Halo 3 is still vastly inferior to its original iteration regarding social aspects, some of which are more widespread across the whole of MCC than just Halo 3.
The first is the ability to veto a map. This is a better system than voting, as it allows players some collective control while not getting the same maps repeatedly picked, which allows for there still to be some variety with less popular maps. This could be applied to all games and not just Halo 3.
Secondly, Halo 3’s party-up feature. The option to party up after every match allowed players to keep playing with people they either got along with or wanted to rematch, which was great. Most friends were made by party-up on the Xbox 360. Having party-up would also lead to faster queue times.
Thirdly Halo 3 armour being unlocked off the bat was a mistake. Social activities like the vid-masters and helping people complete Halo 3 on Legendary were half the replayability factor in the OG, so not having that here wiped out a considerable portion of the game. What do you get instead for your efforts now? A nameplate… woo. The takeaway is achievement armours are vastly superior to battle pass armours.
The fourth point concerns the file share system regarding screenshots and saved films. As of now, these do not work on MCC. Saved films and screenshots were a massive part of the community years ago, and I feel as if something has been truly lost on the creative side in recent years. 343 could also have a Bungie Favourites style best selection built-in weekly, which would be great for community engagement. Reddit and youtube are the remaining alternatives for content sharing, and I think most would agree that this is not a substitute.
Lastly lobbies. To me, prioritising instant matches over lobbies is one of the most significant pitfalls of modern gaming. It reduces players into clones in an endless wave of meaningless battles. Around ten years ago, you could inspect people’s profiles and achievements while waiting for map voting in the game lobby and talk to people. People’s ranks were available to see, and people seemed like individuals; you could see people’s Spartans and what armour they were wearing. It made the customisation something you could see, which gave it worth; now we have some Fortnite-style podium shots at the end, only of the top 3, which seems redundant when you have the carnage report for MVPs right after it. The file share system also suffers because of the lack of lobbies as there isn’t much time to inspect players. Also, why have a boring load screen for each match when you could have the game load the map prior in the lobby?
A side note to improving Halo 3 specifically would be its net code. It suffers from much of the jank that infinite does, which makes me suspect there may be an issue with whatever 343 has done in general. and not so much the 30 - 60 tick rate. This can be seen in things like outright missing sword and melee lunges and having scorpion shells and BR rounds connect but then do no damage. I played Halo 3 through project sunrise and can confirm there are no issues despite playing in the UK against people in the US.
This isn’t meant to come off as an entitled rant, as with the layoffs, I don’t expect this to be implemented, and I do get fun out of Halo 3 in its current state; it’s more to serve as what it is, a list of things which would make a better game.