: The pseudo-ADS fortunately is no different mechanically from how aiming has
: always been in Halo (no movement penalty, no accuracy penalty for hip
: fire), but it still looks out of place in Halo, plus it's being applied to
: all weapons, including the AR, which was never intended to be a mid-range
: weapon and thus never needed a scope.

This isn't really true. ADS is sort of a mitigation tool for thumbsticks. You either have a lot of auto aim like Halo traditionally, or you allow the player to aim down sights which decreases sensitivity and increases precision as a result, allowing for decreased auto aim. Not needed with a mouse, but helpful with sticks. This is a positive I think, because now instead of lots of magnetism, you can replace that with ADS and still require aiming precision. It's better than the alternative I feel. Unless you are running around with a 1 sensitivity, there is an effective accuracy penalty when you don't aim down sights because of the higher sensitivity and minimal auto aim, at least in a properly designed console FPS game with ADS.

: As most of you probably know by now, I'm not big on change for change's sake.
: Halo 5 really isn't innovative at all, but rather imitative, but still,
: there's some pretty fundamental changes here to the core gameplay, not to
: mention to the very essence, atmosphere, and attitude of Halo. If 343i was
: fearful of the series stagnating and wanted to chance things to keep it
: fresh, they're going about it the wrong way. I've made my thoughts on this
: matter clear before, but to reiterate, if you're going to try have combat
: evolve again, why not focus on things like level design in Campaign, AI
: and encounter design, and pushing the boundaries of what Forge is capable
: of as a map editor? Halo 5 just seems like it's trying to be more like
: everyone else, but that's not keeping things fresh. That's just
: exacerbating the trend of greater homogenization within game genres. It
: seems like there's less diversity than ever in FPSs, or at least those
: with a heavy focus on multiplayer.

You're very smart and perceptive. The problem is 100% the focus on multiplayer. I feel like in the long run competitive (but NOT co-operative) Multiplayer is a dead end, and I get the sense you recognize that too.

: and now Halo 5 is looking to be the biggest departure from classic Halo to date.

This is where I'd not worry on principle. Halo was a product of its time, and of what the technology was capable of at that time. Both have changed, so 343 should be moving on and shedding the old, not trying to recapture it. I have had way more fun in the Crucible than I ever could with MCC, even if Matchmaking were fixed.