Help!

I am trying to figure out what you guys see in Halo.  Having not played Halo except once a couple years ago I had no clue what was going on tonight. 

I thought Halo was a run 'n gun fps.  It is SLOW.  GRAW and R6 have a much faster pace and I think those are slow.  I was expecting fast paced action like ut especially after seeing some of the videos on youtube.
How do the menus work?  Can I just start a game with a friend to learn the controls?
Why do the graphics look like ut2k4 on a pc from two years ago?
I do like that it stores the replays and it seems you can share them.  However, while watching my replay I didn't see anyway to switch to another player or fast forward.  It's rather boring watching me suck.

Nothing about the game I played stood out as interesting.  Nothing stood out as it being a different fps than any other console fps.  It seemed like an old school pc fps.  Actually, it seemed like a slow ut2k4.  It has the vehicles, it has the jump platforms, it is ut but slower.  Even the weapons are eerily similar to ut and half life.  The map I played in, if there are other maps, is small.  I hate the small maps in ut.  As soon as you spawn you die. 

As it stands Halo is not a buy for me.  I hope in September I don't end up being lonely.

I wish there was a way to start the beta without starting crackdown.  After the update crackdown loads so slow.  Why couldn't it just require the disc to be in the drive?
I am going to switch the controls to the boxer layout.  I think that might make more sense for me.