Silent_Buddha
Legend
Frankly, it's the same for all titles here.
For Halo water, even if they use the same code (nothing has changed), it could still be a regression due to undiscovered bugs, or changed CPU allocation pattern -- assuming people saw a difference.
Then again, unless the player swim and fight in the water, it's not an issue at all.
I think it has more with them going for a more realistic (rather than fanciful) look. Similar to how some people didn't like the change to material shaders on the armor and weapons. They wanted ultra shiny weapons, but Bungie went for a more realistic military application. The same goes for the water.
I found the water more impressive in Reach just due to the fact that it was appropriately designed, colored, animated, etc. depending on the location and source of the water. In New Alexandria you have very calm blue Carribean like waters. In the mission "The Package" you have very rough (highly tesselated), dark, arctic look waters. In a couple of the first missions you had dirty/muddy looking water with high tesslation near the base of a waterfall that calms down significantly as you go down the streams. I'd imagine many people probably aren't impressed by muddy looking water, but I found it highly impressive.
People are probably wanting a more fantasy oriented or fanciful "pretty" water. Something appropriate to the more colorful Halo's of the past, but wouldn't fit in with the more realistic look they were going for with Reach.
And yeah, as someone mentioned throwing a grenade into the water and watching it explode is quite fun.
Regards,
SB