you can add me to the HL2 camp.
halo was really not all that revolutionary to me for a number of reasons. first of all, take a look at the weapons -- what FPS DOESN'T have the standard weapons you see in halo? you've got your rocket launcher, your full auto rifle, your shotty, your sniper rifle, your pistol...all of the alien weapons were worthless enough that nobody ever used em. they may as well have just been excluded.
as was already mentioned, the level design was pretty repetetive, probably due to the limitations of the x-box hardware. keeping along that line, the best visuals you can get out of your TV are considerably worse than a run of the mill CRT monitor.
16 players in one game was also a big thing if i remember correctly. this was around the same time PC gamers were enjoying 60+ person tribes 2 games, with a greater variety of vehicles to play with at that.
personally, i think Halo is one of the most overrated games of all time, stemming from the fact that it brings gameplay many people are familiar with to the masses that wouldn't touch PC gaming with a ten foot pole for fear of being labelled dorky
that being said, i think Halo 2 actually does have the potential to innovate and be a good game, but i /know/ that HL2 is doing so, just because i follow it a lot more. So we'll see.
