The news of fundamental changes to Capture the Flag in Halo 4 means that many fans may be worried about how the Halo 4 multiplayer will play out. What else can fans expect from the competitive side of the game this November?

Streamlined playlists

343 Industries has spoken in the past about streamlining the playlists in Halo 4's multiplayer modes, evident in the fact that Juggernaut and King of the Hill are streamlined into the Regicide playlist. Halo: Reach suffered as 343 Industries tried to solve the problems Bungie created by adding additional playlists. The result is that over 20 playlists are available, many 'fixed' versions of the original mode, such as Super Slayer and Team Slayer. Active playlist management and responding to user feedback are keys.

Maps

343 Industries said maps are built specifically for each gametype, so it should mean situations like playing Hemorrhage on Team Snipers with 4 players on either team will stretch out games.

Bonus weekend and/or challenges

Bungie constantly added content for regular Halo: Reach players through challenges: four daily goals and a single weekly goal that paid out experience upon completition of objectives like killing a certain amount of grunts to making headshots. The idea was great at first, but challenges repeated as the game moved later into its development cycle. Fortunately 343 Industries is introducing Spartan Ops, its weekly episodic multiplayer mode, and the developer will probably bring back the Super Jackpot Weekend it introduced in Halo: Reach, offering huge amounts of experience for playing in the special weekend event.

Halo: Reach launched with the expectation of past games in the series, but failed to deliver in the eyes of many. Compounded by the fact 343 Industries is a new studio, Halo 4 is launching with slight skepticism, so day one of launch needs to be flawless. Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor said the team is is testing multiplayer internally. Halo 4 releases November 6 on Xbox 360.