Thank you Pahat and Grumpy :) I'm glad you guys liked it. Pahat, I'm not sure if they failed to put their soul into Halo 3. Then again, I believe you are on to something. One thing that always bothered me about Halo 3's single player was how easy it was to find the skulls. Some of them were fairly difficult to find, but it was a far cry from Halo 2's skull hunting experience. As other members have already said, Halo 3 marked the beginning of the end for exploration. Grenade jumping took more effort, physics were toned down and so on. I don't want to get too far into it, as there are several immovable reasons why Halo 3, ODST, and Reach could never live up to Halo 2's experience. But I completely agree with you and other forum goers that something was missing from these games. Do I think it was soul? It's hard to say. Bungie's views will always differ from that of its fans to some degree (as Dr. Syx pointed out). Currently it appears Bungie's idea of a good game includes polishing and perfecting its experience until there are absolutely no bumps or rough edges. This is especially true after Halo 2. In turn, this meant killing every bug, glitch, and exploit found in addition to making its games look more "professional" (funny how this contrasts with their own well established, informal culture). Killing off bugs probably meant removing things like rocket jumping, Banshee jumping, making map BSP behave correctly. Another good example of this polishing is how Bungie encrypted game assets used in Reach's game engine. Did that stop the modding community? No, instead it nearly leveled the modding community. Is that something Bungie wanted to do? I doubt it, or at least I want to doubt it. As it was, the modding community was on its last legs for a variety of reasons, most unrelated to Bungie's actions. In continuance, do I think Bungie killed off tricking because they wanted to? Absolutely not. Tricking was just as much a part of Halo 2 as its sublimely designed multiplayer. I guess this effect can be likened to a child growing up or some BS. It's something I really don't want to over analyze because the only way to get a straight answer is to ask Bungie themselves. Unfortunately, I doubt Bungie would like to make known its reasons for such debated decisions. So where does that leave us? Well it certainly could be worse! Bungie's hosting of this particular forum despite Halo 2's age is evidence of their commitment to its core fans. Speaking of commitment, it was only last night that I realized they still host the records from Halo 2's multiplayer. While I realize this won't be permanent, it serves as a sign of their commitment to fans who have stuck around since that time. Perhaps I'm giving Bungie too much credit, but you can't deny they haven't forgotten about the enthusiasts from their older games (if you can call Halo 2 old). I guess we'll just have to wait for Bungie to release their next project. Especially now that they are out of Microsoft's hands. It should be very interesting to see how they handle the more minute features of their future games (such as easter eggs and tricking). Could their next project be as innovative as Halo 2? I certainly believe so. [Edited on 08.26.2012 8:45 PM PDT]