[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Captain Nimda Or those who just have a preference or better things to spend their money on than a pile of videogames.[/quote]Fair call [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Captain NimdaYou got it. Looking so closely, seems you've recognized the pattern. I never cared for the Call of Duty games Treyarch was involved in, only Infinity Ward. So no Black Ops for me - just personal preference.[/quote]wow ... two-for-two. Only mentioned BLOPs as it was your [i]measuring stick[/i] in a prior point. And the mixture of studios was a great move by Activision (they had to get one eventually) ... as is does mix up the series. Halo suffered as bungie was caught between experimenting and ruining the game - couldnt improve without change and no one liked change ... with COD and 2 studios people expect every alternate release to be different. [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Captain Nimda CoD is very noob friendly and can be a lot of fun, but Halo is just a lot more competitive and harder to be good at.[/quote]Almost three-for-three ... total agreement. I find it the reverse ... Halo is overly balanced. Maps are mirror images, everyone starts out with the same basic weapons (balanced), even weapon pickups are balanced. Its your basic point-and-shoot game. Funny, with the reduced online numbers you get to know the basic openning moves of players. H4 moves that a bit as there is a couple of extra vehicles ... but it is still very easy to predict player moves. The overbalanced state of the game limits the play options which kills the fun a little.