The article does make some interesting arguments about the changes, here are some excerpts:

That hard drive was particularly important. Players could save progress without purchasing memory cards, while games could use the storage for caching data and reducing loading times. Owners could even rip music CDs to the machine and listen to their own soundtracks in supported games. The built-in Ethernet port was another forward-looking decision, even if Microsoft's online service was still some way off.

First-person shooters had already enjoyed tremendous success on consoles, particularly with GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64, but Halo helped establish a new standard for the genre. While it wasn't the first console shooter to use two analogue sticks, its intuitive approach to movement and aiming, with the left stick controlling movement and the right controlling the camera, helped establish the control scheme that would become standard across the industry. Combined with recharging shields and carefully structured combat encounters, Halo would influence first-person shooters for years afterward.