I still disagree with how Yahtzee received the Halo franchise as a whole (particularly in his Halo 3 review). He boldfacedly admitted that he hadn't played the first two games and then complained about the story. For me, the best part about those games was the story. It managed to grab hold of me as I fought on to ensure the very survival of the species and indeed every species in the galaxy. He also complained that everything it did had been done before, but then it is worth remember that this is a sequel to a game the completely redefined a genre.
I suppose you are perfectly within your rights to complain how so many games have tried to ape it, but many people have tried to ape Yahtzee too, and while none of them has been as good as Yahtzee, I certainly don't blame Yahtzee for it.
Halo 2 and Halo 3 were absolutely necessary to the plot line of Halo: Combat Evolved. In Halo 2, they expanded on the concept by introducing the struggle within the Covenant that invoked an underlying perspective on racism. The Covenant's religion also neatly mirrored the conflict we find ourselves in in today's society wherein we are fighting people who have such devotion to their set of beliefs that they will kill themselves and all others around them to make their point.
I won't even try to hold up the multiplayer since I find myself in a similar position of not being able to effectively play multiplayer due to connection problems. For me it is just poor rural infrastructure and for Yahtzee it is because he lives on an isolated continent with the nearest English speaking country being across the world's largest ocean. I understand why he doesn't like multiplayer.
For what it's worth, when I did get a few friends in the room with a console, I found Halo 3's multiplayer ideal for an all-night Mountain Dew fuel jamboree. I loved the "zombie mod" and how the physics parameters of the game could be manipulated to turn what would otherwise be a boring game of tag into a crazy slaughterfest in which I had energy sword wielding zombies screaming towards me at 300% speed with the gravity for them turned way down, but with the inability to survive anything more serious than a spitball.
I got the idea that Yahtzee somewhat regretted his opinion of the Halo franchise around the time Reach came out and his criticisms seemed much more reasonable, but for me, this is still a black mark on his otherwise stellar record.
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