Halo Reach Monthly: April Matchmaking Update

Has the usual 9-to-5 grind of matchmaking and credit farming got you down in the dumps? Do you feel like you’re just going through the motions? Has Grifball lost its flare?

If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions, why don’t you take a peek at Bungie’s April Matchmaking Update. For the month of April, players will be treated to two new playlists, Action Sack and Team Classic; both of which offer something new and old to the Halo: Reach experience.

Starting with the old, Team Classic is a community-powered playlist that will send you back to your Halo: CE and Halo 2 days. This playlist is comprised of recreations of classic maps that fans have made in Forge World. Power-ups have also been turned off to further simulate the a classic Halo experience. Team Classic is full of the fan-favorites such as Midship, Rat Race, Lockout, Battle Creek, Derelict, Wizard, Elongation, and Hang ‘Em High. Even if you don’t end up staying on this playlist for long, be sure to play each one at least once and download each map to your hard drive. They’re well-made and may be useful for custom games with friends on a rainy day.

Action Sack will throw a lot of new, wild gametypes your way. Power Slayer, Speedflag, and Speedpile are faster variations of Slayer, CTF, and Stockpile. Power Slayer rewards you for every kill by either giving you active camo, overshield, or extra grenades after each kill. This promotes survival of the fittest and makes for quick, hectic battles. Speedflag and Speedpile are what you may guess. These games are changed by allowing you to pick up flags while in a vehicle wield weapons while holding a flag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX3SiJcuPnM

Other new editions to Action Sack (and my personal favorites) include Hockey and Haloball. Hockey is… well, hockey. A huge golf ball is in the middle of the hockey rink, and everybody is armed with huge golf clubs (gravity hammers) and assault rifles. The players are given overshields and unlimited sprint, and they smash and gun their way to victory. Haloball is probably one of the more interesting and relaxing new gametypes. It’s a combination of hockey and skiball (And really, if you don’t like skiball, you’re a monster). Players have to smash their golf balls towards the goals for points, and the first team to get the designated amount of points wins. When you’re stopping through, don’t forget to download both the maps and game types for Hockey and Haloball as they’re really quite fun.

If you’re finding Reach a little stagnant as of late, check out this April’s new matchmaking playlists. These lists truly show you what can happen when a dedicated community and a thoughtful developer come together.