: My impression is exactly the opposite - in my mind the majority (if not all)
: the people who have said they disliked the game have taken the time to say
: why they disliked it.

: It's been out for ~20 months so people can be forgiven if they don't cut and
: paste their reasons for disliking Halo 4 in every post that mentions their
: disappointment. We can always look at their back catalogue of posts to see
: their reasons.

: It is impossible to review or discuss the game without mentioning that there
: were changes and that they were generally ill conceived. That given: the
: fact that someone comments negatively on the changes does not mean that we
: should dismiss their dislike as merely a dislike of change.

: Trying to frame the issue as a simple fear of change strikes me as a form of
: denial, as a way to tell yourself that things are OK, that nothing is
: really wrong. It minimizes the impact of what people are saying. See no
: evil, hear no evil.

How much of this is Halo fatigue? I out and out hated Reach, as did my friends. So I didn't really have high hopes for H4. It came out, I played it, played through campaign once or twice, and played MP til I hit level 50.

Picked it up again about a month ago after a long hiatus, and was surprised to find how much I enjoyed it - both campaign and MP. I recognize some of the warts - the relative randomness of ordinance can really suck when the other guys get the good stuff. The banshee still seems a bit overpowered. Weapons not re-spawning is a bit...different.

But honestly, it feels like Halo. I feel as well that 343 can't win - it was Bungie that introduced armor abilities and customization and load-outs (I can't quite remember how the start worked in Reach). I mean, if 343 had introduced the Elite roll the internets would have vaporized itself. IMO, Bungie took Halo down a different path, and 343 took it a few steps further. And how ridiculously overpowered were vehicles in Reach?

Is there room for improvement? Oh, yes. Maps are where I hope for the most. But, if (for example), load-outs and ordinance were removed, and weapon spawns restored...wouldn't we be right back where people feel comfortable?

Would it matter? Have people just played too much Halo over the last 10 years? I'm just missing what makes people so hate H4, but then again, I could never understand how anyone could stand playing Reach.