Hey, you all know how great the Halo 3 beta is on the battlefield, but don't forget about the clever presentation options off the battlefield that have helped make the Halo franchise what it is today. The menu screen might not be the sexiest thing in the world, but it's here that you can join up with your party and start mashing heads with plasma pistols.
Just as Halo 2 spoiled us with an excellent matchmaking system as well as clan support, Halo 3 will shine with even more options in this Web 2.0 era: refined matchmaking, persistent rankings, character customization, a ton of multiplayer game modes, different button configurations, movie sharing, different stick configurations, and the most revolutionary Halo feature ever: the toggle crouch.
Fine, maybe we're a little too excited about this, but being able click once to duck and click again to stand makes a lot more sense than the old click-and hold -- a little to slow for out taste. But moving on, here are some of the more important features:
MatchmakingYour first step in the beta is the Matchmaking lobby. Here is where you join up with friends and get your party together. As of now, you can hit Y to instantly jump to your friends list. There, you can invite players to join you in the lobby, and you can even check your buddies Halo 3 service record and their uploaded movies right there in the dashboard.
For network mode, you can choose between system link, local and Live, currently the only mode available. Although you can play split screen online, there's no local multiplayer yet. You can also set the max party size from one to 16 players.
Start matchmaking. If only hot girls thought this way.
Game modes are currently divided into playlists of ranked and social matches. In ranked, you choose between Rumble Pit (basic deathmatch), Team Slayer (team deathmatch with up to four players on each team) and Team Skirmish, which randomly chooses one of the three available maps and specialty game modes, such as Capture the Flag.
The social playlists include rumble training and team training.
When you start the matchmaking process, Halo 3 begins to look for players near your skill level, known as Spartan Rating. Then it will slowly widen the search parameters, looking for even better (and worse) players to fill up your match. With so few people online on Friday, the matchmaking process took a bit longer than expected -- sometimes five minutes. But usually, it's a quick process -- about a minute or so.
After the player slots have been filled, you'll be assigned a map and game mode. If you don't like what you see, you can hit X to throw up a veto. While it's not as powerful as, say, George W. Bush dropping the hammer on the Democrats, it is nice that you can switch map and mode if enough players join in with a veto. Rock the vote!
Of course, the ultimate goal of this matchmaking system is to stick players together with players of similar skill levels. This will help make the game more accessible to John Q. Gamer. Who knows? Microsoft may even sell a few more copies.
Game ModesSo far, there are a surprising number of modes included in Team Skirmish, and we also stumbled upon a rockets-only match in the Rumble Pit. Keep in mind that these modes are not final and Bungie is using the beta to decide how to tweak and hone them, and which should be thrown out altogether. Here's what we have seen so far:
VIP
In VIP, each team has one leader that is indicated on the HUD. Teams score points by taking out the other team's VIP -- a nice blend of all-out offense and running your butt off when you are assigned as VIP. The VIP also comes equipped with an overshield, and we've seen a VIP mow down three players in one area thanks to the added protection.
Oddball
A skull is placed somewhere on the map and is visible on the HUD. Teams score by taking possession of the skull and holding on to it for as long as possible, sort of like a moving King of the Hill match. It's a nice blend of offense as you charge in to grab the skull and then a quick transition to taking cover and letting your teammates protect you. If you have the skull, you can't fire a gun, but you can bash people with it. And who doesn't love bashing people with skulls?
Territories
There are five strategic points on the map, and one team takes offense and the other takes defense. Attackers need to take over points by simply standing near them, earning a point for each flag taken. Similar to Battlefield games, the more players that are near a strategic point, the faster they take it over. After a set time limit, the players switch sides. The teams continue and the first team to 10 points wins. A special note: on defense, the teams cannot reclaim points once they are taken.
One Bomb
In this infiltration mode, one team takes offense and the other defense. The attackers need to bring a bomb to the enemy base and arm it. The attacker carrying the bomb cannot fire his weapon, but he can beat-down enemies foolish enough turn their backs.
Defenders need to keep the bomb out of their base for the duration of the round. If the attackers do manage to arm the bomb, defenders will have 10 seconds to disarm it by simply standing close to it (it takes about two seconds to disarm). Stand there for a few more seconds and the bomb will reset back to the attackers' base.
Teams take turn on offense and defense and the first to three successful bombing attacks walks away winners, unlike Ted Kacynski.
One Flag CTF
The same old one flag capture the flag mode from Halo 2. One team defends the flag. The other infiltrates, steals and brings it home.
Controls
It's only the beta, but Bungie has done an admirable job by adding several different control options. Button layouts include southpaw, green thumb, boxer and default. Stick layouts include, legacy, default and southpaw for both -- a simple and great touch that other recent shooters have forgotten about. Look sensitivity ranges from 1-10, with 3 as the default. You can also turn on Auto Look Centering that moves your reticule to the middle of the screen when you start running forward, a gift to gamers new to shooters.
And then there's toggle crouch. Enough said.
Customization
So far, there's no Vision Camera option to import your ugly mug and replace the Chief's helmet, but there are a decent number of customization options already in place. You can change your armor's primary, secondary and background colors as well as select a customizable logo. Similar to Rainbow Six: Vegas, you can also select a service tag -- one letter followed by two numbers. Instead of "IGN," we went with I67, 'cause it kind of looks the same. Sort of.
Of course, none of these modes or options are final, so be sure to voice your feedback to Bungie for what you like and what you don't. Also be sure to support the term "man cannon" as much as possible.
