Well I did enjoy multiplayer in Halo. Halo 2 was much of the same stuff as Halo 1 which left me with a real “meh” feeling. The single player game was OK. But I don’t care for the weapons, I don’t care for the character design, and the online games seem to be skewed to certain weapons that always dominate. You are right it is a bit more simplistic which also leaves me feeling like there could have been so much more to it. I prefer games that are a little more based in reality. Mainly I like realistic-ish weapons and no aliens.
If Halo were to be launched on the PC only, I don’t think it would have enjoyed the success that it does. I think it was the fact that it was one of the first console games that everyone owned (because there wasn’t much for Xbox at the time) that allowed you to play online. Games like Half-Life 2 (yeah I know it has aliens but the game is fantastic), FEAR, FarCry, Rainbow Six, Call of Duty are much more up my alley.
I will likely rent Halo 3 and make my purchase judgement off of that. I am really looking forward to Crysis on the PC for my next FPS game…speaking of which I need a new video card.