Halo 3 beta: unlock custom games

That's right, it's great news for the people who are bored with the default matchmaking for the Halo 3 beta (bored? really?). Although who knows how long it will last, beta players have discovered a way to bypass the limitations on custom games currently imposed and get a bigger taste of the options that will be available for the final version of Halo 3. That, or Bungie has ingeniously and laboriously hidden false game date inside the beta code that can only be unlocked through an arbitrary and complex sequence of coordinated events to… err, mess with beta players.

This newly discovered glitch in the game grants testers access to more vehicles, such as the Wraith and Banshee and new weapons, like the pistol and the sword (yes, it's going to be in the game). Once accessed, you'll notice the list of custom gameplay modes has been greatly expanded from Halo 2.Take a look at the video below to see the unlocked menu.

Here is an overview of the newly customizable aspects of gameplay:

  • Shield multiplier
  • Shield recharge rate
  • Immune to headshots
  • Grenade counts
  • Infinite ammo
  • Weapon pickup disabled
  • Player speed (25%, 50%, 75%, 90%, 100%, 110%, 125%, 150%, 200%, 300%)
  • Player gravity (50%, 100%, 200%)
  • Vehicle use (passenger only)
  • Motion tracker range (10m, 25m, 75m, 100m, 150m)
  • Appearance (visual effects - black glow, team glow, white glow)
  • Active camo (invisible, good camo that might fool and elite, poor camo that might fool a grunt)
  • Indestructible vehicles (on, off)

To give these new options a try (assuming Bungie doesn't shut them down by the time you read this), follow these four easysteps:

  • Create a party of at least 6 people in the pregame lobby.
  • Have a separate friend create a match and send the party leader an invite.
  • Have the party leader accept the invite and bring the entire party to the second friend's party.
  • One person will get kicked out of the game but should now have access to a "custom games lobby," which canhost up to8 players.

If you don't want to follow all those instructions, some folks seem to have gotten access to the custom gametypes menu through some kind of network error.Good luck replicating that.

Just for fun, take a look at this vid of altered gameplay, too.

June 1, 2007