To me MGS4 was more of the same. A long boring movie with some mildly entertaining gameplay tossed in between cutscenes. I actually disliked MGS on my Playstation. I thought the control was off, the graphics (good for PS1) were bland, and the never ending babbling was just annoying. The part with the mind controlled controller and reading my memory cards was just stupid. I hate when writers break the 4th wall unless I'm watching a comedy.
I skipped on the XBOX because I was neck deep in my PS2 and Gamecube games (maybe ankle deep in Gamecube games) and never got into Halo. When I got my X360 one of my first games was Halo 3, mostly to see why there was so much hype.
Playing through the campain was a little redundant after awhile, I don't really care for the checkpoint setup, and I just plain suck at FPS so I was getting killed alot. The pace was great though. Then I tried multiplayer and that was it. Halo 3 actually reminded me of the days when I'd stay up until 5am playing Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. The control is perefct for a non-Wii console FPS, the graphics are more than adequate, and the online is extremely addictive.
I since bought Halo and Halo 2, both are excellent games as well. If Halo 3 failed to live up to the hype, it's only because nothing could have. If it had I'm pretty sure everyone else would just stop making games because every person on earth that saw it wold have to get a 360 and a copy of it.
Halo 3 = more influential IMO
