: I think a lot of the stuff included in Halo 4, such as leveling, loadouts,
: Quicktime events and the like, were put in the because hey, that's what
: modern shooters have now, instead of thinking critically and realizing
: that those things suck.

Semi-agree.

Regardless of whether those things suck or not- that is not the point. While the subset in this community derives little enjoyment from them, its proven fact that the unwashed masses do.

What proof you say? CoD sales. I hate using CoD as my example for these arguments, but it really is the best example. That game plays to the lowest common denominator, is easy to pick up, and doesn't require long periods of investment to enjoy. You might argue that past Halo's did/do that too, and you'd be correct- Halo 2 WAS the king for a very long time, and Halo 3 too briefly.

But you can't be king forever. Eventually, someone new comes along.

There is one, defining systemic problem that 343 has that Bungie never did: 343 is Microsoft.

MS may have owned Bunige- but they left them lots of creative control. And why wouldn't they? They were making MS tons of money. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

343 is, for all intents and purposes, in my mind, and extension of Microsoft. Yes, they have talent from other studios etc, but they clearly don't have the same...freedom? creative control? ability to take risks? Not sure what the word I'm looking for there is- but what I'm trying to say is this:

The Halo bus (as it were) has a ton of talent in its seats- but the driver is a bean counter from MS's corporate division.

MS wants Halo to keep making it money. It NEEDS it to help get the XBONE off the ground. You could argue that now is the best time to take a risk- bet big and win big right? I think they don't see it that way, and will play it conservative. Unfortunately that means eyeing more of what everyone else is doing instead of doing their own thing.

It's a very catch-22 and/or circular type argument, but I think that's where they are stuck at.

Just my .02