Halo 3 Beta Impressions

I have ventured back into the sunlight after a week of playing the Halo 3 Beta and I'm ready to report my initial impressions of the game. First of all, everything I say today should be taken with a large grain of salt since the game is in fact a Beta and not a completed product. This holds especially true for graphics since a large part of polishing happens during the very last phase of development on most games.

Graphics are a big part of the Halo franchise, and while Halo 2 didn't make any huge leaps beyond Halo 1, it did look more polished and had some nicer textures. Judging from the Halo 3 Beta, I would say the same generally holds true this time around too. Some things in the Beta seem much improved, mainly explosions. Now, when you throw a grenade, whether it explodes in the snow or in the dirt or sand, the particle effects are very nice and quite cinematic. Dirt flies realistically and smoke looks very believable. After you play a while little things start to catch your eye too, like the footprints left in the snow by yourself and your enemies or the textures used on some of the buildings (the gold honeycomb pattern especially).

I like the new High Ground map a lot. It is not overly large but has many different paths for approaching your enemy from either end of the map. It can be a good map for sniping, but is best for medium or close-range combat.

Valhalla, as has been reported is a remake of a map from Halo 2 and Snowbound is a large circular snowy level with two small hangars in the middle for gathering nades and such. Underground tunnels connect much of the map as well.

Gameplay wise, it took a little while to get used to the new dual wielding and equipment controls, but once you adapt to them they are very nice additions to the franchise. Especially the equipment key (X button). I haven't found anything more satisfying so far than letting a warthog loaded full with enemies drive straight towards me, then hitting "X" to deploy a trip mine and then leaping as they pass below me. While in mid-air, I spin around and watch as they explode into so many charred bits a couple seconds later. This is truly a visceral experience. Otherwise, as far as movement and "feel", the gameplay feels very much like Halo 2, which is a very good thing. Another great moment was when I followed an enemy in one of the flying craft, I ran up behind him, deployed an energy drain grenade which grounded his bird. Then, while he was surely screaming something along the lines of "why the hell won't this thing move!?", I ran up to him and bashed him in the face with a melee attack while he was still seated in the cockpit. Priceless!

The new FILM feature makes scenes like the above even more thrilling when you get to watch them over again in the "theater". You can upload "films" to share with your friends too. With the Beta, you can upload up to six "films" for sharing, but I haven't reached a limit on how many you can save for your own private viewing. I probably have 15 or so saved right now. There may not be a limit as they are saved to your harddrive. A nice thing about the "films" is that they are not mpeg files, they are just stored data of your round so they are MUCH smaller files than they would be if they were simple recordings of video. The "films" are played back using the games engine, so they are an exact replay of everything that occurred in the round. While the Beta limits you to one perspective, the view from your character, apparently the full version is going to allow you to view replays from any character or any other point on the battlefield and from any angle. You'll also be able to rewind, pause and fast forward, all things that are unavailable in the Beta.

Lag is a non-issue unless you choose to play with people from far corners of the earth. Even then, I experienced only occasional lag while playing with some friends in the UK. In those games my character's movements were unaffected but I saw some of my teammates skip across the level or get hung up in long launches from the man cannon as if suspended from a giant invisible yo-yo. It was pretty funny actually.

The matchmaking is as fantastic as ever. Finding the kind of game you want to play and the players you want to play against is as easy and customizable as ever. Halo has always been the standard by which all other online matchmaking systems are measured, and that remains unchanged.

Overall, my time with the Halo 3 Beta has been very fun. The only moments of frustration for me are during Sniper/Shotgun only rounds. I SUCK at sniping but I'm great at getting sniped; sometimes I think my head must be five feet in diameter.

All in all, I'd say if the beta is any indication, Halo 3 looks like a winner. Halo 3 is scheduled for release on September 25th.

Halo 3 Beta fixed and extended

Assuming your brain hasn't undergone a complete meltdown from the todays Halo 3 Beta anti-launch, I have good news. The problem for players using the Crackdown disc to enter the beta has been fixed and installed on the servers.

One caveat, it may take up to four hours for your system to receive the update which will come via a Crackdown game update when you start up the game. Full details here. The good news is Microsoft has extended the Beta by four days to compensate us for all the hassles, to June 10th, which includes an extra weekend of play.

So, although it's been a high stress day for many gamers who took off of work/school in anticipation of this mornings scheduled Beta launch, I'm sure it was much more stressful for the men and women working hard to fix the problem and thankfully the light at the end of the tunnel is visible and Halo gaming goodness is right around the corner.

See you online!

Halo 3 Beta absent, internet is exploding!

After months of waiting and constant jokes about having bought the Halo 3 "demo", er uh Crackdown, 8:00 AM EST, the announced time of arrival, came and went and still our "download the Halo 3 Beta" boxes remained grayed out. Now, as of 10:40 EST, the Beta remains unavailable.

Bungie's Frankie is already on the case, saying "We have alerted the appropriate Live authorities and they are taking care of the problem as we speak. More news as it comes in. With any luck this will be a short delay. People enetering the Beta through other methods - Friends and Family, Rule of Three and so on, are unaffected." So, only the people that actually paid to play the Beta are affected...not good.

Do all the people who bought Crackdown just to play the Beta care about the fact that all the other three groups of Beta players are unaffected?? Apparently not, and they are pissed! A scan of the Bungie forums reveals more anger than David Banner right before he turns green. At least one kid is happy though, saying, "7:03 and no download but my parents just decided to let me skip school :):):):):) so its all good." Glad to know the parents have their priorities in the right place. How could little Johnnie possibly go to school after being scarred by the trauma of the absent Beta?

A couple of other comments were "YES I AM SAD AND NO I STILL HAVE NO BETA :"( *BEATS HEAD ON CONSOLE*" and "I just died a little inside...still grey."

The absence of the Beta is annoying to be sure, but making it even more annoying is the fact that Crackdown has like 17 unskippable pre-load screens that make it VERY annoying to even check for the Beta.

Unhappiness abounds.

More when it becomes available.

Halo 3 Beta opens May 16th

You've got your copy of Crackdown ready and you've been chomping at the bit for this news to arrive. Well, finish whatever you have to get done now and clear your calendar because the Halo 3 beta is coming, and it's coming on May 16th.

Bungie made the announcement today and Halo players around the world wept in gratitude.

The announcement squashed rumours that there would be two different beta start dates for those who had got their beta keys either through the Rule of Three promotion or through purchasing a specially marked copy of Crackdown. Access to the beta will be rolled out simultaneously worldwide at 1 p.m. GMT (5 a.m. PDT) on May 16, and will end on June 7 at 7:59 a.m. GMT (June 6 at 11:59 p.m. PDT). Those who have not yet obtained a Halo 3 beta key can still sign up by buying a copy of the Xbox 360 game Crackdown.

There will be three maps available to play--Snowbound, High Ground, and Valhalla--which will "represent a mixture of large- and medium-scale combat environments." New vehicles will include the nimble Mongoose all-terrain vehicle, and new weapons will be available, such as the "new and improved" Assault Rifle, the Brute Spiker, the Spartan Laser, and Spike Grenades.

For those who absolutely can't wait for May 16 to see the game in action, Bungie has released a "Vidoc" titled "Is Quisnam Protero Damno" that shows off the multilpayer portion of Halo 3 in action. The video is now available at Bungie.net and on Xbox Live Marketplace

The game will be releaseed in three different versions in November. The Legendary edition is going to be $129.99, the Standard will retail at $59.99; the Limited edition will be $69.99.

So, which version of the full game do you plan to buy in November? For $130 you get a plastic helmet! wOOt!

Halo 3 Beta to come preloaded on 360 Elite?

Could Microsoft be planning to offer you another opportunity to get into the Halo 3 beta by preloading it on Xbox 360 Elite hard drives? I've seen some speculation to this effect around the net and I've got to say I think it is totally unfounded.

Think about it...first of all Microsoft assumes a good chunk of Elite buyers will be current 360 owners. Given the fact that transferring your present harddrive contents to the Elite's drive deletes the Elite's original contents, that wouldn't make a lot of sense. Plus, why would MS want to give you any motivation to not buy Crackdown to get the Beta?

Most people are pointing to the Elite's release date of April 29th being the same as the Halo 3 Beta's planned release date of "Spring" as evidence of an 'Elite Halo 3 Beta'...I don't buy it.

Sorry folks, but if you want to get in the Halo 3 beta and you're not related to Bill Gates or Peter Moore, you better go buy your copy of Crackdown now while you still can.