With Halo: Reach gearing up for its Beta this May, a whole array of multiplayer details have emerged from Bungie, including news on revamped matchmaking, taking into account improved voting, queue joining and active rosters.

There's also a brand new 'Arena System' that's aimed at more experienced Halo players, offering a separate set of ranked playlists for the hardcore community.

Arena is a Slayer-only mode that utilises a 'pure scoring system' that won't penalise you if you're the best player on the losing team. Instead you'll get a rating compared to the rest of the community in each of the game's divisions.

Arena will be split into seasons and your rating will be determined by the actions you perform in matches, with points earned for kills, assist and so on. At the end of each season, your statistics will be etched into your very own 'baseball card' before the next season begins anew.

Seasons are likely to "line-up with calendar months" according to Bungie's Tyson Green and during, or at the end of each Arena season, you might move up or down a division depending on how well (or not well) you did. The divisions will be Onyx, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Steel.

Alongside Arena, the improved matchmaking will include better options for Ranked and Social matches including the ability to choose your preferred playlists using the listed categories:

Teamwork - Team Player vs. Lone Wolf
Motivation - Winning vs. Having Fun
Chattiness - Chatty vs. Quiet
Tone - Polite vs. Rowdy
A game of online Halo without the sound of a 12-year old swearing down the earpiece? We must be dreaming!
Seems that Bungie has really put a lot of thought into making Reach's multiplayer a marked improvement over Halo 3's, which let's face it, was pretty damn good anyway.

Halo: Reach's Beta will be kicking off on May 3rd.

[Via Shacknews]

Can't wait for this

Yeah Halo reach was exactly what i wanted. Something like Halo 3 but with a new spin.

this is kinda like battlefield and halo3. looks really good so far.