Improved physics and the maps
Game Physics
There’s a significant improvement to the physics in Halo 3, which were already fantastic in Halo 2, but now if you throw a frag grenade under the wheels of a speeding Mongoose, Ghost or Warthog the resulting explosion and inevitable launch of the vehicle into the air is a marvellous site that I'm never sick of seeing. Dead bodies float. Grenades tossed in snow stay in place, while those thrown on harder surfaces skip and roll. Bullets ricochet off walls and players straying too close to grenades are maimed by their shrapnel effect. Graphically, there isn't a huge improvement to Halo 2, aside from the decent water effects, but for me, it doesn’t matter in the slightest; Halo 3 is all about the fast paced game-play.
Maps
The three maps that are currently available on the multi-player beta are Snowbound, Valhalla and High Ground. My least favourite map is Snowbound, a fairly small and open snow-covered map, with a number of underground tunnels, whose entrances are protected by impenetrable force fields. There are two main structures on the map, both of which you can climb on top of giving you a view across the map, but due to the openness of the map it's fairly easy to get killed as soon as you re-spawn and the action can get pretty hectic. It's a fairly basic map in design, with just one vehicle to commandeer, the Ghost, and inevitably most people head to the centre to battle it out after picking up grenades, invisibility cloaks and weapons, whilst snipers sit at the back of the map dishing out frustratingly accurate head-shots.
Valhalla is the largest of the three maps on offer, with a creek running through the middle of the map, plenty of rocks to hide behind and some great sniping positions to get into. Two huge bases sit either side of the map and both sport the almighty man cannon, an impressive device that shoots people 50ft in the air to the centre of the map. There's no doubt this will be one of the best maps for Capture the Flag with Warthogs at the back of each base allowing you to drive across the open ground.
The final map is High Ground, a place littered with rooms and staircases, platforms and a number of open areas. Down by the water at the back of the map there's a couple of the Mongoose to drive, that let you to reach the other side of the map quickly, and there are plenty of places to hide and jump out on enemies.
These three maps show the diversity we can expect in the full game, and allow you to test out all the skills, from sniping to close combat, that you’ll need when the game arrives in September. Already, after only two days, I can't wait to see what other maps Bungie has up their sleeves.
Click for larger imageRanking
The true-skill ranking system makes a welcome return, but this time around you have two different ranks based on skill and experience. A number is shown next to your name which reflects your skill and currently it moves up and down depending on whether you win or lose matches. The second rank is a Military rank, such as private or corporal, which moves up as you gain experience on the battlefield and is denoted by the relevant symbol next to your name. There's a comprehensive stat summary at the end of each match, which allows you to view your kill ratio and how you’ve killed the opposition. There's the usual array of medals that you can collect throughout the game, such as double kill, 'assassin' (executing a melee attack from behind), and 'killjoy' (when you kill the person who is on a killing spree) and these medals do encourage you to try out new things in order to achieve them.
