Bungie has had to step in and dismiss recent rumors regarding Halo 3‘s beta, which would purportedly be running two separate tracks or types of betas for the public. Bungie’s Frank O’Connor told Next-Gen–in no uncertain terms–that the rumors were false.
"Like, we have time to be working on two separate betas? No, people have confused the issue. Bungie’s going to have a friends and family program which is basically a tiny alternative to the Crackdown beta program. We’re going to get a bunch of beta invites sent to people in the Bungie community as well [a]s those people who have bought Crackdown. Some people have decided that it was this whole separate beta but it’s the same beta, we’re just giving out our own tokens."
O’Connor then went on to explain what the beta test was all about and what it would incorporate. "It’s going to be a great place to see what weapons people enjoy and how they like the levels that we’re going to share with them and all that game balance stuff. But the really important data is going to be about networking and match making and population. The only realistic way to get that data, is to put it out on some scale. So it’s very useful for us. We could try to translate a lot of scaled information from smaller populations and figure out how things are going to scale, but it’s very, very useful for us to see how it works in real life and in the field."
On his blog, O’Connor recently posted about how much fun he was having while playing through the campaign mode with production cheat codes. "I have played through an early level with unlimited grenades several times now, and it never gets old. There’s several places in the very first part of the level, where you’re not even supposed to have grenades. So while cheating makes those parts a little too easy, there’s nothing like hurling a single plasma into an unsuspecting group of Grunts, fresh off a Phantom dropship, and seeing them scatter, literally like screaming bowling pins."
Lucky guy. Unfortunately for us commoners, we won’t be treated to these codes when we buy Halo 3. He said, "So we cheat. With a simple button press (that obviously isn’t in the retail game, so don’t bother mashing your controller in the fall) I can drop any weapon or vehicle."
We recently found out that the beta is still going to be released this spring, but not nearly as soon as many had hoped. "We’re still aiming for a spring release, but it could be more like late Spring."
