Halo 3 Beta

The Halo 3 Beta controls on a Xbox 360 controller

The Halo 3 Beta was a test video game produced by Bungie Studios and organized by Microsoft. It was the precursor to the video game Halo 3, which is to be released by Bungie on September 25th.

The Xbox Live multiplayer beta of Halo 3 became available at 7:00 Central time May 16, 2007 (May 11 for lucky Friends and family program nominees)-June 10, 2007 (originally scheduled to end on June 6, but was extended due to problems downloading the Beta through 'Crackdown') for the Xbox 360. This beta also represented an opportunity for gamers to give information that would help in the development of Halo 3. Through the resulting feedback, Bungie Studios would be able to further refine and hone the end result of Halo 3.^[1]

Phase One

Phase one consisted of getting on www.halo3.com after the Halo 3 Starry Night CGI Trailer that aired on 12/04/06.^[2]

Players that were selected to participate in Phase one received an email notification on the week of January 22-26, 2007.^[1]

Phase Two: The Rule of Three

Players interested in access to the Halo 3 Beta test were to play at least three hours of Halo 2 multiplayer sessions on an Xbox 360 on Xbox Live during the three day period beginning February 1st at 12:01 am EST and ending February 3rd at 11:59 pm EST.^[1]

Afterwards players signed up on www.halo3.com on February 5th at 1:00PM EST for their chance to participate in the Halo 3 Beta Test. If the player was one of the FIRST 13,333 to do this and meet the requirements* they would receive an invite notification on February 11th or 12th to participate in the Halo 3 Beta.^[1]

If not selected to participate in the Halo 3 multiplayer beta players interested had one more chance to get in.^[1]

Requirements

Age of 17 and older.^[1]
3+ hours of Halo 2 Xbox Live play.^[1]

Phase Three: Crackdown

Crackdown, a video game unrelated to the Halo series, was released on February 20, 2007 (Feb 22 - Asian territories, Feb 24 - European markets). Players could get into the Halo 3 beta by purchasing specially marked boxes of Crackdown. ^[1]

These boxes of Crackdown include an invite to participate in the Halo 3 multiplayer beta when it becomes available. Owners of Crackdown that have access to an Xbox 360 console with a hard drive and a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription could simply download the Halo 3 Beta by selecting "Downloads" on the Crackdown main menu, then select "Download Halo 3 Beta". After the Halo 3 Beta finished downloading, players would then select "Downloads" on the Crackdown main menu, then select "Play Halo 3 Beta".

Also note that to play the Halo 3 Beta, you MUST have the Crackdown disc in your Xbox 360 console. This means that you cannot rent the game to just play the beta, nor can you buy the game, download the Beta, and sell the game.^[3]

Details of the Beta

The Halo 3 Beta began on May 16, 2007 and ended on June 10, 2007. In an interview with Game Informer, Brian Jarrard shared some details about the beta. Jarrard stated that there would be more than one map in the multiplayer beta, but far less than will be in the final game. As for weapons he stated that weapons such as the Spartan Laser and Spiker would be in it. He also said that vehicles would be added where needed, including the Mongoose. ^[4]

Bungie and Microsoft announced that the Beta would be released for download on May 16th, and would run until June 10th, presumably a sufficient time for Bungie to gather enough information to make the improvements necessary for the final game. Throughout the beta, Bungie looked on their forums for player feedback on the Public Beta. Included were three different maps: Snowbound, Valhalla and High Ground.

Early Beta

On May 11th, both members of the press and people apart of the "Friends and Family" program got the Beta 5 days before everyone else.

Bungie and Microsoft hosted big press parties in New York, San Francisco, and London where the press could play and write up on their experiences. The press featured some of the best out there: IGN, Gamespot, and many more.

Videos and write ups of their gameplay experiences can be found at their sites.

The bad thing is that people are selling the codes on Ebay ^[5]

Bugs and Errors

See the main article: Halo 3 Beta Errors

Numerous problems had been encountered with the Halo 3 Beta, including a 14-hour setback in its release for many Crackdown users, downloading errors, and matchmaking errors. To compensate the gamers, bungie had extended the period of play until June 10, 2007 At 11:59 PM PDT (from June 6th, 2007, which was the originally intended end date).

Included Features

The Beta test featured the majority of features from the final multiplayer experience, though it has been hinted that not all will be shown. The features were:

Weapons^[6]

UNSC

MA5C Assault Rifle
BR55HB SR Battle Rifle
AIE-486H Heavy Machinegun
Missile Pod
M41 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launcher
M90 Shotgun
SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle
W/AV M6 Grindell/Galileian Nonlinear Rifle
M7/Caseless Submachine Gun
Frag Grenade
M6G Pistol (ONLY AVAILABLE THROUGH A GLITCH IN THE BETA WHICH ALLOWED PLAYERS TO ACCESS CUSTOM GAMES)

Covenant

Brute Shot
Beam Rifle
Carbine
Plasma Pistol
Plasma Rifle
Type-25 Carbine "Spiker"
Plasma Grenade
Spike Grenade
Needler
Energy Sword (ONLY AVAILABLE THROUGH A GLITCH IN THE BETA WHICH ALLOWED PLAYERS TO ACCESS CUSTOM GAMES)

Vehicles^[7]

Covenant

Ghost
Banshee
Wraith (CUSTOM GAME ONLY)

UNSC

Equipment^[8]

File:H3 Equipment.jpg

A list of the various equipment available in the Halo 3 Beta.

Template:Equipment List

Maps

Matchmaking

Features:

"Party Up"
"Veto"

Ranked Playlist:

Rumble Pit – All out action with you entering alone to play in Slayer, and some objective game types. Max party size: 1.
Team Slayer – Enter alone or with a small group and you’ll be matched against another team of equal size in a small variety of Slayer variants. Team Size: 3-4. Max party size: 4
Team Skirmish – Team based objectives are the order of the day here, everything from single flag CTF to Territories. Team Size: 3-4. Max party size: 4
Big Team Battle – Just like it says. Big team based games on maps big enough to support them. In this case, that’s Valhalla. Team Size: 5-6. Max party size: 6.

Social Playlist:

Rumble Training – Just like Rumble Pit, but unranked. Max party size: 6
Team Training – An unranked mixture of team-based games, with both Slayer and objective types. Team Size: 3-4. Max party size: 8
BTB Training – An unranked version of Big Team Battle. Max party size: 12
2V2 Training – Pint-sized teams battle each other for bragging rights and little else in this unranked playlist. Max party size: 4

Saved Films