Halo 5: what Halo 4 players want from Master Chief's next outing

I'm rather impressed by what 343 has achieved with Halo 4, but as of oh, around 72 hours ago, I don't want Microsoft's home-grown mega-studio to develop Halo 5. No indeedy. I'd rather you did it. Yes, you lot - the bustling idea-factories we condescendingly refer to as "readers". The results of last week's Halo 5 wishlist competition are in, and great suggestions are plentiful.

There were so many fine entries we eventually chickened out and picked a winner at random. Congratulations, Mjolnir - a shiny set of Halo 4 models are on their way to your doormat, or at least they will be once you PM me your address. Here are a few of the other thoughts that caught our exacting eye. Original spelling and grammar have been preserved except for where they haven't. Oh, and please beware Halo 4 spoilers

For Halo 5, I would love to see Thel 'Vadamee (The Arbiter) make a return, as well as a visit to the the Elite homeworld, Sanghelios. With Cortana most likely not coming back, it would be nice to see a familiar face and to explore a new land, as well as learn what happened to the Covenant after the events of Halo 3.

Couldn't agree more, Wheely - the Covenant's presence on Requiem isn't really explained in the course of the main Halo 4 campaign, though in fairness the latest Halo 4 Spartan Ops episodes are getting to grips with the nitty-gritty. And we can't get enough of the Arbiter round these parts. He'd soon put paid to that nasty Didact fellow.

Firefight 2.0 (jfrussell)

Firefight needs to come back in a big way. Maybe take a cue from COD and have the Flood in Firefight? Or have the Covenant/Prometheans but every 5th level the Flood comes in as well, attacks you, but also takes over the Covenant/Prometheans and then the hybrids attack you as well. But more so just have bigger maps, maybe allow 6-8 players, split into 2 or 3 teams and you can work together or sabotage each other to get the most points/kills.

An expanded Firefight Mode easily tops our list of Halo 5 requests/demands. Spartan Ops has its moments, but is let down by repetitive map design and a shortage of toggleable doodads like difficulty modifiers to spur replay. With Firefight, repetition is the point rather than a problem. Mixed species wave types like the ones you outline would be very pleasant - we'd plump for a proper wave customisation toolset, too.

More inventive guns (Carpet Monkey)

Perhaps experiment with the weaponry more, as the forerunner weaponry is essentially the same as the marines' but with an 'alien' skin or twist to it. Something as ingenious and inventive as the needler!

Absolutely. Save for the Incineration Cannon - a fun twist on the trad rocket launcher whose blast waves rebound backwards from the point of impact - those Promethean guns are distinguished more by how they look and sound than by how they handle. How about a gun whose projectiles draw the fire of every Autosentry in the vicinity? Or a gun whose projectiles create a special trait zone where they land. Sky's the limit.

I would definitely like larger levels. I did enjoy the ferocity of the close quarter fights but eventually i ended up employing the same tactics repeatedly against the Prometheans, head shot against the crawlers and then picking off the watchers with long range as they are a bit cowardly and then just spamming the knights with whatever was at hand. I think larger levels would allow for more varied combat and a larger variety of enemy classes is a must. There was very little diversity in the attacks and heavy weapons were never really needed. So in essence larger levels and diversity of enemies to keep the combat at least a little varied.

Indeed, Halo 4's levels feel rather claustrophobic after Halo 3. You get the sense that 343's decided that pretty textures and complex models are better uses of processing power than space. We could definitely go for a new Promethean variant, too, perhaps one with multiple states like certain Capcom boss monsters.