Halo 4 Tips - The DMR VS The BR

The two main mid and long range weapons in Halo 4 are the Designated Marksman Rifle and the Battle Rifle.

One of these weapons was obviously favored by 343 industries in making the game. We ran a series of tests on each weapon to determine which was better.

The old favorite the Battle Rifle was first introduced in Halo 2. The BR quickly became a favorite of Halo players across the world. The gun provided effective firepower at short, medium and long range when in the hands of a skilled user. This single gun arguably propelled the Halo franchise to heights never seen by another game.

The BR made its return in Halo 3 and was equally popular. Major League Gaming had the gun as the default weapon in all of their tournaments. This made the BR the most important video game gun for the competitive gamer ever.

The DMR first came out in Halo Reach. The gun was not widely accepted by Halo players who still favored the BR to a large degree. The BR was taken out of Halo and replaced by the DMR in Halo Reach.

The newest game Halo 4 offers both the DMR and the BR in online gaming. This means you can now choose which gun you prefer.

This article is here to help you make that choice and draw some comparisons. Let us start with the old favorite the Battle Rifle.

The BR fires a three round burst and takes five head shots to kill. The effect is also the same if you fire four head shots and one shot to the body. The gun has a upward bullet spread and therefore it is best to aim slightly below the head to ensure all three rounds are on target. This also ensures that at least one round will strike the head. The BR takes 1.8 seconds to fire five shots and this is it's optimal kill time. The battle rifle still has a great feel to it and is very effective at medium range.

The DMR fires a single bullet with each trigger pull and takes five shots to the head to kill. The same can also be said of firing four shots to the body and one to the head. There is almost no bullet spread even when fired at maximum speed. This means this gun is very accurate. The DMR is king at long range. For novice users the best method is firing body shots first and firing at the head for the kill shot. The gun fires five shots in 1.68 seconds and this is the quicker of the two in kill time.

In conclusion The DMR is a little harder to aim but is clearly the superior gun in firepower. For those who prefer the BR the gun is still great. The BR in the hands of a skilled user at medium range is still the most lethal gun due to ease of aiming. The DMR however is likely to become the new gold standard for Halo players.

Has Halo Changed for Better or for Worse?

As the release date of Halo 4 draws nearer, the players who anxiously await its release begin to question whether or not Halo 4 will live up to its predecessors. Halo 1, 2, and 3 were some of the highest selling games of all time, and for good reason. Halo focuses on equality. Everyone starts the game with the same weapons, movement speed, etc.

When Halo: Reach was released, Bungie decided to change these core values and see how their audience would react. The results were not well accepted. Players found the game to be too slow, and the armor abilities to be almost game-breaking in the manner they were implemented. 343 Industries has seen what its audience does not like, and are attempting to fix where Reach went wrong. For instance, the jetpack no longer keeps its players flying in the air for a very long amount of time. Now, when a player uses the jetpack, he or she can fly almost in a burst, and will fall back before really being able to "hover" like they could in Reach. Another ability was armor lock. 343 is not even going to include armor lock into Halo 4. They feel it to be too slow for Halo 4.

Their reasoning is that if someone were to armor lock, than everyone around that player has to stop and wait for him or her to pop out of it. This caused too much of a halt in the flow of the game, and was removed. Instead, the Hardlight shield has been implemented in Halo 4. The Hardlight shield is similar to armor lock, but the player using it is only protected from the front, and they can move while using it. This fixes the halting of the flow of the game, while giving players a similar opportunity to get that same armor lock feel to the game.

343 Industries insists that in Halo 4, with the introduction to customizable classes, players will not feel that one primary weapon completely dominates all the others. This was the case in Halo 1, where the magnum was the go-to weapon for any player. In Halo 2 and Halo 3, the Battle Rifle was the player's weapon of choice. In Reach, the DMR was similar in power and range that it became the instant starting weapon for the professional circuit. However, in Halo 4, players will get to choose their own primary weapon. There are many to choose from, such as the Battle Rifle, the DMR, and the Light Rifle. 343 feels that these weapons are all balanced with each other, and that the choice made by players on which weapon to choose will be purely on personal preference, and not because one is better than the other.

It will be interesting to see in the coming months if these weapons and perks are truly balanced as 343 Industries claims. Generally, it takes a few weeks before most players find that there is in fact one starting weapon that dominates over the rest, but 343 may have changed that in Halo 4.