wrong site, thats Neogaf

Well, to me it was a different experience than that ;) I loved the fact that most weapons were underpowered, that the Assault Rifle was taken out, which to me was the most abused weapon in the game, and that the pistol was also taken out. Sniper kills with the handgun were too damn silly IMO :P
I didn't enjoy the MP of halo 3 as much as I did on Halo 2, because it was pratically much the same thing, with the addition of the Assault Rifles once again.

The Assualt Rifle in Halo CE was the most well rounded weapon in Halo CE, but yeah the pistol was horribly overpowered. Halo 2's weapons were cheap, the Assualt Rifle is the pistol from Halo CE in disguise, the energy sword has a longer range than the shotgun, the plasma pistol's charged energy shot homes, the lock on for the rocket launcher made vehicles a death trap, the brute shot is a grenade launcher that ricochets and the n00b combo {Plasma pistol + pistol or assault rifle} was cheap.

Halo 3 multiplayer was different because it added new maps, equiptment which added a lot to the strategy, balanced the weapons, new game modes, new abilities, new weapons, and features like theatre and forge add a lot of depth to the game. The multiplayer is far more improved than Halo 2.

I don't own any Halos except for CE but I have borrowed them probably a couple times each so my ratings are as follows:

Halo CE : 8.5/10(Awesome Storyline)
Halo 2: 7.5/10 ( Awesome MP but not as good of Storyline)
Halo 3: 6.5/10 ( For Me It was a pure disaster...The WORST STORYLINE EVER)

Halo Wars: 8/10(Loved it compared to Halo 3)
Halo ODST: 8.5/10 ( Loved It, Was glad it was huge improvement over Halo 3)

Bottom Line: HALO 3 SUCKS BUT HALO ODST AND HALO CE proved Halo was good as a whole...

^^ Halo 3 had the worst storyline and a really bad ending...

You gaved it a a 6.5 out of 10 but you still think Halo 3 sucks? And I thought editors for GameInformer were bad.

Halo 1: 8.5
Halo 2: 8.0
..never played the rest

The assault rifle in Halo 2? You mean the SMG right?. I didn't like the Energy Sword in 2 and don't like it in 3 too, overpowered weapons are not my thing. Well, Halo 3 has it's imbalances as well, in the form of the Spartan Laser, the Spartan sniper gun being way more overpowered than in past halo's and the needler is semi-homing instead of the non-homing version of Halo 2 ;)

It comes down to personal preferences I guess.

I'll only comment on the ones I played. And my scores are based on my opinion regarding Halo as a console shooter. If I compared it to PC shooters the score would be lower.

Halo:CE 9/10 It did a good job bringing a PC shooter to a console (Halo was supposed to be for Mac and PC only) Having one stick to control movement and one stick to control your view brought it as close to having a keyboard and mouse as possible. And it was a blast to play co-op and splitscreen with friends. I would have given it a 10/10, but let's face it...it had pretty crappy level design in single-player

Halo 2 7/10 In my opinion it didn't really bring much new to the table. The story sucked, the weapons were unbalanced...it felt like some new maps for Halo 1. I know this is a little harsh, but when I compare it to other games I've enjoyed and their vastly improved sequels (i.e. Half-Life to Half-Life 2 or Uncharted to Uncharted 2) it feels like they didn't spend anytime improving the mechanics of the game.

Combat Evolved - 9.8/10

Halo 2 - 9.5/10

Halo 3 - 9/10

Wars - 5.5/10

ODST - Haven't played