I understand that the Halo series has penetrated a broader market but MGS4 is much better for those who do their research.

MGS4 is the best game this gen.
Halo3 has the most epic online this gen.

But, imo... MGS4 > Anything this gen, or last.

How would you judge that?

Both games have serious detractors, people know all about the MGS4 = movie comments for example.

Halo 3 has its place in the history books as the fastest or one of the fastest selling games of all times.

Halo 3 sold more, therefore more people would play/remember the game.

I also don't see many studios rushing out to try and copy MGS4 for whatever reason, but Halo 1/2/3 influence other FPS games even today, you don't ignore the 10M seller in the genre do you?

For those reasons it has to go Halo 3 for most influential.

Greatest? Well it depends, what do you call great? Critical darling 10 years from now? Industry impact? It depends on your perpective.

Halo MADE the Xbox console, and Halo 3 is the highest selling Xbox brand exclusive EVER at 9.4 Million & counting, and Halo 3 has gotten 3 map packs, 1 bonus map for free and Halo 3 ODST as an expansion to the game, plus Halo 3 has forge (level editor) saved films, and game to web integration, and Millions play the game each and every week online, o and don't forget 4-player co-op campaign!......I would say Halo.

I love statements like this that basically say, "Lots of people love Halo, but smarter people prefer <insert less popular game here>."

Except for the fact that Halo offers far more replayability due to it's multiplayer, and better overall value due to continually added content.

Perhaps a better statement would be "but MGS4 is much better for those who prefer movies to video games."

from a business point of view, companies will try and recreate the halo experience just for the $.

although i still think all of the halo games were cheesy garbage, they offered nothing new, just did a good job of making a FPS

mgs on the other hand has always been one of a kind. and i loved it for that, but not everyone did

in my books MGS4 > halo 3 by far, like a light year

The reason that MGS4 does not have a host of studios trying to copy it is simply because they can't.

Have to disagree with this statement, and I notice from a lot of MGS fans when they say "if you don't think MGS series is the best, you are a fanboy."

Don't get me wrong, MGS series is an excellent series, I definitely think it is not the greatest series out there, and think many trump it imo of course.

That said, it's really hard to say.  In terms of greatest games, MGS4 is probably the best for it's system arguably, while Halo 3 many say is surpassed by Gears of War (although I have to disagree).

In terms of reviews, their tied (in terms of both Metacritic and Gamerankings), in terms of sales, Halo 3 wins,although there are more 360 owners out there, but I calculated, according to this site, about 31% of 360 users own Halo 3 while around 17% of the PS3 install base own MGS4, so you could say Halo 3 is the games that has a more dedicated fanbase.

Personally, I found Halo 3 to be better, but MGS4 is still an awesome game :D.

FORGE ROCKS! Seriously, I'd list Halo 3 as the best game of that year just for the forge option. Seiously, how can anyone think that Halo 3 is a dissapointment compared to Halo 2 when it had FORGE! Seriously, forge is brilliant. I got Halo 3 because I heard it was good, but'm still playing it today only because of the awesome maps that I make and play with my friends. Infection on forged maps rocks! Capture the flag on forged maps rock! Pretty much everything played on good forged maps rocks XD

Halo 3 made me go back and buy (but not play) Halo 1 and Halo 2. I was thoroughly impressed. Still, Halo fans said that it was a disappointment for them. It's still huge on XBL, though.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is the follow up to my favorite game series ever (MGS3 > ALL), but if I said I wasn't let down, I'd be lying. This was the single reason for my PS3 purchase.

I guess both games have their pros and cons, but I'm a little more of a Metal Gear fan. I've been playing the series for twenty years!! Will Halo be around that long?