h3beta07
Latest
Halo 3 beta: Did it kill the hype?
Over the weekend, David at MyArcadePlanet tossed around the idea that the Halo 3 beta actually hurt the game and killed off much of its hype. He feels that the beta was both a fun and entertaining experience, but his hands on time with the game released much of the built up Halo 3 excitement within' him. His personal stash of Halo 3 hype is gone.And we can agree with David to some extent, because Bungie is treating the Halo 3 release differently than its we're tight lipped, no one can touch our game, Halo 2 launch. So, we're sure some fans' hypometer may be running lower since they got hands on time and know what to expect, even if it was only a little taste of what's to come. But on the other side of the coin is that the beta has actually increased the hype in other fans' eyes, because they loved their time playing the beta and want to see, learn, and play more. But we can all agree that the Halo 3 beta has had some effect on those who played it, good or bad.But what about you. Did playing the beta increase or decrease your excitement (and overall hype) for Halo 3?
Bungie's Halo 3 beta breakdown
Not satisfied with gigantic numbers and statistics? Bungie has posted a brief article detailing the team's thoughts on the Halo 3 beta. We must share one more number first, though. Remember those twelve million hours that were logged into the beta? According to Bungie, 816 years worth of that time was spent in-game. Yowza. Back to the task at hand, the Bungie team is pleased with the information gleaned from the beta. Network bugs in particular were weeded out very effectively. However, those of you hoping for any drastic weapon changes may be disappointed, as the team will leave the weapons mostly the same. There will be minor tweaks, of course, but don't expect anything drastic. Finally, the team is definitely aware of the many map escaping exploits (particularly Banshee ... in ... Space) and plans to seal the maps a little tighter for the retail release. Still, Bungie knows that fans are dedicated to finding ways around such measures, and has no illusions that they won't. Hit the "read" link for the full article. Update: Clarified Bungie's claim of 816 hours worth of play time.
Halo 3 Beta statistics released
Now that the Halo 3 beta has been over with for over 72 hours, some statistics for those number crunchers out there to feast upon. First off, with 820,000 unique gamertags playing online, that's a lot of copies of Crackdown, probably well over 750,000 after you deduct the initial beta registrants, 13,333 "Rule of 3" winners, and Friends and Family testers. Those gamers also logged twelve million hours of play time in the three weeks, with 350 terabytes of data being transfered across live, from downloading the beta, as well as possibly bandwidth for games, and file share movies. Either way, that's pretty impressive.
Master Chief's face? Kinda sorta ...
From day one Halo fans have been wondering what's hiding under that Spartan helmet and what our hero really looks like. And thanks to the Halo 3 beta and some nice camera work, fans were able to position the Mongoose camera inside the helmet of another player. The result, a look at a fully modeled face behind the visor featuring some pale skin and glowing eyes. True, it isn't the best look behind the helmet and one could make the argument that it's just a generic multiplayer model and not our Master Chief. But we can't help but take this one step further and fantasize about the possibility that Master Chief will be taking his helmet off this September seeing that Bungie went through the work to model faces. Speaking of which, would you be down with seeing the person behind the helmet or do you think Master Chief's badass appeal comes from his semi-hidden look?[Via Game Stooge]
Hey Bungie, include open chat in Halo 3!
var digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/xbox_360/Peition_for_open_chat_in_Halo_3'; The Halo 3 beta wrapped up earlier this morning and for the most part everything was grand. That is except for one major issue that has been taunting us with an evil grin since first playing the beta ... lack of an open chat system. True, open chat has never been a part of the Halo franchise, which opts instead for a push to talk system, but with the trilogy coming to an end it's a feature that needs to be included. Who really likes pressing a button to talk anyway? So, we're asking you for your help. We want you to comment on this post stating that you support an open voice chat system in Halo 3 multiplayer and want Bungie to get rid of the push to talk mess. We'll make sure the big guys over at Bungie see this post and all the fanboy support for opening up Halo 3's chat. Let's band together and fight this push to talk madness, comment away fanboys and let's make a change! Hoorah!But wait, you aren't sold on the whole open chat idea? Well, after the break we've posted a few reasons why open chat just makes sense and why it will make Halo 3 a better game. Trust us, push to talk is so 1977.
Last day to play the Halo 3 beta
Yes, we had a rough start at the beginning, but we soon got into the swing of things and have had a lot of fun these past few weeks as tripmines exploded, Banshees flew out into space, and custom games were created. But all the Halo 3 beta goodness will come to an end tonight as Bungie pulls the metaphorical plug at midnight pacific time. So we advise everyone to jump online, play a few games, and pull off a few last Spartan laser kills, because you'll have to wait a few months to get your next Halo 3 fix. We bid you fine farewell Halo 3 beta, you were all that we had hoped for and more. We'll see you in September.
Video: Halo 3 beta: Needler ... in ... space!
A couple weeks back we showed you video footage of the Banshee "... in ... space!" This time involves the Needler, which as you may have noticed since the release of the beta, has gotten a significant boost of power as it is not dual wieldable as found in Halo 2. Whenever in High Grounds on Snowbound, nabbing a few needling kills always adds a slightly more satisfactory experience to you killing spree. So, where does the extraterrestrial extension come into play here? You'll just have to watch and see. In spite of the source, it's still pretty catchy in this context. Enjoy!
Top five Halo 3 beta weapons
Game Daily whipped together a list of what they think the top five Halo 3 beta weapons are in their current state. Making the list at number five is the slightly less powerful Rocket Launcher with the Chaingun, Brute Spiker and Shotgun all making an appearance. And what's Game Daily's favorite Halo 3 beta weapon that they feel has the most pwnability? Old trusty herself, the sniper rifle. Though, we can't help but notice that a few of our favorite weapons are absent from their list including the beefed up Needler, the punishing Spartan Laser and the good-in-any-situation Carbine. So, we can't help but disagree.Now we ask you, fellow fanboys, what are your top five Halo 3 beta weapons? Missile Pod need not apply.
Watch Master Chief suck at Halo 3
What better way to start off your Monday (here in the Western Hemisphere anyway) than with a hilarious YouTube video? No better way, that's what! The fact that it presents a startlingly accurate portrait of Halo on Xbox Live is just a bonus. We present to you Master Chief Sucks at Halo. If any of you have ever played a significant amount of Halo online, then many parts of this video are likely to strike a familiar chord. Without spoiling anything, we suggest you go ahead and watch. (Warning: NSFW. lololololololllololollolol.)[Via Joystiq. Thanks, Jayman007]
Halo 3 multiplayer map names discovered
More Halo 3 beta code mining has resulted in the finding of what looks to be the names of all of the multiplayer maps that we'll be playing in Halo 3. The 7th Columnist, with the help of a few others, discovered the map names while searching through the code for juicy Halo 3 information. There's our beta maps Valhalla, Snowbound, and High Ground listed and even recently announced maps Last Resort and Shrine. But there's others we haven't heard about like Chill, Construct and Warthog Inc that make our imaginations run wild. Full list of all twelve Halo 3 map names after the break.
Halo 3 beta T-shirt Giveaway: It's Over!
They say all good things must come to an end, and that remains true for us here at Xbox 360 Fanboy. The fantabulous Halo 3 beta T-shirt giveaway has come to an end. Before we bid a fond farewell to our week-long giveaway, we must announce the final winner, who will no doubt accept his or her T-shirt with quiet dignity and grace. The winner of our final shirt, of Large size and brown hue, is ... Gorkinlot, who "likey the free." We all do buddy, we all do. Congratulations, Gorkinlot, we'll be contacting you shortly.We'd like to thank everyone who participated in the giveaway. We'd also like to let you know that we have many more giveaways planned for the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned to X3F and you could be a winner too.
Bungie says Halo 3 graphics will improve
Ever since the first Halo 3 ViDoc surfaced, fanboys everywhere have been complaining that Halo 3's graphics may not be up to snuff. Speaking to Next-Gen, Bungie's Frank O'Connor offers some hope for ailing fans. First, he does note that multiplayer will always be geared towards performance before graphical wizardry. After all, what's the point of beautiful multiplayer if the framerate is unplayable? Still, O'Connor says that there will be "a few nifty graphical improvements in multiplayer," though he notes that he expects the real graphical polish will best be displayed by the single-player campaign.Are you at all bothered by Halo 3's graphics so far, or are you too busy enjoying yourself?
Totilo and Croal argue about Halo 3
For the most part, MTV's Stephen Totilo and N'Gai Croal of Newsweek don't seem to like Halo 3. In a new series of back-and-forth journalism called Vs., these two are debating the merits of Halo 3"s multiplayer. There have been two parts to the article so far, and right now the consensus is essentially that Halo 3 is too hard. Specifically, learning Halo 3 can be unforgiving. Unfortunately, for many Halo players, this is completely true. There are no training modes, unless you count the campaign. Most people aren't concerned with teaching others how to play either. This leaves the uninitiated to absorb weapon strategies, map layouts, and gametypes by themselves, which can be a daunting task. Then again, Croal and Totilo also have yet to figure out how to initiate team speak (hint: press any direction on the D-pad, fellas).We have to point out, though, that the Halo 3 multiplayer beta really isn't the best arena to judge Halo 3's multiplayer. That may sound strange, given that it is a multiplayer beta after all, but it's true. Right now, the Halo 3 beta is crowded with a relatively small sample of Halo fanatics (several million short of the projected pre-order numbers). These are people who live and breathe Halo, people who went through the Rule of Three, people who spent $60 on Crackdown just to play the beta. Naturally, you're going to be running into lots of people who are better than you. This smaller sampling also limits the effectiveness of the ranking system, as there are fewer people with smaller amounts of skill disparity. Also, and this is important considering N'Gai's misty-eyed memories of LAN parties gone by, there are no custom games in the beta (not officially anyway). Given that N'Gai is vocal about his displeasure at playing with strangers, custom games with friends sound like just what the doctor ordered.If Stephen or N'Gai is reading this, we'd be happy to show you both some friendly matches of Halo. The rest of you can read parts 1 and 2 of the series below.[Via HBO]Read part 1Read part 2
Fanswag: Halo 3 beta T-shirt Giveaway Day 6
Update: This giveaway is now closed. To see the winner, click here. To enter the latest giveaway, click here.This is it folks, the final day of our Halo 3 beta T-shirt extrabonanza. Let's not much up this post with extra wordiness. Time to announce the winner of yesterday's Large brown T-shirt. The winner is ... sam johnston, who proudly proclaims that he is the winner. How did he know? Congratulations, sam johnston, we'll be contacting you soon.Now, on to the last, final, and ultimate T-shirt to be given away. Today's shirt is brown, size Large. If you'd like to get your grubby little mitts on it (or your delicate, clean mitts), all you have to do is submit a comment on this post (limit one entry per person. Limited to U.S. residents 18 and older). Leave your comment and good luck!Click here for the Official Halo 3 beta T-shirt Giveaway rules
Video: Sword and Wraith unlocked in H3 beta
After the secret got out that custom games were accessible in the Halo 3 beta, it hasn't taken long for more vehicles and weapons to be revealed. Of course, the latest GamePro has some official information, but we've got these positively unofficial videos. The first video, embedded above, shows off the Energy Sword as it appears in Halo 3. It's noteworthy that the sword does have a battery. If you look at the top right corner, you'll notice that the charge decreases as the player makes successful hits. Also displayed in the video, it seems that movement speed has been increased and gravity decreased, making for a sort of Benny Hill version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Check out the second video, which features a Wraith tank, after the break.
Fanswag: Halo 3 beta T-shirt Giveaway Day 5
Update: This giveaway is now closed. To see the winner, click here. To enter the latest giveaway, click here.It's nearly that time folks, the Xbox 360 Fanboy Halo 3 beta T-shirt Giveaway extravaganza is nearly over. But fear not, for there are still shirts to be won. And now, on to today's winner. The winner of an Extra Large green Halo 3 beta T-shirt is ... gibber9583, who informs us that Master Chief is very handsome. That's true, so long as you can get past the whole "pale as a cave fish" thing. Congratulations, gibber9583, we'll be contacting you soon.For today's giveaway we have a Large brown beta T-shirt. If you want to win this sucker, you're going to have to comment on this post. Just as a change of pace, why not post something completely irrelevant like, say, some random celebrity gossip? Everybody likes celebrity gossip, right? At any rate, simply post a comment below for your chance to win (limit one entry per person. Limited to U.S. residents 18 and over). We've only got one left after this one folks. Hop to it!Click here for the Official Halo 3 beta T-shirt Giveaway rules
H3 beta custom games unlocked, pistol spotted
Remember all the hullabaloo over the custom game menus uncovered in the Halo 3 beta? Unfortunately, it was somewhat muted thanks to the fact that custom games were still unplayable. At least, that's what we thought. It turns out that a few people have managed to actually start custom games of Halo 3 using the beta. Both of the videos in this post (one posted after the break) show a custom game of VIP. In the videos we see a few things that are not currently available in the beta, including multi-team gameplay and the M6G pistol. There is also one instance of automated team switching in the video, which would allow for more complex gametypes, such as the popular Zombies gametype. Unfortunately, it seems that the custom games created so far have been created by accident, so none of the custom options -- such as adjustable gravity -- have been tweaked.Here's hoping Bungie opens up custom games in a future beta update.Update: Be warned that the first video is NSFW thanks to some salty language. Thanks to Mrfreezie from pointing this out.
H3 beta gets Double Team and ranked BTB
Bungie has been kind enough to spice up our creamy Halo 3 beta by adding two new matchmaking playlists for everyone to enjoy. Big Team Battle has been added to the ranked matches and the social matches playlist gets a little Double Team Training. Which, interestingly enough, was hinted at on this past Friday's Bungie Weekly Update. The two new playlists are live right now, so get in on the action, find a partner, and ride your Mongoose to victory![Thanks, to everyone who sent this in]
Fanswag: Halo 3 beta T-Shirt Giveaway Day 4
Update: This giveaway is now closed. To see the winner, click here. To enter the latest giveaway, click here.The X3F Halo 3 beta T-shirt Giveaway now enters it second and final week. We've given away 3 shirts already, and we have 3 more in store. Before today's prize is announced, let's pick a winner from Friday's giveaway. The winner of an Extra Large, brown, and super comfy Halo 3 beta T-shirt is ... dave, who tells us he's willing to trade us both his girlfriend and his sister for it. Dave, something tells us your better half won't have any qualms about leaving when she hears about this.But enough relationship troubles, on to today's giveaway! Today's T-shirt is green and Extra Large. This is our last green shirt, so if you've got your sights set on one, this is your last chance. For your opportunity to win, simply submit a comment below (limit one entry per person. Limited to U.S. residents 18 and over). Get to commenting and good luck!Click here for the Official Halo 3 beta T-shirt Giveaway rules
Halo 3 armor types and achievements discovered
The Halo 3 beta code digging continues as the 7th Columnist has uncovered information on Halo 3's achievements and more customizable armor options for multiplayer. In the Halo 3 beta code there are over 40 references to Halo 3's achievements including everything from grenade sticking in multiplayer to advancement in Halo 3's campaign. Speaking of campaign, mission based achievements include a part of the mission's name which gives us a hint to how the campaign will progress. Flood making an appearance in mission five anyone? Complete list of achievement text pulled from the beta code is posted after the break.Also, newly discovered in the beta code is confirmation of an Elite model and references to armor customization in multiplayer. It looks like there will be different styles of armor to customize your Spartan or Elite with which will allow for greater personalization. The Spartan's armor types include default Mjolnir, Cobra, Intruder, Ninja and Regulator with the Elite model having default, Predator and Raptor. And since the helmet, shoulder pads and body are all listed as separate tags in the code, it may be possible to mix and match the various armor styles.[Thanks, MasterDigg]
