Halo 3 Beta Sign Up Starts Dec. 4th

aplusjimages writes "1up.com is reporting that Dec. 4th, will be when Bungie will start taking registrations for the Halo 3 Beta test. This is also the date that the new 60 second commercial will air on ESPN's Monday Night Football. There have already been sightings of gamertags playing Halo 3 Beta online." From the article: "'There will be multiple ways to get involved with Halo 3's public beta and next week's online registration is just the first way.' The registration program will be set up at Halo3.com and will give players a chance to be one of the 'select members to join the unprecedented Halo 3 public beta program.' If you don't get in to the beta via this method, relax, there will be numerous other opportunities to participate in the beta."

Comments

Hoooollllywooooooood is caaaallllliiiing

[Adolf Hitroll]

As you might have heard, Miramax (mistakenly) purchased the right to Rob Malda's autobiography: "Had I gotten a dick, I would not have remained hidden in Mom's basement, sucking Dad's dick for bandwidth /nt".
I'm in charge of adaptating this into a movie and, because I don't exactly know how it feel not to get pussy, I am looking for some short-dicked nerds testimony. The ideal candidate should have the following experience:

• Getting a wry neck attempting to perform a fellatio on himself.
  
• Having a (blind) blind date running out because of his smell
  
• Programming an auto-FP-er to get remarked by his crapdot fellow nerds
  
• Getting the dog to run away because of some sodomitic fantasies
  
• squirting a whole tube of toothpaste into his own anus
  

So if you want to feel (not "be") famous, just tell me about your lonely sexual life or your new graphic adapter.

ps this is not offtopic: I love halo... not !

Finally, A Good Use for Vista?

[LifesABeach]

So in order to play Halo3, I guess I will have to buy the Vista product. Because mySQL, Python, Kaffeine, GAIM, Open Office, GIMP, Blender, and Mozilla all work for me; On linux.

Re:Finally, A Good Use for Vista?

[Donniedarkness]

Nope, this article is about the XBOX360 version. There is still no good reason to get Vista ;)

Re:Finally, A Good Use for Vista?

[twistedsymphony]

I don't get your meaning. What does Halo 3 have to do with Vista?

Re:Finally, A Good Use for Vista?

[Joe The Dragon]

By the time it comes out for pc will we need the windows that comes after vista in less that come in 4-5 years.

Re:Finally, A Good Use for Vista?

[LifesABeach]

Halo 2 is on the vista games list. I would be very surprised if Halo3 won't be. My view point is that my separation from all things Microsoft is pretty much complete. The only thing I use Windows for, is games. I do not believe I am Ranting, or Trolling this issue. I am just stating an everyday fact of life, for me.

One Word.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yawn...

How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[Anonymous Coward]

After the Gears of War lies: http://img.hexus.net/v2/gaming/screenshots/x360/ge ars_x360_large_1.jpg and the sad reality of what the game actually looks like for real, I hope Bungie is intentionally lowering expectations for the game. Epic's lies about GoW graphics(try to find a REAL direct feed screenshot for the game anywhere) must have put Bungie in a serious ethical bind. Put out bullshit marketing shots or take the honest route and come clean with how the game will actually look. At E3 it looked like they were going with the Epic style high rez bullshit, but the recent much lower quality images look like they are trying to be honest.

Re:How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[HappySqurriel]

I don't own an XBox 360 but I have seen Gears of War running in real time and it looks pretty good to me ...

Maybe you need a vacation Mr. Anonymous Coward Sony Fanboy Troll, your trolling is getting more pathetic every day I think you need a break. Maybe play some PS2, or better yet some XBox/Gamecube/Wii and realize that it is fun playing videogames and you don't have to be a slave to a brand.

No one thinks you're cooler because you own only Sony stuff ... No one thinks less of you either ...

Re:How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[JFMulder]

Huh? Seriously? I think the game actually looks better than the screenshot. Don't know what you are complaining about.

And for the record. Resistance is nowhere near Gears in terms of graphics.

Re:How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Huh? Seriously? I think the game actually looks better than the screenshot. Don't know what you are complaining about.

What?

GoW certainly looks better than the rest of the 360's games, but it looks NOTHING like the high resolution(5000x5000 16xAA) shots they call 'in game'. Feel free to post a link to any screenshot for the game that is:

# direct feed
# 720p resolution
# taken during actual single player play

Good luck finding such a thing.

Epic has been very careful to carefully control the media for the game and you will be hard pressed to find an actual real screenshot. Other developers like Bungie can't be too pleased with having to compete with fake screenshots.

Re:How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[Serengeti]

"# direct feed
# 720p resolution
# taken during actual single player play

Good luck finding such a thing."

Well, I haven't even bothered to look for such a screenshot, but I've played the game, and have been able to look at footage of actual gameplay on a frame-by-frame level (I edited a piece on GoW for television). And I noticed something while looking through ... the cinematics in the game do not use the same character models as are used in actual gameplay, which would explain why the quality of visuals in cinematics seems to be so much higher "than actual gameplay". However, the cinematics ARE being generated by the game engine.

And frankly, I feel that the quality of visuals in the cinematics is right on par with that screenshot in the GP.

Re:How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[aftk2]

This is 720p, and looks in-game to me. In fact, all of these latest screenshots do. Granted, the original (which was also 720p, by the way) is slightly smoother, but if you think the screenshot you posted, along with the screenshots out now aren't good representations of the game, you're delusional.

Re:How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean this crap?

http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1167/1162871012 .jpg

http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1167/1162870936 .jpg

Yeah, way to torpedo your own argument...

Re:How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[Serengeti]

Yep, thats Gears of War cinematics. I pointed this out in a different post: the models they use for cinematics are different than they do for actual gameplay, but none the less, both game play and cinematics are rendered in-engine. I'm no game designer, or graphics expert, but for cinematics, I can see them being able to support much more detailed character models when they are able reduce everything else the processor has to handle, like enemies and AI.

Re:How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[JFMulder]

Well, that image was 720P, and I personally prefer the way Marcus looks in the game. The ingame version looks more bad-ass than this screenshot.
As for the rest, you may be right, I only saw gameplay trailers of GoW before buying it, so the graphical hype didn't seem overblown to me.

Besides, GoW right now on the 360 looks better than what Bungie's screenshots (which we have no idea if they are doctored or not) for Halo 3. It only feels like a higher resolution version of Halo2. The lighting hasn't evolved much it seems.

Re:How will Bungine handle's Epic's GoW lies?

[DeepZenPill]

That would be because Halo 3 is still in alpha, and Bungie has stated that they haven't implemented the HDR lighting or particle effects yet. That's why they've been reluctant to provide screenshots, as the game doesn't look anything like it will next November, or even this spring for the beta.

Next Week

[HappySqurriel]

I am pleased to announce that Next Week I will be able to announce when we will make our announcment that the Beta for Duke Nukem Forever will begin.

What the attraction of Betas?

[Robmonster]

I don't understand the clamouring to be part of a Beta test.

Is it just so that you can brag you got to play the latest game before others? If so, I'd rather play the *finished* game rather than one which may well have a large number of errors and omissions.

Perhaps it's so you feel like you are actually making a difference in the development of the game, but with the large numbers of people Betas tend to get opened to these days I cannot see how a single person can make that much difference.

R

Re:What the attraction of Betas?

[Anonymous Coward]

Games have online leaderboards now. To be at the top you have to play well all the time, getting fragged a lot when you're learning means your average is off and you'll never be at the top. And the Halo games don't even have bots (shocking, if you ask me), so you can't practice offline.

The solution: hone your skills on the beta.

This isn't the only reason, of course. Some people love certain games beyond any rationality.

Re:What the attraction of Betas?

[HappySqurriel]

With MMO games there is a large percentage of the population who wants to not just play the game but to be one of the top players on their server; if you're in a beta (even for only a couple of weeks) you can level at a much faster rate than someone who hasn't played it before.

Also, in general many people want to be part of a beta because it is better than a demo at trying out to see if the game is any good.

Re:What the attraction of Betas?

[xiong.chiamiov]

I don't understand the point of beta for Halo 3. I never saw anything that great about the first two.

Re:What the attraction of Betas?

[negaluke]

Yeah, i know i would sure hate playing what will certainly be among the most popular videogames of the time for free. Terrible burden, that.

Re:What the attraction of Betas?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is this "finished game" you are talking about? I haven't heard of a game that was fully finished (read no patches) since the early nineties.

These days finished games are just one step away from betas. At least with betas they are free and you are more prepared for bugs.

Re:What the attraction of Betas?

[YT]

Well 90% of the people who sign up for BETAs do the following things:

1. Brag about how they are the first to play it
2. Complain that the game will suck and it keeps crashing. *It's a BETA you fool!*
3. Never, ever give any kind of helpful feed back in the forums, email, bug reports. They just say "It crashed, fix it"
4. Exploit the hell out of game bugs.

There is usually a good 10% that do actual "testing", they report bugs with all the detail, they don't whine/complain. And for some companies they reward this behavior. Take for example the Auto-Assault BETA, people who did a good job reporting bugs, made daily/weekly reports on game play, etc.. They were rewarded with longer play hours and access to more stuff during the BETA.

So given that, yes a single person can actually be heard and make a difference, mainly because he/she will be one of the very few that will actually report bugs and make helpful suggestions.

YT

Re:What the attraction of Betas?

[robogymnast]

Ummm... how bout I just can't wait to play the freaking game?

Re:What the attraction of Betas?

[Rebelgecko]

You know, if you want to practice offline in Halo you could always play the offline single-player mode (shocking!).

Will Halo 3 Be MS's Resistance Killer?

[Anonymous Coward]

It looks like Bungie is learning from Insomniac's wildly successful Resistance epic 40 player online matches looking over the weapon and game modes. However, the recent media for the game look nowhere in the same league graphically. The shiny metal effect seems to have lost it's ability to impress compared to five years ago.

Hopefully Microsoft will wake up and let Bungie run dedicated servers like Sony does for PS3 online games. And drops the pointless 50 dollar charge. 50 dollars + dedicated servers, maybe worth it. 50 dollars + no dedicated servers, not worth it. Even in 40 player Resistance matches there has yet to be anyone reporting any lag thanks to Sony's online setup.

Re:Will Halo 3 Be MS's Resistance Killer?

[HappySqurriel]

Even in 40 player Resistance matches there has yet to be anyone reporting any lag thanks to Sony's online setup

Why do you keep saying this?

Sony (probably) built their online system to support 5 Million PS3 owners who wanted to play games online, meaning it was implemented with hundreds of thousands of concurrent users in mind; according to EA Sony has only shipped 200,000 PS3s. The fact is that Sony (probably) has a 5% of their intended load on their servers, if they had lag that would be a real serious problem.

Re:Will Halo 3 Be MS's Resistance Killer?

[Daedone]

nevermind the fact that a significant portion of the PS3's are still boxed up, and being sold on ebay for the the christmas rapefest. Then you have to reduce the number of users further since * not everyone plays FPS games *......... i know, i know, its a scary thought but some people might have purchased the PS3 for other games. :|

Re:Will Halo 3 Be MS's Resistance Killer?

[Allison Geode]

actually, Resistance is the Resistance killer. i played it at a friend's and..... it sorta sucks. gears of war is what's hot, or hadn't you heard? (it is still hot, right? I mean, i'm still playing it.....)

Re:Will Halo 3 Be MS's Resistance Killer?

[Serengeti]

"Even in 40 player Resistance matches there has yet to be anyone reporting any lag thanks to Sony's online setup."

Are there even 40 people on Sony's online service right now?! Wow! I guess they sold more than everyone thought!

What about Halo 2 for PC ?

[Rastignac]

Everybody is tired of waiting. Nobody will buy it.

What about Halo 2?

[Kraeloc]

I don't care about Halo 3 yet. Where do I sign up for the beta of Halo 2 for PC?

Re:What about Halo 2?

[EGSonikku]

You could just buy an Xbox and Halo 2 for probably only slightly more than Halo2 on PC will cost ;p

(Yes, this is an exaggeration)

How will Bungie handle their own lies?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dare I need to bring up the Halo 2 announcement trailer?

I find it funny how others bitch about company XYZ selling them pre-rendered graphics non-gameplay videos, yet never questions things & eats the stuff up when their favorite company does the same thing.

Whether it be Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, etc, I do not put much stock in the graphical claims these companies make, and am only willing to trust the stuff when the game is ready for purchase from retailers.