På Bungies hemsida har de lagt upp en liten "frågor och svar" om vad man kan förvänta sig utifrån den Halo 3-beta som drar igång senare i vår. Bland annat nämns den omtalade X-knappen som har fått en helt annan funktion i tidigare Halo-spel. Spännande.
Här på redaktionen ser vi fram emot att ta oss an er läsare i några hårda duster via Xbox Live när det blir dags...
How many players are going to be in the beta?
A lot, many thousands. Let's just say, you won't have trouble finding a match.
How many maps, gametypes, playlists, etc. are we going to see in the beta?
Just enough to get the testing data we need while providing a fun game experience yet still leave everyone wanting more. The exact scope is still being finalized.
Will the party system be implemented in the beta?
Yes, you will be able to find your friends, join their party and enter matchmaking with them, in playlists which support parties.
Will we be seeing anything that we have not yet seen from the Alpha screenshots (and leaks) in the beta?
There are bound to be a few surprises in store for fans. And seeing a fuzzy cell phone video of the alpha doesn't even begin to come close to actually playing yourself on an HD television with maps that are several months further along in development.
Will we see the function of the mysterious X button?
Yes. Whether or not it'll still be mapped to X is subject to change. And honestly, it won't be all that surprising. Just cool.
Will we all have to sign NDAs and never speak of the beta? Will you try to contain screenshots and movies coming out of the beta?
Nope. In a perfect world, maybe, but it's hard enough when the participants are just a few thousand MS employees, let alone thousands and thousands of Halo fans. We don't expect anything in the beta to remain a secret. The beta will be covered by a normal user agreement, with lots of caveats about the fact that it's not finished, only lasts for a short time and so on.
What kind of data and feedback is Bungie looking to glean from the beta?
We're looking for a lot of things. Mainly the kinds of things that you cannot otherwise accomplish without the mass of people we'll have, such as stress-testing all of the backend stuff and networking. We'll be keeping an eye on our forums for general feedback, but the primary goal is to gain valuable technical information that's only possible when we have tens of thousands of simultaneous players acros<b>s the world.
