[c0mmand3r]

Whats up fellas. I haven't had any posts with true merit in awhile, so I figured I would start by throwing down some of my opinions of the Halo 3 Multiplayer aspect of the game. Sit back and enjoy, this will be a good one.

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Ranking System

First off, I'll touch base on the ranking system. I'm not sure if you guys remember the old system or not, so I'll refresh your memory. There were a bunch of ranked playlists (when the game was released it was Team Skirmish, Rumble Pit, Singles, Big Team Battle, and Minor/Major Clan Match. As you played you progressed in rank from 1-50. As your rank increased in that playlist the skill of the players would also progress. However, it was easy to lose rank from a few losses. This concept remains in the game, and it is a very good concept as far as I am concerned. On top of this rating system there is a seperate ranking system which tracks you across all playlists (ranked and unranked). Some requirements for advancement requires certain ranked rating levels, but you can attain experience points from both ranked and unranked games. As you gain experience and rating points you progress to various ranks from a recruit up to a bridadier general. This allows you to be rated as a player across all halo 3. When you go into a certain playlist your "trueskill" rating will be show beside your rank.

You rank is determined from experience points and your trueskill as I forementioned. To attain experience points, or EPs, you must first finish the match you are participating in, and your team must win if you are in a team match, or you must place in the top 50% of the players within the game for free for all matches such as Lone Wolves and Rumble Pit playlists. If you qualify to attain an experience point you will recieve 1 at the end of the match which will immediately reflect in your profile. As I said before you can earn these points in a ranked playlist or in unranked. This helps less experienced players to advance in rank, even if they can't make it into the officer ranks (where trueskill is needed to progress). Trueskill is your level within a ranked playlist. Your highest level is taken as your trueskill level. To become an officer, for instance, you need 70 EPs and a trueskill of 10. This would mean you need a level of 10 in one of the ranked playlists, then you just need to get 70 EPs from any playlist.

I personally like how they integrated a Rainbow Six: Vegas ranking style in with their old Halo 2 ranking. It is perfectly balanced and allows you to progress globally seperate from individual playlists. You can also feel a sense of accomplishment and pride when you enter a playlist in which you are a level 1, but they can clearly see you are a veteran player.

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General Gameplay

Alright, let's get into the heavy stuff now. The general gameplay of Halo 3. As you are playing online, I will tell you just what you can expect to see in terms of the playstyles of various players and what you will see yourself doing more often than not. You start general free for all and team games with the Assault Rifle. This will be your primary "tool of death" as Bungie so elegantly puts it. Expect the majority of your kills as well as everyone else around you to be from the Assault Rifle. Most maps aren't big enough to explore without running into someone every few moments. So, you typically won't have the opportunity to even pick up a new weapon without getting into firefights on smaller maps. You can track what weapons you have used on Bungie.net, and if you look at any given profile online you will notice the Assault Rifle will be at the top of their kill list every time. Personally I enjoy picking up a Battle Rifle in addition the Assault Rifle, but the Assault Rifle is a powerful asset to have in your arsenal. It is reliable and has power close range but also can be accurate in bursts at longer range. Even if you can't get the kill, you can prevent a sniper from scoping in on you with the accurate precision this gun holds.

In addition to the Assault Rifle being the primary weapon of all players, you will see players throwing a hell of a lot more grenades. The grenades are fun, absolutely, but it is almost rediculous. My first impression of the online play (starting a week late mind you) was that the game could very well be called Grenade/Melee Cluster **** Online 3. Not to bad mouth the online play, as it is very fun, but these are utilized so much more in this game than the two predecesors. If any of you played Halo 2 online you will remember the patch to the game increasing the melee attack damage by nearly double. Basically in Halo 3 players will shoot at you with the Assault Rifle until they have to reload. At this point the majority of players will try to charge you and melee you to win. Some players don't even shoot, they just melee twice or throw a grenade from a distance until they are close enough to melee. Good accuracy and smart thinking can take down enemies like this quickly while avoiding grenade blasts and keeping a distance to prevent melee attacks which can be deadly. Remember this little tip: if your shield is at 75% and you are hit with a melee you will probably die with that one hit. A melee hit is like being hit with a sniper rifle by a body shot.

To touch on some issues from Halo 2 online real quick. Plasma swords are not nearly as much of an issue in this game as it was in Halo 2. Rarely do people rush to get the swords, and the levels it is on are so open that it is like chasing someone with a sword on Blood Gultch in open land. If you are close to a person he might whip out the sword and beast you, so to speak, but that will happen at any time someone is close to you in this game. The sword simply does in one hit what the assault rifle does in two. The plasma pistol, which many individuals complained about toward the end of the Halo 2 online experience, has been fixed. The plasma pistol still seeks with a shield killing blast, but instead of discharging a simple amount of battery with this blast, the charge now constantly drains your pistol's battery until you let go. This kills the battery much faster and takes the playability of the so named "newb combo" pretty much completely out of the game.

Personally I will state I feel this game's online experience is more of a run and gun versus the camping some might have been used to on Halo 2. In this game it doesn't matter specifically what gun you have when we try to determine the outcome of the game. Some might remember on Collosus from Halo 2, whoever got the Beam Rifle first would generally be the winners of the match. Teams would camp with the beam rifle and snipe the opposing team leaving no opportunity for even an equally matched team to win, or even retake the rifle. As far as I have seen there is none of this in Halo 3. Games are much faster and any one particular weapon can be countered by another which is readily available on the map. Supreme advantages like this have been removed.

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Player's Behavior Online

Some might be put off from purchasing Halo games due to the very imfamous perception that we have the most immature gamers in the world swarm to play this game online. I will defend to the death that there is always a problem with immature gamers across all games. Even our beloved Socom series had issues with immature gamers and children ruining certain games. Let me say that the actions of a few in no way should reflect the majority of the Halo 3 online community. There are no where near as many immature kids as there were on Halo 2, which I can admit was an outrageous amount when compared to other games. Halo 3 is a fresh start and in my nearly 120 logged matches thus far evenly spread in ranked and unranked I can say that I have probably only encountered a dozen or so individuals which could be deamed immature or simply sore losers and showing an extreme amount of unsportsman-like behavior in the lobby and in the game.

People are well-mannered and well-tempered individuals when playing online for the most part. Typically players will not even talk on the mic unless it is tactical in team matches or simply to say goodluck or ask players to veto a certain game that has come up in order to have a different game come up in matchmaking. I will be the first to admit I can get pretty fustrated and pissed off at video games. People who played Socom with me will know when I am not playing up to my potential I can get pretty vocal. Most players, much like me, will need to blow some steam off. I utilize the mute button a hell of a lot, and it would appear other players do the same as I have yet to hear anyone blow up over a game.

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Cheating/Ranking Up/Glitching/Etc.

Ok, now we can get into some more important issues on the game. These types of issues can determine if an online community will live or die in a set amount of time. We all know about the infamous Socom Rank up rooms, and all the glitching than can occur in a game at any one time. Halo 3 has not let me down so far. I have seen no glitching or cheating in any way, shape, or form. We can all relate to the tiresome "cord pulling/bridging" issues that plauged Halo 2 post January after the release. I have yet to see this occur. I know for a fact Bungie and Microsoft knew of this issue and I can only imagine they have done all they can do prevent it from happening again.

The only minor detail I should touch on is boosting. In Halo 2 we knew this as teams setting up matches against other teams letting the one team win, the other acting as a ghost team to boost them up in rank. In Halo 3 I have yet to see this. However, with new stats being tracked and followed as well as the achievements coming into play I have seen people "boosting" to get achievements completed and new medals. They simply put language preference filters on to get into the same game together then cheat to get the achievements for eachother. In terms of doing this for rank or rating, I haven't seen it. The system is pretty savy to cheaters except for this one thing. I would put money on it that Bungie patches the language preference soon though.