I don't about the "still trying to love" part, but the first thing I think of here is Halo: Reach.
I know Reach gets dumped on by a lot of people (muh sprint) but, honestly, the criticism is coming from MLG players who started *competetive screeching* as soon as their oh so delicate meta was touched. The only thing wrong with Reach is Armor Lock (and yes, it hurts to spell that without the 'u') because it's antithetical to the design philosophy of the series, but I won't rant 'muh armor lock' here.
Reach isn't perfect by any stretch (there's a great video by Raycevick in which he makes a convincing case for the entire first mission being the wrong way around) but it is, in my opinion, the best of the Halo games. The gameplay is the tightest and most refined in the series, the weapons are interesting and all fun to use, it looks fantastic, the music, goddamn Marty, the music is amazing. Elites are back, who have always been more interesting to fight than Brutes. The Brutes themselves have finally found their place and are fun enemies to fight, instead of the bullet sponges they were in Halo 2 or the Not-Elites they were in Halo 3. A wealth of options for custom games, a Forge mode that lets you create just about anything, a Firefight that's actually worth playing, fantastic multiplayer with great game modes and great maps (until 343 ruined it by forcing MLG-approved 'community' maps into every playlist), and a story that manages to be emotional despite being a prequel whose ending was spoiled on the fifth page of the first Halo's manual. This game was amazing, the (almost) perfect farewell from Bungie. It's a shame Bungie themselves didn't care about it enough to give it their full attention, instead putting the "B team" on it while the rest of the team started working on Destiny. With the same love they showed Halo 3, Reach could have been, dare I say it, flawless, or as close to as it could have been.
The ending to Reach, that final image of the Autumn drifting towards the first Halo, accompanied with a message thanking us for being with Bungie on the decade-long journey that had been Halo, genuinely had me welling up. It was such an appropriate reminder of where we'd been with this franchise over the years. My best friend and I became friends because of Halo. I owned an Xbox 360, and subsequently all the amazing games I would have missed out on otherwise (like one of my all-time favourites, Dishonored) because of Halo. I think about games as more than just something to pass the time with in large part because of Halo (but also Morrowind). It was a beautiful way to end Bungie's tenure as the series developer.
And it immediately became a big pile of crap as soon as 343 took control.