic first Halo game proper. Season 1 of the free Spartan Ops co-op DLC has just finished, but it's still available to download and is well worth ckecking out. It's still a regular on the Dealspwn post-work sessions.

Thanks to capelli at HotUkDeals.

Halo 4's third multiplayer expansion promises to focus on vehicular combat in three large asymmetrical stages, bristling with Warthogs and Man Cannons to fling them off of. The Castle Map Pack will launch on April 8th for 800 Microsoft Points, or included as part of the War Games pass.

We've stashed more details and a trailer below.

• What: Halo 4
• Where: Game
• Current Price: £19.99
• Discount Code: HALOBIGBOY
• Halo 4 Price Comparison
• Halo 4 Review

Using the above discount code gets you a mighty 50% off Master Chief's triumphant return. 343 Industries stood up to the challenge of taking over the reigns after Bungie departed and accomplished more than we could have hoped for. The first free season of the co-op Spartan Ops DLC missions has just concluded, meaning you and your mates can tear through them all now. Just try not to accidentally run each other.

Thanks to Darkle at HotUkDeals.

This week on the PWNCAST we lament Halo 4: Spartan Ops' missed opportunities, Jon divulges some of his thoughts on Crysis 3, and we launch from discussing the new Tomb Raider title into a conversation about some off our favourite female gaming protagonists.

PWNCAST | S3E8 - Lara vs. Samus, Recorded: March 1st, 2013

Parental Advisory: We've tried to keep it as conversational and informal as possible, and you should be warned that there may be a few instances of strong language.

Click the banner at the top to play the file, or right click and select 'Save Link As' to download the file onto your hard drive.

Want more? Check out the rest of our PWNCAST posts onsite, hit us up on iTunes, or subscribe to the PWNCAST Feed here.

343 Industries have announced that there's a big, fat Halo 4 patch incoming this week, although there's not a firm drop date as yet.

“While we’d love to give you the specific date and time you’ll be prompted to download this update unfortunately we’re only given an ambiguous window in which it will release, not a hard date," said 343i. "So you’ll know as soon as we know… or something like that, anyway.

"While this update tackles a significant amount of bugs, glitches and issues we’re happy to soon call resolved, there’s more balancing to be done and more matters of contention to address, and we are actively working with the Halo 4 game team to investigate the feasibility of additional fixes. For now, here is a breakdown of what will be included in this particular title update."

343 Industries has officially blown the lid off Halo 4's Majestic Map Pack, which is set to release on February 25th for 800 Microsoft Points (or included in the season pack). This new multiplayer expansion promises to "hark back to classic Halo maps" with three "small scale arenas," a new Infinity Rumble game mode and ten new achievements.,

We've got a trailer and map details after the break.

Halo 4′s Majestic Map Pack DLC is reportedly landing later this month, and some leaked screenshots showing off three new maps - Landfall, Monolith and Skyline - have popped up online to drool over. Is it just us, or do a couple of them look a bit familiar, SpOps fans?

Spartan Ops has been something of a mixed bag. It perhaps hasn't realised all of its potential, and there's been a distinct paucity of vehicular funtimes (although the recent episode finally, finally!! gave us Scorpions), but that hasn't prevented us from tuning in every single week for Spartan Ops Day.

Well, episode ten - the final instalment in this first, free season - is almost upon us, and a new trailer has gone live over at Halo Waypoint.

The latest trailer for Halo 4's downloadable Spartan Ops campaign gives us a sneak peek at what to expect from Episode 9, which is out next Monday. It looks like the storyline is about to divert in an interesting direction (spoiler alert, I guess?), but we're all hoping for rampant Scorpion shenanigans to make up for Episode 7's outrageously repetitive slog through the bowels of the Infinity. One trip to the server room was probably enough.

Also, call us egomaniacs if you want, but we're not sure why the CG characters keep banging on about Fireteam Majestic instead of us. You know, seeing as we do all the work while the Majestic boys just sit around and occasionally loot corpses every once in a while. Just saying.

Anyone else enjoying Spartan Ops? What do you want from the season one finale?

343 Industries have released a trailer for next week's instalment of Spartan Ops, with Episode 8 subtitled 'Expendable'. With the Infinity still under attack from Promethean forces (even after we cleared them out of the server room a dozen times in Episode 7), Fireteam Majestic are reunited, so hopefully Crimson might have a little bit of aid for this one.

Roll on Monday! It seems our prayers have been answered as a recent post on Halo Waypoint has revealed that the greatest sport in the universe will be coming to Halo 4 alongside two new specialisations for War Games, and Spartan Ops Episode 7 next Monday.

Spartan Ops season one has resumed, meaning that Carl, Matt and myself are back on the Halo 4 servers with a vengeance. After a long winter of Planetside 2, it was quite nice to swap the sweeping plains of Esamir for the intimate, fun-packed playgrounds of Ragnarok, but we realised that there's still a lot more we want from 343 Industries as they continue to support their FPS post-launch.

A lot more.

So in that vein, here are ten of our most ardent desires that we discussed while bringing the rain in Big Team matchmaking.

10: More Specialisations

A few of our readers will be delighted to know that two new specialisations have been added to Halo 4 as of this week, but it's still not really enough. Even if new specialisations just boil down to cool armour sets without special mods, this extra incentive would be much appreciated.

9: Plasma Lance

This suggestion comes from Matt, who'd like to see 343 add an incredibly long plasma lance that deals damage based on how fast you're travelling.

We laughed in his face until he suggested its use as a Mongoose passenger weapon. Then we wiped his face. Then we agreed wholeheartedly before fantasizing about how awesome a Mongoose Jousting metagame would be. Then he betrayed us multiple times, "apparently" by accident.

Tomorrow Halo fans. That’s when Episode 6 of Halo 4’s Spartan Ops DLC is coming. We’ve been eagerly awaiting the return of the series after its Christmas hiatus and we have a brand new trailer showing we have plenty to look forwards to.

Despite fans generally enjoying the first five Episodes, there’s a general feeling that the maps have been a bit small. We’re hearing this has been improved and the action ties into the story better too. This makes sense seeing as the developers have been able to dedicate more time to them compared to the last lot, which were developed alongside the main game. Importantly, don’t forget it’s FREE! Clearly, 343 have some dirt on a few high ranking Microsoft execs.

"There Are A Ton Of Things We Wish We'd Done Better"

Though Halo 4 was a massive success, both in terms of critical acclaim and sales, 343 Industries are willing to admit that it was far from flawless. Studio head Frank O'Connor has spoken out to assure fans that they don't plan to sit on their laurels, suggesting that Halo 5 will be a superior proposition (possibly running on next-generation hardware).

After taking a break over Christmas, 343 Industries has revealed the schedule for Halo 4's next content drops. The Majestic Map Pack will release in "late February," while the coming weeks will herald the next wave of Spartan Ops episodes and playlist rotations.

Apparently the Pioneer and Pathfinder specializations will soon be unlocked for all players, which will come as good news to European Spartans who've already hit the level cap (it's about time, frankly). We've got all the details below courtesy of Halo Waypoint.

Typically, with our small staff size, there's simply no way we get to play all of the best games each in a given year, there's simply too much reviewing to be done. It can often make these end of year debates rather personal, with individual writers championing games that have had a personal effect on them, and the shortlists get longer and longer. There came a point where I was worried there'd be no overlap, that the internal voting process would yield only singular choices, rather than clear frontrunners.

Of course, all that really means is that the true winners of 2012 have been the consumers. We've seen genres busted wide open, brave new approaches to distribution and development, new ways to get projects off of the ground and in front of an audiences, new IPs when "experts" declared there'd be none. There have been mechanical marvels, fresh waves of indie innovation, sublime storytelling, wondrous worlds in which to wander.

	Title	Description
	Borderlands 2	We described Borderlands 2 as "the best co-op shooter of its generation" and it still holds true to that accolade. Outstanding AI, superlative scripting, one of this generation's finest villains in Handsome Jack, and more loot than we knew what to do with, Borderlands 2 was a huge step up from its predecessor. Not that Borderlands 1 wasn't great, it's just that its bigger, badder, bolder brother was so very pleasing.
	Dishonored	Dishonored did better than simply revive the stealth genre, it made us wonder why the hell it went away in the first place. Arkane delivered a blank canvas in Corvo Attano, with a commendably mature approach to player freedom that asked much of you, and delivered ultimate gameplay satisfaction in return. In Dunwall, we had one of the finest video game worlds of this generation. Nothing short of astonishing.
	Dragon's Dogma	It was broken in places, and Gransys was one of the more forgettable worlds we've seen from an RPG, but Dragon's Dogma was one hell of an endearing game. Breathtaking combat, an innovative Pawn mechanic, and deep customisation options made it a firm favourite in spite of its flaws. Plus, the opportunity to take down a hole bunch of mythical beasts made it all the sweeter. Refreshingly mature.
	Far Cry 3	Far Cry 3 undoubtedly takes took the SP crown in the shooter category this year. Magnificently epic in scale, stuffed with things to do, and set in a living, breathing jungle, Far Cry 3 empowered the player to become the ultimate tropical predator, with a cracking story and lashings of immersion.
	Guild Wars 2	It touted a rather bold MMO manifesto in the run up to its release, and while it didn’t quite match all the claims they were hoping for, what they did deliver provided the biggest shake-up to the genre in years. With a huge world that was an explorers paradise, personal stories that went in the direction the player wished, a scaling system that meant no content ever got out-levelled, and more PvP options than you could shake a Quaggan at, it gave players a complete MMO experience, all without an subscription.
	Halo 4	343 Industries were up against it, the pressure must have been huge. Yet, with Microsoft's biggest frnachise in their hands, they pulled off the incredible: not only did the match up to Bungie's predecessors, they even managed to surpass some of them. Halo 4's campaign was excellent, but it was in the multiplayer modes that 343 really pulled out all of the stops. War Games is still giving us tons of fun, with expanded loadouts and greater gameplay variety than ever before. And then there was Spartan Ops: yes, there were examples of some lazy content recycling, but we've simply been having too much fun to care. An utter blast.
	Journey	Gloriously life-affirming, utterly transcendental, Journey was one of those few games that not only provided a thoroughly unique experience, but also deeply personal one too. It didn't matter whether or not you considered it art, or even if you defined it as a "game", one thing was for sure: it was absolutely unmissable.
	Sleeping Dogs	Sleeping Dogs was this year's little-big game that could. Dropped by Activision whilst it was still True Crime: Hong Kong, Square Enix snapped it up after a year in the wilderness and dropped it over the summer. Wei Shen's adventures provided the perfect antidote to the traditional sunny lull. Perfectly sized, utterly OTT, United Front Games refused to take themselves too seriously, instead providing an immaculately balanced open world game, stuffed with things to do, and supported with a near endless stream of cracking DLC.
	The Walking Dead	Telltale could perhaps have structured their releases with a little more organisatiion, and maybe fixed that infuriating cross-platform savegame bug, but otherwise there was little to complain about from The Standout Storytelling Experience of the Year. A cracking adventure game, with some utterly fantastic scripting and voice work, Telltale's take on Kirkman and co.'s zombie-ridden franchise was miles ahead of the TV series, and showed BioWare that it's possible to pull off a brave ending without compromise. There were tears. So many tears.
	Uncharted Golden Abyss	A staggering technical achievement, and undoubtedly the lead launch title for the Vita, Golden Abyss carried on the series’ tradition of excellent adventure games with all the familiar elements working fantastically on the new handheld. The list of collectibles had us replaying it obsessively, the Vita’s unique control features were used to fantastic effect, and the bar was set incredibly high.
	XCOM: Enemy Unknown	XCOM: Enemy Unknown was a sensational game and a truly exquisite reboot. We fell in love with the series all over again, even as Firaxis blew the classic turn-based formula wide open for new players to consume and enjoy. Sid Meier and co. gave us the freedom to make many terrible choices over the course of countless non-linear campaigns, but the first one was simple: buy the damn thing!

Previously in this year's season of Game of the Year awards, we've dealt with difficult decisions by looking at the nature of the genre in question, searching for innovation from the games in question, forward-thinking approaches to development and distribution, value and longevity in content and effect, and how the games in question might define, or in some cases redefine, those genres.

But when it came to Game of the Year, presented with a clipped shortlist of Dishonored, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Far Cry 3, Journey, and The Walking Dead, we had to cross genre boundaries. There were games on the shortlist that didn't play by the book, so we threw the book out of the window.