This is a Reach account that I created the day they announced his name in a bnet weekly update. Any stats regarding ODST or Halo 3 are irrelevant. Also, Halo CE master race. Halo 1 > other halo games > other games.
Account Status: Silver :(
Well opinions are opinions, but I see some flaws in your thinking. The weapons did not get weaker (just the BR) and Sniper. Hitscan was removed because the weapons were suppose to have disadvantages at certain ranges and hitscan does not allow the BR to be nurfed in long range. Halo 2 is a one gun game. The BR and Sword are the only really effective weapons save the sniper which takes zero skill to use due to massive autoaim. They balanced out the weapons in Halo 3. They made the BR less effective in long range while nurfing the autoaim to all the guns to add more skill. Also, their goal was to increase melee fights and grenades and just make the game more open rather than BR > everything. Halo 2 was a one gun game and a disappointment to many original CE players including myself.
You list two of the most popular halo 2 maps and compare them to two of the least popular. I really like both those maps actually, but Standoff is not nearly as good as Longshore, Avalanche, or Valhalla when it comes to the open large scale maps. Standoff was best in Objective gametypes which Bungie removed. Not to mention they chose not to put a sniper on it besides its massive size. >.<
While I'm not a huge fan of the halo 3 campaign I don't really see your point. Most people lol at the AI of halo 2. Some of this might have to do with your skill level, but neither campaign is difficult. I also think those are probably the two worst campaigns in the series. The storyline in halo 2 is frustrating and terrible while the short side-story only feels shallow. If you want a new and satisfying campaign play ODST. I see that you barely gave it a shot and honestly it's only about 4 and 1/2 hours long and has a much better story than halo 2.
I suppose you prefer Reach to halo 3 since you say it got close to getting it right after you failed at trashing halo 3 by comparing it to halo 2. Reach is a great game, but feels the most like halo 2 compared to the rest in my opinion. I still prefer CE and Halo 3 over all, but Reach is definitely better than Halo 2.
Reach is nothing like CE so I don't really understand what they borrowed from it. Campaign? Multiplayer? Not sure where you got that idea. Reach is it's own beast which is why many long time fans have gripes with it. They added armour abilities which is a pretty big change if you ask me. I just don't understand where you are going with this.
Once again Halo 2 is being promoted by a noob who states opinion as facts and doesn't even care to explain his opinion.
EDIT: I'm tired and will fix the typos later.
[Edited on 05.25.2011 2:27 PM PDT]