As promised, here’s another of my review write-ups for the Halo 3 Beta – this one on Gametypes.

Slayer in H3 was…. slayer, albeit much more enjoyable.  With more balanced weapons and a chaingun on the ‘Hog that just kicks butt, this gametype was, quite simply, a blast.  It will kill or be killed and watch the totals ring up on the scoreboard.  First team to 50 was declared the winner of the match.  The new things you had to watch out for, though, were spike grenades, the Spartan Laser, trip mines, power drains, and bubble shields.  Those new toys added an interesting dynamic to gameplay to took a while to get used to.

I barely got to play any Capture the Flag in the Beta.  I can probably count the number of CTF matches I was involved in on one hand.  But what I did get to play was fun and enjoyable.  As far as I could tell, most of the gametype elements were the same on this one, with the exception that I don’t think the flag bounces anymore when you throw it, so you couldn’t count on that little bit of extra distance.  And the flag clinks when you pick it up from its pedestal, which was a very nice effect to add in there.

Territories got a nice upgrade to its format.  Instead of two teams competing for territory captures, you have one team on an Assault-style offensive mode and one team on defense.  Five territories, two-minute rounds, capture as many as possible.  Initially, I think everyone agreed that the time to capture a territory was simply too long – at least until we figured out that the more team members in the territory, the faster the capture.  And suddenly, we warmed right up to it.  I like this format for this gametype much better than the H2 version.

I’m afraid that I don’t believe I played a single Assault match during the Beta period.  Apparently, Bungie weighted the playlists away from Assault because a friend who got in on the Friends & Family phase only play two matches.  Anyone who did get to play Assault, though, is more than welcome to weigh in with an opinion on it in the comments.

VIP was a new juggernaut-style gametype.  Two even teams, each one has a VIP equipped with an overshield (and who possibly deals extra damage).  Kill the opposing team’s VIP as many times as possible while protecting your own for the win.  I admit I didn’t like this gametypes quite as much, but then again I didn’t really play it enough to really get the hang of it.  And it seemed like I always ended up playing it on Snowbound, which made it that much tougher to master.  It wasn’t too bad, overall, but I can’t wait to get into the custom gametype settings and see what can be tweaked to make it a little more fun.

What are your thoughts on the gametypes in the Halo 3 Beta?

So, the Halo 3 Beta is officially over now, and those of us blessed to partake of the fun must now make our way despondently back to the killing fields of Halo 2 until September.  The Beta was fun while it lasted, and I really look forward to seeing the final product in a couple of months.

I still plan to finish up my write-ups of Beta – I just haven’t much time, energy, or opportunity to write the last couple of weeks.  The biggest thing I noticed about the Beta was how much I actually enjoyed the team games.  In Halo 2 I’ve always felt like a dead weight to whatever team I’m a part of.  My K-D rate is usually abysmal, and my overall performance is generally so poor that I feel like the team would do better without me than with.  In the Beta, however, all that changed.  I think it was partly due to more balanced weaponry along with the fact that everyone was new to the game, but in most matches, I usually came in at least near the middle and often near the top in terms of overall performance.  I found myself greatly enjoying the team games and looking forward to dusting a few opponents as part of a unit.  It probably also helps that communication is limited to your own team until the post-game lobby, which makes it that much easy to avoid all the Timmies.

More to come on the Beta test period…

I’m going to try to run a series of Halo 3 Beta reviews starting today that examine a number of elements from the game.  This first entry in the series is going to look at the new maps.

Valhalla

Valhalla is far and away my favorite map of the three.  It’s a roughly symmetrical map set in a valley with a base at each end.  A small stream flows through middle, bisecting the map and giving a little visual interest.  And let me just say that the water effects are stunning!

My favorite new thing here is the man-cannon – grav lifts tilted to a 45-degree angle so as to launch your avatar into the map.  Each base has two man-cannons, one of which shoots you straight to the middle of the map and one that shoots you 30-degrees off to one side.  Your gametype strategy will often determine if you use one of these and which direction you wish to launch. 

Each base also hold a variety of weapons, two Mongooses, and a Warthog – the latter of which now features a pumped-up chain gun that will quickly lay waste to almost all opposition. 

There are all kinds of great locations on this map for various strategic maneuvers.  Commanding the knolls in the middle, though, is often the best spot for controlling the map.  A sniper rifle or Spartan laser based here can kill just about anything that moves.  But watch out for that ‘Hog and gunner because they can drive over that hill before you realize you’ve even been gunned down.  So far, my favorite gametypes for this map are Team Slayer and Territories.  I’ve yet to play a CTF game, so I don’t really know how the dynamics play out here.

High Ground

High Ground is just that – a ruined base sitting at the top of the hill that must be defended (or stormed) at all costs.  Access can be gained through a portable grav lift over the wall on the left side, through the bunker at the base of the wall, through the main gate (that first has to be opened from inside the base, by a stairwell on the right side, or through a short tunnel off the staircase.  Despite these access points, the defense can quickly force a chokehold on access, making it very difficult to secure those territories, grab the flag, or plant the bomb. 

Weapons litter the map, and two new action items – the bubble shield and the power drain – grace this map with their presence, affecting the dynamics of battle in new and interesting ways. 

Oh, and watch out for those spike grenades.  They stick to whatever surface they strike and throw shrapnel every which-way.  They’re only instantly deadly is they get stuck to you, but they’ll take your shields down in an instant, if you happen to get caught in the blast cone.

Storm the base, take the High Ground.  That’s what this map’s all about.

Snowbound

Snowbound is my least favorite map at the moment, but it’s growing on me the more I play it.  This map features two bases in a winter landscape.  The bases are connected by an underground tunnel, and there are a series of force-fields in each.  Players can pass through, but weapons-fire and grenades cannot – you might just find yourself with a face full of explodey if you’re not careful.

Be careful not to walk outside the perimeter of the map – there are cannons lined up for the sole purpose of blasting your sorry butt back onto the map.  So, no straying!

Ghosts are the vehicles of choice on Snowbound.  After all, anything with wheels simply won’t roll well on this terrain.  Oh, and grenades don’t bounce on the snow, either.  Remember that.

All in all I’m loving the Halo 3 Beta.  The visuals are fabulous, taking advantage of the greater processing power of the Xbox 360 and launching the Halo experience to the next level.  I can’t wait to see what multiplayer maps get released in the final version in September!

Hilarious montage video about trying to take down the boosted Halo 3 Warthog.

Bungie really does love its fans.

Wow. This video makes the graphics of Halo 2 and Halo 3 look only comparable, when in fact Halo 3 has the much better graphics.  I suspect poor video resolution is to blame here.

There was a lot of bitching and moaning going around yesterday about the lack of Beta access through Crackdown.  A lot of angry folks sounded off just about everywhere they could, with some even (quite literally) calling for blood.  Angry words were spoken (and written), and folks basically just plain made asses out of themselves.  It was a bad day to go foraging through discussions boards on any Halo-related site looking for news and updates; most of things that could be read would make your eyes bleed.

There is an entitlement mentality here that I simply don’t understand.  Bungie, as the Halo producer, owes the consumer nothing.  Zero.  Zip.  Zilch.  That’s the truth, plain and simple.  They don’t owe us a thing.  Now, granted, they do want to make money.  And we’re fortunate that Bungie is a company that actually cares about its customer base enough to continue to support Halo 2 three years after its initial release with new maps, fresh matchmaking lists, and more.  But they certainly don’t have to – you’d be hard-pressed to find another video game company out there that does the same.  Bungie wants to produce the best quality game possible – they make more money when they do because their customers are happy.

But they don’t owe it to us.  We’re lucky and blessed that they opted to even let us have this sneak peek into Halo 3 via the Public Beta.  It’s cool and awesome, but again, they didn’t have to do it.  They could have just opted to conduct the beta-testing phase completely in-house, the way it’s usually done.  Instead, they chose to let their fans and consumers have a say about what works and doesn’t work, what they like and don’t like.  It’s a smart move on Bungie’s part because it allows them to produce a game that will be that much more marketable.

And the public beta if free.  Did you catch that part?  It isn’t costing us a dime to play.  A lot of folks griped about the fact that they paid $60 for the Beta invite.  In point of fact, this is incorrect.  These folks paid $60 to buy and play Crackdown – it just happened to have the Halo 3 Beta invitation included.  (Much thanks to Stuey for loaning me his copy of Crackdown for a few weeks.)

And remember that the Halo 3 Beta is technology, and we all know how often technology tends to get mucked up.  Complaints were made that Bungie should have tested things before the release date.  You folks don’t think they didn’t?  Please bear in mind that the Crackdown delivery system relies upon more people than just Bungie Studios.  There is an entire network of folks in the Xbox Live community who have to do their parts to make this all happen.  And Xbox Live updates have been pushed since Crackdown was released to stores, so things were bound to change somewhere along the way.  We should count ourselves lucky that it was only the Crackdown folks who suffered the loss of a whole day (omigosh!!!) of Beta goodness.

Here’s the kicker – Bungie is making up for the loss of one day by adding an additional four days to the end of the Beta – which, in my opinion, is a lot more grace than most of these whingers deserve.  Was not being able to download the Beta immediately as scheduled frustrating?  Sure, it was.  Was it disappointing?  No doubt.  Does that give folks the right to be evil and obnoxious and mean-spirited toward a group of people who are, effectively, giving us a gift?  No certainly not. 

Bungie is doing us a great service with this Beta.  Sure, they get to use all the data gleaned from it to produce a better product, but we get to enjoy the awesomeness three full months before the final release.  So, suck up your frustrations, Timmy, swallow those harsh words and remember to thank the nice folks at Bungie for letting you play with their toys when you really don’t deserve the honor.

I now possess a copy of the Halo 3 Beta.  Bungie and Microsoft pinpointed the problem yesterday evening and pushed a title update for Crackdown to rectify the issue, which appeared just before I went to bed.  So, naturally, that was a good time to start the download.  I managed to squeeze a couple of games in this morning – Shotty Snipers on Snowbound and Rockets on High Ground.  I got crushed in the first, as I expected I would.  Snipers have never been my strong suit, which was not helped in this case by the fact that, while I’ve watched a couple of games on each of these maps, I’m not yet familiar with them.  Rockets went better, with a second-place finish and 9 kills.  The visuals are fantastic, of course; I’ll get the experience the audio a little more tonight.  I had to keep the volume low this morning to keep from waking my wife. 

I’m extremely satisfied to finally have the Beta now – and we get a 4-day extension, to boot, courtesy of Bungie.  Those guys totally rock.

More to come…

Two hours until show time.  Will there be a beta download waiting for me?

Due to some unfortunate timing, I missed being able to make the Friends & Family cut for the Halo 3 Beta by about 24 hours.  I also missed out on the other previous opportunities for clinching beta invites due to not having an Xbox 360 when those options were available.  But a gracious friend opened the door for me to get into the beta through the final (and what will undoubtedly be the most common) opportunity – the Crackdown option. 

And today is the day that the Beta goes completely public, so of course, at the time of this writing, the Crackdown option is already cracked down.  I’m actually not overly upset by this.  Technical issues happen, and I realized several days ago that this one held the highest risk of breaking upon launch.  It’s fortunate for me, then, that I’m forced to be at work today, so that I can’t sit at home to obsessively refresh Bungie’s homepage every five minutes for a status check.

I’m not optimistic about my chances of being able to download and play tonight – my gut tells me this may take a day (or more) to resolve.  I’ll just have to sit back and continue to wait.