Seriously, though, the only times I have posted on here since Reach were annoyingly long, tedious complaints about Halo 4, so I'm not going to repeat myself. Halo 4 had good visuals; bad, poorly explained writing filled with boring/unlikable characters; weak level design; predictably less inspiring music; and a sandbox that got worse in most areas. They took out good weapons and added bad ones. The new enemies were more annoying than fun to fight, and lacked personality or variation, and even the classic ones were less interesting in comparison to previous games. I'm not going to justify all this, because I've already spent too much time on it in the past, but you could probably search for those posts if you really want.

It's easy to dismiss this as just a dislike of change, but aside from Halo, i've been playing FPS games for a long time, and there are many that I like more than H4. I am willing to accept change, but not if it's a bad change, or one I don't like. More power to 343 if they can continue to make Halo games that sell. But I probably won't be playing them. The only real difference between this game, and all the other games that I haven't felt interested in is that this one happens to belong to a franchise I really like, so it gets personal. Understand, these aren't crimes on par with George Lucas, or anything like that, but it's enough that I have no interest in purchasing a new XBOX just to play the next Halo game.

: First off, let me say that I've been a long time lurker here, since 2002 or
: so, but have only posted a dozen times, if that. I used to check here
: everyday, but with real life and Destiny ramping up this past year, I've
: checked in less and less often.

: Second, when Halo 4 came out, I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the
: attention to detail, the faithfulness to the tone and style of Halo
: (despite the inexplicable visual retcons, like FoD and armor), the music
: (it'll never beat Marty's though), the gameplay, the visuals (the
: skyboxes, THE SKYBOXES!!), the story, and the way they tied in a bunch of
: satellite lore -- like Halsey, rampancy, civilians, Kilo-5, Librarian,
: etc. -- to the main story arc, not to mention Spartan Ops.

: Third, there was definitely room for improvement. Newbies to the lore would
: probably be lost once the Librarian showed up, the Didact's turn to evil
: seems out of character and overly malicious (although I have yet to read
: Silentium), the aforementioned visual retcons, the weapon design was
: repetitive and uninspired, and other more nitpicky things (why was Lasky
: on the ground when Infinity crashed; isn't he the XO?).

: I know that was long-winded, but here's the part where you come in. I dropped
: by the forum to see HBO's feedback concerning Halo at E3, and I noticed a
: surprising number of comments saying how 343i had botched Halo 4, how it
: was lackluster, even bad, game, and how it cast doubt on 343i's future
: endeavors. What I want to know is why you think that. HBO has a reputation
: for a discerning eye and cutting opinions, so I'd like to hear why you
: guys think Halo 4 sucked (or why it was awesome, if you are so inclined).