many of the weapons were heavily altered from their old forms
Which weapons were heavily altered? The carbine, battle rifle, SMG, shotgun, sniper rifle, brute shot, plasma rifle, fuel rod gun and plasma sword all behave more or less as they did in Halo 2.
Looking at the major changes that were made, the needler is now a double handed weapon, but this is just a return to how the gun was in Halo 1 (only in this incarnation it's actually
useful). The rocket launcher doesn't home any more, but again this is just a return to how things were in Halo 1, where you actually needed a modicum of skill to take out vehicles. And the missile pod now provides this functionality anyway (albeit in a more balanced form).
What else? Well, the AR is back in a new form, but I can hardly see why you would complain about the fact that it can actually function as a mid-range weapon now, having decent accuracy and power. Oh, and the pistol has been changed, but again, only to give it the power that it had in Halo 1.
So the changes that have been made are in general pretty minor and only serve to redress some of the imbalances created by Halo 2.
or the new ones had little to differentiate themselves utility wise from the old.
You don't think being able to carry turrets is useful? Or having a long range insta-hit anti vehicle weapon? Or being able to deal significant amounts of splash damage with a
melee weapon?
The two new grenades? One is pointless (the spike) and the other is of limited use and a rare find for much of the game.
Both of these grenades are extremely useful for taking out the flood, especially the ranged combat forms (which otherwise cause you to deplete huge amounts of ammo).
I do like the equipment, but only a few of the items are actually very useful. Once again, as in 2, there is an utterly useless vehicle in the Brute chopper.
I would agree about the equipment, which I think is more geared to the multiplayer side of the game.
But I don't understand how you can say the chopper is useless. It has a lower profile than the warthog so is harder to hit, and it's main weapon is very powerful against vehicles and has a huge range. You can just sit back and destroy anything that tries to come towards you, without taking any damage yourself.
On the other hand using the warthog or prowler (at higher difficulties, anyway) requires you continually run in and out of enemy fire, spending just enough time for your gunner to take out some of the enemies, without getting overwhelmed - and then retreating for for your shields to recharge. This happens 5, 6 7 times before an encounter is completed, and if you mess up once - that's it. Oh, yes and you often have to deal with a barrage of fuel rod fire as well, *hoping* that your gunner manages to take out the offending enemy before a stray blast blows you to pieces.
That's why I've found using the chopper to be much more straightforward.
The one interesting point about playing the arbiter disappeared with the loss of his cloaking ability.
Well you never actually play as the Arbiter in the single player campaign.
The ending race was a poor copy of the first game and the parts which often made the first game so enjoyable, Cortana and her sense of humor and sarcasm, were missing until what? The next to last level? Bungie left something here. I seem to lack all the words to describe what is missing, but something critical is gone. Unpolished, Length, Failure to Fix previous problems (missing Cortana.)
But the payoff of finding Cortana and your concern for her up until that point, and the mystery of the secret she held, was a big part of what made the story compelling, and gave it its tone. It seems that you want everything - a great story, that keeps everything as it was, weapons that are unaltered, but somehow make a better arsenal, and super high fidelity content that's delivered in (comparatively) huge quantities. But it doesn't work that way - in the real world sacrifices have to be made.
In cutting out 90% of the filler of Halo 1 and Halo 2, Bungie ended up with a shorter experience. In trying to give the story some emotional resonance, certain character changes had to be made. Now maybe you don't think Bungie made the right tradeoffs, but at the very least be prepared to accept them as tradeoffs.
And be prepared to accept that your claims are highly subjective. What is 'missing' for you might not be missing for other people.