You don't have to defend Halo from every modicum of scrutiny.Edge's review on Halo 4 mp was very clueless and laughable because they intentionally ignore the fact that shooters before COD had customizable loadouts and various other features.What COD did do is make those features become very popular as its a franchise that sells a ton of copie's.Also, weapon balance is perhaps the best out of all the Halo's so far and found it a little puzzling why the reviewer would think otherwise.
Yeah, loadouts existed before Call of Duty, but you're being obtuse if you think Halo 4's loadout system (among other things) were not inspired directly by Call of Duty.