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:

• Grab Bag – May 3
• FFA – May 3
• Arena – May 3
• Invasion – May 7
• Network Test 1/Generator Defense – May 14”

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.

Halo: Reach is going to be 2010's biggest Xbox 360 game.  If you don't believe me, just take a look at the newest gameplay footage in this minute-long video.  Besides all the sweet, Halo-y action that we know and love, it looks like the graphical upgrade is coming along quite nicely.

What do you guys think?  Is Halo: Reach going to live up to your huge expectations?  Does Halo even need Mr. Chief?   Are you more excited about the new campaign or the online multiplayer?  What is the square root of 2,406,372?

Check out the video!  Then head on over to the KontrolFreek Forums and join the discussion about Halo: Reach.

In anticipation of Spike’s big Video Game Awards show on 12/12, Bungie has launched its official Halo: Reach website.  There’s not much on the site at this point other than the E3 ’09 trailer that we’ve all seen before, some wallpapers and some “Intel” items that give you a little (very little) information about planet Reach. 

Most of the links on the page are locked right now, but check back after tomorrow’s big awards show—where Bungie is set to premier the Halo: Reach trailer—for possibly more content*.

As for me, well, I just can’t wait for that Beta I purchased with my copy of ODST to start.  Hurry up 2010!

*Checking back right after tomorrow’s show may lead to disappointment, frustration, suicidal thoughts, cats meowing, and non-lubricated robot dances.  But seriously, Bungie definitely promises more content coming in 2010.

It’s like I said the other day, “Secrets are hard to keep these days.”  All it takes is a quick picture and an email from somebody’s Blackberry to get the whole world talking.  This time it’s Bungie in the middle of the frenzy—and they are not happy.  Community members from Bungie’s official forums are getting banned for even a mention of these blurry shots of the forthcoming Halo Reach—pretty much confirming the authenticity of the photos.

I’m not going to speculate on anything that I see in the shots in fear of Bungie’s secret police coming to my house and taking me away, so I’ll leave all prognosticating to you.  One thing I will say, though, is that it looks awesome, and I can’t wait!