May 16 - HALO 3 Beta. New footage.

Just 3 weeks? Dang. I was hoping to be able to get in about 2 months of action. I'm still looking forward to playing it, though.

May 16th. Of course it's a few weeks AFTER the XBOX 360 Elite is launched.

Rap, given your Shadowrun Beta experience, isn't three weeks too short to flush out all the bugs, refine the code, and test a refined copy? I hope Bungie isn't naive enough to think we (beta testers) won't find anything to fix.

This also comes at possibly the most hectic and inconvenient time in my life thus far. I probably won't get half the playtime I would have if they had released it a month earlier or later.

I noticed they fixed the battle rifle to where you can see the reticle the whole time. I didn't see the pistol used throughout the whole video... are they hiding it from us?

In H3, we are going to stress-test the MSBUNGIE servers. In H2 they did this by hooking a bunch of XBOX's together, locking them away in a room for days, and simulating years of gameplay.

We are going to stress-test their network. Many different modem/router configs, ISP's, and bandwidth plans will be observed. Their hardware will be benchmarked and so will the netcode.

We will likely have an opportunity to report glitches, but that's not the goal of the public beta. As you alluded to, we can't find all of the glitches in just three weeks. With the number of users on this beta, surely there will be thousands and thousands of bug reports submitted. How can Bungie address all of them?

Microsoft has tons of MS employees playing the game already. On top of that, they pay testers to playtest the game. It's their job to find the glitches and bugs.

Of the bugs that got reported to the Shadowrun team, most weren't gameplay issues, bugs, or glitches. They were technical issues that were already known internally or issues with our hardware.

ONLY THREE WEEKS?!?!?!? I don't even have time to play video games during the weekdays anymore!

I imagine a reshuffling of priorities is in order. I'm going to miss out a bunch near the beginning of the beta because of finals, though.

If they really think they don't need community support finding bugs and glitches then they didn't learn an important lesson from H2. Surely all this hype isn't just for a stress test...but maybe so. If that's the truth then it's tragic.

I was expecting at least three months...

Oh well, this is actually good news. This means more time for Halo 2 Vista!

Just for a minute, the H3 vid doc got me pumped for H3. Looks like it's the holy grail of a technical video game production.

I just hope all of that new technical stuff doesn't change HALO too much.

Guy over at HBO "transcribed" the video:

00:09 – We start out with a new unnamed map. It looks like it is a large hangar, almost reminds me of Turf.
00:14 – You can see a TM [Trip Mine] located on the ramp to the right.
00:19 – We are in an underground part of a map. I’m tempted to believe that is Snowbound but there really isn’t a way to be sure.
00:20 – You can see 30 medals [yes I counted them…] some we know many we don’t. The one on the top left looks like a Brute helmet. Weird.
00:22 – Wait…what? Is that a Grav-lift? But that isn’t normally on map…hmm anybody up for portable Grav-Lifts?
00:23 - Portable turrets ladies and gentlemen. Look at the shadow on the ground, and the firing. Yeah it’s a turret. =) *dies*
00:34 – You can see the SB, in it’s nice little ball form. Hehe Also you can see the back of the ‘goose.
00:41 – What the hell is that one the on the right screen!?
00:54 - You can see the TM on the top right of the screen. Looks like you can only carry one at a time though. Also you can see Bungie’s new Call-signs. P13 just died. =(
01:08 – Looks like a shield door on Snowbound. But…it looks likes it’s been shot. Maybe you can destroy the shield? You never know.
01:25 – You can see once again what looks to be the TM on the HUD. The "____ killed by ____" flashes green then shrinks to blue letters. Looks cool =)
01:29 – Oooh new map. Looks like the AotCR Bridges!
01:32 - Look on the left screen. Hmm maybe a CMP sneak peak?
01:36 – High Ground is going to rock mah socks off. This shot just shows how awesome it’s going to be. =)
01:38 – Damn look at that Plasma ‘nade explosion!
01:40 – Damn more nice explosions!
01:41 – Look at the new Brute Shot firing!! Sexy as hell.
01:48 – Concept art for High Ground.
01:50 – More concept art for High Ground.
02:27 – You can see a Spartan Laser firing. Ooooooh
02:28 – There is a turret with a tripod. Maybe you can move it? [refer to 00:23]
02:40 – Custom game. Game Type – Escort. Map – Warthog Inc.
What’s that? I have no idea. Maybe like protect the President? On that big hangar map? Beats me.
03:03 – High Ground features movable gates. You can also see the nice shiny flag on top of the “Porta-Potty”.
03:12 – Those new tall gas containers look awesome.
03:19 – Valhalla’s waterfall, and Man Cannons.
03:23 – The High Ground Bridge.
03:26 – The flag on the “Porta-Potty”.
03:28 – You can see the Giant SAM Missile Launcher. Looks cool.
03:32 – Valhalla’s water base. You see three guys flying off the Man Cannon, there are also smashed trees, and the lake.
03:38 – Looks like the opposite Base is shooting the beam into the air. T2T Beta style! Also note the fusion core next to the Man Cannon. Shoot it right when someone goes into it to escape. Hehe
03:39 – Banshees confirmed on Valhalla. Also looks like a TM on the right side of the screen. Hmm maybe.
03:46 – Those 30 medals again.
03:53 – Looks like our buddy has a TM in his inventory… Oh and Red team is about to get pwned.
03:54 – Blue team fires away at the Reds coming off the Man Cannon.
04:00 – Red Sniper applies first pressure in order to take out the Man Cannon-ier from Blue team.
04:01 – Blue Teams Man Cannon-ier just got owned. Also look to the right of the screen. Wraiths confirmed for Halo 3 as well. =)
04:03 - That must hurt for Blue Guy…
04:12 – You can see the sword in Blue guy’s possession. Also you can see the Auto-Turrets rotating. Scary stuff.
04:29 – Look at the art on the board. Do you see a turret? I do. Hehe Small Plasma turret.
04:31 – what in the hell is that thing? Turret maybe?
04:41 – AotCR Bridge and, the SB! Looks like it’s in the middle of the bridge, maybe only one spawns…hmmm
04:44 – Look on the screen, looks what could be a turret.
05:04 – New shield "crackle" regeneration thing. Plasma grenades give off a more bright blue color.
05:11 – Crazy fight underground. Also you can see the sword on the ground. Looks different.
05:18 – Is that a ghost flying through the air? Damn those ‘nades have some power.
05:20 - Sword remains activated on the hip. Weird.
05:30 – Medals show up on the screen. Cool.
05:40 – BS activate. No not bull schlapskie… Bubble Shield. It will be very interesting to see the effect this has on gameplay.
05:51 – You can see the “star-fish” on the players HUD, but after the TM is thrown. Poof it disappears, thus proving this “star-fish” is the TM.
05:52:93 - Boom.
05:56 - Damn mines and ‘nades sure have a lot more force than in Halo 2. wow…
06:15 – Mongoose lovin’ time! Riding Brokeback baby!
06:17 - You can see the new Brute Shot going crazy on that guys ***. [that is a Brute Shot T-bird… ;-)]
06:30 – Ooooh Headshot to the dome. Slloooowwww-mmmmmoooooo
6:39 - 6:42 - melee lunging.
06:54 – Boxes!!

The ability to watch the gameplay looks like a cool feature. I look foward to being able to use that.

I am somewhat skeptical of the assault rifle. I really hope they didn't screw it up.

...I am ready for another trailer.