Bungie Reveals Halo: Reach Matchmaking Features

The beta test for Halo: Reach is set to begin on May 3 for owners of Halo 3: ODST. Until today, Bungie has been tight-lipped about new features and improvements coming to Reach's multiplayer game, releasing only one multiplayer trailer.

Yesterday, Shacknews spoke with the team at Bungie for a preview of some of the new features for Halo: Reach's multiplayer offering, including Active Roster, Queue-Joining, and the extremely exciting "Arena" system.

[Jedward-]

Yawn about as impressive as grey paint.

[swice]

About as impressive as your mom. And DAMN was it good....

[HarveyB]

i think you were talking about that monochrome, sluggish shooter killzone 2.

[Kalowest]

Reach will be MP of the year.

[STICKzophrenic]

I agree completely.

It sounds like Bungie is implementing a lot of useful features.

May 3rd is going to be awesome with the beta, and Fall will be even better when the game releases.

[Bnet343]

I love the way Bungie always innovates with these cool little features in all their Halo games. That matchmaking lobby looks so sleek. I really can't wait for this game, it will be awesome. I mean, I'm going down the list reading all these improvements, I must say, Bungie really loves to polish their games and make it easy for players to play against each other and team up flawlessly. I really love the work they do I really can't wait for Halo Reach. The new voting system is my fav new feature.

[AAACE5]

I lost interest in Halo after Halo 2... actually in the middle of Halo 2's story mode. But this is the first Halo game that I am actually excited about!

[Kalowest]

Now i have to go buy ODST, to play the REACH Beta.

[StanLee]

Matchmaking is almost limitlessly detailed it's crazy?! I want to see how well it works! Man, glad I kept ODST. Now if can only finish the damn game.

[JokesOnYou]

Bungie is awesome, Halo3 is still to this day untouchable when it comes to features in a fps....and they are once again raising the bar with Reach. I'm waiting on the beta as if it was a full AAA game release.

JOY

[iFLOWLIKEWATER]

This sh*t sounds expensive, lol...

[edgeofblade]

Now, THIS is undeniably innovative. You can hate on Halo. It might not be your thing. But if you can't see a new benchmark in multiplayer, you're blind.

[Another One]

Bungie has undeniably been the console leader as far as innovation of the matchmaking system is concerned. The fact that they are improving on what was a pretty great MM experience is a testament to that. The new features are amazing.

And like I said in another comment; I don't think we've seen the half of it yet.

[LEGENDARY PELON]

Bungie is Boss when making a matchmaking system!

Lets take a look at Halo 3!

Forge mode!
Theatre mode!
Lag free match making!

Most played game on XBL for 07/08/09!

Now i never thought that another game could top that,
but now that i see this article, Reach seems to do all this and more!!

[Tony P]

I'm not and probably never will be a big fan of Halo or FPS in general, but I admire that Bugie have tried to outdo themselves in the MP arena.

[The Lazy One]

People drastically underestimate how much bungie has done for out of game interaction. They really do a lot to get you in a fun game quickly. I made a video on it once. From turning on the 360 to the start of a match it was something like 1.5 minutes (including load times). It's a lot less when you've already been playing. It's a totally under-appreciated feature of a lot of games that do it right.

I really like what they're doing to promote both competitive and casual gamers.

[JonnyBadfinger]

I want to hear more about the betrayal booting and stuff. because as a serial team killing offender i want to know i wont get kicked on my first hilarious betrayal. I love having some 5 star General on my team and watching him rush the sniper rifle and get the first 5 kills of the game to just be splattered by me in my warthog.

Halo is the only game i can play without getting angry. Halo has moments which can never be re-created in any other game. For this reason its my favourite MP game of all time.

The way i look at betrayals is... its worth being kicked and loosing EXP, for that 5 mins of laughing your arse off. And yet on Bungie.net my K/D ratio is still 1.97... pretty decent considering i dont take the game seriously.

[vhero]

A good game doesn't need matchmaking features to make a game even look at bad company for an example no matter what the skill of your opponents you can still win with a bit of cunning and luck and thats what makes a game fun. GOTY?? hmmm dunno about that but it will sell millions because of the Halo name thats for sure no matter if it's good or not but I have no doubt it won't look much differnt from the last 2 Halo games when its actually finished. Maybe new features but graphics wise much of the same..

[SixZeroFour]

actually more like "looks" wise, more of the same, cause you know it IS a halo game and ppl ARE expecting to see the same characters...however "graphics" wise, itll be much different, and you can tell with side by side screens of any of the halo game with reach and you can tell its graphically better than any of them

[edgeofblade]

I'm not sure you are capable of saying something nice about Halo without adding an off-topic jab at the franchise.

This is an article about MULTIPLAYER FEATURES. Not graphics. And to address your "concerns", fun multiplayer features like these will carry a game for years and years. Graphics will only carry your game for a few months.

Now, which one is really more important to the big picture?

[S4NDM4N]

This is what Halo 3 should have been.

Halo3 sucked balls. Halo CE and Halo 2 were awesome. Reach looks awesome

[-MD-]

Give me 3 good reasons why Halo 3 sucked.

[Sitdown]

what Halo 3 should have been, with what you wanted it to be; Halo 3 is exactly what it should have been...and Reach will expand upon the game/series that so many have come to love.

[webeblazing]

i can see this guy dont like the truth and i feel the same way this what h3 should of been. then again they could of copied every thing from h3 and people still act like they push it to the limit.

[ryhanon]

I've never much understood why *anyone* prefers Halo 2 to Halo 3. Halo 2 was easily the worst of the bunch in my opinion. Even worse than ODST. The campaign was ridiculous, the introduction of the Arbiter was sloppy and took many out of the story... the Brutes were not fun or interesting to fight and the boss battles were cliched, hokey and just did not feel right at all... And let's not forget about the completely obnoxious cliff-hanger ending. As for the MP, it was ruined by the dual-wielding which was so over-used that nobody used grenades to any worthwhile effect anymore, and those that didn't dual-wield used nothing but the BR/PP combo. It was unbalanced and ridiculous.

Halo 3 improved the campaign by refocusing on the Master Chief, making better enemies out of the Brutes and (mostly) abandoning the hokey boss battles and offering a satisfying ending to the trilogy. MP was improved on because the dual-wielding was no longer as prevalent and the weapons were rebalanced to avoid all of the issues that plagued Halo 2 MP.

[Another One]

I couldn't agree more. And you didn't even mention the modding, glitches and horrible button combos.

All of these options in Reach are looking great. The beta can't come soon enough.

[Bnet343]

I think the reason people might think Halo 2 is the best is because when it came out, it was ahead of it's time. It had good graphics, matchmaking, good online, etc. Things never seen on consoles games before. I also thought it was the worst one single player wise, but I love all three games. Halo 3 is certainly not the worst.

[cemelc]

1-The ending was weak.
2-The final levels lack polish (example: the last run with the car).
3-Not a big leap in graphics from the xbox 1.
3-The plot was terrible.
3-Never develop any characters at all.
3-Terrible AI.
3-You have to read a book to know that the flood have a hive like mind (never been told in any of the games, i blame it on the 3rd game cos it was it last chance to tell something about the flood).
3-In the games you never know who the forerunners are(again you have to read a book or watch halo legends for that one).

And you mean to tell me that the game wasn't terrible???. It was a rushed mess.

The multiplayer is the same as the second with X button weapons, so no complains about that.

[The Maxx]

1 - "The ending was weak." No it wasn't. It was the 2nd best ending in the series and I enjoyed it very much.
2 - "The final levels lack polish (example: the last run with the car)." - The last level with the car was on the same graphical level as the whole game. Not sure what you are talking about.
3 - "Not a big leap in graphics from the xbox 1." - May not be a big leap in graphics, but it was a "Leap" as you say and Gameplay > Graphics
3 - "The plot was terrible." Review answer #1. Looks like you are running out of reasons.
3 - "Never develop any characters at all." - WRONG. The Arbiter, Hive Mind and Cortana all developed character wise since Halo 1 which is more than I can say about KZ 2 "character development"
4 - "You have to read a book to know that the flood have a hive like mind (never been told in any of the games, i blame it on the 3rd game cos it was it last chance to tell something about the flood)." - WRONG. The Hive Mind was introduced in Halo 2. You did not need to read the book.
5 - "Terrible AI." AI was perfectly fine. You're nitpicking.
6 - "In the games you never know who the forerunners are(again you have to read a book or watch halo legends for that one)." WRONG AGAIN. The Forerunners are mentioned and explained in Halo 3 AND Halo Wars. Get with the program. Are you sure you even PLAYED the series?

"And you mean to tell me that the game wasn't terrible???. It was a rushed mess." - For a guy who doesn't know what he is talking about and seems to have ONLY PLAYED Halo 3 with no knowledge of the back story - maybe to you it was rubbish but those who followed the series (HALO 1, 2 and 3) would have known all those things you stated that you didn't know.

[Kalowest]

You said H3 was rushed, H3 took 3yrs to make just like H1 and H2, and yes your comrades have very low AI, but the covenants AI is smart as hell.

@The Maxx: You took pwnd to a whole new level, lol

[ryhanon]

1 - To each his own I guess. I thought the ending was pretty great myself. Definitely not my favorite ending of all time or anything (Marathon, another Bungie game, takes that honor), but it was satisfying, which is saying more than a lot of games.
2 - I won't go so far as to say the last levels lack polish, but I will agree with you on the warthog run at the end. It was a nice throwback to the original game, but it wasn't as well done.
3 - I thought the graphics were pretty good, but you're right, it was not a huge leap. That said, graphics never defined a game for me, it's all about the gameplay, and Halo 3's gameplay is polished beyond belief.
Next 3 - Eh, the plot is not especially deep, that's true. I would never call it terrible though. To me, a terrible plot is something that has massive plot holes or that I couldn't care less about. I was engaged just as much to the Halo plot as I am with most blockbuster movies - it doesn't have to be Shawshank, it just has to be fun.
Other 3 - Really? Sgt. Johnson, Keyes (both of them), Cortana, Arbiter, Prophets, etc... really? The Master Chief was never developed all that much (unless you read the books, etc), but neither was Gordan Freeman.
Yet another 3 - I'm going to have to call shenanigans on you now. The only legitimate complaint about the AI in my opinion is that the Brutes are still not as fun to fight as the Elites were. But if we're still comparing Halo 3 to Halo 2, you cannot seriously try to argue that the AI is better in Halo 2. All the Brutes did in that game was charge you without any regard to their own safety. Hell, you could even get them to charge directly off a cliff they were so stupid.
Your last two 3's - Sorry, but you're flat out wrong. The hive mind was hinted at as early as Halo 1, and explicitly shown in Halo 2. Remember the Gravemind? This was very clearly laid out. As for the Forerunners, they were mentioned and briefly touched on as early as the second level in Halo 1 and we were provided bits and pieces throughout Halo 1 and 2 until finally we were given a great deal of their back story in the form of the Terminals spread throughout the final levels of Halo 3. Apparently when you played the game you didn't pay attention to anything you couldn't shoot.

[webeblazing]

halo fan dont like nobody to criticize they game for nothing but love to criticize others im surprise they even bother adding things to this series

[hamoor]

(im surprise they even bother adding things to this series)
wrong
that would be cod for sure

[webeblazing]

dont get me started on cod, but good point tho.

ryhanon u got some good points to. i think just expecting too much from halo cant wait 4 reach cuz theres not alot of coop games like they use to be. beers, green, and this game its gonna is gonna have me and my friends hogging the livingroom lol

[TheSadTruth]

@ above

2) Gameplay > Graphics for sure, but that doesn't change the fact Microsoft's flagship title had mediocre graphics.

And the gameplay isn't exactly top notch, most Halo enthusiasts like myself consider it a step down from Halo 1 and Halo 2. A lot of the great nuances from the first 2 were scrapped, the overall gamespeed was lowered, and the launch maps, aside from (I think it was called lockdown) were garbage

The plot WAS terrible. It has no cohesion or purpose. There was no fully fleshed and intriguing story, it was go here and do that. I'm going to randomy rescue Cortana now. The story was not up to par, for again, a flashship Xbox 360 title. It was amateurish.

Halo 3 was rushed. There were several bugs with custom games. The graphics did not improve over beta. The custom games browser was SCRAPPED.

Halo 3 sacrificed gameplay and graphics, for scope and features. Either Bungie is a mediocre developer that only cares about milking the casual gamer now, or the 360 isn't powerful enough to support a 60 fps quality FPS. Since Bungie developed Marathon, Myth, Halo 1 and 2 , I'm going to go with the latter.

You kids can stop being fanboys (why are you bringing up KZ2?) Not everyone that is dissatisfied with Halo 3 is a PS3 gamer.

If you were a true fan like me, and read EVERY SINGLE WEEKLY UPDATE for 2 YEARS. You would understand. All the hype, Bungie having unlimited funds from Microsoft, a state of the art studio. There is absolutely no excuse for such mediocrity.

Halo 3 didn't just make me give up on Bungie, it made me give up on console gaming

[vhero]

No Halo since Combat Evolved (the first game) has even touched the sides and sold off the Halo name. Anybody who says different is either a fanboy or doesn't know his Shooter from his RPG. This will no doubt be the same it will be another average shooter that will sell off the Halo name.. You can hit me with your disagrees but deep down you know its true and that's what hurts. While games like Killzone and resistance get better with every release Halo actually gets worse..

[QuantumWake]

Awesome stuff! Man, the UI looks really slick. Can't wait to play the Beta! :D

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

Looks good.

[Hands Up For Games]

They really are pulling out all the stops, eh?

Roll on the Beta!!

[DecoyOctopus]

cant wait for the beta! it's gonna be sick!

[TROLL EATER]

reach will have MP of the decade

[BeaArthur]

I'm curious about this ranked and social combined. I mean is the game going to determine whether you want to be in a ranked or social match for you? No matter how they do it, it sounds like these features are going to be much more helpful in helping the player find the right type of matches.

[Another One]

That's something I'm a little curious about also.

No one can deny that Bungie offers the greatest amount of features for any FPS out there. I'm sure we don't even know the half of it yet either.

[BeaArthur]

I'm kind of thinking that they might try to match you more with players of your own skill class no matter what game mode you play (ranked or unranked). Because I will admit that is kind of annoying when you have clans that will practice in the social slayer or objective game modes and you get pitted against people who are high 40's and your on a team with some 14's and a couple of 20's.

[Another One]

That would be a smart move. If you're going to go into social and just mess around and have fun, you shouldn't have to get destroyed by a team of Generals. You should play people with similar skill.

Still unsure of how the social/ranked being combined will work though.

[TROLL EATER]

HALO REACH will no doubt be topping xbox live list for years to come

[commodore64]

One thing that really matters that people always forget when they argue about 'teh best graphics' is that the Halo series has always been extremely involving and just plain pure un-adulterated FUN!

The success of the sales of the series and its popularity on xlive suggest that there is nary a game that is quite so much fun, overall.

Sure, haters will hate
.. but gamers, well... they play Halo.
Consumers always vote with their wallets and the votes for Halo keep piling up.

Halo single player, multiplayer.
It's just FUN!

By the looks Halo Reach will raise the bar for gamers in every respect.
Awesome.

[Al Bundy]

Sounds good. They have to make up for that lack of match making crap in firefight for ODST.

[BeaArthur]

Absolutely. Firefight was such a great game mode but unless you have friends online you are SOL. If they have it in Reach (and I would be surprised if they don't), they need to have matchmaking for it.

[Gimped Hardware]

Dude, you really need to get a life and stop trolling in the gamer zone.......your comments are not suitable for this zone and your jealousy of all things 360 has shown for a while now - in short, get a life.

On topic - well Bungie have done it again, whilst other FPS's try and catch up with Halo3's matchmaking brilliance (a 2 year old game) Bungie moves the goal posts again showing that they are the TRUE masters of this genre.

46 days to go, 46 LONG days........i gotta feeling it's gonna be worth it though :D

[swice]

What the hell did Bundy say that was wrong about this article? Calm down. I agree with him that ODST should have had matchmaking.

[Gimped Hardware]

regarding albundy - he is in most 360 threads apearing to praise a game but in some way he will detract from it.......

Was the ODST reference REALLY needed - no

He will never say a 360 game is good and leave it at that he will find someway, stealthly usually, to criticise.

For example if you showed him the most perfect woman in the world who was flawless and happened to be an employee of MS he wouldnt say "wow what a stunner" and leave it at that he would say "wow what a stunner.......although her butt IS a little too big......."

You see now - some things just don't need saying and albundy would be more suited to the openzone with these sort of underhanded comments.

[Al Bundy]

Gimped Hardware, you take this stuff waaaaaay too seriously.

[Rockox]

I actually thought Al's comment about ODST matchmaking was one of the more positive comments I've seen him make.

Firefight's lack of matchmaking sucked. Deal with it.

[webeblazing]

i think everbody want this game to be good, no matter what u think relax especially that its they last halo. cant wait to see what they gonna try next.

[swice]

Ok. So maybe he is a jerk on other threads, but on this one he was not. This article is about Halo Reach and the Matchmaking Online experience. I don't see how his comment was irrelevant or not on topic. Talking about another Halo game when we are discussing a different Halo game should be ok. Give credit where it's due, because the man speaks the truth. I hope Halo: Reach makes up for what was done with ODST (which I have no doubt it will).

Everyone blows up at the smallest of things these days. What the hell happened?

[Major Kanimo]

THE KING IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[awesomeperson]

Huh, I don't see no GT5 or Battlefield 3?

[RagTagBnd445]

Halo is only king on xbox, but that is of course also quite a big achievement.

[Deadman64]

Bungie develops the best MP interface/system/matchmaking seen so far today. And yet they outdo themselves with reach.

[RagTagBnd445]

First of all, dedicated servers are superior to matchmaking, second the Battle.net matchmaking system is just as good as halo's. Best interface? maybe, but it don't matter as much.

[JeffGUNZ]

I know you don't see them, they haven't been released yet. Duh.

[Kalowest]

Bungie's in that, I want the FPS Crown state again, i know they have more features, their just not revealing them yet.

[hamoor]

THAT what makes halo special
not the graphics
not how many polygons it have
but the god damn GAMEPLAY AND ONLINE MP!!!!

[HarveyB]

amen to that brother!

[Myth]

Anyone else think the Final Boss in Halo 3 was a joke?
The last boss was little glowing ball, I couldn't believe it.

http://www.chiisland.com/we...

[Gimped Hardware]

There wasn't a boss battle per se in Halo3 - more of an adrenaline filled drive against the clock to flee exploding platforms and park your hog in a spacecraft.

Oooooooh by the way - the music on that level was something special. :D

EDIT@ below myth - yes i know the one you mean, it was very easy and not so much of a boss more of an loose thread that needed sorting for the plot, twas week but it is part of the canon so it had to be adressed in some way.

Mind you i wouldnt be happy if the 'ball' had morphed into a giant mech complete with lazers and rockets just for the sake of it!!!!!

[Myth]

The boss before the big drive.

[hamoor]

^^^^^^^^^
so true
we dont want random final boss like geow 2

[edgeofblade]

Are you saying every game has to have "bosses"? Halo really didn't have much in the way of bosses, except when it made sense to tell the story. When you think about it, the concept of a boss does nothing for an immersive story.

[Halo3 MLG Pro]

Would a HUGE red dragon that spits fire fit your taste? Seriously, the whole battle fit the story perfect. Not everything has the be big and huge.

[aviator189]

The new UI for the multi-player still retains that Halo feel with a slick and gorgeous look. I'm really digging the Arena mode and the new Veto 2.0 system. May will be beast.

[Ryuha1234h]

Halo is rich rich rich rich rich rich
not

[KeiserSosay4788]

Wow! Bungie really know their stuff.... Halo mp is the ONLY game on console where if I died I didn't call bullsh!t....it even happens in bc2 mp with the melée and don't even get me started on cod....
Btw all the new features are great and well thought...now if only I could delay bmt till after the beta....

[Mattey]

love the idea of having seasons and stuff for us competitive halo players

[edoman20]

Halo is a good game only for poor retards patethics little assholes crpabox please fixme owners

And mathcmaking......HAHAHAHAHA crap feature for a crap console

but hey only on gimpbox, with sh1t hardware and payed internet

[able sir]

What is this mathcmaking you speak of? Can you explain it to me because I guess I'm just a dumb ass xbot and I cant understand you superior PlayStation logic.

[swice]

Wow. Just.....wow. You amaze me sir. How was your 3rd birthday last year? Did you get that toy truck with the lights and sh!t?

[HurstDarkStar]

That ODST sales are gonna go up about 2mill when this beta hits or at least another mil

[aviator189]

more people to play with!

[Jumper09]

lol a ps3 troll is comparing the dumbass PSN to XBL? xDDD Great. Reach owns ur L.A.G and Lamezone 2 in all terms.

[iPad]

this is what Halo 3 should of have

[HurstDarkStar]

It takes time and inspiration for devs to come up with different ideas for their.I'm pretty sure many games have inspired these idea's

[rezzah]

cool i like the way they set this up. hope to see somethign like it or maybe even better than it in other FPS games.

[Mo0eY]

I can't wait to be Tommy the Green Ranger. I will match up with Jason the Red Ranger and we can pew pew pew and karate chop each other. Then then then we can fly... JET PACKS! Oh man so cool! I can't wait.

[Michael Scott]

is strong with this one.

[ASSASSYN 36o]

FTA: players that have a greater kill/death ratio (had more kills than deaths) will rank higher than players that die as much as they kill.

YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!! !

I scream for this in every FPS game. Finally I am heard. K/D ratio shows true skill! The ability to stay alive by killing the enemy and not assisting them by playing the "catch a bullet game."

[Halo3 MLG Pro]

Arena is where you'll find me. :)

Halo has always been the most skillful FPS on the market. This looks to step it up even further. Oh man!!!

[belowradar]

It's great to see some tweaking being done to the matchmaking aspect. I like Halo but the matchmaking aspect always kept me from truly loving the game.
You'd veto a map and then get stuck on something even worse. Another part was being forced into only sniper/battle rifle matches. Not saying those are bad, but I completely suck as both of those weapons. I like COD's way of putting you into a gametype and you determining your load out. From what I've seen and read it looks like Bungie is looking at going that way.
I've been playing on my PS3 quite a bit lately but when the beta hits I'm jumping over and seeing if Bungie can live up to the hype. Here's hoping they can!

[360fanboi]

I hope they will integrate Natal into this.... it will be soooo funny!

[fullmetal297]

I can't until the retail game comes out. My xbox 360 hasn't been on since I have transition on to the PC platform, and Halo reach (along with Alan Wake) might be a reason to play it again. As always, Bungie is always finding ways to make mutliplayer more accessible to the casual and hardcore and I'm not not surprised.

Just wait until the reviews come out and the PS3 fanboys scream out "M$ paid them" or "Reviewer is a 360 fanboy". I'm gonna get some good lulz reading those comments.