for those that missed it, Halo Online "El Dewrito" 0.6 was released yesterday. it is a free, open source Halo 3 pc port that runs incredibly smoothly and plays just like the original, with a few added bonuses
it allows you to host online custom games and forge with your friends, or with strangers all over the world. basically, all the multiplayer components of Halo 3. all that's missing is the campaign.
you can get it here: https://eldewrito.com/
a little more background: initially, Halo Online was supposed to be an official free-to-play online halo 3 multiplayer remake, and was being tested in russia for a short while.
a few folks came together and made a mod for it to change language stuff and open up the game for NA players. after a little while the game was officially abandoned by the company making it, but the modders kept it alive by continuing to build around the existing work, keeping the whole thing free and open source.
this mod came to be known as "el dewrito", a play on the mtn dew/doritos gaming joke tied in with the original name of halo online's executable - "eldorado". because of course.
anyway, the actual folks behind the halo franchise have yet to come down on this project, and it's been going strong for a few years now. last night was the first update in a long time, a complete overhaul of the menus and a ton of new features were added.
over 5000 players were on last night at peak times
that may not sound like much, but this game has had no advertising campaigns, isn't run by official teams, and very few folks seem to have heard of it at all. the fact that 5k people were online at once just for an update to an existing game (albeit a huge one) is kinda baffling tbh
@ctrlaltdog what a name though