Now that the beta has closed, consumers worldwide can gear up for the game’s release with a variety of new merchandise, including two new Xbox 360™ Limited Edition “Halo 3” Wireless Controllers designed by Spawn and McFarlane Toys creator Todd McFarlane, as well as an Xbox 360 Limited Edition “Halo 3” Wireless Headset, which lets gamers talk with friends over Xbox LIVE®. The controllers and headset will be available starting in early September and can be preordered at select retailers today, allowing “Halo” fans everywhere to prepare for the launch of this year’s biggest game.

• Xbox 360 Limited Edition “Halo 3” Wireless Controllers. Two new Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 3 Wireless Controllers will be available starting Sept. 18 and can be preordered today at select retailers. Designed with original artwork by legendary Spawn artist Todd McFarlane, they will be available in either the Covenant Brute or Master Chief themes. Each controller will be packaged with a limited edition “Halo 3” collectible figurine created by McFarlane Toys will sell for an estimated retail price $59.99 (U.S.).
• Xbox 360 Limited Edition “Halo 3” Wireless Headset. For the “Halo 3” enthusiast who enjoys wireless mobility while playing with friends on Xbox LIVE, the Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 3 Wireless Headset will sport the Spartan green and gold and provide high-quality voice connections over Xbox LIVE for an estimated retail price of $59.99 (U.S.). Available in early September, this accessory can be preordered today at select retailers.
• “Halo: Contact Harvest.” “Halo” fans can look forward to the latest book in the “Halo” saga, “Halo: Contact Harvest,” published by Tor Books and due Oct. 2, 2007. Written by Joseph Staten, the Bungie Studios cinematic and writing lead for the first two “Halo” games, the newest piece of fiction precedes the current New York Times’ best-selling book series, telling the tale of the first encounters between UNSC forces and the alien Covenant race that threatens to destroy all humanity. The trade paperback will cost $12.95 (U.S.).
• Marvel Comic miniseries. Bungie Studios has teamed up with Marvel Comics to release the monthly miniseries “Halo: Uprising.” The four-issue miniseries, featuring original storylines and artwork from the Eisner Award-winning team of superscribe Brian Michael Bendis and artist extraordinaire Alex Maleev, will launch with issue one on July 25, 2007 and cost $3.99 (U.S.) per issue.
• Zune™-Halo 3 edition. Encased in collectible packaging, the Zune-Halo 3 edition digital media player comes preloaded with artwork, trailers and music from all three “Halo” games, as well as an exclusive new episode of “Red vs. Blue” from the fan-adored machinima creator Rooster Teeth Productions LLC. The Zune-Halo 3 edition will be available exclusively at GameStop starting June 15 for an estimated retail price of $249 (U.S.).

Via Press Release

Most of us are now feeling like there is something missing in our lives.  A void, the feeling that our existence is not as full filling as it once was.  It is so bad that I actually stayed at work for an extra half hour yesterday, just because I felt like there was nothing to go home for.  Yes the Halo 3 Beta is over.  And now the cold harsh truth that we must wait until September 25th, to enjoy Halo 3.  But there is one group of people that are now shifting into high gear, and that is the game designers.  And here are some of the facts they are already revealing to us.

• 820,000 different accounts tried out the Halo 3 Beta, and who knows how many actual different people used those accounts.  I know from my personal experience seven of my friends all came over and played some Halo 3 under my account.
• All those players enjoyed a cumulative 12 million hours of online game play.  And for all us out there that are not Math Whizzes that is 1,400 years of continuous play by one person.
• 350 terabytes of data downloaded from Xbox LIVE.  Honestly I do not know how to describe that massive amount of data, but Microsoft claims that it is roughly the equivalent 82 million digital songs being downloads from the Internet.
• 580,000 saved films were created by users.  This adds up to more than a whopping 2.7 terabytes of data.

“The participation in the ‘Halo 3’ beta was staggering,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “Witnessing such a great reaction to a small portion of the game has been inspiring. It’s a testament to the fervor and anticipation that surrounds ‘Halo 3.’ We’re confident that on Sept. 25 Halo 3 will drive an unprecedented wave of new gamers to the Xbox 360 platform and Xbox LIVE.”

One of the new exciting features of the Halo 3 beta was the ability to save films.  Players can use this to improve in game strategy, train new clan members, or just brag to their friends and taunt fallen foes.  This seems to be a new trend with Microsoft Studio games is the integration of XBox 360 platform and Web 2.0.  Microsoft is really giving users new tools to create videos and pictures to show off over the internet.  From recording races to still shots of cars and being able to sell your custom configuration of cars in Forza 2 to battles in Halo 3 and who knows what else in future games, Microsoft is really leading the way in showing us a new definition to what “Next Gen” can mean. 

With the Beta now wrapped up the Bungie team is now pouring over all the data collected trying to find all the glitches, balance the weapons, and put that final polish on the game to make it the true gem that is what we have all come to expect from anything that Bungie produces.
 

 
The Halo 3 beta was finally released on May 16th with a little delay to the dismay of some of the Crackdown users. The demo was due for release in the early hours of the morning although it arrived after 10pm (CST), which caused large backlash on the bungie.net forums, where threats of suicide and lawsuits were thrown around like monkeys with feces. Now all the drama has past it’s time to take a look at this BETA demo and see if it lives up to the hype.

Firstly, the game runs really well, the frame rate is steady, the graphics are greatly improved and the matchmaking is easy, making it a good pick up and play demo. Load times are great also which is something with often hasn’t been tuned yet in a beta. In all it does feel more like a retail demo rather than beta, as everything down to typical Halo esque music has been included, Bungie clearly took their time on getting this ready and it shows.

Gameplay has not been adjusted in any major way since Halo 2, the winning formula and style is still in place. It’s still the Red Vs Blue Spartans dukeng it out across a series of 3 maps (Snowbound, High Ground, and Valhalla) with a handful of game modes:
Rumble pit: Everyone is your enemy in a fast paced death match.
Team slayer: Red Vs Blue, 4 on 4 action
Team skirmish: Capture the flag/base style game mode for teams

The major new weapon I experienced was the Spartan laser, this weapon deals out quick and hit death after a short charging time. I’m wondering if this weapon is overpowered or if it’s just that other people haven’t yet become accustomed to avoiding it, but it seems you are guaranteed several kills if you manage to stumble across one of these beauties

The biggest change to the way the game plays is through the equipment button X. Using this you can throw down a quick bubble shield, that rather than just granting temporary invincibility only keeps you safe in certain ways adding to the technical element to the game. You are complexly safe from all incoming fire and grenade as long as they originate from outside the shell, anyone can walk inside and lay the smack down on you as well as drive straight through the shield and deliver some four-wheeled justice. This modifies the controls slightly as now you can press the triggers to fire the left and right weapons and the bumpers to reload left and right. This adds a useful feature of reloading one weapon while firing another, which takes a little getting used to.

Besides from being a part of the carnage you also have the option of viewing the replays and saving them. One awesome feature is saving the replay and going back to it even when you are in the matchmaking menus and the match is over. Sadly you can only view the replay from your own first person view, which is a real shame as something more akin to the photo and video modes in some driving games would be ace, imagine being able to get that moody close-up view of you and your team saved and uploaded to the interwebs.

Halo 3 makes a great free demo, although I’d highly advise buying Crackdown to get it as you’ll likely find Crackdown gets as much Gameplay from you as the beta, especially after June 10th when the beta expires and thousands of copies of Crackdown appear on eBay and Craigslist.

The final version of Halo 3 is currently due on September 25th, look for it!
 

With the big announcement yesterday of Halo 3 being released September 25th, 2007, it got me to wondering how this will affect other games that were already scheduled to be released at that time.

Peering into my video game crystal ball I see some really big titles that could be hurt by this announcement.  First and foremost is BioWare’s Mass Effect, but also Assassin’s Creed, TimeShift, and to a lesser extent Grand Theft Auto IV.  Lets face it Halo is the game that every developer wishes they had, and no one but no one wants to go against.  I am actually looking forward to see what Sony will throw out in the month of September to try to steer some of the PR hype away from the Halo release.  Nintendo has a whole string of their heavy hitters coming this fall, but Halo 3 is so big that it could really cut into their sales as far as the Wii60 homes go.

I was really looking forward to Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, and Grand Theft Auto IV.  I had planned to bang through Mass Effect this summer, in time to work on Assassin’s Creed this September but figured I could have that game finished by the time Grand Theft Auto IV made its way onto consoles in October from there with a few late nights I am guessing I could be very close to finishing GTA IV to finish off 2007 with Halo 3 in November.  But with Halo 3 coming in September, and the fact that all the Halo series have always had such strong multiplayer functionality, many gamers could be playing Halo 3 way into 2008, and picking some of these other could have been big titles up later next spring after some price drops.  Microsoft may find it more difficult to negotiate deals for exclusive and simultaneous release for cross platform development projects next time due to the fact that developers will worry about AAA first party titles like Gears of War or Crackdown sequels being released in close proximity their games.

Only time will tell how sales will be affected.  Lets face it right now all most of us care about is Bungie getting the Halo 3 beta working for us Crackdown owners!

Kotaku is saying that someone with loose lips may let it slip that Microsoft will be revealing the release date of Halo 3 as September 25th.  Hmmmmm, this rumor comes to use less then 24 hours of the Halo 3 Beta.  Part of me smells something funny and the Halo fan boy in me says “YEAH!”

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