Vehicles

There are a wide variety of vehicles in Halo 3, from the small and quick to the slow and well-armed. To enter any of them, walk up to them and press R2; this will put you into a different position in the vehicle depending on where you stand and which vehicle it happens to be. You can also press R2 when an enemy is riding a vehicle to attempt to carjack him. In light vehicles, this will automatically kick them out of the driver's seat, but on heavier vehicles you'll simply cling on for dear life. In the latter case, you can attempt to punch out the driver with the B button, which will leave you with a damaged but usable vehicle, or you can just chuck a grenade inside with the left trigger, which will blow the whole damn thing after a few seconds.

Most vehicles will have alternate abilities that you can perform when you're inside them by clicking the left trigger. Generally these act as some kind of speed boost, but some vehicles use this functionality for additional offensive powers.

Warthog

The Warthog is the iconic vehicle of the Halo franchise, and as such will see near-constant use during your time in Halo 3. It's hardy (and seems to be able to take more damage before exploding than it could in Halo 2), and comes in a few different configurations for your pleasure.

Driving the Warthog can be a tricky proposition, since it takes air easily and has a tendency to flip with little provocation. If it does start flipping, you can wait and see if it rights itself, but it will often land upside down, forcing you to get out and flip it over again before you can use it.

Warthogs have two to five slots for Marines to fit into. If one of your Marines is getting into the passenger slot, try to trade them a powerful weapon if you have one in your inventory, like a beam rifle, sniper rifle, or rocket launcher. They'll be able to use it while you drive to take out enemies.

Machinegun Warthog

Running down enemies is always fun.

For most of the single-player campaign, you want to be driving the Warthog instead of taking the gunner's position. You can drive well, theoretically, but the AI Marines are terrible at driving, especially during combat. On the other hand, they're ace shots with the turret, so they'll be much better at shooting it than you'll ever be.

Gauss Gun Warthog

Although rare, Gauss guns mounted on Warthogs are ideal for taking out opposing vehicles; they're capable of dropping most enemy vehicles in one to four hits. You'll need to stay mobile to avoid enemy fire if you're driving one, but your gunner will be wreaking havoc on your enemies. The Gauss gun can one-shot most enemies, as well, but it has no splash damage, so it might be difficult to take out whole crowds with it; you might be better off just running them over, if possible.

Troop Transport

Some Warthogs won't have any mounted turrets on them at all, instead converting the extra space into room for three more passengers. You gain a bit of extra ability to bring troops to the front of the battle with these Hogs, but you lose a lot of firepower.

Mongoose

The Mongoose is a small two-seater ATV that features no weapons and little armor for the driver or passenger. With no weapons, this is basically useful only for getting to where you want, but it does this faster than any other ground vehicle. The passenger can still fire their weapons, and this can be handy if you give a Marine a heavy weapon to use, but otherwise you won't be doing much except zooming around on these guys. They can be handy in multiplayer if you have to get to a central point on the larger outdoor maps.

Hornet

The USNC variant on the Banshee, the Hornet packs more firepower but is less speedy and maneuverable. Instead of dual plasma cannons, the Hornet gets a rapid-fire machinegun that can steadily wear down the health of anything it shoots. Since it's a hitscan weapon, it takes no time to travel to its target, meaning that you can pretty safely aim at ground targets from pretty high up, letting you kill enemies running around on the ground without fear of counterattack, at least until an enemy aircraft comes around or someone nabs a Spartan laser.

Hornets are tough when they get the drop on opponents.

The alt-fire here are homing missiles; you need to be pretty close to your target for these to home in (the reticule will turn red), but if they do home, then they'll be an instant kill on most Banshees, or perhaps your target will only need a little machinegun fire to finish them off. These missiles can, again, be used on ground targets, especially large vehicles.

Scorpion

Ah, the Scorpion. This hulking tank is painfully slow, but equally painful to your enemies when they get hit by its shell. The shells here are highly explosive and accurate at long range, but they do take a second to hit their target, so will need to lead distant foes. That said, the ability to hit pretty much anything at any range is obviously a powerful one.

There's room for five passengers here, including four seats above the treads and one gunner, but you shouldn't expect people to climb aboard in multiplayer unless they get to man the turret, as you'll probably be moving at about walking speed and passengers are totally exposed to enemy fire. Unlike in Halo 2, you can only fire the main cannons here; the turret can only be fired by a second passenger who rides in your vehicle.