A patch that's set to be released in the middle of January will shake things up a bit for Halo 3's online experience. Playlist changes are in store and restrictions are to be removed on in-game voice chat.
Read all about these playlist changes, news of what maps will be removed from certain playlists, and more over at Bungie.net.
Since Halo 3’s release, if a player were to join a Matchmaking playlist with a team size larger than four, he or she would have to push a button on the DPad to communicate directly to their team. After the January update, the PTT restriction is being increased to 6 players per team, meaning that players will not need to use the D-pad to communicate on any Matchmaking playlist but Social Big Team.A number of changes will be made in preparation for the Mythic map pack. That map pack is still slated to be released around the beginning of March to coincide with the release of Halo Wars.
What does this mean for players? Well, for starters, it means communicating to teammates in 5v5 or 6v6 playlists will be trivial. However, this could mean an increase in bandwidth necessary for these larger format playlists, which means the potential for “laggy†games is increased. The best way to avoid lag in these games is to ensure that you are not constantly broadcasting to your teammates, and that your teammates are not constantly broadcasting to you. If you often play with strangers, be prepared to mute and report players that abuse their microphone.
Read all about these playlist changes, news of what maps will be removed from certain playlists, and more over at Bungie.net.