No console shooter has a richer, deeper, more revered multiplayer history than Halo. So how does Halo 4’s multiplayer suite live up to the legacy in 343’s hands?

It’s golden.

Halo has evolved, wrapping its multiplayer in an unexpected narrative context – the Spartan-on-Spartan battles are presented as training sessions aboard the UNSC Infinity ship – complete with more of the same visually arresting introductory cutscenes for both the adversarial War Games and the new Spartan Ops co-op mode.

With Halo 4’s immaculate weapon balancing and gun-for-every-situation combat strategies, it needs only a great crop of multiplayer maps in order to qualify for classic status. Fear not, as 343 packs War Games with 10 mostly stellar stages and three additional Forge-built battlegrounds. Exile leads the vehicle-heavy Big-Team Battle complement, Ragnarok shines as a Mantis-showcasing remake of Halo 3’s Valhalla, and Haven is among the series’ all-time finest small and symmetrical levels. Oh, and one of the official Forge constructions, Settler, is a smaller, crazier evolution of the franchise’s most famous map that I absolutely love: Blood Gulch. Halo 4 might not have its instant-classic (a la Halo 2’s Lockout), but this is an impressive collection of outstanding battlegrounds, with a seemingly greater emphasis placed on the large-scale, vehicle-inclusive levels that are Halo’s bread-and-butter.

After soaking in the new game, I am beyond thrilled to be so in love with Halo again, more than I’ve been since Halo 2. Halo 4 is a masterstroke everyone can and should celebrate, and its two guaranteed sequels instantly make the next-generation Xbox a must-own system, with Halo 5 its most anticipated title. Halo has been rebuilt. It has been redefined. And it has been reinvigorated. The Xbox’s original king has returned to it's rightful place on the throne. Enough said.

One pros:

+Microsoft exclusives

+Cable TV pass-through

+More robust voice control

+Quietest hardware of the 3 options

+Better DNLA and multi-media features coming sooner or later

PS4 pros:

+Sony exclusives

+Cheaper console

+Visuals for multiplats should always be >= One versions

+Greater 3rd party peripheral flexibility

+Backward-compatibility road-mapped via cloud services

+DNLA and multi-media features coming sooner or later

PC Pros:

+PC exclusives

+Less expensive lifetime cost

+Infinite backwards compatibility

+Will accept damn near any peripheral that can connect via USB, so your favorite controller/arcade stick/flight stick/racing wheel will always work

+Less expensive games (generally)

+FREE online

+Lots of exceptional Free-2-Play titles including Path of Exile, Dota 2, League of Legends, SMITE, Planetside 2, and Warframe.

+Can also be used for general purposes. It's a computer after all.

+The best visuals for multiplats will always be on PC.

+MODS that enhance gameplay, in-game models, graphics and/or effects are plentiful.

+Custom maps

+Emulators for old consoles

+Real multitasking

+DNLA by default

+Playback of any kind of audio/video format on the planet, provided you have the decoder installed.

+Extensive upgrade paths and options to get an even better gameplay experience out of your games years from now if you so choose.

+Best versions of Titanfall, Watch_Dogs, Dark Souls 2, Thief, The Witcher 3, Minecraft, The Division, Dragon Age, Oddworld, Project Spark, Revengance, Half-Life 3, etc.

+Competition from Steam, Amazon, GoG, GMG, and the Humble Store means low prices for PC versions of games, and fast price reductions.

So it all comes down to whether the exclusives the PS4 or One have appeal to you or not and how much value those offer. The PC offers a fantastic experience and an extremely healthy community, but you won't be able to play Destiny, The Order, Halo 5, Final Fantasy XV, InFamous, Uncharted, Forza 6, GT7 on it.

Most (really all nowadays) multiplats have a PC version that will inevitably run better and prettier than their console counterparts with decent equipment.