: Stale because we've had a Halo FPS released every year since 2009 .

Im not sure that has anything to do with it. If we got a new and fresh game every year, it wouldn't be a problem. The problem, is that the games are not new and fresh and with the skills that we have as players, the game is a walk through the park.

If I may compare it to Vanquish for a minute (can you tell I love Vanquish?). Vanquish has so many different ways and tactics to kill enemies, movement and attack options for you, and the enemies are so diverse and different it's not even funny. I don't know how to explain it. If you've played it, note your time for Challenge map 6. Now watch this and be like whaaaaaaa. No glitches. No shortcuts. JUST PURE SKILL that the game lets you play with. Again, if you haven't played it this may not make sense but if you have, then you're probably saying "Woah, you can do THAT?"

In contrast, Halo 4 has very little you can do when it comes to player motion, attacks, and enemy diversity. How do you best kill elites? Well, either the needler, BR/PP, incineration canon, or scattershot to the face right? How do you best kill the knights? The same way? Whaaaaaaat?! You pretty much just have to headshot every enemy to do things optimally.

This was the perfect opportunity to make it fresh. New weapons, new settings, new enemies, new armor abilities. I really think if 343 had not been so concerned about making it feel 'like Halo' they could have done so much more with what they had. Again, I totally understand their pain since if they changed too much people would complain it wasn't Halo. But it's a balancing act. MGS 2 added tons of stuff that really changed the game, but it still felt like an MGS game. Even games like Metal Slug, in which the basic mechanics have stayed virtually the same, they diversify the experience through unique game design. So yeah, Metal Slug X plays exactly the same as Metal Slug 3, but you don't care because the enemies, levels, and situations are totally different between the two requiring you to learn new things, even if all the controls are the same.