: Right, I agree with you. Halo isn't 'done' by any means, but the original
: author was. So now there is a new author, except that author is a group of
: fans just like us. They have the control to take the story in a direction
: they want (in fact, I think it was Frankie that wanted to delve more
: into the Forerunners IIRC....so maybe in a way Halo 4 is.... Frankie's
: Halo??) and a lot of people here weren't happy with that direction.

: For example, I really liked the story arc for the Chief and Cortana (cheesy
: dialogue aside) but I HATE the Didact arc and the whole "an Ancient
: evil awakens" stuff. So very bland.

I think the problem with the Forerunner parts was that it wasn't even Frankie's Halo or any real Halo that delves into the Forerunner at all. It was all bland and character motivations weren't really explored. Didact was terribly written. Considering what the Greg Bear novels accomplished, there's plenty for the games to get into and look at. They're sitting on a gold mine, and I feel like H4 stood about a mile away from the entrance to that mine.

: If I were the creative director I would have went in the direction of post
: war relations with the Covenant, similar to where the novels (at this
: time) are going or I would have involved the Flood and explored the
: precursor stuff more. Maybe Halo 5 will, IDK.

: But I'm not the creative director.

I think that may have backfired. A lot of people are truly sick of the Covenant and weren't happy at all to have them in this game. I guess that falls into the damned if you do, damned if you don't side of things, you know? Personally I think Halsey and the Dinos were the best part of Spartan Ops, and the Covenant were a much more fun and dynamic enemy than any of the new Promethean enemies.

: For me I hit a stopping point. I know I needed a break. Aside from the LAN I
: threw a couple weeks ago I've been all Halo'd out. The weather is nice
: outside, I've got boring adult responsibility to take care of, I've got
: projects I want to work on (some Halo related even) and Halo 4's MP just
: didn't grab me like past incarnations did. It's not that its a bad game,
: its just not my kind of game and I'm OK with that. When I DO have free
: time to game you'll see me on Halo Wars because I genuinely enjoy it or
: something else because other friends are on and I go where they go.

: I'm still reading the books and coming here because I'm still very much
: interested in Halo but I'm not interested in playing it at this current
: time for the above reasons. There are probably a few others who feel the
: same. I also kinda feel like that Halo 4 is 'done' at this point in its
: life cycle due to the pending release of a new console generation. Wu did
: point out that there are typically lulls in activity between a game being
: out for X long until the announcement of a new game.

: To tell you the truth, I DID have some free time a couple weeks ago and
: decided to play a few levels of Halo 4's campaign again and I enjoyed
: it.I'm fairly confident that if I play it a few more times I'll find more
: things I like about it but in my case I have little to no interest in MP
: if my friends aren't there to join me.

: Maybe 'burned out' is carrying too much of a negative connotation with a few
: here- that's understandable. Maybe I need a rest or a recharge would sound
: better- to me it means the same thing.

I think I reacted strongly against the "burned out" statement because I still really enjoy playing Halo. I'm absolutely just fine hopping onto Reach still, and I've actually been on H4 plenty lately. I plan on playing H4 again in the coming days, probably for hours on end. Granted, I have a particular goal when it comes to my playing, and so far so good. I also feel like when the weapon tuning happens they're going to screw everything up a bunch. I could be wrong, but I've learned not to trust 343 when they try to get something right the first or second time (or as the Reach TA demonstrated).

The weapon tuning could very easily get me away from H4 again. I'm still not all that thrilled with multiplayer right now, and the most fun I have is when I have a party with me (usually a party of four, sometimes five, but the playlists and maps get damn frustrating with larger parties as larger game issues become more apparent). I guess we'll have to wait and see. Like you said, there are plenty of other things to do. I still have BioShock sitting here needing to be played. I really need to get on that. :P