Have you ever fired a real gun, of decent caliber? That, my friend, sounds so much cooler than even the Halo 2 shotgun (which has one of the coolest sounds of all the Halo weapons). Battlefield 2 is not enough to make an accurate assessment.

And a great gun with a lame sound only sounds intimidating once it has a reputation built up. And there are always n00bs who don't know better.

However, I think we can all agree that the Halo 2/3 plasma rifle sound effect is quite a piece of work...that statement being associated with a negative connotation.