GAME PROGRAMMING: It'd be extremely cool if whenever you throw a plasma grenade onto a Covenant ground troop--, and he's less than five feet away-- if when you hit the jump button (A) you lurch backward 9 or 10 feet into an Aikido-like side-roll to avoid the blast; likewise if you throw a fragger and it bounces into an enemy or object less than five feet away. Downside, possibly, could be that you lose all weapons in the process and have to retrieve them or grab new ones. It would certainly add some flavor to the strategy and tactics line of thought Bungie is striving to drive home with the Halo universe.

WEAPONS OF OPPORTUNITY: barrels, trash cans, crowbars, tire irons, rocks, sticks, tires, downed power lines, a handful of sand to whip into a pair of Grunty eyes. Example: battle rifle is dry, SMGs are dead; what do you do? Grab that crowbar in the corner of the room, or, wrench a section of water pipe free, and impale that pesky Elite right in his throat, through his spinal column, and out the back of his neck. But let's not give anything away for free and figure out a downside, such as... possible instant energy shield depletion, resulting from your own and the Elite's coming together so forcefully, suddenly.

SELECT FIRE SHOTGUN: equipped with foregrip for stability during full-auto. 20 or 30-round drum-fed. Low rate of fire, say, 300-400 rpm. A smart shooter, using good burst control, could waste three or four elites-- or-- a pack of twenty grunts with something like this.

GAS-POWERED GRAPPLING HOOK: one-time use, a range of 200-300 feet, carried in place of a weapon when you know you're gonna be needing it soon. Although, that isn't to say it can't be used as a weapon. Ooohh... I just pictured it. Can you imagine a grappling hook punching through a Grunt?

More ideas later...

I'd say the penalty for the grenade escape lunge, which should also work for moving vehicles, should just be that you have to wait a few seconds before you can move and shoot. You'd be vulnerable for the attacker to pump you full of lead as you were getting up. That's enough of a penalty in my mind.

As for using any objects as weapons, I'd have to say thumbs down. That's too Jackie Chan-style. The Master Chief isn't a street fighter. I think that's too realistic; the game's arcade feel is what makes it unique, and I don't think that should be messed with.

The Shotgun and Grappling Hook sound cool, though. I like those ideas. And you could impale an enemy on your grappling hook and then pull it to you, like the Legend of Zelda hookshot. Just imagine- you look down from a rooftop into a pack of patrolling grunts, stick one through the head, and pull its body up with you. The rest don't know what happened. To them, he just disappeared. Pandemonium ensues :)

The weapons of opportunity would be a bit much... the programming alone for that would hold H3 back until at least '08 or '09. Instead of that, maybe just a little more on the explosive scenery, so more of the environment can have a consequence on those fighting in it.