Yes, I do remember it. It had potential, but it was put together pretty crappily. Gears of War pulled off the whole take cover/shoot mechanics perfectly, while Killswitch was just sloppy and choppy.
Printable View
I've been dominated by a sniper many times in Halo 2, definitely, but I don't think what you said is really accurate. With a little bit of teamwork, or even some luck, it's not at all hard to get up close to someone who had those combinations and quickly take them out with a plasma pistol/battle rifle, pp/smg, sword, or even plasma rifle/smg. Or grenades. There really is no weapon combination that makes you undefeatable, unless you're playing something like juggernaut, in which case a shotgun or a rocket launcher can be amazingly effective. Of course, if you're simply playing someone way better than you (which happened to me quite a lot :p) you can certainly be rendered virtually useless by a weapon such as a sniper rifle. But that's more a testament to the player's skill than the weapon's power.
I would say that the sniper rifle in Gears of War is actually more dangerous. With an active reload, you can down somebody with one hit to the body, and obviously kill them with a headshot. There aren't any other weapons in Gears that can compete with the Longshot's range. The only thing that comes close is the torque bow.
True, but the Longshot doesn't have a crapload of ammo, and it can't shoot four times before it needs to reload like the Halo Sniper Rifle. And it's pretty much the same with the Halo Sniper Rifle. Two shots to the body and you're down. Not to mention due to the long reload time (even if you get an active reload), you can get closer to your foe while they reload, and take cover again. Also, unlike the Halo 2 Sniper Rifle, the Longshot is a piece of trash at short range, due to the different vision perspective and the good counters to it (such as the Gnasher and Lancer chainsaw).
On another note, I always get TO'd because I can never seem to find the Torque Bow on the map anywhere.
Halo 2 is way older. I enjoyed Gears of War because it was the first next-gen game I really got into. I'll compare the two when Halo 3 comes out. Right now though, speaking after I've patched, I'm thinking Halo 2 might even beat it. Seriously, you get paired with a random team. It's a tactical game, and no one can use any tactics because they don't know who they're playing with. That really irks me.