Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta

For Xbox 360.
Verdict: King of the hill.
After an initial glitch that kept eager gamers round the world waiting an extra day, Thursday 17th May allowed access to beta code of one of 2007’s most anticipated titles - Halo 3.
With the full game due for release in September, the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta is a three week long peak into the future, in the final part of Bungie’s acclaimed trilogy (downloadable from the menu of supercop game Crackdown).
Allowing access to three varied multiplayer maps and a mixture of social and ranked game types, the beta is a slice of the unfinished game going through testing and gameplay tweaks that the public are now contributing towards completing.
While not giving anything away about the story of clashing cultures and ancient alien technology, the beta has allowed us to see how Halo’s gameplay has evolved and what modern technology has done for the series.
With sharp new textures, physics reactive water and some incredible sound design the most immediate enhancements, the controller layout has changed to assign the X button to new ‘Equipment’ items.
Equipment are rare items scattered across the maps that add new depth and strategy to Halo. The Bubble Shield, Power Drain, Trip Mine and Grav Lift all seek to encourage even more improvisational gameplay without disrupting the careful balancing of Halo’s legendary weapon sets.
As well as Equipment, new weapons have been added - Spike Grenades are strategical genius, the Brute Spikers are ferocious, the Spartan Laser is devastating and the welcome return of the Assault Rifle as a start weapon sees Halo 2’s emphasis on dual wielding thankfully reduced.
Along with significant and welcome changes to weapon balancing, changes have been made to Halo 2’s still unbeaten party system which allows for friends to group in large teams and take on the world while ad hoc teams of strangers can form after games and disliked maps can be vetoed by vote.
Halo 3 also allows you to save your battles as editable movies, giving Machinima directors unprecedented flexibility and friends the ability to send bragging clips of their victories to each other.
For those 360 owners without Crackdown - you’ve got two weeks left to taste the future.