KEY POINTS:
The release of a beta version of Halo 3 on Xbox 360 Live in the last few days is a brilliant piece of marketing - and research and development.
Game developer Bungie gets thousands of people to test free a part of the hugely popular sci-fi game at the same time as creating a viral marketing storm about a game that won't hit the shelves til September.
No wonder in the first 24 hours of the game finally appearing, more than 60,000 games had been played.
It's beta and the first bug sent fans wild in a bad sort of way. On download day, a technical fault meant the game could not be accessed. Once fixed, it took me four hours to download the 900MB set-up file. Thanks Bungle - sorry Bungie!
I'm loving it but a little frustrated by the lag. Up against gamers who must have been playing it all night and are on a uber-fast broadband connection overseas, you've got to expect to get killed several times and not be riding at the top of the team list.
The beta is multiplaying for up to eight players at a time and when you log in, you have to choose from three "Playlist" options called Rumble Pit, Team Slayer, and Team Skirmish.
There are also options for "Social Playlists", for setting up a private game and a system that tries to judge your playing ability and based on your playing matches you against players with similar skills.
This will be handy once the game gets launched late September but meanwhile newbies can end up in a team of experienced shooters. Scenarios and one of the three maps (more open than before) are chosen at random. Environments are tricker than previously.
There is a lot that's familiar including some old but improved favourites such as the needler from Halo1 (now a two-handed weapon), the plasma rifle and the widely-used Battle Rifle and Covenant Carbine. New weapons include a Spartan laser weapon that can take out a vehicle.
There's a "bubble shield" that protects you when you guard a spot.
There is nice detail in unexpected places such as snow, debris and ripples in the water - a lot of detail has gone into the textures, considerably more than Halo 2 and there are noticeable improvements in lighting.
Reloading is now on the bumper buttons which lets you independently reload while dual-wielding (which is a lot of fun).
This looks and feels like a third-gen game. It will be massive. This is only a tease and if you want to see it beware it's up for only a couple more weeks. Then comes the long wait.
