Which do you prefer as far as everything goes? For me Reach but if it had the dynamic lighting then it would have been the best forge ever! Again just my opinion.
Well I prefer Halo Reach when it comes to playing more MLG styled games. I tend to find that Halo 4 War Games is an all round better experience than Halo Reach Matchmaking. That's my opinion, yours may be different. When it comes to forge, I kinda miss Reach
Halo 3. Better maps, less frantic gameplay, and the forge creations were original. Oh, and Halo 3 had Choppers.
I'd assume, since the question is about playing and forging, OP excluded CE and 2 for their lack of forge.
Just because of the Forge, Reach. Reach pre-patch and Halo 4 are both mediocre in terms of matchmaking.
Halo Reach's forge tools were the best, but Halo 3 had better custom games, especially if we're talking about competitive custom games.
I'm honestly torn between Halo Reach and Halo 4. I can't say anything about Halo 3 because I got it when there were barely any people playing it.