With a relatively short single-player campaign (shorter still if you do it co-op) Halo 3’s longevity is all about the online multiplayer game. To which end Bungie has just introduced a neat new feature that’s bound to put a smile on the faces of crack marksmen.

Called ‘Heatmaps’ Bungie describes the new feature as the “Doppler Radar System of death”. In less enthusiastic prose it’s actually a system which monitors all online games and collates such information as where and how players killed or where killed. The results look something like one of those infra-red camera images, with hot-spots in each level easily identified by their darker shade of red. We guess that information could be deadly in the right hands

Heatmaps is only at beta testing stage at present while Bungie works out how best to integrate it without upsetting the finely-tuned precision of other gameplay elements. However players can see the system in action by visiting the Global Heatmaps homepage at www.bungie.net/Online/Heatmaps.aspx. It’s a great idea in principle but we think it‘d be cooler still if players were able to tailor it to their own, more localised needs. Fingers crossed that’ll follow in the fullness of time.