Here’s something you don’t hear every day — Halo 3’s Lead AI Programmer Damian Isla, while talking to gi.biz about the very close numbers that their game shares with Call of Duty 4 on Xbox LIVE, gave Infinity Ward some props for what they’ve done with their shooter gone modern. Isla singled out CoD4’s single-player experience, saying “it’s a great game and single-player obviously is fantastic,” and said “Halo has a lot to learn” when it comes to the way the Infinity Ward crafted some of the moments in the campaign.

He also talked about the game’s influence on the market with some kind words, “We have a lot to learn from their success too,” Isla admitted, “[Infinity Ward] did some very innovative things to keep people going and their experience-rewards system was something that we paid a lot of attention to.”

It’s refreshing to see a developer tip his hat to the competition, isn’t it?