Customizable Future...

Well, I finally got to play some custom games last night in the Halo 3 beta.  Now I know the forums are flooded with news about the customs, people's thoughts on the available weapons, and how cool it is to fly around Valhalla with low gravity/high speed; so I'm not going to rehash any of that here.  I'm not foolish enough to think that my ramblings are so important that everyone is waiting with bated breath to hear them.  I will say that I saw two things that really left an impression on me:

1. High Ground is probably the worst map ever for a 2-flag CTF game (seriously, it's fucking horrible)
2. The sheer number of customizable options is simply staggering!

The second point is what I want to talk about although, trust me, the first point can't be overstated.  After our room broke up last night I decided to stay on for a little while just to look through the custom game options (for those that don't know, when you leave a room that was playing customs you will still be in the custom lobby).  I always found myself trying to come up with new and inventive game types in H2 for my Clan to play so I spent a lot of time in the custom game menu.  Let me just say that the option set you had available in H2 is like a mouse-sized poo pellet compared to giant, steaming mound of Silverback shit that is the H3 option set.  While I don't like the interface (I would much rather have a cascading menu system but that may change in the final retail version) I was blown away by all of the things you can set.  Things like:

• Headshots on or off
• Gravity adjustments
• Speed adjustments
• Grenade regeneration (you automatically regenerate grenade just standing there)
• Motion sensor radius and what shows up (just friends, foes, both, or both all the time)
• Slayer team lead advantages and disadvantages
• VIP radius affect traits

and tons of other cool stuff (look in the forums for a complete list) that will make for countless new variations of gametypes. There is also the option to save the settings for the gametype you are currently playing to your HD so we won't need to waste forum posts and PMs outlining how we setup a game variant, which is a great feature.  Sure the SP campaign is a big part of the game but the MP is where the real meat and staying power of the franchise is.  While I really enjoy getting a group of 4 together and pwn'ing n00bs in MM (made even better this time around with the 'Team and Party Only' voice option) I have always loved the fun and crazy action that happens in the custom game rooms.  Hell, MLG is a custom game type and that is the only way I really like to play H2 anymore.  I think I will be spending a whole lot of time trying to recreate and tweak old H2 custom favorites as well as coming up with entirely new customs to spring on Clanmates and friends.  I'm actually just as excited at the prospect of creating customs as I am for playing the full game! 

I know that this is just the beta glitch and things may very well change for the final version but it's obvious that Bungie is really trying to cater to the community and give them the options to do what they want.  There are going to be some people that never even open the custom options (or are scared away by the intimidating number) but for those who put the time into learning and exploring the available options the rewards will be apparent.  Yes, the fruits of the custom creators out there will be sweet indeed the next time around.  The only thing that could get my custom juices flowing even more is if we got a glimpse of that, as of yet, unannounced map editor that they're including.