Halo 3 Beta Thoughts

Just some things I noticed when playing the Beta.

• The laser is great, just don't use it when in close combat. You'll probably miss and die.
• The bubble shield is great, but it's pretty risky when trying it in close combat. You usually drop the shield on your corpse.
• Running into a bubble shield and dropping a grenade will either damage them if they stay in, or depending on the grenade type, it may blow up the shield.
• The trip mine is nice...but apparently it takes several seconds to arm once you drop it. So don't drop it in front of a charging warthog and expect to see it go off.
• The grav lift comes in handy in the oddest situations. I've used it to jump high so when I come into someone's view I'm higher than they expect. This gives me 2-3 extra shots before they can start hitting me back.
• The warthog chaingun seems a lot more powerful.
• Just how many plasma grenades does it take to take down a warthog nowadays?!?
• The banshee seems to have stronger plasma shots too.
• The brute shot seems to have a larger magazine size (wasn't it 4 previously? it's now 6), and the damage seems to greater.
• A good weapon combo is the brute shot for in close fights, and the battle rifle for mid-range fights (also great for cleaning up unfinished brute shot victims).
• Few things are as satisfying as sniping/lasering someone from the man-cannon.
• Here's a great combo: battle rifle, sniper rifle, bubble shield. If you can't kill them with the sniper, finish them with the BR. And if you get winged, drop the shield to buy some time.
• Can anybody tell the difference in damage between the Spikers and the SMGs? I remember in Halo 2, the Plasma Rifle was supposed to be better at dropping shields, and the SMG was supposed to be better at damage. So the SMG/Plasma Rifle combo was supposed to be pretty good. What about now?