Hopeless Bastard said:
... Using autoaim, limited inventory, and regenerating health to cover up the crippling limitations of thumbstick controls isn't a revolution. Its a dumbing down. A Devolution.
Halo started the trend of "accessibility" over all other concerns, a concept that is killing gaming one day at a time.
What game were you playing? Halo: CE didn't have autoaim (No idea where that came from...) and while it had regenerating shields (which fit), your health didn't regenerate, you still needed to find health kits.
As for the limited inventory, I would like to point out how damn difficult it is to switch between a dozen weapons while playing on the console. It may be easy on the PC, but it isn't on consoles.
And you seemed to forget the introduction of vehicles, a large mutliplayer mode that surpassed those before it, and its kick-ass single player mode with Co-op.
As for your Devolution comment, you do know that every shooter for the past... what, 8 years has followed that trend, with the exception of the Valve games, but then, they've always been ones for taking the path less traveled.