Given how they made Halo 2 look, my expectations are not too high for Halo 5 (except for the CGI part, but that does not count).

Well, to be fair all consoles from the PS3 (Wipeout HD and a few others) to even the Wii U have 1080p 60fps games on them.. even the XB1 has a few, Forza 5 being the most prominent...

The thing it, for games that truly push the envelope on other visual aspects (lighting, physics, etc.) , you should never expect the XB1 to push 1080p, even less 60fps.

Take Wolfenstein, it was pretty close to 1080p most of the time and held 60fps, or CoD it holds 60fps pretty well, but has screen tearing and runs below 1080p... both of these titles have obvious sacrifices in the visual department... and you have nothing like the Uncharted 4 reveal for the PS4 to indicate this is about to improve.

Even the 1080p 30fps titles have relatively simple visuals, compare DriveClub to ForzaHorizon 2, you can give any excuse you want (scope, online servers work, etc.) the point is one of them has ground breaking visuals, simulated clouds, car shadows inside your own car, shadows of mountains affecting lighting during sun set... many more details that push the immersion envelope beyond any other racer.. in DriveClub).. most big PS4 exclusives have something that pushes the limit of anything I have seen before in one way or another, I never got that feeling from multi-platform titles nor the XB1 exclusives, they're all a couple of steps below.

Don't really care about the resolution, a solid 60 fps is all that matters in a fps multiplayer.

But is it me, or did all the spartan abilities look really similar to advance warfare's exo suit ones? Obviously influenced by unreal and crysis, and I'm sure halo 5 will be much more of an arena shooter. Wondering if anyone agrees?

Well it's still one year to fix that, even if they come as it is, it's not a big problem for most of Halo fans, heck even game like The last of us on PS3 is 720p 30 fps and i doubt the next Uncharted 4 to get 1080p 60 fps, but i believe it's more of choice and sacrificing some part while keeping the beautiful graphic with steady frame rates  they have to make a choice.

i think they will either end up at 900 or do what codaw did with the dynamic res but they just need to keep the fps stable

To me it looks more like both Sony and MS are pushing for different mindset. One wants to push immersion through visuals while the other pushes content and gameplay. Gamers choose which approach they like best. I personaly prefer the later as visuals age badly while gameplay doesn't. You DC vs Horizon is a good example.

As for Halo 5, the game is still far from release and imo I'm sure it'll be stellar when it does. But I see it coming, those who crave for graphics will bury this game because it's not 1080p for the beta while those who crave for gameplay will play the beta and help crafting another masterpiece.

Sony and MS aren't singular developing blobs. Both of them have studios trying to do both of those things, and neither currently appears to be focused on any particular direction.

To be honest it's also pretty silly to generalize either under any umbrella right now. We have little idea what either of their 1st parties are actually working on, especially Sony.

But that's the impression I get right now from both companies, but I should've write imo.