One of my favorite levels in the entire halo franchise is "The Silent Cartographer" from Halo CE. Why? The beach at the very start of the level, where the chief and the soldiers storm the beach fighting what feels like an entire army of covenant. Thinking back, I find I really enjoy the Normandy mission in Call of Duty 2 as well.

This is the kind of fighting I thought could work really well in something like halo, but I don't think I've seen it since. Do you guys think Halo Reach could possibly benefit from that type of battle sequence? I know there will be more characters on screen and all but do you like that idea? What about something like MAG but in the halo universe?

tl;dr Halo + MAG + "Beaches of Normandy like missions" = Good?

Yes or No?    

Isn't Silent Cartographer everyone's favorite Halo mission?
 
Also, I think Halo 3 pushed some of these buttons, especially near the end with the dual Scarab battle.

yes. i love intense battles. 

It'd be so win. I absolutely love the feeling of epic-ness that some games give. It's not really the same feeling, but sometimes Company of Heroes does similar things. We had 3 tanks, and there was one bridge funneling all of their entire army (40 tanks, infinate infantry as they kept remaking them) into ours. We held out against like 30-40 tanks until finally we managed to set up a base, it took about 2 hours but we managed to pull back and win that game. Afterwards it just felt so damn epic.
 
First person shooters with a few people holding off thousands of enemies. Yes please.

" First person shooters with a few people holding off thousands of enemies. Yes please. "

Some of the battles in COD2 were pretty epic, everything from taking and defending Normandy to taking and also defending that hill towards the end

More AI. Halo's adverserial AI has been top-grade from day  1 but I don't think they''ve seen their true potential. Like 30 dudes in one scenario, working with each other can be amazing.

i like my battle big bloody and lasting for hours with hundreds of guys shooting and firing guns with grenades going off every where and bombs are dropping from the sky.

"Some of the battles in COD2 were pretty epic, everything from taking and defending Normandy to taking and also defending that hill towards the end "

More so than a Halo game can do, is the first obvious way I like my battles. Minus the word epic, its terrible.

To me epic has more to do with feel than numbers. You don't need a crazy number of guys on screen to get the feel of an epic battle. Regardless of how many guys you have screen, if you don't have the feel right then you are left with nothing. Too few and no feel feels unimpressive. A lot of guys on screen with no feel is just chaos. So I guess to answer your question, I am looking forward to bigger battles in Reach provided they get the feel right.

" Isn't Silent Cartographer everyone's favorite Halo mission?  Also, I think Halo 3 pushed some of these buttons, especially near the end with the dual Scarab battle. "

The assualt on Stalingrad on CoD1 was a good one, also Omaha Beach in MoHaa.
 
Also... almost every set piece from

some battles in halo were pretty epic, if you replaced all the sounds. i dont know how anything could be epic if you are being shot at by carbines and needlers, which sound like toy guns 
 
battlefield games get the sound right. i like my epic battles with me running through trenches, deafening explosions everywhere, and loud gunfire. 

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

yes, the big open battles are the best part of halo games.  My favorite parts in halo 3 were when you had to fight the scarabs.

Dude, hell yes!

Not too epic, actually.

As epic as humanly possible.

I do enjoy a good portion of the epic sauce.

I love the silent cartographer.  Big open battles with lots of enemies is when Halo shines imo

I want all my battles to be incredibly dull and boring.

I think they can have 3x as much characters / vehicles in one screen then Halo 3 did. So battles should be good. 

silent cartographer was awesome, i love epic battles on foot as infantry
i also love vehicle battles, but there were too many in halo 3

The Silent Cartographer started so good but when you activate it and have to get out, that was so tedious.

I approve! But obviously it is more demanding on the developer. It definitely pays off though, the Normandy Scene in CoD2 is the most memorable scene in the game.
Halo has always been good with this though. Being stormed by Flood or using vehicles makes Halo stand apart from regular hallway shooting.

" silent cartographer was awesome, i love epic battles on foot as infantry i also love vehicle battles, but there were too many in halo 3 "

EPIC.