Reiterating your statement isn't elaborating. What exactly made Halo's controls so groundbreaking? Is it the left stick for movement, right for camera? Halo didn't invent that. Dedicated melee button? woo. Dedicated grenade button? Not that different than secondary fire buttons we'd seen before. Everything else i'm seeing from Halo's controls (admittedly from a FAQ) are standard fare for PS2 and i'm assuming PS1 games.
The point is that before Halo FPS's on consoles weren't precise enough to have a great experience with them. Controls prior were simple reworkings of mouse/keyboard setups with no other tweaks added to improve playability on twin sticks and triggers. Halo had acceleration, aim assist... all things never used before on a console FPS. Not just controls, but the vehicles, only being able to carry only two weapons, the regenerating shields... and all in one game. Seems like nothing now, but when it hit it was pretty revolutionary and something games today are still copying.
halo 1 was win, if it didn't happen i'm sure there wouldn't be tons of peeps playing call of duty 4 on xbl right now. it was probably the first coop game i've sat down and finished in pretty much one sitting as well.
