HALO 3 Beta

souldaddy wrote:

Ah, this clears things up:

Bungie Press Release wrote:

Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios confirmed the multiplayer beta of "Halo® 3" will debut to audiences worldwide via Xbox LIVE® on May 16 at 5 a.m. PDT and run through June 6 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

So nobody needs to stay up late tonight.

Bungie's website says 7am pst on it's countdown. http://www.bungie.net/

I'm curious. But not curious enough to drop the $55 on Crackdown. If, buy luck, I get Crackdown back from GameFly, I'll join you all. I wield a wicked plasma rifle.

Trashie wrote:

I'm curious. But not curious enough to drop the $55 on Crackdown. If, buy luck, I get Crackdown back from GameFly, I'll join you all. I wield a wicked plasma rifle.

yea, I forgot this is a Crackdown code thingie. Guess I'll just be waiting (and reading:>)

Crackdown is worth it on it's own.

*Legion* wrote:

My wife and I will both be playing this most nights.

Logan and you finally got married after all?

Cool! Congrats! I didn't know it was legal in California.

So, uh, let's say I *cough* borrow a copy from someone, or rent it, or whatever... Can I play somehow?

Yes.

I'll probably be on board most of the beta, no doubt embarrassing myself.

CRACKDOWN is very much worth it on it's own!

Halo three sounds like it could be very interesting. I doubt I'll enjoy the gameplay, but I'm almost positive I'll like the interface and the features.

If my 360 is back in time for the beta.

armedbushido wrote:

Beta Guide

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.a...

At the top of the pages for the individual maps, it looks like they've got panoramic shots of the levels with a largely unobstructed view of the skyline. There's definitely no Halo rising up on the horizon, there are forerunner structures, and Snowbound is certainly not on Earth. Halo multiplayer maps generally fit within the setting of the campaign, if not strictly placed on the timeline. Implications?

10.5 hours and a gig download to go. Oh god, the impending beta is piercing my year old mental barriers setup to stem the near fatal levels of anticipation. Coke started selling Vanilla Coke again. It's like they knew.

I've had my fingers in my ears and in my eyes trying to avoid anything to do with this game (to keep it new), so I'm hoping for quite a suprise

Braehole wrote:

Bungie's website says 7am pst on it's countdown. http://www.bungie.net/

Eh, it says 7 hours even on the countdown now for me and it's 1:00am EST here, so seems like the 5am PST, 8am EST time is still correct.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

10.5 hours and a gig download to go.

Darn you, MS, why won't you let us download it now, overnight, and just turn the servers on tomorrow?

Luna's code came in the email last night around midnight (PST), and her Xbox is now happily downloading the beta. However, despite Bungie's countdown being over, Crackdown still can't seem to download it yet (even though I did get a title update when I booted it up).

Dang for me it says to check back at a later time... I'm going to play this as much as I can, but this is a busy month for me. Older brother has a wedding, and I'm moving too.

zeroKFE wrote:

Luna's code came in the email last night around midnight (PST), and her Xbox is now happily downloading the beta. However, despite Bungie's countdown being over, Crackdown still can't seem to download it yet (even though I did get a title update when I booted it up).

They're working on it, apparently.

Anyone have any luck yet on the Crackdown download...

Playing now! (I used a beta code)

EDIT: Heh - "Loading, Halo 3 Beta, Love Bungie"

bennard wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Luna's code came in the email last night around midnight (PST), and her Xbox is now happily downloading the beta. However, despite Bungie's countdown being over, Crackdown still can't seem to download it yet (even though I did get a title update when I booted it up).

They're working on it, apparently.

what a great comment... "we know"

oh and 9:23 EST still nada

I got a beta key from Bungie even without ever buying Crackdown.

I got my download key via email at 3 AM Eastern this morning. I started downloading at about 8:15 AM and it didn't take more than 20 minutes to get the whole thing. I was done with breakfast and in the middle of making lunch when it finished.

Hitting the Play Now button now.

Looks like it wants to download an update. Update took 5 seconds.

Lower right hand corner has some scrolling text: "Loading... Loading... Halo 3 Beta... Love, Bungie"

First map I play is High ground. Similar in size to Battle Creek.

The ATV Mongoose steers like a warthog but handles almost as lightly as a ghost.

Brute shot now has 6 in the clip and it seems to shoot straighter.

The bubble shield has a really neat graphical effect. I can see some interesting tactics coming about from the usage of this baby. So far it's protected me from taking any damage from a nearby exploding frag grenade.

From the one map I've played, it's fun but it would be more fun if I wasn't getting my ass kicked.

EDIT: Ah ha, I was playing a Ranked game. Switched to Training Matchmaking and I did much better.

Is this just a multi player beta? Having never played Halo/Halo 2, it would be nice to get used to the gameplay before I get embarrassed and humiliated online.

Wow. Nice of them to delay the crackdown folks.

I guess I'll just go back to sleep.

Trowan, it is multiplayer matchmaking only. So you won't be able to set up your own private parties and such.

I don't really think the spoiler tags are needed.

Luna's download finished just before we had to leave, so all we had time to do was make sure it would load properly, which it did. Woooo!

Thankfully, when she gets home from class she should be able to make my copy download before I'm off work, assuming that the Crackdown thing gets resolved before the evening.

So why is the Crackdown thing not running?
Also, interesting:

Now to begin playing after your installation is complete, start up Crackdown again, and go back to the same "Downloads" item. Instead of the option to download the Public Beta, you will now see the option to play the Public Beta. The Crackdown disc must be present in your Xbox 360 to play the Public Beta. In fact, you will hear the Crackdown disc spinning in its drive while playing the Beta. This is normal. As with any game, you should limit time playing for health and safety reasons, and to avoid unnecessary wear and tear on your console.

It's Halo. New weapons. New maps. HD. It's Halo.

I just got my code and I'm downloading. But it's not from the email they told me it was going to be from.

If you haven't gotten it yet, double-check your junk mail filters. It's labelled as coming from the Friends and Family demo rather than the Rule of Three, and it comes from [email protected]