• Get more out of your Xbox. Join our online community.
• Love a good natter? Have your say in our buzzing forums.
• Manage your gamer profile and create gamer cards at My Xbox.

• Halo 3
• Rainbow Six Vegas
• Call of Duty 4
• Xbox LIVE
• Xbox.com Forums

Halo 3 Multiplayer Hands-on

As thousands of Spartans around the world prepare for battle, we tracked down a copy of the game to run through the multiplayer side of things. Prepare yourselves – there’s more to Halo than ever before as Xbox LIVE gaming is set a new bar in Halo 3.

With so many gamers still slugging it out on Halo 2, you’ll be happy to hear that Halo 3 brings with it the best of its predecessor and adds some awesome new tricks to the bargain. Whether you’re the kind of player who likes to take the fight to your friends or someone who wants to share the experience of felling a Hunter on Legendary difficulty with just a pistol, you can do it all in Halo 3.

Playing with friends has always been something we’ve enjoyed – while testing our mettle against one another is fun, the big new feature for us is in four player co-operative play over LIVE. Now you don’t need to wait for your friends to come over to play a game of Halo co-op,  just summon them from your friends list on Xbox LIVE and you can get working on those achievements. If you’re feeling really brave, you can take on the Legendary difficulty as a team and see how long you can survive – it’s a great way to share the best of Halo with your friends.

When you and your friends are feeling confident after taking on the Covenant, the big challenge to any Spartan is in the competitive game types.  When you get going on these modes, you’ll be able to customise either a Spartan or an Elite with insignia, call signs and character models to put fear into your opponents. Then it’s a simple case of choosing a game in the lobby system and doing your best. If you find it too easy or too tough to start with, stick with it as the in-built matchmaking system learns more about your ability.

After a few games, you’ll find yourself in teams of the same level of skill with just the right combination of challenge and fun in the mix. You’ll also be able to record and replay your favourite moments in multiplayer and share them with your friends over Xbox LIVE. Add to this the ranking system, similar to Rainbow Six Vegas and Call of Duty 4 with all sorts of character model unlocks and tasty bonuses and you’ve got years of fun wrapped up here!

Once you’ve played a few matches with friends over LIVE, you’ll find even more to do with the Forge.  This is an all-new option for Halo 3 gamers which enables you and a party of friends to tweak spawn points, weapon placements and objects in the map to build entirely unique gamescapes. You can move vehicles, weapons, crates and cover wherever you like then play that map together. What’s more, you’ll be able to upload your forged maps to Xbox LIVE and share it with your other friends. Map builders and clans will love the Forge.

We really enjoyed our session with Halo 3 multiplayer – we look forward to seeing you on Xbox LIVE soon!