Lets get the facts straight first - T:V, regardless of what you may think about it, is far superior to ANY console FPS. If you want to argue with that, then you're a sadly misguided fool who needs a beating...
Second - I hated Halo with a passion. Unfortunately living on a college campus that denied me access to playing games over the internet, I was forced to look to the people around me to play MP FPS. That meant Halo. So I got rather good at it just to enjoy the social aspect of it - it was competitive for sure!
Third - My roomies this year (off campus finally so I do play T:V a lot!) bought Halo 2 and gave me the free 2-month Live subscription. The MP of Halo 2 is vastly superior to any other console FPS - including the original Halo (not many will argue with this - except the pistol-lovers who can go eff themselves - since when could you zoom with a pistol and get 3 auto-aimed headshots on a person on the other side of the map? lame...). Halo 2 has a GREAT matchmaking system. Those who don't know how to use it hate it so don't listen to them. If you figure it out - it's beautiful! Read the manual - it helps. Online play is rarely choppy/laggy (but it can be occassionally) and a hella fun! The voice communication stuff is sweet because you can hear your enemies talking as you get closer to them. It's proximity based. It's pretty funny when you're playing some guys all on the same box, so they don't need to use their headsets for anything other than talking to us pre and post game, yet they leave their mics on during the game so when I get close to them I can hear their plans... dumbasses... But the voice stuff adds a lot to gameplay when playing with peeps not at your physical location!
Fourth - with a player base of 259,093 (currently online - 32,299) - and NO CHEATS - ... all I have to say is T:V looks pretty pitiful compared to this.
Fifth - yes the gameplay is slow. yes it's hard to aim with a controller. but I have a solution that helps me kick ass and speed the game up.
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=82&products_id=5438
Bring it.
Sixth - Stats stats stats stats x 1,000,000. The sheer number of stats that are recorded for your profile online for everyone to see is just amazing. Not even UTs stat tracking stuff comes close to this! Don't believe me? Go here:
http://www.bungie.net/stats/
Click on someone's name. Look at everything!
Want to see even more unbelievably insane stats? Sign in with a MicroShaft Passport (I know - I hate it too) and click into a game that's been played and click "Game Viewer". It shows you an overhead map (initially, tons of angles and zoom options are given below the map) with locations of kills, what weapon what used to make the kill, plus routes of game items (so the route a capper took to get the flag out, plus all of the kills that happened during that route). This stuff is insane. In addition to player stats, there are CLAN stats. It really does just keep going and going...
What number am I on? - Halo 2 is now the great equalizer. Performance varies only with connection speed. You get good at Halo 2 - you will be 'good' in the eyes of everyone out there as EVERYONE plays it. You tell someone, "I kick ass in T:V and it's more difficult than Halo 2", while true, if you can't beat them in Halo 2, you're a pansy...
100th - I hated Halo and vowed that I wouldn't play Halo 2 for more than 10 minutes when it came out. Then I saw I could use a KB and Mouse. Then I played the freaking game. Adios life...
Kitrik