Halo 3 Gets Multiplayer Update

via IGN


In its March playlist update for Halo 3, Bungie has tweaked some matchmaking eccentricities, fixed some multiplayer map glitches and introduced two new double-experience weekend playlists.

The first weekend Double XP playlist went live at noon today and runs through noon PDT on March 10. The second runs March 20 - March 23. Here's a full breakdown by Bungie community guru Luke Smith:

• Grifball, the game created by Burnie Burns of Red vs. Blue will be an unranked, weekend-long social playlist awarding DoubleXP to winning teams. We've slightly adjusted some of the rules for Grifball (unlimited round times make for unlimited griefing potential), but kept the game's core intact. You'll be able to go in with party configurations ranging from one to eight people. This playlist will be available from Thursday, March 6 at NOON until March 10 at NOON(all times Pacific Standard). I apparently forgot to mention that the Grifball hopper is being treated like a Tournament hopper -- a hopper where there will be prizes. Tournament prizes.
  
• Beginning March 20 at NOON will be the return of Team SWAT in the Social, DoubleXP variety. Team SWAT is an old Halo 2 gametype where players have no shields, increased body health and do not have the luxury of radar. This eight-player maximum hopper will be completely Team Slayer focused with the SWAT ruleset. This weekend playlist will be available from March 20 at NOON until March 23 at NOON (all times Pacific).

In addition to sucking the next two weekends away from Halo 3 players' friends and loved ones, Bungie made some changes to the Heroic DLC multiplayer variant, splitting it into DLC Slayer (4v4) and DLC Objective (6v6) with a mix of various gametypes on the DLC maps. Slayer options include Team Snipers, Team Rockets, Team BRs, Team Duel and Team Duals. Objective variants include Multi Flag CTF, Multi Flag BR, One Flag, Assault, Neutral Bomb Assault and Team King.

But wait, there's more. Along with the new weekend events and Heroic DLC changes, Bungie added the following changes to the game:

• Fixed map exploit on The Pit
• Fixed map exploit on Construct
• Fixed map exploit on Epitaph
• Reduced Ranked Big Team Battle "Large party" size to six players and increased Big Team threshold to two
• Fixed Spartan Laser occasionally falling through map on Sandtrap
• Fixes to matchmaking to allow more even leveling for players
• Disabled Mixed Skill restrictions for RBTB and Team Slayer

To nerd out on even more detail about the March playlist update, check out this post on Bungie.net.