The Halo 3 beta isn't an official game release, but it might as well be since Halo 3 is the most anticipated Xbox 360 game coming out this year. Those lucky enough to participate in the beta will get an early look at the game's new graphics and get hands-on experience with several new or updated weapons and vehicles. The beta will run for three weeks, from May 16 through June 6, 2007. Microsoft had a "Rule of Three" promotion for beta invitations back in February, but those 13,333 invites are long gone. The only way for the general public to get into the beta now will be to buy a specially marked copy of Crackdown that includes a Halo 3 invitation. You'll need an Xbox 360 HDD and an Xbox Live gold account to download and play the beta online.
Halo 3 Event
The default images are Halo 2 unless otherwise stated. Mouse over each image to see the Halo 3 comparison or alternate view shot. We maintained a widescreen aspect ratio for the cropped Halo 2 shots, but we had to revert to the 4:3 aspect ratio for our full-screen Halo 2 images because running the game at 720p on the Xbox 360 only produced a stretched out image.
Halo 3 Beta Vehicle and Spartan Models
Moving Halo from the Xbox to the Xbox 360 gave the developers access to more graphics power and a higher display resolution to target. Bungie has increased texture sizes and added shaders to keep the Warthog and Ghost looking good on the 360. The Warthog maintains the same familiar shape in Halo 3, but it has much finer detailing, great lighting, and uses what appears to be normal mapping or a similar 3D mapping technique to add depth effects--in the side panel grooves, for example. The shadows cast by the Warthog are also more realistic compared to the tacked-on shadows in Halo 2. The Ghost has taken on real-time reflections and it appears that the Covenant has discovered the wonders of low-cost blue LEDs. We've also included two Halo 3 shots of the new Mongoose vehicle since it doesn't appear in Halo 2.
The visors on the Spartan model also reflect the surrounding environment, but we couldn't see our own character models reflected in the visors of our enemies during face-to-face melee combat. We noticed that the left and right sides of the Halo 3 heads-up display are distorted to mimic the in-helmet view. The HUD returns to normal when the camera switches to a 3rd-person viewpoint.
What do you think of the Halo 3 multiplayer beta?
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strahilovcharov posted Aug 3, 2007 1:28 am PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)