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Halo 3 has dominated the headlines and Xbox 360 disc trays for days now, but there’s still something that you might not be aware of. While Bungie did a superb job on the game itself, the official Bungie website is home to all manner of information and tools that every self respecting Halo fan should be interested in.
First off, it’s essential that you link your Windows Live account (previously MSN Passport) to your Xbox LIVE Gamertag. This ensures that Bungie can grab all your game data and present it for dissection on Bungie.net. Once this is done, logging into the site is like discovering a chest of buried treasure.
Titled “Halo 3 Service Record”, this website-based database of information is effectively all the info you’ll ever want on your time with Halo 3, be it games played online in any of the numerous multiplayer game modes or the main campaign. If you and your mates constantly argue about who the best player is during co-op games, the numbers can now speak for themselves.
The website does a good job of telling you exactly what you can do, but a few of the best features are well worth pointing out. The one most likely to appeal to everyone is the ability to view screenshots that Halo 3 players have taken in the game’s Theatre mode. Saved video clips can’t be seen online, but you can have them sent to your LIVE account, ready to be downloaded the next time you load up the game.
With an account you can take part in forum discussions and comment on the screen shots posted by other users, making the Halo 3 community easier to be part of than any Xbox 360 game released to date. You can even check out how you’re doing with the game’s 49 Achievements. Because your Bungie account is linked to your Xbox LIVE account you can of course also find your friends and access their service records.
Hardcore players will no doubt be more interested in analysing every last stat for multiplayer games and looking at their online rank rating history. For the really anal there’s everything from overall kills/deaths to individual kills made using certain weapons, number of headshots and average life span.
Halo 3’s Forge mode allows players to create their own game types and map variations, and these are featured on Bungie.net, complete with user ratings and comments so you can easily see which are worth your time. As with videos, you can mark these to be downloaded to your console the next time you play the game, giving you a real link between the online community and your Xbox 360.
The Bungie website is also host to numerous “How to” guides, giving you the lowdown on almost every aspect of Halo 3, from the built in AV calibration tool to the ins and outs of the game’s multiplayer matchmaking system. While not nearly as high profile as the game itself, Bungie.net is a great companion to one of the best games of the year.
