: I'm in your boat as well. Any problems I have with Halo 4 mostly stem from
: it's design philosophy (I hate unnecessary "clutter" on
: multiplayer maps). Other than that I genuinely enjoyed the game. It has a
: much better story than both 3 and Reach, Spartan Ops was cool if a little
: bit repetitive, and I loved the music.

: Lately I've been regularly switching between Reach and 4 multiplayer. If they
: had Invasion in 4 I would have shelved Reach a long time ago. Whenever I
: get fed up with all my stupid teammates quitting and getting spawn killed
: over and over, I go back to 4 with it's wonderful, wonderful
: join-in-progress system. I enjoy tinkering with my loadouts, picking which
: weapon, AA, tactical package and support upgrade work best for me. I've
: never once felt taken advantage of our bested by someone with
: "better" loadouts than me.

: I play COD and other shooters, but Halo is and always has been the reason for
: me to own an Xbox, it didn't really matter to me if 4 had loadouts or not,
: I would have bought and likely enjoyed it either way. The fact that I
: don't play it as much as other Halo games is due to several circumstances.
: First, I was 17 when Halo 3 came out, fresh out of high school with
: nothing to do. Racked up over 6,000 multiplayer games in that period.
: Reach came out when I was 20, working nights with plenty of free time
: during the day. Now 4 comes along, and I have a full time job, a
: girlfriend, and many other responsibilities that take away my free time.
: Plus, I love other video games now, I'm not exclusive to Halo. Considering
: how many amazing video games there are out there, why would I be?

: Is it the best Halo game ever? No, but it's not the inconceivably awful
: atrocity that everyone makes it out to be either. I attribute this mostly
: to growing pains. If Bungie hadn't created such an amazing multiplayer,
: they would have lost me at Halo 3, because I hated the story of that game
: with a fiery passion, and only in the last few years have gotten over it.
: Every game is going to shed old fans and gain new ones. Same thing
: happened with Reach.

: I don't actively step up and defend 343I as much as I may have used to
: because, honestly, arguing on the internet is the dumbest past time
: possible. I'm sure my post will be deconstructed and I'll be told many
: tones why I'm so dead wrong, but I don't care. I like what I like and
: nobody is going to take that from me.

Remarkably similar to my history. Thanks.