Halo: Reach multiplayer detailed

By Tom Bramwell Published 19 March, 2010

Matchmaking changes, leagues, all sorts.

Bungie has detailed multiplayer changes planned for Halo: Reach ahead of the upcoming beta test, which kicks off on 3rd May.

Speaking to Shacknews, the developer outlined plans for improved social options, matchmaking and giving hardcore players stuff to do once they max out.

The best and most frequent players will want to focus on Arena, where they jostle for position in five skill divisions over month-long seasons.

Matches will focus on Slayer and Team Slayer playlists, and in order to qualify players will need to gain a certain number of "Daily Rankings", each of which requires a certain number of games to be played a day.

Once you're in a division you'll be able to move up and down, and even get promoted or relegated, based on determinations derived from your number of kills, kill/death ratio, assists and other factors.

As well as giving the hardcore players impetus to keep playing even when they max everything out, Arena should also mean it's easier for new players to avoid being matched with opponents way beyond their skill level.

Meanwhile, everyone should benefit from changes to the way Halo: Reach lets you keep track of friends and play together.

You'll be able to see information on what your friends are doing within the game, rather than having to use the Xbox 360 Guide, and rather than waiting for a friend's match to finish and then joining manually, you can tell Reach to automatically pair you up when your friend becomes available.

Reach also streamlines partying-up, and treats groups a bit more intelligently. For example, if you're in a group of four and want a four-on-four game, Reach will try and find suitably skilled opposition.

But if you're in a group of six looking for a four-on-four, it may split you across the two teams because it's more likely that you're just trying to have some fun together.

There will also be more voting options, allowing you to favour more combinations of things you want to do, rather than having to vote down things you would actually be quite happy playing.

Not content with all that, matchmaking will be more customisable, so you can try and avoid bad connections, look for players of differing skill levels, and even find people speaking your language.

Halo: Reach is due out this autumn and you can read our X10 Halo: Reach preview elsewhere. The beta begins on 3rd May and will be open to anyone who bought Halo 3: ODST, and to loyal Halo 2 fans.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • altitude2k #1 2 years ago

    All very welcome changes, although this friends queuing thing where you join a friend in a game as soon as they are available - I don't really understand the benefit. Surely you'd still have to wait around to join the game, or (even worse) automatically pop out of the game you're in to meet them?

  • matrim83 #2 2 years ago

    I think the point of the friends queue thingy is that you can keep playing your games and they can keep playing theirs and the first chance both of you are not ingame it will automatically put you together. Nice idea if you dont want to sit in the lobby for 10 minutes.

    Best thing about the new MP matchmaking is the new veto system. The old one was not very good. I would veto one average map/gametype only to often end up in a worse map/gametype.

  • altitude2k #3 2 years ago

    @matrim83

    Ah I see, yeah that would make more sense - especially if you can set it to automatically join anyone in your friends list when you are both available.

  • stuarty_2003 #4 2 years ago

    @matrim83 9 times out of 10 I would veto and end up on Team BRs on Isolation.

  • matrim83 #5 2 years ago

    Oh god I hate Isolation with a passion. 80% of the time I couldnt even see who was shooting at me. Worst map in Halo 3 by far.

  • altitude2k #6 2 years ago

    The veto tool in Halo 3 was a good idea in theory, but was extremely flawed. Especially the uselessness of having to wait for it to complete the countdown regardless of whether more than half of the people had vetoed in the first 2 seconds!

  • matrim83 #7 2 years ago

    And not mention loading the map before the vote. Whose idea was that?

  • altitude2k #8 2 years ago

    Yes, that too!

  • metalangel #9 2 years ago

    Having it automatically connect you to a friend's game when a server slot opens up is great. I only wish they'd thought to put it into Bad Company 2.

  • Shadders #10 2 years ago

    Isolation's ok for objective, it's a really good Assault map imo.

  • altitude2k #11 2 years ago

    What I really dislike is the use of Last Resort for slayer. It's a great map for objectives, but far too often I end up playing standard slayer. It's just not the map for that.

  • HandsomeCrab #12 2 years ago

    Can you also filter out 12 year old Americans who yell "VETO!! Veto! ohmygod I hate this map, VETO!! Oh god you fags, VETO!!!"

    That would be nice.

  • matrim83 #13 2 years ago

    You know I have played some gametypes and maps that I dislike just to annoy those fucktards. Yes I am petty like that. :D

    Honest answer, use the fricking mute button. It takes 2-3 seconds tops.

  • SwitchBladeUK #14 2 years ago

    Wow this awesome! Can't wait for the beta now, I'm happily aboard the hype train :)

  • Skooch #15 2 years ago

    "Not content with all that, matchmaking will be more customisable, so you can try and avoid bad connections, look for players of differing skill levels, and even find people speaking your language."

    Make it possible to play games within your own country, or even continent, and the world will be a happier place!

  • Yossarian #16 2 years ago

    You can already search for closest connections in Halo 3.

  • Yossarian #17 2 years ago

    The Halo 3 beta was three weeks, if you didn't get into it early through F&F, and then they extended it a little to compensate for the delay in getting started via Crackdown.

  • Lebowski #18 2 years ago

    "E-I-E-I-E-I-O, up the Halo league we go."

  • udat #19 2 years ago

    Can you also look for players over 18? That would be lovely :p

  • bodypopper #20 2 years ago

    Any chance of removing the friends-only limit from Firefight in ODST Bungie? I'm not friendless, but few of my friends have the game or are online at the same time as me. If Gears can do it why not Halo?
    Edited by 1 at 19/03/10 @ 12:10

  • seanthejackal #21 2 years ago

    meh

  • HoriZon #22 2 years ago

    How about drop in drop out gaming eh Bungie!! all other games manage this.

  • Yossarian #23 2 years ago

    I (and most people who play Halo a lot) wouldn't want drop-in, drop-out for matchmaking (you can do it in custom games, obviously, and that's fine), and it won't happen for co-op/Firefight unless they've made significant alterations to the way those work (the netcode in anything based off campaign has to synchronize between players, rather than using host/client, which is why it has "slow motion" lag rather than the ordinary kind).

  • bumgut #24 2 years ago

    Matchmaking in firefight and campaign co-op please

  • RedSparrows #25 2 years ago

    Drop in drop out would change Halo so much. Each game is much more focused and taut because of it. Good or bad, your call.