Halo 3 beta fixed

By Robert Purchese Published 17 May, 2007

Bungie gets wrench out.

Microsoft soothed angry mobs last night by releasing an update to fix an issue that prevented you from downloading the Halo 3 beta from within Crackdown.

However, be patient, as it could take as long as four hours to download the patch.

Because of all the chaos surrounding the start, Microsoft and Bungie have decided to extend the length of the beta by four days. It will now end on the 10th June, which gives you an extra weekend to get stuck in.

Bungie also pointed out that you might notice a text-display niggle on the in-game user interface, where all the words will have disappeared. But don't panic, simply reboot the console, then press up on the d-pad and hold the A-button until the Bungie logo appears, and a dialogue box will spring-up and confirm the maintenance fix.

We've already had a play of the multiplayer beta, and you can keep up with all our coverage from the Halo 3 gamepage.

Halo 3 will be available for Xbox 360 on 26th September in Europe, and the day before in the U.S.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 5 years ago

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  • Carlo #1 5 years ago

    Wonderful!

  • Freelancepolice #2 5 years ago

    A little underwhelmed by it so far, only graphically mind.

  • the_dudefather #3 5 years ago

    THATS NOT GOOD ENOUGH IM GOING TO SEW YOU BUNGIE AND M£!!!!

    I HAD TO SKIP GEOGRAPHY CLASS TO PLAY IT AND I COULDNT PALY IT LATER AS IT WAS MY BEDTIME!!!

  • Have_to_Speak_Up #4 5 years ago

    at least it was geography class you skipped, not home economics and English

  • peterfll #5 5 years ago

    It's taken an hour to move from 38% to 44% so four hours is looking optomistic at the moment........

  • Uncle_Fishboy #6 5 years ago

    So what happens if like me you downloaded it in 20 mins this morning before leaving for work and then got the 'beta unavailable or expired message when attempting to actually play the beta after the intro screen'. Help!

  • peterfll #7 5 years ago

    It means it didn't download properly, and instead of getting the playable beta you got a Theme pack instead.

    Serves you right for being all "my downloaded in 20 minutes" smug.

    Ha Ha!

    ps Just got chucked off Live so will need to restart the download ....... bstards!

  • Negotiator #8 5 years ago

    So what happens if like me you downloaded it in 20 mins this morning before leaving for work and then got the 'beta unavailable or expired message when attempting to actually play the beta after the intro screen'. Help!

    Me too bra me too, anyway anyone know a solution to the problem.

  • neil_pub5 #9 5 years ago

    Lots of people are commenting the graphics are not great which is a shame. Keep in mind they may use a different engine for single player (fingers crossed). LETS FACE IT WE ALL EXPECT IT TO LOOK GREAT DONT WE?

  • peterfll #10 5 years ago

    I'm back on live after being chucked off and now sitting at 57%.

    It's just like December 2005 all over again when 360 Live was first introduced. Slow downloads, getting chucked out randomly during downloads, having to start all over again, download percentage getting stuck and not updating... .ahh, just like the good old times.

    ps SP and MP used the same engine on Halo and Halo 2 so would expect the same in 3? I also want the graphics to be substantially better - it's been several years and moved to a significantly more powerful platform so why not?
    Edited by peterfll at 17/05/07 @ 11:59

  • Fairlane #11 5 years ago

    regarding it not working. had the same problem, just wait a little bit. i did an now implaying Halo 3 :-)
    Edited by Fairlane at 17/05/07 @ 12:00

  • Mildew #12 5 years ago

    Just downloaded it now - about 30 mins from start to finish and the fix took under a minute to download - only had a quick play but not bad at all! :)

  • crazyhorse174 #13 5 years ago

    "at least it was geography class you skipped, not home economics and English"

    +1

    Brilliant squire :D

    I'll give you the credit you deserve for that one, even if no-one else will! Had a nice wee chuckle at work when I read that!

  • BadBoyBonner #14 5 years ago

    Now at 60% after about 20 mins. It better not be a bloody picture pack at 911 Megs! lol

  • BadBoyBonner #15 5 years ago

    Now 75%

  • BadBoyBonner #16 5 years ago

    And why is continue not an option?

    Pressed down and A(green button) automatically and canceled the bloody down load!

    Went to it again and it was still there at 84% - so nothing too bad.

  • BadBoyBonner #17 5 years ago

    Done

  • SBfistfun #18 5 years ago

    "Keep in mind they may use a different engine for single player"

    Don't be so silly.

    Now got to bed

  • dog2_99 #19 5 years ago

    Being dense here so sorry, but:

    i downloaded the demo this morning before work and it downloaded really quick, didnt have a chance to play it though it did ask if i wanted to.
    Does the speed (about 30mins) suggest that i have to download it again? if so do i delete what it thinks is the demo? Very confused and bored at work anyone had the same problem?

    cheers

  • Foundry #20 5 years ago

    Bit underwhelming. No AA. Plays much like Halo2 - not a bad thing unless you don't like Halo2 MP. Always preferred the campaign anyway. Meh.

  • CyberClaw #21 5 years ago

    The graphics are amazing in the dark IMO... Seeing the Spartan model, with all it's details, lighting up (it has small lights in the helmet and armor).
    In the sun it looses some quality though. It doesn't look as good. But the maps are big, and support 16 players (although the beta only supports 8 in the matchmaking). Honestly I was pleased with the graphics, and the gameplay additions...

  • Machetazo #22 5 years ago

    It's by no means retail grade in terms of graphics. Jaggies all over the score. (BUT IT'S A BETA, I know.) But, it's fun. :) Anyone else spotted a situation where, if your party leader has his 360 set to a different lang. (French, par example) then all the pre-match blurb (scrolling tips) appears for you in their language?

  • CyberClaw #23 5 years ago

    Foundry, one of the things I believe is that it plays nothing like Halo 2.

    It's much more balanced, and the weapons are funner to use. The items really bring a new perspective into the game, specially team games. The rocket launcher for example, has had it's speed of firing, as well as damage toned down. Back in Halo 2, rocket launcher = 2 easy kills. Here it's actually easier to use the default rifle.
    The shotgun carries lesser bullets now as well, which forces you to reload sooner. The Battle Rifle is slightly less powerfull, and it won't kill a guy with 3 full charges like it used to. The grenades radius of destruction also seems to have been lessened somewhat, and the distance you can throw a grenade is slightly improved. The vehicles are much more resistant now, and a single lucky grenade will have an hard time destroying a hog. The SMG has a faster fire rate as well, dual wielding a SMG is now quite deadly... Stealing a vehicle is now much harder... Instead of the jump circus, it used to be, this morning I could only do it once...

    The whole pace of the game has changed. I was actually tired of Halo 2... Now this is very different... And the big weapons are very fun to use (minigun, etc). They impair your movement and velocity, but they making you a slowly walking Spartan of death... The mongoose is frail, but in the hands of a good rider (me) it gets the bomb from base to base faster than any Spartan Laser can charge (in a straight it actually gears up, so dodging left and right will make you just slower and easier to hit).

    This is better than Halo 2. The pace of the game, and the balance of the weapons seem to be much better so far.

  • BadBoyBonner #24 5 years ago

    While it may be better balanced - I am sure the power of the 360 is not providing the balance and is something that they could have done with Halo 2 MP.

    On a side note I have had to go back to my place (moved in with GF an waiting for broadband) so I am playing on an old Samsung CRT 21" set with one speaker (very hard to know where people are shooting from! lol).

    Only problem for most people who have only played the single games an now get into live is this...

    You have gone from being the all powerful saviour Master Chief, to just a grunt - which is a bit of a life shock to those who have never played online before.

    Being a lover of mouse and Keyboard - this seems a good compromise - although would appreciate being able to alter sensitivity vertical and horizontal as opposed to a global setting that is much faster on a horizontal plane (and perfect for me - but would of liked just a little more vertical speed).

    The other problem is that in most peoples (i.e. mine) rose tinted memories of Halo - this is what it was always like. And only once put side by side do you notice the main lovely difference - the frame rate.

    All told doesn't look much better than Halo 2 running through the 360 as far as fidelity - but, the frame rate is a massive improvement.

    And as far as fidelity goes - I can remember the great interview in EDGE about 2 years ago harping on about them trying to reduce the polys not add them. So that they could add more characters and create more of a War rather than a Skirmish.

    Although if you manage to overthrow an Army of 800 (Halo 3 maybe) as opposed to an Army of 20 (Halo 2 average level) the juxtaposition between all powerful single player and the just one of the grunts multiplayer maybe even more jarring!
    Edited by BadBoyBonner at 17/05/07 @ 13:45

  • CyberClaw #25 5 years ago

    BadBoyBonner, yea the gameplay balances could have been done in Halo 2... or even Halo 1... I don't think that's the point. Could the gameplay refinements of Quake 3 be in Quake 1? Of course... but they weren't... That's the way games and it's squels usually are. They get better and more refined (with any luck) with each passing squell.

    As for the GFX, I think the best way to compare them on Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 is to download the free Red Versus Blue Halo 3 trailler.
    The initial sequence is done in Halo 2... The following sequences are in Halo 3, with a (singing) sequence in Halo 1...
    The difference is bigger than you remember... I know I was choqued when I saw it right side by side...

    It's no Gears of War, but Gears of War is very different. In Gears you are mostly grounded, confined, and with the maximum number of 7 oponents. In Halo 3, you have 16 oponents, ridding arround god knows how many vehicles, through ground and air, in big open maps. They can't spend as much memory and graphical power in details, because it simply is a bigger game. Gears of War was very confined, and good at that. Halo is open. For example fighting games. They can focus on the 2 fighters and the small arena, so usually the ammount of detail is enourmous.

    I wasn't honestly expecting better graphics (I guess I Wasn't even thinking about it). They are suficient, and 5 minutes into the beta I wasn't thinking about it anymore (until I saw a team-mate near to me on a cave... those lights/leds in the armor are nice and give it a much superior finish... the filters for the sun/desert are the ones that aren't that good graphically yet - I dunno what effects they turned off for performance though). And keeping in mind it's a beta, I'm quite pleased. The thing I value the most (gameplay) is spot on to make me happy...
    Edited by CyberClaw at 17/05/07 @ 14:05

  • The-Bodybuilder #26 5 years ago

    >"at least it was geography class you skipped, not home economics and English"

    And they were doing "how the british education system killed diana".

  • BadBoyBonner #27 5 years ago

    I think a lot of the expectation - stems from the fact that - The original Halo came out about the same time as the Unreal engine of that time, and gave it a run for it's money graphically on something (the 64mb 700Mhz all in Xbox) that seemingly had no right to challenge the mighty 128mb Geforce 4Ti cards and 512meg Duron powered PC’s of that day.

    Clearly Bungie have taken a different direction to Epic in their respective engines. I think the level Sizes in Halo 3 will be closer to something along the line of Far Cry or Just Cause (Both highly rated by me) and with (weak or weaker) graphics when up close and personal – but overall showing times of brilliance in depth through size (took me ages to find where to do (and where to fly through the canyon) the 1000m base jump in Just Cause.

    Gears of War does look amazing - and would be a more of a show stopper with a higher stable frame rate – something further optimisation should bring to some degree.

    The good thing for me is that all my mates are getting or have 360's and could play this online. Which is extending far beyond the few (me included) who have been persuading all the others since counter-strike on dial up – which seems many moons ago now!

    Hope the matchmaking ensures it is fun, although think it was a bit of a dirty trick to effectively enforce people to buy levels (as opposed to not play the game for 3 months until they became free) if they wanted to get the fix continuously.

    Clearly Halo is the Xbox’s Counter strike – both in longevity and quality. I still also think that the Halo universe is the best Sci-Fi setting spawned from a game (i.e. not provided by film ala StarWars) and the voice-overs industry leading.

    edit - industry leading in Sci-fi and gave Rockstar more than a run for their money overall (although ya still can't beat Ray Liota).
    Edited by BadBoyBonner at 17/05/07 @ 14:27

  • Speedwolf #28 5 years ago

    "The vehicles are much more resistant now, and a single lucky grenade will have an hard time destroying a hog."

    Bah! I'll have an even more hard time being run over every five minutes then!

  • The-Bodybuilder #29 5 years ago

    >"And as far as fidelity goes - I can remember the great interview in EDGE about 2 years ago harping on about them trying to reduce the polys not add them. So that they could add more characters and create more of a War rather than a Skirmish. "

    I remember this too.
    It's the only logical reason whythey are still using the H2 engine, and why the SP is still under wraps.

  • CyberClaw #30 5 years ago

    Halo 2 models had less polys than Halo 1, because of technolgy.

    Back in Halo 1 days, bump mapping, and similar techniques, were still far from being implemented correctly and with good performance...

    When Halo 2 was released, they were taking full avantage of bump-mapping, normal-mapping, etc. So, the armor could be mostly flat, and they'd create the ridges of the armor, using such techniques. That's why when the camera changes in H2 fast we see flat detailess models. Because the game cannot load the textures and corresponding maps fast enough. That, on top of LoD allowed them to have some pretty big fights (I recall a Elites versus Brutes fight you had to go through as Master Chief, in a huge round arena - it had easly 30+ NPCs fighting at once in Legendary - and the same goes for many later sections of the game in Legendary).
    EDGE did report that, but it was mostly a news reporter that doesn't quite understand what technology is behind the games. Halo 2 simply didn't need so many polygons to display better detail than Halo 1. And obviously, less polys means more action on screen.

  • BettySwallocks #31 5 years ago

    bad time for my internet connection to drop :(

  • BeersOfWar #32 5 years ago

    YEAH BITCHES! TIME TO SHOOT SOME FUCKING YANKS IN THE FACE!

    /gets arse kicked in 1st round

    /gets arse kicked in 2nd round

    3rd...

  • GamesConnoisseur #33 5 years ago

    Good fun, on my first play through got top of table with 11 kills, but on second and third go, did not so as good!

    Was lucky actually with other Beta newbies, some was just standing and admiring the water effects or getting to grip with new control system.

    Graphically, was forewarned that its no Gear of War, but was not disappointed as smooth frame rates and no lags which ARE more important. Graphically, Resistance no better than this.

    I believe Rainbow analogue is correct, that MP is bog standard visually but smooth and full effects on SP. Enjoying the new gun balances and had hidden behind bubble shields on two occasions. Interesting injection to the gameplay.

    Looking forward to further go later tonight.
    Edited by GamesConnoisseur at 17/05/07 @ 18:20

  • CyberClaw #34 5 years ago

    I got an awsome moment so far. On Valhala, everyone gets in the Mongoose and drives behind the back of the base. I figure that's loosing too much time, so instead, I aim the mongoose at the man cannon, and it just get's shot in the air. I had just been killed, I spawn at base, and I do my mongoose thing to get back into the team slayer. I hop into one 'goose, and I get shot over the mancannon, and I land on top of a blue =D It's quite hard to run over people now (it's harder to kill/ be killed in general, the shields seem to have been improved, or damages nerfed), but that landing did the job =) (he might have had his shields down though, not sure)

    EDIT: Oh, and bubble shields are awsome capturing territories. Just use one on top of a territory spot, and force them to come close to you (then leave a grenade behind and step outside eheh)
    Edited by CyberClaw at 17/05/07 @ 18:23

  • reality_cheque #35 5 years ago

    I was just punching people in the face as they came in my shield :)

    Bish bosh, job done - thanks for the missile pod, sucker!

  • J0YCIE #36 5 years ago

    we were dropping grav lifts down, then a bubble shield on top of it, which makes the giant ball bounce in the air, which is very cool to watch if you get someone to bounce on the grav lift inside the shield at the same time.

    also been looking at the auto-turrets on snow bound. races to see who lasts the longest when we all charge out. and putting a bubble shield in front of one so we can see how far back you can go (not very-invisible wall) still. makes for fun videos to share