Halo 3 Beta...

It's widely known that Halo 3 is coming by the end of this year. It is fairly widely known that there are three chances to get into the Halo 3 Live Multiplayer Beta.

Back in forever ago (January) there was an online registration to get into the Live Beta. Requiring only that you own a 360 with hard drive, a Live Gold account and an email address. An unknown number of email addresses were randomly selected out of all that submitted.

Now, this month there is something called "The Rule of Three." The rules read:

It is a two-step process:

1. Participate in at least three hours of Halo 2 multiplayer sessions on your Xbox 360 console via Xbox Live during the three (3) day period beginning February 1st at 12:01 am EST and ending February 3rd at 11:59 pm EST.

2. After the three day window is over, head back over to www.halo3.com on February 5th and register.

It goes on to say that the First 13,333 people to register on February 5th (today!) are in. As you can see the game rules that were posted at Halo3.com state all times for participation in Eastern Standard Time. A time zone I am particularly fond of because that is where I live. I, therefore, assumed that I would be able to register now, today, as February 5th reached my time zone... how silly of me.

At 11:59 I headed over and started refreshing. At 12:15am i decided to stop wearing out my mouse. The page has not changed. It just keeps telling me the same thing and clearly does not want to know my registration information yet. Perhaps it will start on Central Time...

Of course if you missed out there you can buy the beta in stores later this month with free copy of Crackdown for 60 bucks.

[Update 1: It is now 1:03AM Eastern Time. The page has not changed. The page contains a small flash animation that turns into the 3 logo that we know and love. I dont think they meant February 5th Central Time. My theory is this:

Bungie is located in California if my memory serves me correctly. I will bet that their site will not be updated until Midnight (or 12:01 more likely since that’s when were able to start playing) but Pacific Standard Time. A time-zone not mentioned at all on their site. This forces me and my Eastern Standard brethren to stay up until past 3AM (fittingly enough) to register. I will be here dear readers updating every hour.]

[Update 2: It's 2:06am and there is nothing... to report. sigh. Oh, and the DVD I’m watching keeps skipping, to make the whole process even more annoying. I have been refreshing every few minutes though, just to keep things interesting... nothing. I am in hopes that I didn't miss it so quickly as it posted... coming up on the 3AM hour my last hope. ]

[Update 3: It’s 3:05. Damn it. The site is unchanged. How long do I have to wait! Give me a timer or something. I do notice the page loads a LOT quicker than it did 3 hours ago. Perhaps they increased the bandwith? is that even possible? If it is, then they are expecting a flood of data coming in. I have a second browser open... just incase i'm missing something. I'll see you next hour. See-ya space cowboy.]

[Update 4: The rumor on this place I go to is that they are waiting until 3:33AM to update their site with the registration information. I sure hope they're talking 3:33 EST... otherwise i'll be with you folks all night and selecting another DVD.]

[Update 5: 3:40 and nothing. Crap. The next major benchmark time is 3:33 pacific time... guess I don't get to sleep tonight.

[Update 6: It's 4:55. I should have titled this "I spent the night with the Halo 3 beta... website" ]

[Update 7: 6:43AM. For those that do math that means its 3:43AM on the left coast. Past what I assumed was the next possible target time. I have never refreshed a page so many times... I fear I am going to break the apple and R keys on my keyboard. People seem pissed at that place I go... rightly so. Many, like myself, have been looking at the same screen for nearing 7 hours.]

[Update 8: Dear Bungie. When you are making one of the most anticipated games of all time you have to GIVE PEOPLE INFORMATION. It's almost 8am. The sun is up now. Nothing has changed on the site. No place to register. ]

[Update 9: Captains Log, Supplemental... 10:33am. I'm hungry. I've watched 2 movies, and 3 episodes of a TV show... i am currently playing Sneak King and i've never wanted a Burger King Breakfast more in my entire life. Oh, and there is no change on the Halo3.com front. I wish I was counting the number of times I have refreshed, it is certainly in the hundreds.]

[Update 10: It is now 1:03PM 12 hours ago i did my first update... still the Halo3.com site has not been changed for the addition of registration. I am on no sleep. I wonder how long they will make people wait in anticipation? Should I even bother guessing that the update may come at 3:33PM EST? Is that even worth bloging?