I finally got sick of watching Halo 3 matches on YouTube and decided to actually play them. So, I fired up my 360 and upgraded my Live account to Gold. I've never really tried the whole "matchmaking" concept, but it was fairly straight-forward.
I've been playing the Halo series since it started, but I'm still a little rusty at multiplayer, so I went with the Basic Training playlist. After getting matched up with three other newbies, the round started. It took a bit getting used to because humans (most of them) are smarter than the AI in the Campaign. Fortunately, it only took about five minutes to warm up and get my reflexes going.
The second time around, I decided to move away from the training part and get into a bigger team match. I enjoy team games much more than deathmatch, simply because I've always liked working together to accomplish goals instead of running around and shooting anything that moves.
It was CTF on Valhalla with five to each team (me on blue). I actually vetoed the game, because I don't generally like capture the flag, but I was only one of two. So, it went on anyway.
This is where my experience got interesting. It was fun hearing the other players scheme and plan and bark orders. I'm debating whether I should get in on the whole voice thing. I don't like the sound of my own voice, so I thought about using voice masking. But, I read that voice masking is a good way to get shunned.
Anyway, near the end, I finally managed to make it to Red's base on a Mongoose. I drove up to the back, hopped off, sprinted to the flag, grabbed it and made a break for the man cannon. To my surprise, an instant before I hit the beam, I heard someone yell "Don't jump kid, don't jump!". But, I was already soaring through the air. Sure enough, when I landed, I was right in the middle of every member of Red team, who quickly shot me down from all sides.
I guess my mind was so full of "I finally got the flag!" that I didn't have time to react. So, I died, the flag got returned, and the round ended. Red team won. Unfortunately, the lag got so bad that I had to quit in the middle of the next round. That happens at night a lot for me.
Oh well, we'll see what happens tomorrow, I suppose. If anyone is interested in letting a newbie like me join them in a match some time, feel free to add me on Live. My card is on the right side of this page.