Voice and Chat
In the Halo 3 Public Beta, the default voice setting is that you can hear and talk to All. However, it is important to note that in ranked games, you can only communicate with Team and Party Members in-game. In ranked matches, this means you cant hear smack talk or proximity voice from strangers. You will still be able to communicate with everyone, including non-team strangers in the post-game lobby, unless you change your settings to avoid that.
Remember this is a setting for the Beta and is subject to change. In unranked social matches, you can hear everyone, if you so wish. There are also several customizable voice settings. You can mute everyone, limit all chat to Team and Party (no matter which playlist youre in) or, while actually in-game, mute an annoying individual (press the Back button, use the right stick to select the offending player, and press X to mute them instantly - with practice, it takes about a second).
Play around with these settings until you find a level of communication that youre comfortable with and remember, these are the Beta options. They can and will change.
For the duration of the Beta, the Push to Talk button, which more accurately is a Tap To Talk button, is on the D-pad tap any direction to open a team broadcast channel (which will automatically shut off after a short period of silence). Remember, this feature can be overridden depending on other settings chosen in the UI or Matchmaking rules. Voice and chat settings are of course subject to the normal rules of Beta software they are in development and may change before the game launches in fall.
Note: It is also important to remember that changes made in the Xbox 360 Guide override any game settings, including those of Halo 3. So if something seems amiss when youre playing, make sure you dont have a conflicting setting activated in the Guide.
It may seem complex, but in most real-life situations its very simple; players are going to pick a level of settings theyre happy with, and use those for the duration of their Halo 3 experience. We just want to give you the most options possible. One of the things we've tried to do deliberately is make better use of morons: We dont ignore the fact that online gaming has its share of rude, immature and persnickety players. Weve given the Halo 3 player a vast range of control over who they do and dont have to hear or talk to in games. In short, you can turn a profanity spewing maroon into a silent, harmless opponent, with a quick press of a button. You can choose to hear everyone, just your friends, a mix of your Team and your Party, or enjoy blessed silence. The choice is yours. And if theres just one bad apple, you can silence him or her with a button press too. It's designed to let you play more people, with fewer problems.
