Halo 3 Beta

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The Beta Banner as seen on Bungie.net

The Halo 3 Beta controls on a Xbox 360 controller

The Halo 3 Beta was a phase in the development of Halo 3, produced by Bungie Studios and organized by Microsoft. It was the open beta of the video game Halo 3, which was later released by Bungie on September 25th, 2007.

Details of the Beta

The Halo 3 Beta was an intermediate build of the multiplayer functionality of Halo 3. It was first released to selected members of the public on May 11, 2007, and its purpose was to collect information and feedback from the millions of playtest games played through the multiplayer beta to refine Bungie Studio's final multiplayer product and to advertise Halo 3.

Over the four weeks of the Beta, 820,000 unique users clocked up over 12 million hours of play - the equivalent of a single person playing Halo 3 for 1,400 years.

Entrance

Halo 3 Beta Special Invitation.

Because it was highly popular, there were only three phases for the general public to enter into to have access to the multiplayer beta.

Phase One

Phase One consisted of getting onto www.halo3.com after the Halo 3 Starry Night CGI Trailer that aired on December 14, 2006.

Players that entered into www.halo3.com quickly enough were selected to participate in Phase One, and received an email notification on the week of January 22-26, 2007.

Phase Two: The Rule of Three

Players interested in entering via Phase Two 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 and had to be of 17 years of age or older.

Afterward, players signed up on www.halo3.com on February 5th at 1:00PM EST for their chance to participate in the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. 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 February 12th to participate in the multiplayer beta.

If not selected to participate in the multiplayer beta through Phases One or Two, interested players had a third chance to enter.

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.

These boxes of Crackdown included an invite to participate in the Halo 3 Multiplayer beta when it became available. Owners of Crackdown that had 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 had the Crackdown disc in your Xbox 360 console. This means that you could not rent the game to just play the beta, nor could you buy the game, download the Beta, and sell the game.

Bugs and Errors

Main article: Halo 3 Beta Errors

Numerous problems had been encountered with the Halo 3 Beta, one such problem being 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 had been hinted that not all will be shown. The features were:

Weapons UNSC MA5C Individual Combat Weapon System BR55HB SR Battle Rifle AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun Missile Pod M41 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launcher M90 Close Assault Weapon System SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle W/AV M6 Grindell/Galileian Nonlinear Rifle M7/Caseless Sub Machine Gun M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose Grenade M6G Pistol (available through glitch) Covenant Brute Shot Beam Rifle Carbine Type-25 Directed Energy Pistol Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle Type-25 Carbine "Spiker" Plasma Grenade Spike Grenade Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher Energy Sword (available through glitch)

Vehicles UNSC M12 Warthog LRV M274 Mongoose ULATV Covenant Ghost Banshee Wraith (available through glitch) Equipments Bubble Shield Portable Gravity Lift Power Drainer Trip Mine Maps High Ground Snowbound Valhalla Matchmaking Features: "Party Up" "Veto" Saved Films Features: "File Share" "Theater"

Trivia

• When some people first started playing the Halo 3 Beta, the loading screen said "Love, Bungie", after the usual and typical "Loading..." and "Halo 3 Beta".
• During the Beta, several players posted videos of a possible version of the Master Chief's face. This face was an Easter egg left by Bungie, and is, in truth, a Photoshopped picture of one of their employees.
• In the Halo 3 Beta, the MA5C Assault Rifle had an animation where the charging handle would move back and forth when firing. In the final version, this was changed for reasons Bungie has never revealed.
• The Trip Mine in the Beta was far more deadly than its final version, as the Beta Trip Mine could stick to the underside of an unmanned vehicle. As soon as this rigged vehicle was touched, the mine would trigger.
• The reticule for the Spartan Laser was different in the Beta Version. The Beta reticule no longer featured a dot in the center, and the cross-hair's four corners weren't connected to one another. They instead formed a diamond in the center, resulting in a vague outline of where you were aiming.
• The Spartan models in the beta were far more detailed than the final version, including paint chips and dents in the armor. They also had a bit more contrast in the visor of their armor. In addition, by what can be observed from the paint chips and dents, it can be noted that the Spartan model used in Halo 3 Beta is actually the same model they used for John-117 in the actual Campaign.
• On May 11th, both members of the press and people part of the "Friends and Family" program got the Beta 5 days before everyone else.
• Before the release of Halo 3, there was a case where the almost finished game (codenamed Epsilon, 99.9% complete) was leaked to the Internet. Microsoft furiously responded to the case by banning consoles that played the illegal copy from accessing Xbox LIVE until December 31st, 9999.