Halo 3 multiplayer to support +50 players?

Some rumours about Halo 3 are spreading on the Web. One of the rumours is that it will supports more than fifty players on Xbox Live for certain maps. It is also said that Halo 3 will feature lots of cinematics and that the opening scene of the game will be thousands of years before the timeline of the original Halo game. Here are some more rumours:

The story line will be darker and more gritty story than the previous Halo games.

They’re attempting to maintain an online cooperative component for the campaign supporting more than two players at once. And multiplayer mode which pits players against bots in scenarios that are directly connected to the story of the game is also rumoured

They’re attempting to implement both a map editor and a movie maker, which would allow players to send and receive their maps/movies through Xbox Live. This would apparently be on a separate disc, and they have an entire team working just on these two projects.

Zanzibar, Sidewinder and Hang Em High are said to return to the multiplayer mode, completely reworked. Zanzibar will be mangled and torn apart as though after the battle, the sky will be dark red. Sidewinder will have four legs instead of just two, with bases at each end. Hang Em High will have a massive tree at its center and the structure will be deteriorated.

More details at Kotaku