Last night was a long one. With energy drinks and the Halo: Reach Beta fueling my frenzy, I went long in to the night and awoke this morning to swollen eyes and a strong urge to remove them from my face. But, having the opportunity to play in the biggest public beta ever is totally worth the pain, right? I mean, this is something we’ll probably tell our grandchildren about (immediately before they laugh at us for the primitive games we used to play). Ah, kids… I really don’t care for them.
My early impressions of the beta are pretty good. That old, familiar gameplay is back and probably tighter than ever. The new weapons seem fairly balanced and are mostly fun to use. And playing with the new Armor Abilities has proven entertaining, too; although it’s pretty annoying when the guy you were about to kill drops to his knees and encases himself in glow-y-ness. It just seems a bit cheap to me. But I’ll still use it from time-to-time—especially when I see someone else do it—so that we can both be crouched there glowing and not shooting at each other.
My only major complaint during my marathon Reach session was the lack of gametypes and maps. I seemed to always be doing the same thing over-and-over again. So I did some research for about 10-seconds and found a statement from Bungie over at the official Halo: Reach Beta site that I will now share with you:
“… [We] will be releasing the maps and gametypes on different dates throughout the duration of the beta test, with only a subset of them being available immediately on May 3rd.
The good news is that once a map or gametype is released, it will remain available through the end of the beta even as other gametypes become available. Below is the schedule of release:
Yay! So, be patient and enjoy the short time that you and the Reach Beta have together. See you all later tonight—I’ll be the one stabbing you in the back.
