This. This is probably one of my favorite things about Halo 4. Playing as the Chief, I literally felt like a walking tank. It was awesome.

I wholeheartedly agree with your entire post. Yes, 343i can do some things better next time around. Yes, there were some gimmicky features (Press "B" to Kill Elite, the Ghost run still sort of sticks out to me as just kinda odd).

I have however grown to love most of the weapon sounds. There's a few that do just sound a bit off to me, but most of them sound terrific, I think.

At the end of the day, I consider Halo 4 an immense success. Yes, there's room for improvement, but 343i proved (to me anyway) that they can handle Halo. They've taken a step forward, made it their own. It's no longer Bungie's Halo, and they've shown that. I personally consider that to be a great thing. I've always loved Halo, but I'm excited to see another competent studio take the reigns and show us their vision of the Halo universe, even if it is different than anything Bungie would have intended, or different from what we might have necessarily wanted or expected.

I say, "Congrats, 343i! You've done an excellent job! Now just don't let it go to your head, learn from the mistakes you made in Halo 4, expand on your good ideas, and make Halo 5 amazing."