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the Hushed Casket
Unseal the hushed casket of my soul...
HALO 3 Beta: A stress test in stages. Tons of testers.
Submitted by rapture on Thu, 02/15/2007 - 5:23pm.
Update: Except for the Bungie friends and family members, EVERYONE will start on the HALO 3 beta at the same time. This means that Crackdowners are supposed to get in at the same time as everyone else. Also, there is no NDA with this software.
It is confirmed by Microsoft Game Studios in an interview with Game Informer. The purpose of the HALO 3 beta will be to put stress on their systems. "You want to make sure that you know where your bottlenecks are and you attack those bottlenecks prior to going live with the retail version". "It will scale over time" said Phil Spenscer of MGS. Microsoft also suggests that "hundreds of thousands of people" will play the beta.
Recall that Bungie did the same thing with HALO 2, except the public didn't test. Rooms full of XBOXen running in loops did the stress testing.
Since this is a scaled test, I assume that the order of public testing will be:
Alpha testers
Bungie friends and family
Microsoft Connect testers
HALO Rule of 3 testers
Initial Crackdowner purchases
Possibly downloaders via a public download on the XBLM
I'm not so sure we'll be filing detailed bug reports. I would guess that if we get to file anything, it will be network related (laggy game, issues with XBOX Live, etc.). I doubt we'll be reporting exploits found in the maps, geometry, weapons, or gameplay. With a few 100,000 people testing, I would think that it would be impossible to respond to all the feedback that the community would report. I'm guessing that exploits in the maps and gameplay features are to be found by the official play testers, not the mass public.
Except from the interview about the HALO 3 beta:
"It’s actually going to grow over time. It is a production milestone for us to make sure the Live systems are in place and that they work. There’s certain people playing on the Alpha right now and online and testing out systems and we want to be ready when we go bigger with the beta. It will scale over time and we need thousands of people from all around the world playing to make sure that all the systems are in place. In the end hundreds of thousands of people playing to make sure we’re ready to go live."
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Interesting...
This is the first public beta of a major game for a console. Sure, we see it all the time for PC games, but this is going to be a first for the Xboxen.
I'm pretty sure you're dead
I'm pretty sure you're dead accurate by saying we'll only be reporting network stuff, but I'm also sure that KP and Frankie will keep an eye on High Impact Halo and make note of the bugs they exploit.
H3 not scaled? No NDA.
XBOX360fanboy says:
"We now officially know that there will be no NDA attached to the beta (that's one less worry for Richard), that the beta will be mostly a technical stress test, we'll get to see what the mysterious "X" button does, that matchmaking will be the standard Halo party system, and there won't be multiple joining "phases" to the beta. Everyone who won the contests in phase 1, phase 2 or bought Crackdown will go on at the same time, friends and family get to lay down the "early play" card".
This is according to an announcement at Bungie.net (which I can't read right now).
Yeah, wish someone not at
Yeah, wish someone not at work could post that faq that is on bungie right now please!
Halo 3 Beta FAQ Posted by
Halo 3 Beta FAQ
Posted by KPaul at 2/16/2007 1:14 AM PST
Is Halo 3 beta registration closed?
Yes, phases one and two of the beta have already ended. If you haven’t received an email by this point, then you were not one of the lucky few.
Is there no other way?!
If you didn’t get in to either phase, then you can still get in by buying Crackdown , releasing in the US, on February 20 th . Inside every launch copy of Crackdown is an invite to the Halo 3 beta.
How will the Crackdown invite work?
Once the Halo 3 beta has been activated (start date is still TBD) you simply go to the Downloads menu in Crackdown to download the Halo 3 beta. After that, you will need to launch the Halo 3 beta from within Crackdown. You will need an Xbox 360 with a hard drive and an Xbox Live Gold account.
I’m an experienced beta tester with a PhD in Astrophysics and a minor in messaging Bungie to whine about the beta. Why wasn’t I invited?
Microsoft did not choose beta testers based on merit, that would take far more manpower than is realistically possible. Phases one and two were both essentially lotteries or contests. Bungie was not actually responsible for those contests, but rather your local Microsoft Games Studios division. Messaging Frankie, Sketch, KP or any other Bungie employees is futile.
When does the beta start?
The beta will not start when Crackdown is released. The beta will go live when it’s ready, which should be sometime this Spring. The team is currently busy whipping the included content into shape. Our goal is to deliver a fun, solid game experience though it will still very much be a “beta.”
How long will the beta last?
The beta will only be playable for a limited time. Exact timing is still TBD.
Are there multiple phases to the beta?
Not really. The term "phase" applied to the beta registration process. Participants from phases one and two as well as those using Crackdown will be able to get their copy of the beta at the same time. The participants from the Friends and Family program may be able to start playing shortly before the others, however.
What can you tell me about the Bungie Friends and Family program?
Not much, at the moment. As we've said, it's just a method for Bungie to get some of its closest community friends into the beta. As we mentioned above, this program will start at a period shortly before the others, the extent of which is yet to be determined.
How many players are going to be in the beta?
A lot, many thousands. Let's just say, you won't have trouble finding a match.
How many maps, gametypes, playlists, etc. are we going to see in the beta?
Just enough to get the testing data we need while providing a fun game experience yet still leave everyone wanting more. The exact scope is still being finalized.
Will the party system be implemented in the beta?
Yes, you will be able to find your friends, join their party and enter matchmaking with them, in playlists which support parties.
Will we be seeing anything that we have not yet seen from the Alpha screenshots (and leaks) in the beta?
There are bound to be a few surprises in store for fans. And seeing a fuzzy cell phone video of the alpha doesn’t even begin to come close to actually playing yourself on an HD television with maps that are several months further along in development.
Will we see the function of the mysterious X button?
Yes. Whether or not it’ll still be mapped to X is subject to change. And honestly, it won't be all that surprising. Just cool.
Please tell me I get to blow stuff up with the laser.
You get to blow stuff up with the laser. Try lining stuff up and then firing through it all. Preferably without teammates in or around said stuff.
Will we all have to sign NDAs and never speak of the beta? Will you try to contain screenshots and movies coming out of the beta?
Nope. In a perfect world, maybe, but it's hard enough when the participants are just a few thousand MS employees, let alone thousands and thousands of Halo fans. We don't expect anything in the beta to remain a secret. The beta will be covered by a normal user agreement, with lots of caveats about the fact that it's not finished, only lasts for a short time and so on.
What kind of data and feedback is Bungie looking to glean from the beta?
We’re looking for a lot of things. Mainly the kinds of things that you cannot otherwise accomplish without the mass of people we'll have, such as stress-testing all of the backend stuff and networking. We’ll be keeping an eye on our forums for general feedback, but the primary goal is to gain valuable technical information that’s only possible when we have tens of thousands of simultaneous players across the world.
NDAs would be difficult to
NDAs would be difficult to implement and nearly impossible to enforce on a group of this size. GG to Bungie for being realistic.
Beta participants everywhere
Beta participants everywhere enjoy a collective sigh of relief.
So basically, all your
So basically, all your standard glitches that the "professional" testers missed last time will be around this time as well. Probably not the same ones, but people will always find new ones. Always.
DJ
The first thing I'm ever going to do if I get the Halo 3 Beta...
Is to see if I can BXR.
I'll bet money you can't.
I'll bet money you can't.
I'll bet money you're right.
You have to think about it, though. It's a Halo game, a beta, at that. There's bound to be numerous amounts of bugs and glitches to explore, discover... exploit. Hopefully nowhere near as influential as it has been in the first two games.
Can't wait to get it,I hope
Can't wait to get it,I hope you work out all the bugs.
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