If they wanted a pay to play thing to keep the numbers down as everyone wouldn't pay for a beta invite. I'd have rather seen something like 1500-2000 MS points being used to get the beta. $20 is a lot easier to swallow then $60 for a game I have no interest in.

obviously, if the beta is that important to you, you would do what needs to be done. Obviously, whining does little to help :lol:

Yeah, I'm actually surprised they didn't offer that as another option to get into the beta. I guess you could trade the game back after you take the beta key to recoup some of the cost.

:lol:

I wonder how long it will take EB/GameStop to say no more Crackdown used tradeins. They are going to be so flooded with copies. Ebay and Half will be as bad.

True. I can see people buying it, opening it in the store, pulling out the beta key, and handing the game back to the clerk for trade-in. :lol:

If you're quick, you can probably toss it up on Ebay or Half as soon as you get it and find someone who's not "in the know" and willing to buy it for $40. You might even find someone on the trading subforum here or at CAG who doesn't care about the beta and is willing to buy your copy of Crackdown or trade for it. Or maybe hold off on buying the game and see if a generous Crackdown owner is willing to give you their beta key. There could even be people who buy the game and Ebay their beta keys. Anyway, hopefully you'll find a way to get into the beta without having to buy a game you don't want. There's always the last lottery-style invite opportunity that miyu mentioned earlier in the thread.

ill sell my code out of my game, if its that easy

So I guess the rumors are that you will need Crackdown in your 360 in order to "unlock" the download of the beta. The big question is whether this is a one-time step or if the beta will only play while you have Crackdown in the drive. Obviously, the answer to this question will have a huge effect on how many people trade or sell their copy of the game.

Yeah, I am going to try for the Phase 2 lottery and hope I get in on that. If so, I can cancel my pre-order of the game.

However I have very little hope of getting in.

The first part is easy. Play 3 hours of halo in a 3 day time frame. Easy enough to do. Play an hour a night, or marathon it and play all 3 hours in one sitting.

The next part will be the difficult part. Once the 3 day period is over at 11:59 on the 3rd day, at 12:01 am of the 4th(ie, 2 minutes later), the halo3 website opens for registrations. The first 13,333 people to register will get an invite.

The website was horrible to navigate and fill out the form during the phase one things. I think it will be just as bad if not worse this time. But maybe I'll get lucky. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm not that big of a Halo whore so if I get a invite I'll take it but, I'm not buying another game just to play beta code.

I figured I'd go for phase 2 of the lottery. I played the 3 days, could barely get through it with the amount of assholes playing nowdays, but it looks like many people signed on this weekend for this reason alone...
...but in typical MS/Bungie fashion. Last night 12am PST the registration didn't roll over, and is still not up. Good job, the message boards on Halo forums are going wacky as hundreds, perhaps thousands stayed up late (especially on the east coast) to register. Now a lot of them are in class today. If you are going to do something on a first-come first serve basis, you tell your customers when.

Exactly.

I stayed up until 12:01 EST because I assumed that since the three day period started and ended EST, that the signup would as well.

12:01am came and went, no signup. The xbox and bungie forum were going crazy with speculation. I stayed up until 1:30am EST, still no registration page.

I was getting really tired, so I went to bed and set my alarm for 2:58am EST thinking that okay, signups will start at 12:01am PST. 3am EST comes and goes, no sign up page. I stayed up until about 3:45am EST, and went to bed. I am dragging today and can't wait for the work day to end so I can take a nap at home.

What a piss-poor way to run a contest. If you are going to have it so the first xxx amount of people get in, then it better darn well have a time. They could get away with no specified time for phase 1 because that was all luck. It didn't matter when you registered on the site in phase 1, as long as you got it in by a certain date and time. Then it was a lottery to pick those chosen.

I was up until 3:30 thinking it was PST.

Saw the y tu brute video last week and was not impressed with the graphics. It's suppose be on the early stages but from what I saw this more like an upgrade and not even .5 more like Halo 2.25. So far, I'm very disapointed with the graphics with the amount they spent developing this game.

It's up now!
https://reg.msgamestudios.com/defaul...o3TeaserPhase2

Stll a lot of time between now and the release date. I wouldn't worry about the graphics from that video.

Well.. I got to register finally. I don't know if I got in the first 13,333 slots. But at least I got a registration successful message.

According to this Joystiq posting, you will need the Crackdown disc in your 360 to download the beta as well as to play the beta. There's no actual code - you download and launch the beta using menu options in Crackdown itself.

Could someone copy the text here for me? The article isn't opening for me.

Looks like they are smarter than the rest of us (traders, eBayers, etc.)

I'm halfway interested in Crackdown so I might be trying to pick this up anyway.

My buddy and I have played the Crackdown demo together a couple of times and the Halo 3 beta is certainly helping him decide to get the game. He's a huge fan of coop games but lately he and I haven't bought the same games so this one is one we both want to get since it's a fun game and a good deal.

I noticed this game doesn't come out until November, which is an eternity. Is there any point to placing a pre-order now? Or do any of you think this will be flying off the shelves like hotcakes and be hard to get if I wait?

Personally I think there should be plenty of regular and collector's editions the day of release, legendary edition may be the one to hunt down. Aside from that another "perk" would be that some stores will probably be doing a midnight release which would only be available to those who pre-ordered, though this would vary by store and location.

Halo 3 Alpha Pictures Leaked


http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/6...6250io4.th.jpg

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/8...4970bj4.th.jpg

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2...7917wt4.th.jpg

http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/5...3239fj9.th.jpg

Posted this in the main thread, but it looks like it got overlooked so i thought i'd post it in here as well. I think it looks good for an Alpha, can't wait to see the main game.

I realize its early but those pics really look like an xbox game not a 360 game. Hopefully we will see some fully rendered textures in the next few months.

In terms of Halo development, those screens are not early, the game is nearing release after years of development. How much more graphical enhancements can they do other than tweaks?
It doesn't look wlike an xbox game but then again, thsoe are photos of a TV.

Yeah, they are less than impressive. Next to Gears, most games are. With an additional year to polish the game, it should at LEAST look as good as gears.

If they are of an alpha build (which it says in the middle of a few of the screens themselves) then it is an early graphical build. I think the final build will look significantly better than those screens imply.

There was a second step to be in the beta? This blows. I never got a follow-up email after the first one saying I was in.

:down:

<hr>

Or was this a second/alternate way to get in?

Isn't one of the last things done to most games a pass-through on the graphics? Adding final textures, lighting and such?

I think the game will look great, but also look like Halo, which is more cartoony than GoW.

That is it.

Second of three ways to get into the beta. The third way is Crackdown.

Yes, this was the second of the three ways to get in.

You could get into the beta the following way.

Phase 1 - You entered your info on the halo3 website. An unspecified number of people were selected and received an email saying they were part of the beta.

Phase 2 - You had to play 3 hours of Halo 2 between Feb 1 and Feb 3. On Feb 5, you had to be one of the first 13,333 people to register on the halo3 website. Those that got in got an email stating they were part of the beta

Phase 3 - You buy the Crackdown game and get access to the beta that way.

You only had to be accepted into one phase to get into the beta. If you got an email saying you were in for phase 1, you are all set for when they release the beta for download.

Halo 3 Legendary Edition Revealed

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/...453785-000.jpg

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/771/771007p1.html

No full scale helmet makes edstein sad :(

im blocked from that site

what does the legendary include if you don't get the helmet?

I pre-ordered the CE, but there's no way I'm paying $140-150 for the Legendary Edition. No thank you.

I'm actually playing through the original for my first time, at the moment.

Added text to my post above. That helmet looks badass even if its too small to wear.

i thought the legendary was only going to be 99.99


i changed my preorder to the regular edition anyway

I will be buying the special edition sans helmet which i assume will be 2 discs and 10$ over the basic edition. Most likely in a metal tin to match Halo 2.

According to a new Bungie post, the Halo 3 beta will go live May 16 and run until June 6th.

three weeks is pretty weak, IMO. Especially for the build up. But at least we have a date.