2008 Woodie Awards
The more master chiefs the merrier: "Halo 3" multiplayer
Technophile
Jonathan Harrop
Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Life & Style
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At the risk of this getting old, this week's column focuses on the most popular aspect of the "Halo" franchise, before moving on with more technology related things, so please, bear with me on this.
The beautiful thing about being a technology writer is that any research I might be doing is generally what I'd probably be doing anyway, so I've spent the past week playing "Halo 3" online.
"Halo" is one of those games that did not get replay value because of its single player experience, which has always, whilst being slightly above-par, been much less interesting than inventing new expletives with your friends.
At the time of "Halo: Combat Evolved," everyone crowded around 32-inch tube TVs and watched their little 15-inch corner of the screen.
As a measure of how the times and technology have changed, Sunday night I played a game against 16 other people. Four of us played on one 61-inch DLP screen, giving us each roughly a 32-inch screen, which is an improvement, to say the least.
The other 12 players were on two other 61-inch DLP TVs as well, so all was fair.
Multiplayer is the meat of "Halo 3," just as it was the meat of "Halo" and "Halo 2." The second iteration remained the most played title on Xbox LIVE until "Gears of War" was released last November. A significant point is that "Halo 2" was released for the original Xbox and by the time "Gears" rolled around the 360 had been around for a full year.
I'm not going to go into weapons, equipment, maps or strategies; this isn't a strategy guide, although the Official one is actually quite good, the maps of the multiplayer… well… maps are indispensable.
I will say this: Shotgun, power-drain and Narrows.
Cutting to the chase - it's fun. Very fun. "Halo 3" uses a more elaborate method of skills and experience than "Halo 2" did for appropriate match-making so you're not fighting the greatest player in all the world on your first day on LIVE.
First is experience, or EXP. You gain roughly one point for every game you win or are on the winning team. You can't lose any unless you quit a match mid-game for being a poor sport. So rest assured, perseverance will get you up the ranks… slowly.
The beautiful thing about being a technology writer is that any research I might be doing is generally what I'd probably be doing anyway, so I've spent the past week playing "Halo 3" online.
"Halo" is one of those games that did not get replay value because of its single player experience, which has always, whilst being slightly above-par, been much less interesting than inventing new expletives with your friends.
At the time of "Halo: Combat Evolved," everyone crowded around 32-inch tube TVs and watched their little 15-inch corner of the screen.
As a measure of how the times and technology have changed, Sunday night I played a game against 16 other people. Four of us played on one 61-inch DLP screen, giving us each roughly a 32-inch screen, which is an improvement, to say the least.
The other 12 players were on two other 61-inch DLP TVs as well, so all was fair.
Multiplayer is the meat of "Halo 3," just as it was the meat of "Halo" and "Halo 2." The second iteration remained the most played title on Xbox LIVE until "Gears of War" was released last November. A significant point is that "Halo 2" was released for the original Xbox and by the time "Gears" rolled around the 360 had been around for a full year.
I'm not going to go into weapons, equipment, maps or strategies; this isn't a strategy guide, although the Official one is actually quite good, the maps of the multiplayer… well… maps are indispensable.
I will say this: Shotgun, power-drain and Narrows.
Cutting to the chase - it's fun. Very fun. "Halo 3" uses a more elaborate method of skills and experience than "Halo 2" did for appropriate match-making so you're not fighting the greatest player in all the world on your first day on LIVE.
First is experience, or EXP. You gain roughly one point for every game you win or are on the winning team. You can't lose any unless you quit a match mid-game for being a poor sport. So rest assured, perseverance will get you up the ranks… slowly.
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