Years have come and gone, seasons have changed, my tastes in games has differed, I've played more, dug more, and have had fun. But no matter how many games I play, or how good they are, I always keep coming back to Halo. I'm probably in a better environment for it though: Small town, small school, everyone owns or plays Halo. This leads to giant custom games matches, plenty of matchmaking get togethers, and alot of grudges. It's become the game that even if I'm playing another game and I get an invite for Halo 3, I'm already up opening up the Halo case getting ready for a game.

I know Giantbomb isn't to hot and sensuous for Halo, but what have your experiences been with the game?

Best multiplayer I think is still COD4.

Not having played anything on the PS3, I can't say but as for the 360 yeah, I think it's probably the game that has the most staying power. I say this with the fact that COD4 is a PC game, at least to me.

I like the Smash Bros. series for local multiplayer.

1. Counter Strike Source (not on console but this is my list)
2. Halo 3
3. none even on the level of the above 2.

Halo is some of the finest multiplayer i have ever played
I honestly cant think of any better multiplayer console game
COD4 is a beige nade fest that I do not enjoy all that much (though most people have a boner for it, and rightfully so)

Yea, for some people it could be. Easily.


That being said, some people do enjoy more tatical games like vegas and counterstrike and more finicky like cod.  and some actually like arena shooters believe it or not, i think...
You're going to have lots of people against you though, simply because you named halo (the most hated game on the internet just because of how fucking awesome it is).  Kind of funny when you think about it, Bungie use to be the underdog developer, making freaking awesome games that went unoticed (marathon was actually loads better than doom if you played it back when- both suck ass now), and now bungie is called the exact opposite (the dev that's games are celebrated too much).

I personally think Bungie just makes 1337 games.

When CoD4 started out, it was vastly superior to almost anything on the market for me.  Unfortunately, as time has passed on, the game has seriously turned into nothing more than spray 'n' pray + noob tubes.  It's Battlefield 2 now, basically.

Halo 3 isn't even the best in the Halo series, much less the best ever -- that honor goes to Halo: CE.

As for console shooters of this generation, I'd have to place Shadowrun well ahead of Halo 3. It's a shame too, because the game could have been so much better than it is, and perhaps easily deserving of the "best console multiplayer game ever" title, but Bungie really dropped the ball on several fundamental gameplay elements (among them the melee system, poor starting weapon balance, and horrible map design).

Halo 3 isn't even close to the best console multiplayer. Hell, Halo 3 isn't anywhere near Halo: CE and Halo 2 in terms of multiplayer.

I'm sure many people in here will say Halo, but I can't agree with that. While it is probably the most played multi-player game on 360, it is by far nowhere near the best. My favorite multi-player game of all time would have to be Call of Duty 4 or the original GoW. I'm not digging the new Gears' multi-player because of the terrible matchmaking that takes decades to get you matched with anyone. However, the original Gears sucked several hours away from my life.

Nothing beats COD4...seriously

COD:WAW

Was once COD4, but the online community is too blah

I played Halo 3 for about a month and I have not touched it since it's release

I agree, Halo 3 is a game that I keep playing.  Mainly because I have friends who still play it.  People come over to my house and everybody has played halo, it makes it easy to just pick up and play.

Most recently probably World at war.of all time super smash bros.

Gears of War (1 or 2).

Also, I've had loads of fun with Rock Band 2's multiplayer. The Mario Party games (especially number 3) are great as well.

best mp game ever is modern warfare 2. don't deny it. followed closely by gears 1 cod4 and halo 2

I think Gears 2 and L4D MP is more fun than Halo 3.

I think its the smoothest online experience and its really well supported by Bungie since its release, but I don't think its the Most fun Multiplayer game.

" best mp game ever is modern warfare 2. don't deny it. followed closely by gears 1 cod4 and halo 2 "

There is only really one answer.

The by far best selling video game of all time. The most played, most popular, most accessible, and gradually most widespread console multiplayer game there has ever been, Wii Sports. It is the Tetris of multiplayer games.

Goldeneye

Why is this in the Halo 3 section... this topic isn't "most overrated game ever".

If you're looking for an answer to your question the best multiplayer game ever goes to either Counterstrike, Team Fortress 2 or perhaps Mario Kart for Super Nintendo.

Also, to add, COD4 is amazing, and much better than Halo (the entire series).

Until MAG comes out.

Okay. I will say that Halo 3 is indeed just that. But for the longest time, COD4 was superior because it made such a good first impression before you saw its true colors.

For an online fps, sure, but I think Rock Band 2 has the best multiplayer, local and online.

" Goldeneye "

Best multiplayer gameplay is definitely CoD4 it was just more fun. But Halo 3 despite its shortcomings and haters alike is probably the best for other reasons. Bungie provided simple yet deep gameplay that was capable of supporting the game over the years of better games coming out. Bungie provides new content in the way of maps and new game types and playlists frequently to keep things interesting. They take feedback at their own personal site which should be the benchmark for how a developer interacts with their game's players. Providing gameplay statistics for every match ever played even campaign statistics in near real time is unprecedented. Others have emulated but only Bungie has succeeded.

An amazing wealth of user created content is available for the game. For as much as the public matches are a focus in other games bungie provides a game that people actually forgoe progressing in experience or level to play private matches with their friends for fun like in the old days when things like rank didn't matter. And so many other reasons that Halo 3 is the best, not because its the best game but because the developer didn't abandon it to the wolves and takes care to ensure their game survives not make a game that will last for 6 months till they can pump out a trailer for the sequel.

Holy crap what a bump.

COD 4 and Killzone 2 for me 

All the games posted up till now are all awesome games, but does anybody remember how great this was? The multiplayer in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Not saying it was the greatest ever, but I definitely think it should be up there. It was awesome.

Looking at the thread it has received some fairly strange bumps along the way, my post came a week after the previous one but the topic was still like top 3 on the forum then and the posts before those were from like 5 months ago. These boards need to move more than a tad bit faster. There is no shortage of GB users but wow do the boards creep along here at an unbearable pace sometimes.

every halo game has been my favorite multiplayer game.  COD is VERY boring to me.  i don't see why people like it.

I agree,Halo's multiplayer is definately the best.I really lik the CoD games,but I still prefer Halo.

Killzone 2 here.

Yeah Halo 3 is the best. The community and all the stats bungie tracks are insane, plus the amount of game-types available and the customization with forge. Plus all the ridiculous stuff that happens like crazy sticks, ricocheting  snipes, Everything involving a vehicle or the destruction of a vehicle. Plus the replays and screenshots bungie just went all out on Halo 3 and thats millions still play the game.

8 months? lol this thread is so old. Anyway, halo has this inexplicable magic about it that only halo owners know. I dunno, but it is often very emotional. Particularly squad battle. Laughter, triumphant smugness, excitement, tension, sadness, frustration, satisfaction, glee, comradliness, disappointment, hate and anger. And often you just get that feeling of raw awesomeness and adrenalin as you strafe the enemy team in a banshee on Valhalla while your flag carrier runs for safety. There's just so many great times to be had. All  bunched up in a couple of hours of halo 3.

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$
 
Play this game baked with 3-4 friends then get back to me.

" For an online fps, sure, but I think Rock Band 2 has the best multiplayer, local and online. "

GTA 4 - I constantly find myself laughing out loud at all the crazy crap that happens in that game. There's so much variety in the different multi-player modes, it's frickin great!

did you play cod 4

Wow,I'm kinda surprised by the answers here,they are kinda all over the place.Anyway, like I said in my previous post, Halo 3 multiplayer is the best and this is backed up each week by Major Nelson's weely Live activity stats where Halo 3 is usually number one(although there is the odd week sometimes where it comes in second,from time to time).And for the Halo haters out there, remember,if it were not for Halo,it's pretty likely you would'nt be playing all these great FPS's on consoles,hell you probably would'nt be playing anything on Xbox360 for that matter because Microsoft probably would'nt have made it past the first Xbox.As for the folks that think Halo 3 was'nt as good as Halo 2.....really?Halo 2 was such a departure from the first game that I find it weird that anyone who's been a fan since the first game would not like Halo 3 more than Halo 2 since Halo 3 was more like Halo:CE than Halo 2 was.And why on earth would somebody like Halo2's multiplayer better than Halo 3's?Halo 3 has basically the same multiplayer as Halo 2 but with way  more features (unless you just like Halo 2's maps more in which case I can't really argue with that as I still prefer Halo:CE's maps over the other games).Anyway,that's just my opinion.

It's a lot of fun but I don't think it's the best multiplayer console game ever, there's too many games that had multplayer that wowed me to just name one.

in my opinion it the best game ever made.

" Goldeneye "

Warhawk is still my favorite online console experience.

Hahahahaha. 
 
Hell no. Play Timesplitters. Play COD. Anything but fucking Halo 3.