This time around Bungie got the before and after match experience right. Halo 2 was a great game to play online but it was tough to meet people and keep playing with someone you just met. Halo 3's multiplayer fixes these issues and improves others to keep it the best online multiplayer experience on any game console.

Upon starting a match you will be able to see how many people are playing any game type and you will see how matchmaking is find you a match. Once placed into a pre-match lobby with fellow gamers you will have the option to veto the game type. The veto is simply majority rules and is nice when you get put into your fifth straight Shotty and Snipers slayer match. I am beginning to really hate that game type. This is available by hitting X on the pre-loading screen for a match. This change is a welcome change.

Once you've completed your first match you will most likely want to checkout your stats and see how you did. Almost all the information from Halo 2's stats are there plus some more detailed information per player. By selecting a player you ca see the medals they earned, what was their weapon of choice, how far they are on the single player game and see what videos they have available. Yep, I said videos. Halo 3 allows you to save your matches as videos so you can watch them with friends or upload them to your profile so others can watch your matches. It's an interesting idea that has a lot of benefits. You can review your matches and see what you did wrong and how you can improve or you can learn some special move my watching someone else's video. I saved a couple of my better matches just for fun and so I can brag about that triple kill I got by throwing a grenade into a bunch of fools standing together.

On completion of a match you have the option to create a party. This will allow you to play on in matching making with others from the team you just played with. This seems like a great way to meet new people in Halo 3. This has been a gripe about Halo 2 that it was not easy to play with people you've just met online.

One of the more notable additions to the Muliplayer is you now have a way to denote your overall skill level in Halo 3. You will still have your number ranking for each game type but you will also be assigned a military ranking for your overall skill. You start out as a cadet and work your way up to recruit, private, corporal and so on. This new ranking is based on points you earn playing multiple online matches. One of the big annoyances in Halo 2 was your rankings got reset on occasion. I'm hoping your military rank can be saved and is never reset like your player ranking can.

These changes enhance the online experience for Halo 3. I always checked out people's stats to see how I stacked up and how they got their kills. By allowing people to see others videos this will just help others improve and allow other to show you how thy got that crazy snipe will being hurled in the air by a man cannon.