Halo 2 was my introduction to online gaming.  Before being thrust into my first melee with 15 random geeks, I just didn’t see what the big deal was concerning online gaming.  Halo 2 changed all that.  Running around an environment launching rockets at a bunch of trash talking fools and watching them jump around like fools trying to avoid shotgun blasts and needler shards put a smile on my jaded face.  This fun didn’t last too long though.  After about a month or two of playing online, I moved on to other games and didn’t revisit Halo online for about 6 or 7 months.  When I jumped back online, it was a massacre each and every match I joined. These trash talking pre teens had gotten much better at both playing and coming up with imaginative racist comments to yell while beating you with the ass end of their rifle.  I stopped playing Halo 2 online almost altogether. The only time I’d hop back on is when 7 or 8 of my friends got together and hosted closed matches.

Halo 3 beta has a more comprehensive matchmaking system that seems to be working much better than before.  Almost every match I’ve taken part in, I’ve felt like I could pull off a victory or at least end in the top half of the match.  Rather than matching people up based on how many times they’ve played, matchmaking takes into account all sorts of other stats to help make matches fair and more fun.

Each weapon in the game is balanced, meaning there don’t seem to be useless weapons anymore.  Dual wielding weapons is even better than before now that each one can be reloaded separately, ensuring a steady flow of fire.  If you’d rather not dual wield, there are plenty of weapon options and grenades spread throughout each environment.  A new spiked grenade is my personal favorite. With a little practice, you can stick the grenade onto some unfortunate soul’s face and watch as they desperately try to get close enough to take you both out.  The grenades will also stick to walls, vehicles or ceilings which is very helpful when retreating from an over anxious foe.

The items are great too.  There is one bubble shield on each level which can be deployed at any time and will protect you from all types of fire. Other people can enter the bubble and kill you, but it's got to be close range.  The energy drainer lays out a field which instantly depletes shields and will kill anyone who stays in it for more than a few seconds.  The portable grav lift can be placed anywhere and shoots you 20 feet into the air, helping make new shortcuts or forcing that pesky vehicle to flip over your head just before it runs you over.

The three maps included in the beta are great.  One takes place in a base by a beach with rolling hills, crumbling walls and tons of short cuts, interior rooms and underground passages. Another map is a snowy wasteland with two bases connected via underground tubes and passages.  Above ground there are huge turrets scattered around the edges of the map which wait for anyone to go out of bounds before firing mercilessly.  There are plenty of hiding places for snipers and enough places to hide underground for those of us who aren’t so hot with the 3 different varieties of sniper rifles.  The third map has two bases on each end and rolling hills and cliffs between them.  Each base is equipped with a “Man Cannon”. Simply step onto one of the three launch points and you’re instantly shot across half the map while people on the ground below try to take you out mid flight.  Each of the three maps have several vehicles including a new ATV which holds up to two people, one driver and one hanging on the back providing covering fire.

There are several issues with the Beta, but none are unexpected.  There is occasional lag which is annoying and has lead to several untimely deaths.  This seems to be the worst when using the Man Cannons. Sometime it takes several attempts before you are able to launch and when watching players soar across the board, they seem a bit too jumpy and are hard to get a target on.  This will no doubt be ironed out before the official release, that’s why there’s a beta after all.  The graphics are beautiful, but with Gears of War fresh on all our minds, there’s still some work to be done.  Bungie will definitely be cleaning up the graphics as that’s one of the last things that developers work on.  Halo has always been about the game play, and Halo 3 has that in aces.