High Hopes for Online Play in Halo 3 on the Xbox 360

Every gamer in the world that owns an Xbox 360 has been awaiting the release of Bungies third installment in the Halo trilogy Halo 3, and now there is a definitive release date of September 25, 2007. With this new game on the Xbox 360 gamers have wondered about online play. Obviously the game is going to be capable of being run on Xbox live, but just what kinds of changes can we expect in comparison to Halo 2

Halo 2 was the first game by Bungie to go online for the Xbox and was met with wide acceptance. Halo 2 changed the way games were produced and introduced everyone to an online gaming community that was unlike anything we had ever seen. Their matchmaking system is unrivaled even to this day in the online world, with fair competitive matches and clan support. But with all of this good there came the bad, like cheating modding, and glitching, all of which gamers hope Halo 3 will do well to avoid.

Halo 2 saw a lot of cheaters playing online. These players were exploiting devices and flaws in the game that would change the game play in their favor. Such cheating tactics included the standby cheat, a flaw with the Xbox system. Players that are going to have Halo 3 are hoping that Bungie has fixed this problem and added increased security in their game that will prevent such flaws.

Modding is another problem players faced in Halo 2. This problem was so out of control in fact that Bungi did away with the leader board feature of their website because this was the ultimate goal of modders, to achieve the number one spot. Modders still run rampant in Halo 2 exploiting security flaws and game glitches allowing them to gain advantage, as well as exploiting hardware modifications to enhance their weapons, and characters shield, movements and more. With Halo 2 being on the Xbox 360 and being Bungies second online game gamers are hopeful that these problems have been addressed and dealt with. Modds will always find their way into games, but the Xbox 360 seems to be the hardware that will limit their capability.

Glitching has always been a problem in games, and Halo 2 was no different, but gamers hope Halo 3 will be. In Halo 2 players could use the Super Jump and Super Bounce Glitches to gain advantage during game play, but hopefully Bungie now understands how these glitches were found and exploited so that they can rectify the problem in halo 3. Gamers are hopeful that there will be no more problems like this in the new game, although many are skeptical that not every glitch can be addressed and buffed out of a game.

Halo 3 is going to be an amazing game for the Xbox 360 and now that the hardware is more secure the software should follow suite. Either way we'll all find out September 25.