It's not Halo's fault. I'm sure it's a very nice game.  The kind of game that would hold the elevator door open for you so you wouldn't have to wait.  It has all the trappings of a fine game/franchise.  A loyal fan base. A distinctive feel to its game play. A seemingly deep back story (this last one is only an inference as I never bothered looking into it). But the problem is Halo almost perfectly embodies the games I don't like.  It represents the mainstreaming of first person shooters. It allowed the FPS to pervade all platforms.  It made the FPS the most popular genre of game. So popular, that today we have sub genres (cover based shooters, tactical shooters, stealth shooter) of the FPS that seem to be creating their own subgenres.   So yes, I hate Halo.  The thing is, FPS seem boring. I've only played two that actually hooked me, Half-life and quake.  And those two games seemed to fulfill all that I would want from that style.   
 
Part of me wonders if it is the "first person" aspect of the game.  Afterall, I love RPGs, but only marginally enjoyed the elder scrolls.  I liked playing fallout 3, but not as much as Fallout 2 and 1.  Perhaps I need the isometric view to find a game enjoyable.  Could it really be as simple as perspective that keeps me from enjoying the shooters? 
Doubtful, as alien swarm couldn't keep my interest.   But I think the graphics are a large part of my problem.    I think I'm just hyper sensitive to what could only be an environmental uncanny valley. 
  
As graphics improve, we start to realize how much detail IS missing from the game.  How little effect we do have on the environment in the game.  Old school graphics were so blurry that much of the setting had to be filled in mentally.  You were playing a VGA computer game where your mind was pushing things into HD.  FPS exposed the emptiness that the games had and made it more difficult for me to imagine the missing details, exposing the selective logic used when deciding which objects are interactive and which aren't.   Perhaps we are almost at the point where game design and machine power can overcome these graphical limitations.  Maybe Halo:reach will be the signal of this change.   What ever the case, I look forward to seeing what comes next.