Halo 3 Impressions

**Miles_Yuhas** · 04-10-2008, 09:30 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

YES!! Permenant SWAT, ranked too, thats great news.

**Flawless** · 04-11-2008, 10:39 AM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

A Fleshy Pulse

A brief and opinionated look at the evolution of Halo’s time-honored multiplayer - its twists, its turns and its future…

Pretty much agree with this. It's a good read.

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Tied the Leader: Legendary DLC Impressions

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Video Walkthroughs:

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A look at Avalanche with the juicy filter.

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From Bungie's latest humpday challenge

Naturally both teams immediately mounted up in every available vehicle and set off for destruction. Team Bungie got the first capture with a stealthy retrieval through the teleporter and then a massive cross-map jump through the built in mega mancannon.

**sportsdude** · 04-11-2008, 01:51 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

I know everybody's excited about Blackout/Lockout but I'm equally as excited about Avalanche. Countless battles were had on that on the original Halo and I love the emphasis on vehicular combat in it.

Played some zombie 2XP today and it's fun. Creeping death sucks because the zombies are invisible but save one bullet is a lot of fun, especially on small maps like Guardian and Epitaph.

**Sandman42** · 04-11-2008, 03:51 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

That article was a great read Flawless, and I pretty much agree with everything he said.

Gameplay wise the series goes 1, 3, and 2 for me, but map wise it goes 1, 2 , and 3. The main thing that's been lacking in Halo 3 has been small, symmetrical, arena type maps like Midship, Wizard/Warlock, and Derelict.

I've always wanted Bungie to re-release the original Halo with an online portion, but I wonder how good it would be. They would probably need to add some amount of auto-aim and aim assist in the game to deal with the lag, because if you ever play Halo 1 off-host on a tunneling service like XBC you know how much disadvantage you had going against the host.

**sportsdude** · 04-11-2008, 04:11 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Originally posted by Sandman42

That article was a great read Flawless, and I pretty much agree with everything he said.

Gameplay wise the series goes 1, 3, and 2 for me, but map wise it goes 1, 2 , and 3. The main thing that's been lacking in Halo 3 has been small, symmetrical, arena type maps like Midship, Wizard/Warlock, and Derelict.

I've always wanted Bungie to re-release the original Halo with an online portion, but I wonder how good it would be. They would probably need to add some amount of auto-aim and aim assist in the game to deal with the lag, because if you ever play Halo 1 off-host on a tunneling service like XBC you know how much disadvantage you had going against the host.

is it possible to play halo 2 on the 360 online? I wouldn't going back and doing some team slayer again on the old maps.

**Sandman42** · 04-11-2008, 04:26 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Originally posted by sportsdude

is it possible to play halo 2 on the 360 online? I wouldn't going back and doing some team slayer again on the old maps.

Yes, Halo 2 works on Live with the 360.

**Flawless** · 04-11-2008, 06:29 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Bungie Weekly Update

We’re happy to announce that there will be a special limited-time promotional offer for those of you who purchase the Legendary map pack. Everyone who buys the new maps between now and a to-be-determined cutoff date will be awarded a special four month subscription to Bungie PRO. For the unfamiliar, Bungie PRO is our special service that dramatically increases your Halo 3 file share ability. You get 25 storage slots and a maximum of 250MB compared to the default 6 slots and 25 MB. Bungie PRO is normally sold as an annual subscription for 750 points.

The great part is that nothing is required of you. All you need to do is purchase the maps and then play one game on Xbox LIVE (customs or matchmaking) using your Gold account (trial accounts are not valid). Then, magically, within 24 hours you will have Bungie PRO access for four months. People who already have Bungie PRO will get four months added to the end of their current subscription.

Obviously this may not appeal to everyone out there but we’re happy to at least be able to offer this little bonus to those of you who choose to purchase the maps.

Shishka's Matchmaking Playlist Update

Two weeks have gone by, and I haven’t been crushed under the pressure, yet? I might just make it out okay. Maybe. Probably not. This is definitely the most challenging job I’ve ever had, if for any reason because the work I do has direct impact on seven digits worth of people. Imagine how that feels and try not to panic. Luckily for me, there’s always work to focus on, so I should be able to maintain my grip on sanity for at least a little while longer.

Let’s talk a little about making matches in the month of May.

The podcast is out, now, and for those that haven’t listened to it yet, we mention that we’re adding Team SWAT as a full time ranked playlist in May. This decision was made after spending some time looking long and hard at the numbers provided by the weekend SWAT playlists. The Double XP weekends are always really popular, but SWATs popularity was simply astronomical, and we couldn’t deny it a place in the roster. After some consideration, we have decided that the MLG playlist will be joined by SWAT in a new “Hardcore” category, moving MLG out of the “Community” category it currently exists in. That isn’t the last you’ve heard of the Community category, mind you. It’s just taking a break for now.

So, for May, the full-time playlist load out will look a little like this:

Hardcore
• MLG
• SWAT

Ranked
• Lone Wolves
• Team Slayer
• Team Objective
• Team Doubles
• Ranked Big Team

Social
• Rumble Pit
• Social Slayer
• Social Skirmish
• Big Team Social
• Multi Team
• Rocket Race

DLC
• DLC Slayer
• DLC Objective

Eagle-eyed readers will note the omission of Team Control. This was not an accident; Team Control will be retiring as of the first of May.

Ranked Big Team

The rest of the May changes mainly involve modifications to the existing hoppers. Perhaps the most significant of these is Ranked Big Team Battle. Due to a rather awkward skill spread, players jumping into RBTB have been having trouble getting games. The problem stems from the fact that we try to match people within 10 levels above or below of each other. The majority of players are in the 1-10 bracket, with the curve dropping dramatically after 15. So, players whose level is 20 or higher are having trouble getting into games due to a low population of similarly skilled players. Ever gone into RBTB with your friends and waited forever to find a match? Blame your friend that’s level 25.

To remedy the matchmaking delays in RBTB, we’re going to try something a little different. Specifically, we’re increasing the search spread to 15, rather than the normal 10. This should increase the number of matches made, as well as alleviate some of the matching difficulty mid-level users are experiencing. High-level users may still have some slower times, but this should get better as more low and mid-level matches are made, giving more people the opportunity to rank up. Besides, how the hell did you get to 40 when nobody else has even been able to make a match?

Other Changes

Another significant change to ranked matchmaking is that mixed team restrictions have been turned off across all ranked hoppers. What does this mean for players? Well, mixed team restrictions sought to ensure that teams of varying levels of skill matched with other teams of that were mixed in an attempt to give these groups an evenly matched game. By removing this restriction, players in mixed skill groups will see faster matchmaking results. The consequences, however, is that mixed skill groups will now match with even-skilled groups, resulting in potentially more challenging games.

With the release of the Legendary Map Pack next week, a lot of players are going to be hoping to get their matchmaking on with their three new maps. For April, the best way to do this will be using DLC category playlists, which focus almost entirely on the Legendary map pack, with some heroic maps sprinkled in for good measure. The maps will also be integrated into regular matchmaking. However, as people discovered with the Heroic map pack, matchmaking into DLC maps when the maps are optional is very rare. The reason for this is that Halo queries users to see if everyone has the map pack after they’ve been matched, rather than before. There’s no easy fix for this, I’m afraid, though we’re looking at the best way to remedy it. In the meanwhile, we don’t want people downloading the Legendary map pack to feel alienated. As such, Team SWAT will be Legendary required, as will weekend hoppers (save Grifball). Legendary will be integrated into standard matchmaking as well, but will not be a requirement.

**Spectre** · 04-12-2008, 12:28 AM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Impressions of the Legendary map pack

The maps included in the Halo 3 Legendary pack are pretty good, and well worth the money if you’re a serious online Halo player. The new Forge stuff is great too if that’s your kind of thing, and genuinely fun to play with. As map packs go, this is a pretty decent one, but we are talking Bungie and Halo here. Those guys just excrete quality design.

http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1931/Halo-3/p1/

**Flawless** · 04-14-2008, 04:03 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Awesome video.

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**Flawless** · 04-15-2008, 12:11 AM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Must see!

**McLite** · 04-15-2008, 01:32 AM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Originally posted by Flawless

Must see!

Stuff like that is what makes Halo the best multi player game IMO. I can hardly wait for the new maps.

**Sandman42** · 04-15-2008, 12:04 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

The 3 new maps are out now. 800 MS points.

**Spectre** · 04-15-2008, 01:30 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

Great deal for anybody who is going to get Ninja Gaiden 2: Legendary Map Pack free with a preorder of NG2 at Circuit City!

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Ninja...id=k31063&mid=

Epic win

**Flawless** · 04-15-2008, 03:45 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

New maps are awesome.

Avalanche is already easily one of my favorite maps.

Dude on my team has the flag. He is coming out via mancannon, but he has no idea that a mongoose is coming in via a mancannon.

He gets killed in mid air.

We coming in with the flag...

Maybe not. The trajectory is slightly off and the Warthog clips the structure...

Warthog then falls into the mancannon coming out and out we go. The other team is coming out with our flag now.

Buh-bye

**Spectre** · 04-15-2008, 03:57 PM

Re: Halo 3 Impressions

I can't wait

I need to get a new sub anyway and I plan on getting it from CC- I'm going to preorder NG at the time

I can't wait to try out these maps, especially Blackout

Halo 3 Impressions

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