Halo 3 Demo on Live This Spring

There are new maps coming to Halo 2 as well, but you are going to have to have a 360 for those. New screen inside.

It was five years ago today that Microsoft introduced Master Chief to the world. In that fistful of time, the Halo series has become one of the most popular in the industry, and there are still hundreds of thousands of people playing the game online. To celebrate Master Chief hitting 5, Bungie has declassified a bunch of details about his new game.

Most exciting is the news that you'll be able to take part in beta-testing the multiplayer portions of Halo 3 sometime in the new year. Bungie is tight-lipped on exactly when this will happen, but it should be during spring - before the game is available.

Recently Microsoft sent out a questionnaire asking whether people would be interested in paying for early access to games. This would seem to be an ideal candidate were such a plan put into action, but Microsoft hasn't commented on whether you'll have to pay to play during the beta testing.

Microsoft is also hoping that the prospects of tasting the new game will push those who have yet to upgrade to the Xbox 360 into doing so. As a further carrot, Microsoft is putting out new multiplayer maps for Halo 2. Bungie isn't offering any details on these yet.

Despite Halo 2 being an Xbox game, these new maps will only be available through the Xbox Live Marketplace on the Xbox 360 - you'll need a hard drive to store them too. And yes, you will have to pay for them.

Bungie says the order to offer the maps for download to Xbox 360s only came from Microsoft, but it's working to find a way to make the maps available to its loyal base of fans who have yet to leap into the next generation.

The last bit of Halo news this week is word of a new Halo 3 trailer. Unlike the previous one, which was done using real-time graphics, Bungie worked with movie effects shop Digital Domain for a full CGI vignette.

The trailer will debut during Monday Night Football on 4 December in the US before making its way to the Xbox Live Marketplace in all its high-definition glory.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo