Tired of Shotty Snipers yet?
Yesterday, Bungie released their first Matchmaking update to Halo 3 (already — the game has only been out for about 2 weeks). They’ve made a few notable changes, most of which make us very happy:
- Big Team Battle matches are now 16-player affairs.
- In the Team Slayer playlist, the appearance of Shotty Snipers has been greatly reduced.
- Now, when players veto Shotty Snipers, the game that results from the veto will not be Shotty Snipers.
- In one-sided VIP matches, the attacking team will now see a waypoint for the VIP they are hunting.
- In Lone Wolves, Slayer gametypes will appear more frequently.
Looks like Bungie heard the cry of fans on their forums and took action on their requests. Aside from reducing Shotty Sniper game variants, they have also souped up Big Team Battle matches again, which will make for some intense games in the coming weeks.
I wonder if we’ll ever have a BTB Rocket Race…
XBL Public – A Feature Not Included in Halo 3
Saw this over at HBO this morning:
During the ramp-up to Halo 3, Bungie was, for the most part, VERY careful about what they said about the game. This bothered a lot of fans; I mean, why all the secrecy? Why so vague with details? Just say what you mean, man! Well, there’s a piece over at Advanced Media Network (thanks, Avateur) that describes a segment of the Bungie community that is ‘outraged’ that a feature discussed a year ago by one of the UI designers didn’t make it into the final game…
That feature (for those who don’t want to read the entire article) was going to be called “Xbox Live Public“, a way to create and search for custom games (similar to matchmaking, only with user made games).
I personally don’t really mind the absence of such a feature. When I look at how Online games such as Halo have developed over the years, “Xbox Live Public” is actually a step backware from where we are at now. Before we had a matchmaking system in Halo 2, all of our games were essentially “Xbox Live Public”.
Of course, the addition of a feature wouldn’t be a bad thing, as it would be easy to find any game you want immediately. But with the additional features such as Forge and what not, who is to complain about the lack of something we upgraded several years ago?
Halo Wars E3 Demo Online
As mentioned earlier, the Halo Wars E3 Demo is now available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace! You can start downloading it immediately if you have Xbox Live, or you can also download it directly from the Halo Wars Official Website.
This guided tour through 10 minutes of play time really gives us an excellent look at what Ensemble Studios has in store for us come 2008. With the end of the Halo Trilogy so close at hand, this is some refreshing news for the Halo Nation!
Halo Wars Demo on Xbox Live Marketplace
According to ComputerandVideoGames.com, a Halo Wars Video Demonstration will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace sometime today. For those of you looking to get a glimpse of the RTS due for release next year, here is your chance!
The video demonstration will consist of gameplay from the recent E3 and Leipzig demos, complete with commentary from the dev team. If you haven’t seen it, the short preview consists of a massive UNSC base and a skirmish with an army of Covenant forces – complete with hulking Scarab walker.
Looks juicy! We’re looking forward to this video! Chances are, it will be on the internetz sometime soon if you can’t get onto the XBL Marketplace.
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