Halo was a standout because of it brought multiplayer to console, wasn't it the first console game to have 16 players? The coop campaign was also really fun.
Maybe the article-writer thinks that Halo made FPS too mainstream? Unlike Doom/Quake, it was cleaned up enough in a pretty blockbuster-wrapper to make it the new model of gaming to follow?
In 1996, my wife would call my pager Tuesday night because I hadn't come home from the office. We were playing Quake over the Novell on our CAD workstations. It's easier now, but there hasn't been a quantum change.
Tangentially, have you seen bombermine? It's an online bomberman clone that generally has several hundred people playing simultaneously, a ton of fun. Obviously not a console game, but your Saturn Bomberman reference made me think of it.
Maybe the article-writer thinks that Halo made FPS too mainstream? Unlike Doom/Quake, it was cleaned up enough in a pretty blockbuster-wrapper to make it the new model of gaming to follow?