- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Figured I'd add my two cents to the eternal debate; I'll try my best to remain objective.
A lot of people say the AR takes no skill, after all how hard can it be to keep pressure on the trigger while holding the reticle over the general location of the target's center mass? From my experience, its about as hard as holding an aim assisted weapon on the target's head and pulling the trigger four times.
Neither of these weapons are particularly demanding on the user; it is no great feat to score a kill with either weapon. In a 1v1 scenario the winner in a contest of either weapon usually comes down to reaction time, who lands the first shot, and who takes better advantage of the environment.
That said, in a side by side comparison the BR is by far the superior weapon; the AR is almost exclusively a short ranged weapon, the BR can fulfill any role at the very least passably well, and a single shot from a BR will drop an unshielded opponent.
It is my opinion that the BR's reputation as a "pro" weapon is because of it's efficiency. Someone who is good at the game will use it over the AR because it is the better weapon, surpassing the AR even at short range.
Is the BR overpowered? Hard to say, the answer depends entirely upon the intent of the game's design; if the intention is for the BR to be the workhorse weapon of Halo 3, with the other weapons being intended for situation roles, then in my opinion the BR is where it needs to be. If the intention is for the BR to be on an even level with the rest of the Halo 3 arsenal in any given situation, then I would say the BR needs some work.
That said, I believe that the later scenario is very unlikely. The fact is, not all weapons were created equally. Look at real life armed forces; a semi-automatic rifle like the BR is generally the weapon of choice, with other weapons being used in limited numbers for situational roles, kind of like where the Halo 3 metagame currently stands.
In closing, is the AR a weapon that requires no skill? Objectively I'd say it requires about as much skill to kill someone in a situation to which the AR is suited as it does to four shot someone. If you don't like the AR, the MLG gametype is open to you, and I'm pretty sure that every playlist offers BR starts at least some of the time, some all of the time. Is the BR overpowered? I don't think so, I think it performs about as well as a weapon that is suppossed to be reliable in any situation should.