When death is of no consequence, there is no challenge. (Destiny)

by Claude Errera , Tuesday, August 12, 2014, 18:58 (3564 days ago) @ Joe Duplessie (SNIPE 316)

Largely because it was a good game with matchmaking features that were head and shoulders above the competition. Halo 2 and 3 were absolutely stand-out for their time. By the time Reach came, other games had caught up and began exploring other elements as well.

Doubt this one very much. Four years later, and there still aren't any other console games to match Reach's featureset. I've seen theater mode in a few places, but nothing compares to Reach.

Wait, what? You argued that when Halo multiplayer had fair starts, it was that feature that drew people to it. RC countered with a comment about how its matchmaking features went from top-flight to middle-of-the-pack... and you come back with theater mode? What does that have to do with fair starts (or matchmaking at all)?

(For what it's worth, on this point I think he's 100% right; Halo 2 was the phenomenon it was in part because there was nothing else out there that did what it did. I'm a pretty good example of someone who continued to play it in SPITE of how unfriendly it was to people of my skill level... because nothing else was even close. By the time Reach (and Halo 4) came around, there were plenty of alternatives.)