My yeqar has just got better with the news that I will be taking part in Halo3 beta testing, I managed to win a place courtesy of rewiredmind.com. How many of you guys have been accpeted? Perhaps we could swap gamertags or something so that we can join up online or something?

...bastard

Sorry, not gloating or anything.

Crackdown' s out on Friday. That' s my way in.

Sorry, not gloating or anything.

I was just kidding.

If you wanna here something sad, I signed up for it like an hour after sign ups were open, but i forgot my password. So im just gonna go with crackdown

I really enjoyed the Crackdown demo...yes really. So I' ll be purchasing it and playing the Halo 3 beta that way.

I admit, I pre ordered Crackdown for the key initially.

Just as an aside, I am now however being inundated with gamertag emails as the mook who sent out the email didn' t BCC the email addresses he CC' d them, oh well only another 60 odd gamertag' s left to be sent

Are you all going to be pissed if the beta turns out to be one week long, at the end of June?

Seriously, what are your expectations?

Not really sure what I am expecting to be honest, I mean I have done testing before via MSDN etc, which is sometimes quite ridgid in what they want you to, but this sounds like just go online find a multiplayer game and well play. It sounds like Beta will be available in March / April but there is nothing on how long it will be for, I would say it will be more than a week as part of the testing is to assess load bearing on servers etc, so it is more the infrastructure as opposed to the actual game they are testing, but regardless to be able to play one of if not the most anticpated games for the 360, will be a buzz.

So, why can' t we just wait for the release of the game? I mean, if you really wanna help the development process out, then I understand that, but if you just want to play online FPS, there are many better options that a beta version of a game, no matter what game it is.

Also, I find it amusing how nobody see' s giving beta invites to Crackdown buyers as a pretty lame way of selling games, or attracting testers. I would love to see what people would say if Sony did it.

Personally I think that this is something that should be embraced by game dev' s, no matter what format. Nothing worse than paying £40 for a game only to find that you need to wait for certain aspects, to be eventually made ready, examples TDU' s online trading, CoD3' s multiplayer lobby.

I' m not against Beta testing. I' ve done it for many MMO' s, what I mean is that the way they are doing it is pretty lame. I for one know that they have enough people signing up to play it Beta that they don' t need to offer it in purchased games. So, to give people that buy a game, the opportunity to test for them instead of the people signing up is BS.

It' s beta testing, and its supposed to be given to those who have merits they are looking for in a tester. Not some prize for those who buy a game. Its crap, and I can' t believe nobody has a problem with them doing this.

I should add that I thought it was stupid when they offered EQ2 beta testing to those who bought the EQ rts. Developers should be happy people want to help them test their games, and not capitalize on it by using it to sell games, or make things look more enticing.

Also, I find it amusing how nobody see' s giving beta invites to Crackdown buyers as a pretty lame way of selling games, or attracting testers. I would love to see what people would say if Sony did it.

Yes, it is cheap stunt, but still doesn' t matter...I mean if they did this then tried to sell PDZ with the beta invites I would be PISSED. Crackdown is a good game and I' m buying it for the game quality if it really was a piss poor horrid piece of shit game, then yes there is call for alarm.

I personally don' t get alot of money to spend on buying games. After playing the Crackdown demo I thought the game was pretty awesome and it looked like it could bring me at least 30hrs of play time. I consider this to be an awesome bundle of a pretty good game and a kick ass demo.

I realise its probably a good game. The fact is, they have enough people signing up to beta test it already. Therefore, all the people signing up to test the game who don' t buy crackdown are at a large disadvantage compared to those who purchase the game. All because they don' t want a piece of software.

The truth is I think it' s awesome that they put the beta in crackdown. I think this game needs to get noticed & if that what they have to do to get attention so be it. I hated both grand theft auto' s, i bought vice city & never understood the big deal about the game, so i had no interest in crackdown. then i downloaded it cause a friend said it was pretty cool & he hated GTA also. Now I' m addicted to the game like a crack addict & I actually play the demo more than all my 360 games put togeher. so yeah it' s a good way to get the people who wouldn' t normally give the game a chance to check it out. You know sony is paying attention so you shouldn' t speak so soon.

You know sony is paying attention so you shouldn' t speak so soon.

Actually, Sony did it first with EQ2 beta handouts. I don' t want anyone to do it is my point. I just find it quite funny how nobody ever has anything bad to say about the Xbox. To me, and all my true gamer friends, shit like this pisses them off. Beta testing is TESTING, NOT A SELLING FEATURE. Sell a game because its good, test a game with people who sign up and have the merits you seek, don' t sell a game with a gimmick thrown on, and choose any random guy who bought a game to test your stuff.

This does nothing to further the industry or make better games.

Shit, i have something bad to say about the xbox. I' m scared I' m gonna get the circle of death one day, That' s scary shit man, I never had a fear of my consoles breaking before, but on the flipside they' ve actually learn from most of their mistakes this time & are making wise decisions, & I think this demo thing is a good idea, shit they put enough money into crackdown to make it cool, as it proved with viva pinata & my favorite game, pychonauts, sometimes you need a gimmick to sell a game, & halo 3 is the 800 lb gorrilla of gimmicks(though I could give a rats ass about the beta testing, shit I hate online gaming). Me & everyone else i know that played the game thinks it' s awesome, but looking at it on the back of the box & even watching it probably won' t convey the fun to everyone who already writes it off at a bad GTA clone, so MGS has to find a gimmick to get it noticed, & i just think they made another one of those good decisions i metioned earlier. I wouldn' t really give a shit if sony did the same thing, I' d rather play a metal gear demo than Halo anyway.