Only a month and a half between posts! I'm improving!

There's plenty of stuff that I could mention, but the most pressing thing on my mind right now is the recently released Halo 3 beta.  Considering the number of hours I spent playing Halo 2, I've been eagerly anticipating this. I enjoyed Halo 2, and from what I heard from Bungie's website, it sounded like Halo 3 would be a large improvement over Halo 2, though not necessarily a large innovation over it. This expectation turned out to be fairly accurate, but in a way that may be even better than I hoped.

There are a number of little things I like about the Beta (besides the "Loading... Halo 3 Beta... Love, Bungie) message that greets you as it boots up. I like how it lists how many people are online, and how many people are on each playlist, when you're looking through matchmaking. I also like how, as you're going into matchmaking, it shows what types of games your system is looking to match you with. These are really small things, but they're nice to know. It's also very easy to get stats on any players you're up against before, during, and after the game. The postgame carnage report is much more comprehensive, in that there are more stats tracked, and it's easier to look at a single player's performance specifically. It's also very easy to save a film for the Saved Films feature. On top of that, the Party Up feature makes it really simple to get into parties with people you enjoyed playing with after a game. However, all this stuff is relatively inconsequential when compared to the gameplay, though it's great to see Bungie improving on what is still the best online multiplayer system out there. 

The first thing you notice upon getting into a game is the new starting weapon, the Assault Rifle. The Assault Rifle returns from Halo 1, but in that game, it was pretty useless when compared to the incredibly powerful scoped Pistol, your other starting weapon. In Halo 3, it's the only gun you start with in every normal gametype, and it's much better. Unlike Halo 2's SMG, this gun is very useful in many combat situations. You never feel totally helpless in it, and it's pretty easy to rely on it to get most of your kills. It's far from overpowered, but it's great at close to medium range. 

That kind of sentiment holds true for many of the weapons. None of them are really overpowered (the most powerful guns are pretty tough to use right), but all of them have some use. Even the much-maligned Needler is a viable alternative (though I tend to shun it, perhaps on instinct). Many of the one-handed guns are very useful when dual-wielded. The Plasma Pistol, once a powerhouse, has had its charge shot toned down so it isn't the beast that it once was. And any single-handed weapon has a role to play in battle. As a result, you find yourself making decisions on the fly about how you want to approach combat, switching between weapons as you change areas and opposition. 

Dual wielding is de-emphasized in this game relative to what it was in Halo 2. Not only does starting with a two-handed weapon make it a bit less appetizing to look for two guns, but melee and grenade damage has increased. Making those aspects better helps the game's pacing, as it makes players focus less on circle-strafing and more on positioning and grenades. As a result, I like the feel of the combat much more in Halo 3 than Halo 2, at least at this point. Fights feel more dynamic. 

There are other aspects to combat that I haven't really explored yet personally. The 'support weapons', the turret and missle pod, that move you to a third-person view, aren't things I've tried out yet, though I usually find people using them to be pretty easy targets. And the equipment isn't something I've really used much of, mostly because I'm not used to having it. It definitely spices battles up and makes things interesting, but I don't tend to realize I'm holding something until it's too late for it to matter.

The map design is very solid of the ones in the beta. High Ground is very interesting, and is a great map in any team-based objective game thanks to its asymmetrical base design. There are a number of ways to get into the base, and the multileveled play there keeps things exciting, if a bit confusing. The only issue I have with it, I guess, is that it's less interesting in straight deathmatch games, because so much of the front of the level, outside the base, tends to go basically unused.  

Snowbound is a very good map. The basic design is pretty straightforward, with two bases in the snow connected by the field above as well as tunnels underneath. The cool feature of Snowbound are shield doors. These shields allow players through, but block all gunfire and grenades. This creates unique situations, as players on opposite sides of the doors are caught in a kind of standoff. It is also great in Oddball, where the team can hole up in one of those rooms, and the other players can't act until they get inside. I like this map a lot.

Valhalla is a map that I don't have a ton of experience in. It's a relatively open map compared to the others, but the area between the two bases is broken up by a lot of rocks and stuff, so a single sniper can't totally dominate all lanes of the map. There's a lot of transport around, including the exalted 'man-cannons', so it doesn't take too long to get where you're going, but you can get very exposed. A skilled team can really lock down this map well, and it's difficult to fight back if they can control the map's center. Still, I'm interested to see how it develops, and I like it a lot more than Coagulation and Blood Gulch, which it is so clearly inspired by, since Valhalla is much more dynamic.  

Saved Films is an interesting feature, but not one that you can do too much with in this beta. Right now, it seems that all you can do is follow the game from your perspective. That's alright, but it can only take you so far. Sharing games could be interesting though. What will really make this mode shine is when players get more control over the camera and the pace of the films. That will happen in the final game, and that will be cool, but at this point, there isn't much there.  

I've said just about everything I can think of saying. All in all, my impressions are very positive so far. It feels like Bungie has really nailed the basic gameplay of Halo at this point. There's a lot that they haven't shown us (either obvious or not), but if those surprises are as interesting and well-implemented as what we see here, this will be the greatest Halo multiplayer experience yet, which is saying a lot. I'm looking forward to September 25.