Halo 3 Online is Broken
Blasphemy. Bungie are pioneers in matchmaking and everything online, but it seems in all their beta-testing and polishing of the game they left out a crucial ingredient - the ability to share the experience.
Making adjustments to the different multiplayer maps has been great fun this past weekend. I set up a variation of Valhalla with my favorite weapons and vehicles(Ghost + Grav Lift = FUN), but when I finished I was left both frustrated and confused. I sat in the custom game lobby looking for some option to host a game and wait for people to show up, but the option just wasn’t there. Figured I was just missing something, I had spent alot of time looking and wanted to just play a little CTF. Matchmaking in Halo has it’s own lingo, so I tried the flavor named “Big Team Battle” hoping for some CTF. Played all afternoon but no CTF. Found out what Oddball, VIP, and Team Slayer were all about, but no CTF.
Having no way to search for a specific gametype, I got tired of the multiplayer (again out of frustration) and figured I would try a little co-op. Had alot of fun over the summer playing as Dom in GOW, and I expected to just check out who had an open Campaign level going and just jump in. As owners of the game well know, I went looking for something that just wasn’t there. There is no way to search for a specific gametype, and no way to search for co-op games either. Want to play CTF on Valhalla next match? Tough Luck. 4 Player Co-op only happens if you have people on your friends list willing to play with you, same goes for custom multiplayer games and forge maps. Even then, you are required to send invites to each player individually before the game starts. I am 25 years of age. I have a handful of acquaintances that still play video games, let alone 15 other people that own this game and are playing at this very second. If I can’t call up a list of cool gametypes being played (Infection, Pirates, etc.) then what is the point of having them??
At this point I took my concerns online, but this is where it got ugly. I went to the Bungie forums to see if I was alone in my concerns, and of course I was not. The fact that there are people getting vocal about the issue isn’t surprising at all, its a legitimate gripe. It was the response from Bungie that got me rattled enough to post about the issue. They closed the thread recently after 35 pages worth of posts, check it out and let me know your opinion.
Posted by Erick - October 1st, 2007 -
October 1st, 2007 at 9:42 pm
get some people on your friendlist, fuckass. how do you expect to get friends? think they’re going to just magically appear in the party with you? matchmaking for a little while, then add anyone you play with.
October 1st, 2007 at 10:56 pm
He explains the friendlsit thing in the post. Why would someone who I played match making with with want to come to custom games? Unless your really skilled they will simply decline your request, then if they do accept what are the chances of them jsut wnating to mess around and play custom games? Honestly I am not a big custom game person, but I had the same problem in Halo 2 no true optimatch option. Optimatch does not mean I want to play some variant of this match on any map for any time that someone picks for me and I have no choice in (the new veto system is ok, but not good). It means I want to play a specific game type on a specific map maybe with specific starting weapons and time restrictions. Being able to choose whatto play is a key part of online gaming for me. I don’t care about rank or anything I jsut want to “play” meaning have fun and it is not fu nto play a game you don’t like.
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 am
Wow, that response was totally lame, I was also looking around for a way to get in a CG however I have to have internet friends to actually play.
Now, that they’ve sold out and they don’t care.
FUCK YOU BUNGIE
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:08 am
Bungie closed the first 2 threads saying petitions aren’t allowed and said if we wanted peoples opinons to start a poll. 1500 yes votes within 2 hours and the poll was closed down as well. Hopefully somebody at bungie is listening to us - this search thing is the reason I stopped playing Halo 2
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:13 am
Well, after the campaign, matchmaking will get old fast. Time to trade it in.
Vote with your dollars. Trade in your game.
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:15 am
why would anyone want to add people on their friends list just to have people to play costom games with? anyway, today i played shotty snipers and team slayer on narrows 6 times in a row. 6 times. shotty snipers is a pointless gametype as far as im concerned. why should i be forced to play the gametypes i dont like? sometimes i want a good old fashioned team slayer, but i end up getting vip over and over. why bungie is so hesitant to let us play what we want is beyond me. maybe they dont want to come to grips with the fact that most people dont like many of the game types.
also, being able to search costom games would make things a lot better. as it is, social games are the exact same as ranked, you just dont get exp from it. it seems like a simple feature, and bungie closing forums because of it just makes them look like prima donnas who want everyone to play their way, or dont play at all.
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:02 pm
If you want to play team slayer, choose it goddammit, read; TEAM SLAYER. Twat. The reason people don’t like some game types is because they suck at it, simple enough. And that is why such a big deal hates shotty snipers. I myself love shotty snipers. Just quit the game if you are such a faggot, you shouldnt bother the statistics since you cant handle different gametypes. Also if you are clever, get som players to join you, then it is much easier to veto the map and gametype. I bet there is many people who likes the so called hated gametypes, its just that those people doesnt spam the forums with, “I love this game type” in opposite of the shitty whiners “I hate this game type”
A custom game search would have been cool, I agree.
UGH!
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Don’t expect much support from Bungie or MS. They already sold $170 million worth in games so it not like they need to fix this issue to sell games. They have their money and now they are just gonna spend time rolling around in it
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:58 pm
torulv you are a loser. You aren’t in any way homosexual for liking certain gametypes over others and you should be able to choose the gametype and map that you please. Gears’ online is 10000000 times better than halo because halo is such a pain in the ass. Not saying i hate halo, i think halo is more fun when you get into the game you want to be in but that happens 1 in 5 times.
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:28 pm
This is a sad editorial in so many ways. The moral of the story is, get some friends on LIVE. Halo MP is not broken, that’s just how it works - for a number of reasons (including to prevent cheating - is that why you insist on hosting the game? cheater). Its the same basic structure as Halo 2, did you ever play that one?
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Gears is a fun game. The one thing that makes halo better than any other game is that you can get matched up against people you don’t know very quickly. I have spent more than 30 minutes trying to get a full game on gears. You join “hey this is fun” two people on your team quit. I invite my friends…Still no answer. You end up playing against 3 or 4 people by your self for 5 rounds until you get back to the lobby. Halo also has alot more gametypes than other games. Yes some of them might not be as fun as CTF. I am a big fan of CTF. My bet is they want people to try out the new gametypes to get used to them. They have been playing them for over a year now and know if they are fun or not. My bet is they will adjust the playlists in a few weeks to give people more of what they like. Even if we could search for custom games, I would never use the feature. It’s always a pain to find a game that has a full roster of people that actually want to play. In matchmaking you get a full game and people that are actually competing, almost every time.
October 2nd, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I’d still like to host a forge map I built so I can have live people to test it out instead of whoever happens to stop by the house. I’d also like to play some random people on campaign with the scoring turned on. With the current system I can’t do that, and the guys I normally play with have families and aren’t always on. Being able to fill custom games and campaign lobbies with random people should be an included option. Just cause Halo 2 shares this flaw doesn’t make it right. I still heart bungie - just not matchmaking as it is 2day
October 2nd, 2007 at 4:06 pm
It’s funny to read these responses and pick out who the true halo fanboys are. The bottom line is that they needed to make the game so that people would want to play it. Everyone has their preferred setup and should have the ability to play that all day if they want. It’s ridiculous to think that a feature that has been around since the beginning of online games, and I’m talking PC online games too, is something that wasn’t included in the game. I don’t entirely understand the logic. Not wanting to play anything but CTF and Slayer doesn’t make you any less skilled, it just means that’s what you want to play. Bungie dropped the ball on this. Halo always made up for it’s C-Grade single player with A-Grade multiplayer, and they had the easy opportunity to add a simple feature that would make their game even more popular and not only did they ignore it, they will refuse to acknowledge that it would be a good addition forever. The imbessilic forum post by their moderator is proof of that. “If you don’t like it, don’t play it.”
I think that the gamers could get their way though… because the real money they want to make on Halo is going to be the downloadables from live. That is mostly profit and they want a ton of players to be on and make those purchases.
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:33 pm
perhaps bgie is taking some advice from EA. Promise a lot deliver little. the sidebar’s on co-op is pure garbage. the story line is weak. the game feels like more of the same as if a carbon copy of Halo 2 in HD.
the matchmaking sucks just like it sucked in halo 2. not being able to search for custom game types shows that bgie is getting weaker with their skillz.
What makes this even funnier is the fact that bgie said they were making sure they did h3 right. Well…. from the looks of it… they are far from getting it right and are now turning into arrogant jackasses against the community that put them where they are.
Then again… they are an arm of M$ and over the years M$ has screwed over countless consumers with their horrid customer support and seriously faulty system.
perhaps the new era of gaming is putting out more and more incomplete games on incomplete systems.
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Yeah, but if you want to be able to enjoy a game type, you will more likely not like what you are playing if your not able to play it properly, or do what is intended. Take EVE Online for instance, though it is a bad example it proves my point. Many people gets a 14 day free trail of the game, its too complex so they gives up after just a hour or so.
And as you say noodles, since Bungie actually has tried all of these game types for the millionth time they know they can be fun, people just seem to be way to “ethnocentric” to the new game types, as quickly as they are head shotted in shotty snipers.
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Would you listen to a Rock playlist if you couldn’t choose the tracks? Would you go to a good restaurant if you couldn’t choose from the menu?? I don’t care how good the clams are I want a steak!!!
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:31 pm
i think what some of you who read this article arent listening at all. the whole get more friends idea is understandibly a viable option for this guy to do. however maybe he doesnt want to spend some time in matchmaking befriending 12 - 18 year olds to play custom games with. or better yet, and to the idiot that first responded, i and many others are pissed by the fact that you cant host or show your custom games across xbox live. why you ask? maybe cause thats what FUCKIN BUNGIE SAID halo 3 would be able to do. im not sure whether it was is the multiplayer documentary or the latest one that came out but they said that people would be able to post games online to show to others so random gamers could join and play custom games. that was a HUGE reason i wanted this game and why many gamers on many forums were saying that this game will blow people away. imagine the multitude of amazing videos of what so many gamers could accomplish in forge games hosted online. that is why people are pissed. so to say that halo 3 is broken is in a way false. i dont wanna say that its broken cause i feel what they put in is exceptional with the exception of the theater(mine always freezes when i play movie for my party). but halo 3 is unfinished as of the fact that the ability to show and host custom game/forge games online is not in the game. they need to put out a patch or adress why they said they would put it in but then decided to change there minds before sale and never inform the consumers that their product they’ve waited so long for will now be delivered unfinished.
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:01 pm
I can see how you want to join games of certain types. I just think it would create the situation that I pointed out before that happens in alot of other games, when you join and end up playing on 4 vs 3 or 4 vs 2. If you could just pick a game type then it might limit people in matchmaking. That would make it harder to get a game. Most of the time when I play in matchmaking at this point I am thinking “what gametype am I going to play that I haven’t played yet”. I have a feeling the bungie playlist will evolve soon as bungie and users get adjusted to halo 3.
Oh and I thought I would point out that what Bungie said before the game came out, was that you can share gametypes that you have built in Forge. If you sign in on bungie.net you can download gametypes that people have made in forge or gametypes your friends have made. I think that is what they were meaning with what you said in your last post.
No its not perfect…. but I still think its much better and easier to use than any other game on live finding fun competitive games. One easy way to find people to custom game with is to look in your recent players list. If they are joinable then they will have an arrow next to their name and you could hit a custom game with them… I personally like to hit x and party up after matchmaking games to get when I get with a good group of people…
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:09 pm
And if you have established a party with two or three players, it will be a question of time when the game is full. That if all of you three invite everybody on your friend list or latest players. It’s a chain reaction with the friends of your friends of your friends etc…
To set up a custom game fairly quick isn’t really that hard.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
having Friends is the key part of participating in 4-player action.
Halo 3 really is the best online game I have ever played…and there are plenty of friends who play Halo 3.
In fact, there have been several times I got online when ALL of my friends were playing Halo 3!!! That is absolutely amazing!!!
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:32 am
We are still fighting this over at Bungie.net. Bungie made a new statement calling us a “minority”.
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=13328278&postRepeater1-p=1
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:28 am
Michael Zoran, you need to play more online games. The Unreal Tournament series, Counter-Strike, Quake 3, Rainbow Six 1 and Rogue Spear, Tribes, The Battlefield series, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Gears of War, Call of Duty, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day are all examples of great online shooters. They all have great support for connecting with your friends, while simultaneously having a lobby system that allowed a user to decide how they wanted to play the games.
I’m all for making new friends and such, but it’s ludicrous for that to be the only option.
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:19 am
I cant help but to laugh at u guys! They played this game up all year and for what! All you guys have is problems with the xbox! Between the red ring of death and this pile of crap you guys need to trade in all that junk and buy a ps3! Do you hear any one having problems with Warhawk? NO!
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:01 am
It’s not a problem. It’s what people prefer.
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:11 pm
^obviously not.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
You have to be kidding me? Essentially bitching about not having any friends as if thats the designers fault, is quite possibly the lamest thing I’ve ever heard. Make some friends, add them to list, play. Quite a simple equation really.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Why should I need friends to play CTF whenever I want? I’ve never had to do this for any other game thats all. Quake 4 I could choose what I wanted to play, same went for COD2 GRAW 1 and 2, Gears and Perfect Dark. Just confused why a standard feature for online shooters was left out, considering this is supposed to be the best out there
October 5th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
actua;;y people did have problems with warhawk and lair…they sucked lol
October 8th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Why wouldn’t Bungie put something like this in. I work and do other things besides play video games and when I do find time to play, I would like to play the game type match that I would like to play. Sure I have xbox live friends. No they are not always on, nor always playing the same game, and despite what some loudmouths may believe, having friends online doesn’t mean they are always going to want to play with you. I have played Rainbow six Vegas and they have it, Call of duty 3 has it, why not Halo 3. The Campaign was great and because of this small exclusion the multilayer is just ok. Sure the few times you actually get to play a team slayer thats not shotty snipers or rockets are fun, but the fun becomes old when thats all that you end up playing. Oh and because you cant host custom games, forge is useless unless you have brothers or sisters to play it with.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:21 am
Scenario:
“Matchmaking” pairs me up with a bunch of corporals and sergeants against captains and a major. First minute of game, 2 of the 5 guys on my team quit because they’re getting their asses kicked.
Now it’s 5 officers against 3 enlisted, and I have to finish the losing battle just so I don’t lose experience. Any more bullshit like this, and I’ll just stop giving a crap about EXP or SKILL, and I’ll be tempted to just drop bad games and ruin it for everyone else.
Is it too much to ask that they divide the *WHOLE* party up by skill to make it even? At least on Social matches. I thought the whole idea behind matchmaking was to match up players of similar skill?
December 6th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Hey Erick, Noodles, your right.
I had a similar experience to yourself. After playing a few totally random (but fun) games, I thought id have a crack at creating a custom game. So i created my level, which took forever to get the hang of. I placed my spawn points, I set my vehicles and I set my weapons. Then I set the gametype and tweaked the options. Finally I sat down to wait in the lobby in the hope that someone would join me. No joy. I looked about for an option to matchmake. Nothing. So, ok, you can invite your friends to a custom game, but the thing is, despite what Torulv and Manny say, I dont have a queue of friends who log on to Halo and just sit about in the hope that i will turn up and create a custom game. They are playing other games and me jumping from window to window inviting a stream of people while making the others who have joined the lobby wait for an age, while the others finish up their current games, just seems like bad design to me. As a result it can take for ever to get a custom game started. Not a good thing surely?
Also frankly, I would love to be able to precisely select the type of game that I want to play. Why should I have to wait in a lobby, wait for players to arrive, only to find that i have to play on snowbound again for the 8th time? As you guys say, these requirements are not cruel and unusual, they are the basis of almost every multiplayer FPS game in existance.
Well thats me for the time being
January 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am
Ok, heres wut I think, right now I dont think there is anything wrong with the way Matchmaking is setup, but I also do agree that it will get old fast if left the way it is setup already. MY suggestion (which probably won’t make a difference anyway) is that it should be setup like SOCOM Combined Assualt for Playstation. I love the way they have it set. The friends list and the clans list. They have many different servers setup so that people can either create a game or join one that is already created. When you create a game you decide what maps should be in the rotation, why type of game it is, the weapons you can and can’t use, time limit, vehicles on/off, freindly fire on/off, respawn on/off and even the amnount of time before you can respawn, night/day, etc. Even in CO-OP mode its the same thing. Also because there are so many people who play, there are always many different options of games so there will always be something you like. You never have to just sit there and wonder wut the hell is coming next and then get pissed off if its sumthin like Team Rockets or sumthin like that. But thats just my opinion and suggestion. So either way the game is fun, could use some improvements, but I guess we’ll just have to see if Bungie even does care wut the consumer thinks like Zipper Interactive cares and takes notice to the requests and concerns of SOCOM players.
(HALO 3: Silncer21
SOCOM CA: Ultimate_Pain
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 am
i play cod online (pc) works perfectly choice wise. i like to go in a game. play then come out. i dont see why i have to make friends and talk / listen a load of bigheaded crap through a game. i like to choose my own game type.