It recently occurred to me why I cant stand halo 2's online multiplayer. If you know me, you've undoubtedly seen me lay claim to the community being more or less, the main reason I dislike the game's multiplayer. Aside from that I've said things about it being unbalanced, and the like. While the balance issue in the game may still be a factor, it's tolerable, as is the community. Hell, the community is simply avoidable.

So, I was playing halo 2 online yesterday, more or less out of sheer boredom boredom. And with my previous qualms with the community, I simply avoided all of that madness by not wearing my headset, and cranking some tunes.

I'll admit, I was having a good time with the game. It's rare that I actually do this, and I really don't play the game very often (I think the last time I played halo 2 was a couple days before the Halo 3 beta hit). I went a few good rounds, but then on a big team battle match, on coagulation, nearly my entire team drops, so its 3v8. I knew it wasn't possible for me to actually have a nice little session with this game, and have it end on a high note.

It would be easy to blame the community for this, as well. But it's like something clicked with me. It's not the community's fault (I'm as guilty as leaving a game early as anyone else), it's matchmaking's fault.

Then it all came to me, it was a total, "duh" moment, but I just never really thought about it before. I wont lie, I've had many a good time playing halo 2, but all the best times were playing at LAN's or in a custom matches. I've only ever gotten frustrated while playing in a random matchmaking game.

Think about it, you're forced to sit for sometimes in upwards of 5 minutes just to get into a match, then it's all really hit and miss. You could be stuck with some total douche-bags for the next 10-20 minutes. Or they could just up and abandon you. Leaving you to fend for yourself against 4-8 other people. This is the PC gamer coming out right here, but the fact that you can't just join a game, already in progress, and have it auto-balance the teams each round, is ridiculous.

It's not like it's a hard thing to do. Battlefield 2 Modern Combat had a method that would work perfectly for halo. It had the ability to just join an on-going game, but it still had ranks. Instead of having it match you up with people near your rank, it just grouped you with everyone near your rank. I may be wrong, but the game had something like 3 rank groups. Whatever group you were in, on the server browser it would only show games for people from that group. So no matter what you're playing with someone at least close to your rank, and skill level.

You never had the problem of sitting there waiting for 5 minutes in matchmaking, or the hit-and-miss teams. It was just; join a game, and play. If anyone on your team drops, it will auto-balance someone to the other team the next time they respawn, and that was it. You didn't have to worry about anything, you didn't have much of anything to complain about, and it was a hell of a fun game.

I just wish Halo 3 would implement something like this. It would make it a highly enjoyable experience for people like me.

Alright, this rant has gone on long enough