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Halo 3 in it's current state, is simply put - a broken, disadvantaged game. Whether you like it or not, people still play it, and Bungie, you still need to tend to it's needs and update it once in a while.
What's wrong:
1. Foreigners
I have been playing Halo 3 for the past week (mostly doubles), and face foreigners the majority of the time. Literally 6 to 9 out of 10 games I will play foreigners. This wouldn't be so bad if foreigners didn't get host over us every single game. I have a pretty good internet speed, so I should at least get host every once in a while. I am not exaggerating when I say that foreigners pull host over Americans at least 95% of the time. I don't know if they are bridging or what the case may be, but it happens and it is absurdly unfair.
2. Search Preferences
Combined with the above, search preferences don't work. They just don't. Sure, maybe they sometimes work as expected, but they are worthless. If you search "My Language" in order to avoid foreigners, you can and will still match UK, Australia, Puerto Rico, and a few other countries. If you search good connection, it basically does nothing because you will still match foreigners and it will be a bad connection. Sure, it's good for the foreigners because they are host. You might as well be spawning Americans with half shields and a 2-shot-burst Battle Rifle. Where's the "My Region", "My Area", or "My Country" preference? (Title update, anyone?)
3. Cheating (See also #1 - foreigners)
Surprisingly enough, people still feel the need to cheat in a 3 year old game; and it's more prevalent than ever. I guess the reasons for cheating haven't changed, but there are more cheaters, or maybe there's just less legit players. Regardless, there is a large amount of cheating, specifically in the high ranks (40-50). If bridging foreigners isn't enough for you, there is still a whole lot of host booting and even more deranking/boosting.
4. Ranked settings.
There are so many things wrong with the ranked settings and gametypes that it's not even funny. This, combined with all 3 of the points above, just leaves this game immensely unplayable. In ranked gametypes, specifically at high ranks, it requires a BR starting weapon in order for it to be even remotely fair. Since the majority of games (at least the doubles games I play) are against foreigners (who always get host), they can easily keep an AR gametype such as Team Slayer or any objective and just pick up BRs and dominate with their host. Not only that, but even with a good host, objectives are still unfair and random. There are not enough players in a doubles game for oddball, you can simply just run circles around the map and not have any issues since there are only 2 people to worry about. KoTH is the epitome of luck. You kill the team in the hill, they will just spawn next to the new one. One flag is nearly always ending up in a tie, which works out perfectly for boosters since they can just get the tie and rank up since the booster is usually in the 20s, meaning that their team has the lower ranks and gets the win, while the legit team gets the loss since they are both in the 40s. The only thing that would make Objective in Team Doubles even close to tolerable would be to make all objective BR starts. Even then it would probably still suck. 2 flag is the only decent thing, but again it's ARs so if you die once, the other team automatically gets a cap no matter what.
Just because you released a new game doesn't mean you can neglect the old one. People still play it, and it needs to be cared for and updated. I could go on for ages and probably write a book over the flaws of Halo 3 in it's current state, but you get the gist of it. I really wish Bungie employees were skilled enough to be level 45+ so that they could play a few games and see what we, legit skilled Americans, are dealing with.
Finding a legit game, with a good host, with BR starts in high ranked Team Doubles is nearly impossible. I haven't played high ranked slayer recently, so I wouldn't know about that.
[Edited on 01.06.2011 11:57 PM PST]