I have had a brief look at the Halo 3 Beta; my first impression was the overwhelming beauty of the environment.  The original game knocked my socks off on the Xbox, and the move to HD with the Xbox 360 has notched up the graphics a quantum leap again.  (funny, we always think of Quantum leaps as big things, when the reality is that they are one of the smallest things in this universe.  Might need to reword that later)

Other changes evident in the new iteration of Halo include the new vechicles (the new speedy Mongoose) and weapons (Missile Pod, Brute Spiker to name a few).  All look great and are satisfying to use.

There are a number of changes to the control system, with reloading of dual weapons being easier to control, although I found jumping around whilst firing a tad difficult to master – this may not be a bad thing, as it can be a plague on multiplayer FPS’s

There seems to be a new matchmaking service that controls the lobby section of multiplayer games.  This is based on experience and skill levels translated to rating points and rank, enabling a better multiplayer experience.

Game-play was fluid and surprisingly polished for Beta code – you could argue that perhaps this first experiment into console Beta testing needed to have a bit more maturity to the experience.  The net-code was robust with no lag issues or mini-warping of player, the three new maps showed off a lot that Halo 3 potentially has to give.

Now if only I could play well, I was totally owned by the folks already joined onto the Beta, so perhaps I need to get back in there and practice more, or check out the excellent Beta test guide that Bungie have already posted up.  See you online to see who truly is the Master of all Master Chiefs.
{moscomment}

---

Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now
When you subscribe get a 12 months license for LiveProject
Valued at $99 USD


Download the FREE iTWire desktop alert widget