: I remember: - Legendary not being "Legendary", it was an un-fun
: perversion of what HCE defined legendary as.
: - Buggy graphics in game

I don't remember an "buggy" graphics, save for:

: - Cut scenes and that "pop" that they liked to do

Which was slightly annoying, but I think a decent trade off for no load times between levels.

: - "Hi Earth! Bye Earth!"

Again, didn't bother me. Halo 2's story was fantastic, I'm not bothered that we weren't on Earth for that long.

: - Stupid 3rd party bands

Stupid bands? That was mother-effin' Incubus, arguably one of the best bands of the last couple of decades. I loved their addition, and loved their songs on the official soundtrack, too. Sure, it's not really Halo-sounding, but I think it's good.

: - Stupid AI
: - Boring, uninteresting, bullet sponge Brutes
: - Sniper Alley
: - Weak vehicles
: - Shadow being in the game for 10 min.
: - One gun to rule them all, campaign and MP.
: - Giant plant monster that would have benefited from more explanation in the
: game
: - Boss fight. That was...not very Halo-y to me.
: - Cliff hanger ending

Some of those are good points, granted. Not sure about the stupid AI. It was at least as good as the first Halo's. The weak vehicles were a disappointment for sure.

: MP
: - Rampant standby by other players
: - Boosting
: - Button glitches
: - Super bouncing
: - Backwash being robbed from me

Maybe I was just lucky, but standby wasn't that big of a deal for me. I didn't encounter it more than a few times. Same with BXR. Super bouncing was annoying, but again, didn't affect me much personally. Same with Sword Flying. Plus, both of those were fun.

Also, yes, Backwash was awesome and didn't live long enough.

: All I remember are game magazines throwing 9/10 and 10/10 at it like it was
: perfect, and it was very much NOT. Though, that could be attributed to the
: fact that it had "halo" in the title and people were clamoring
: for a sequel. The same could be said about Halo 4 too. That game was
: getting 9s and 10s everywhere and its not a 9 or 10 game. Perhaps that has
: more to do with game media not really being honest and needing money etc.

I disagree there. While far from perfect, I think both Halo 2 and Halo 4 are completely deserving of those scores. 10 doesn't necessarily mean the perfect game, not for me. It means the game is fun enough that those glitches, graphic hiccups, and quirks can be easily overlooked because the rest of the game is just that good. For me, that's true for both H2 and H4.

: I digress.

: On one hand, Halo 2 seems like the IDEAL candidate for a remake in my mind.
: Fix the bugs, polish the look, and give the campaign a face lift it
: deserves.

: On the other hand, people will only want it for MP because Halo 2 MP is what
: put XBL on the map, but the funny thing is, is that if people actually GOT
: Halo 2 MP, as it was back then, unmolested, they'd get bored with it.

: "Make it faster, I need sprint!" "Where are my armor
: abilities?"

: People never take into account how much progress something can experience
: over time and they let nostalgia cloud memories to the point they only
: remember the good.

While I agree with that being the ending outcome, I know quite a few people who wouldn't agree with this. I have played Halo 2 MP recently, on the original Xbox (with the DUKE, as intended!), and it's still as fun as ever.