Halo 3 Beta invite guaranteed in every 'initial' copy of Crackdown [update 1]

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jan 25th 2007 at 2:25AM }

While previous sources have stated otherwise, IGN claims to have received information from an unnamed Microsoft rep who has confirmed that every copy of Crackdown will include an invitation to Halo 3 Beta. If you're not interested in Crackdown, playing Halo 2 (you do own a copy of Halo 2, right?) for a few hours is still the best way -- and only other way -- to gain access to the beta. But it's good to know that a golden ticket, albeit an expensive one (if you plan to throw away the "chocolate bar"), will be sitting on the shelf at the local retailer, accessible at your leisure.

Update: Microsoft sent along word that "every copy in the initial shipment" of Crackdown will have the download code for Halo 3 Beta. Each box will be specially marked. Microsoft did not specify how large the initial shipment would be. Don't cancel those pre-orders just yet...

[Thanks, dork]

Tags: 360, Beta, Bungie, Crackdown, Halo, Halo 3 Beta, Halo3Beta, Invitation, Invite, Real Time Worlds, RealTimeWorlds, Xbox 360, Xbox360

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Hannibal @ Jan 25th 2007 2:39AM

Based on the demo, I might just buy Crackdown regardless...plus I have a couple friends who would pay me to play the Halo 3 beta anyway.

Brian @ Jan 25th 2007 2:48AM

At my GameStop some people have been preordering Crackdown and they don’t even know what it is just for Halo 3 Beta they payed for a $60.00 demo. LOL

randomshagz @ Jan 25th 2007 3:00AM

it wouldnt be the first time... MGS2

Petrie @ Jan 25th 2007 3:00AM

I may hold off on Crackdown, since its used price will probably plummet QUICK as all the copies get traded back in so fast. Though I'd like to give the Beta a whirl, I'm not sure it's worth the extra cash I'd could save grabbing Crackdown used.

Truepatriot @ Jan 25th 2007 3:06AM

i dont know a couple hundred beta tester(i assume the game will sell decently)sounds a bit excessive but given that halo 3 will sell millions i guess its a good test

Hannibal @ Jan 25th 2007 3:08AM

@4: the beta is on the disc and the beta doesn't begin immediately as Crackdown is sold. In other words, you have to keep it to play the beta.

Seiryu @ Jan 25th 2007 3:24AM

I remember buying Z.O.E for the MGS2 demo, but ended up liking Z.O.E.I hope crackdown is good.

Intellectualdiot @ Jan 25th 2007 3:38AM

Poor Crackdown, doomed to become this generation's Zone of the Enders - a throughly enjoyable game whose merits are overlooked in lieu of its supposed "bonus".

If there is anything even remotely resembling a "god" in this universe, Crackdown 2 will follow a similar path that ZOE's sequel did and establish itself as one of the finer games of its generation.

Fozziebear53 @ Jan 25th 2007 4:07AM

sounds like a good way to push a shitty game. The crackdown demo is teh UBER SUCK. Very boring.

fester @ Jan 25th 2007 4:16AM

After playing the demo for a good while, initial interest turned to apathy. I won't be picking this up it just didn't "feel" solid enough to me, kinda half finished.

Though I did prefer the style and some of the gfx over Saints Row, I would think even Just Cause is as good as this so a mediocre title in my opinion.

Luckily there are plenty more solid titles for the 360.

JJ @ Jan 25th 2007 4:26AM

Personally i dont give a flip about Halo 3, but i've been waiting for crackdown for some good old co op fun with my roomate.

steve @ Jan 25th 2007 4:59AM

I quite liked ZOE, though I must admit I was swayed by the MGS2 demo that was included. I ended up liking ZOE more than MGS2 in a way... The same could happen if I bought Crackdown to get the Halo 3 beta, especially since I didn't like Halo 1 or 2 (I hate all console FPSs tbh).

Godson @ Jan 25th 2007 6:43AM

This is pure bullsh*t. MS just wants to sell more copies of Crackdown. I played the demo, the game sucks. its so crap.

Veras Gunn @ Jan 25th 2007 6:49AM

Honestly, I couldn't care less about the Halo 3 beta. I've been interested in Crackdown for a long time and I had planned on buying it long before the Halo 3 announcement. The only thing the beta is doing is attracting unwanted attention to the game from the entirely wrong audience, a group of profanity slewing arrogant pre-teens. This game is superb in its own right and should be given a launch without the weight of Halo 3 hanging over it... but again the Halo 3 beta invite gives actual fans a chance of seeing a Crackdown 2.

Anticrawl @ Jan 25th 2007 7:30AM

Gah, it's a tough call. On the one hand I want to play Halo 3 beta and wasn't one of the few to get it from the initial sign up. On the other hand I can't see myself suffering through the other two options. Halo 2's online is broken and full of baffoons who give up or quit faster than the New Orleans Saints (preasent season excluded). Don't know if I could stomach more than a few minutes of it. Then there is crackdown. Spent all that time downloading the demo in hopes of it being decent enough to justify 60 dollars to join a beta testing which is usually free. I fire that sucker up and just about cried. Why'd they have to bundle it with such a terrible game. Bungie must be really arrogant to think it's fans love their game(s) so much that they will crusify themselves just to get a taste of what's to come. I'm willing to give Crackdown the benifit of the doubt here considering how widely praised Rainbow 6 Vegas is when it's multiplayer demo was complete and utter shit, so terrible I lost all interest in the game. From the poor rendering, glitches, half-baked use of the unreal engine and just over-all terrible presentation. Either the fans of that series are diehard or the developers heard the cries of pain and weeping of the masses then rushed to fix it just before launch.

I dunno, I just hope crackdown turns out to be better than the demo.

Anticrawl

Daxter1985 @ Jan 25th 2007 8:00AM

So I can just rent this game and get the beta that way?

Josh @ Jan 25th 2007 8:01AM

Crackdown will sell because it's Crackdown. I've had friends who said it looks sucky and they weren't going to buy it, but after the demo came out they are fans of it and will definitely get it.

I hope IGN is correct about it being any copy. I heard Frankie at Bungie say it was any copy, then the next week he corrected it and said specially marked copies of Crackdown. I wish M$ would at least confirm it, so there's no confusion.

Sparkstalker @ Jan 25th 2007 8:24AM

@ 17

MS won't confirm it so that they get the big initial sales, a la Gears. It makes for great press releases. And like #14, I've been interested in Crackdown since I first saw video of it well over a year ago. The art style alone caught my intrest, and playing as a superhero, kinda above the law cop sounded like lots of fun. And after giving the demo a whirl, I can't wait for the full game. I may get to the Halo 3 beta at some point...

Sammy @ Jan 25th 2007 8:24AM

I really love it how people are calling crackdown "Crap" based on one area (basically equivalent to the small *Albeit large for the time* area you could explore in GTA3 without unlocking the rest of the areas). While you couldn't actually go inside any of the skyscrapers, after getting agility up even one level, the game basically turns into spiderman 2 in that you can leap from building to building (an eerily long way from the ground, gave me vertigo almost). Having said that, I am not the biggest fan of the graphical stylings that this game employs. It looks alot like a comic book, and the "Hero" (or villain, depending on how many civillians you kill) has superhero-esque powers, so maybe that was the idea, but all the same, this game is par for the course as far as using the Xbox 360's graphical prowess is concerned. You will not pick this up, turn it on, and go "OoooOoOoo Pretty!" like you would Viva Pinata or Fight Night Round 3, but it doesn't look THAT bad.

If I had to write a review for the game based on the demo, I'd say that while it's not a bad game, and nowhere near as horrible as Saints Row (My god what a dissapointment), I would not buy it on it's own merit. Add in the Halo 3 beta invitation (which will be getting sold on Ebay, just watch and see) I would definatly purchase it.
On a side note, day 3, still no Beta Invite. I imagine they will give an invite to as few people as possible, knowing that for every invite they give out, that is one potential copy of Crackdown that has gone unsold. But I'm not worried, since I can always buy crackdown and get my invite. Really, instead of people complaining about the game having the invite, people should just be greatfull that they can get into this beta at all!

(Normally closed betas are open by invitation only, and when I say invitation, I don't mean *Email us and you will probably get an invitation* I mean THEY Email you if they want you to participate. I've participated in a few Beta's in this way, but almost never have I seen a closed Beta for such a massively popular game, give out so many invites. It's mind boggling as to why they wouldn't just pick from the pre-existing pool of industry insiders and Microsoft Beta-Testers. Oh well)

Paul @ Jan 25th 2007 8:40AM

The crackdown demo has one thing that many other next gen games are lacking... FUN... it is just plain fun to pick up cars and fling them around at gangbangers - it is just fun!

Anticrawl @ Jan 25th 2007 8:41AM

To Sammy

Pretty simple why they would. Beta testers get paid a hefty wage believe it or not. A buddy of mine (may god have mercy on his soul) beta/alpha tests DS games and some GBA games. Mostly ones involving Disney/Nick characters, can easily make a grand in a weak. I commend him for sitting through it.

But seriously, who else should you ask to make a better game but your fans? Would you rather call apon some professional beta tester who has no particular interest in the title or one who lives and breathes for it. Who's idea will make it sell more copies, based on the fact alone that they are considering said person's idea, not even adding it in. I just trust they don't use us and the beta testing as an excuse to not fix the more difficult aspects of the game to work with. An open beta invite like this makes me worry about the final quality of the game.

Anticrawl

SoonerBill @ Jan 25th 2007 8:52AM

Many here are saying that Crackdown will be traded in after the beta key is used, or that the beta key will be sold on Ebay.....People, the Crackdown Disc IS THE BETA KEY. You have to have the disc in your drive to play Halo 3.Get rid of Crackdown and you get rid of Halo 3.
Get it?

erac3rx @ Jan 25th 2007 9:21AM

@22: Tying the beta access to the disc is a very interesting idea, given the significant number of people with modded dvd firmware. So far, Xbox Live banning hasn't occurred as a result of said mod. But looking back to history it was Halo 2's release that caused massive banning on the original Xbox.

If they aren't including unique use-once Halo3 beta keys in the Crackdown box to avoid the massive ebay selling of the beta keys and the Crackdown discs, perhaps they have determined a cost-effective way to produce actual game discs that are each unique? This would be fantastic, as they could easily enable the option for us to install our games in firmware with a unique code on each disc-- a quick online check each time you run off the hard drive to make sure no one else is using that key. If someone is, you force an insert of the disc and therefore block whomever doesn't have the disc anymore.

It will be very, very interesting to see how this plays out for the modded firmware community. Since if they don't do something there will be FAR greater amounts of people Halo3 beta online than they ever imagined based on the Crackdown sales.

LJKelley @ Jan 25th 2007 9:27AM

I'm getting Crackdown 100% for Crackdown... Don't own Halo 2 and probably won't own Halo3...

Todd H. @ Jan 25th 2007 9:46AM

If I don't get the free beta invite, I think I'll wait. Besides, I don't want to ruin the excitement for when the game is actually released.

Todd
http://www.proxbox360.com

bounchfx @ Jan 25th 2007 9:47AM

I played the demo today thinking it would be ass.

but it's fun as hell.

wtf is wrong with you people?

Jake @ Jan 25th 2007 9:49AM

This demo was a little disappointing. I liked the special abilities and tossing large objects long distances. I liked the exaggerated physics, art style, and driving. But the combat was boring and I didn't like how there were ALWAYS gang members within shooting distance.

I had fun with it, though. It'll be a gamefly rental, but not a purchase.

Matt @ Jan 25th 2007 9:51AM

I absolutely loved the Crackdown demo. The whole superhero aspect adds a whole vertical dimension to the city that's absent in just about every other sandbox game I've played. As for the graphics, it's obviously no Gears, but the the comic book feel fits the premise well and allows for an insane draw distance.

I'll be picking up Crackdown for Crackdown. If my copy happens to have the Halo 3 beta then that's all gravy.

Ben @ Jan 25th 2007 9:55AM

I think we should look through this thinly veiled marketing strategy from M$oft and not bother buying this game. Here's a tip...if it were a good game on its own merits, they wouldn't have to include a freebie that will naturally attract 90% of Xbox 360 owners. This is made blatantly obvious by the fact that the fact that the Crackdown demo is absolutely horrible and makes it pretty clear that the overall game is not worth playing. What's the fun of an Open World game if the only thing you do is track down pre-determined individuals one after another, all while being constantly shot at from every direction?

LongshotX @ Jan 25th 2007 10:01AM

The game is pure FUN and the graphics grow on you after a while. Jumping from skyscraper to skyscraper at will was just a thing of beauty. As a matter of fact I'm going to boot the demo up and play it again. I only wish I had more time to play it. Even so, don't you just hate when it says 30 minutes left.

Darcrequiem @ Jan 25th 2007 10:07AM

I actually just downloaded the Crackdown demo to see if the game was any good. I'm not really into Halo so the beta is of little interest to me. I don't get where all this Crackdwon is crap stuff is coming from. The game was surprisingly enjoyable and I was disappointed when I saw that I only had 30 minutes left to play.

Matt @ Jan 25th 2007 10:08AM

I find it interesting that about half of the people here loved the demo and the other half thought it was absolute ass.

Just a note for the people complaining about always being shot at: The gang's aggressiveness towards you is determined by your aggressiveness towards them and represented in the upper right corner of the screen. My first play through the demo, I just ran around and got the agility upgrades and was hardly ever shot at.

Also, I've read that one of the bosses for each gang you have to take out is a recruitment officer. Once you take him out then the gang members stop re-spawning.

KYDS3K @ Jan 25th 2007 10:11AM

all i gotta say is . . . GREAT picture choice! :-)

Agent MOO @ Jan 25th 2007 10:15AM

The crackdown demo was awesome. I'm getting the game, but I don't give a flying flip about the halo 3 beta.

Steve @ Jan 25th 2007 10:25AM

"(My god what a dissapointment), I would not buy it on it's own merit. Add in the Halo 3 beta invitation (which will be getting sold on Ebay, just watch and see) I would definatly purchase it."

You do know that the game disc and the beta are married right? You can't give up one without the other. I'd say there's going to be a lot of people disappointed when they find out that selling their Beta invite isn't going to pay out.

FSK405K @ Jan 25th 2007 10:32AM

I don't know about you guys but I prefer waiting for my games to be finished before playing them; sometimes I'll wait for the first patch to come out. I had enough beta-testing fubar experiences back in my Gamestorm and early Counter-Strike (before they added voice) days.

icemorebutts @ Jan 25th 2007 10:37AM

Hey, joystiq, I sent this in yesterday, what gives!

Joseph @ Jan 25th 2007 10:58AM

whats this beta stuff you guys talk about?

dork @ Jan 25th 2007 11:32AM

cant believe my news article made it yay!

i will be buying the game regardless, this is just an added bonus, this also prevents people from ebaying the tickets

0ldb0y @ Jan 25th 2007 11:58AM

I really didn't expect such poor reception of the demo. I had little to no interest in Crackdown from the get-go, but with a dearth of new demos on XBL I didn't have much from which to choose. I gave it a shot, and have been playing it over and over again.

I'm not the least bit interested in the Halo Beta invite, and will certainly be picking up Crackdown solely for the game itself.

How is punting villians across street blocks and jumping from rooftop to rooftop not fun???

Kimosabae @ Jan 25th 2007 12:11PM

Gotta love the totally irreverant stand alone comments like "I'm getting Crackdown, but don't give a [insert hyperbolic descript of apathy here] about a Halo 3 beta"; as if that dissention generates them some kind of cool points or a respectable attribute of nonconformity.

Gamers are so woefully esoteric and nerdy. Gotta love em'.

-SynikaL
(not really)

Neoxkc @ Jan 25th 2007 12:44PM

I'm going to pre-order it today, after playing the demo. All my doubts are gone.

chimp o death @ Jan 25th 2007 1:02PM

I've palyed throught the Crackdown demo five times now, and I'm at the point where I wish I was playing the full game, since I'm having so
much fun.

The first couple of play-throughs are needed just to get familiarized with the controls/rules/etc. At this point, I was still on the fence. I liked the size and scope of the world, but felt that
the interactions weren't open world enough (ie.shoot stuff...or shoot stuff). The graphics aren't immediately impressive, but after a
while you get to appreciate the "sweet spot" of art style and game size. I haven't tried it yet, but instead of pushing graphics, the games does things like recognize when you do things like pile up
cars. If you go away and come back,they're still supposed to be there. Hmmm, I'll have to try it today.

On my final play-through yesterday. I started exploring different aspects of the game. I went
around collecting as many of the power-ups as I could, especialy agility. As I was climbing from rooftop to rooftop I noticed that I was approaching the scene of one of the demo's several boss battles. The first time I played it, I had come in guns blazing through the bottom, worked my way up through every last henchman, and then took
out the boss. Powered up, I was able to take the boss down from above and behind, and in about 30 seconds instead of a protracted battle. And
that's when it occured to me that this game really isn't a GTA clone. It's more akin to an open world Mega Man, with the platforming, shooting, and power ups, or a bit like Metroid when you're figuring
out how to get to different parts of the game world. Or like when you were a kid, if you could have had the best set of action figures in
the world, with all sorts of vehicles and acccessories.

I'm still wondering if the core gameplay will seem too simple for an extended play through, and there were a few bugs/control issues. But this game looks like a lot of fun.

And remember, the full game will play quite differently when your character doesn't power up so quickly. You'll have to use different strategies than in the demo to get ahead.

All in all, quite a bit of fun. A Halo 3 beta invite is just a sweet, sweet, bonus.

Deedubbadoo @ Jan 25th 2007 1:20PM

Or they could just simply have the beta on the disc and give you a code to activate it inside the box, once said code is used it cannot be used again. Having to generate a unique dual layer disc for each copy of a game sold is not realistic.

Anonymous @ Jan 25th 2007 3:02PM

No, you guys don't get it. The beta is downloadable from Xbox Live Marketplace, and the beta key is what allows you to download it. The beta isn't actually on the Crackdown disc.

Just felt I'd clear that up.

SquirrelPhister @ Jan 25th 2007 3:12PM

I guess this game just isn't for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoy the demo. I honestly think it has a lot to do with how you play it. the shooting aspect of this game takes some getting used to, and if you're playing it as a shooter, it's not all that innovative. but if you play it like a platformer, it's amazing. I love jumping from building to building Morpheus-style, and tossing cars into a big pile and then lighting them up with a grenade, sending cars flying hundreds of feet in the air is just so much fun.

last night I assaulted a crime bosses night club, but I didn't want to just go straight in the front gate guns blazing. so I climbed a nearby 10-story building and found a large propane tank there (for some reason). I picked it up, leaped off the side towards the bad guys, tossed the gas tank ahead of me, auto-targeted it and blew it up just as it landed in the middle of a bunch of gangsters. flaming bodies were flying around like fuckin rag-dolls on fire. I then kicked the shit out of everyone else, throwing their dead friends at them to kill them.

very satisfying. I'm already in the beta thing, but I'm buying this game anyway, no question

Maclintok @ Jan 25th 2007 4:34PM

Crackdown: you'll either love it or hate it. Excellent demo and possibly excellent full game. Too bad it's getting no respect. Perception counts for a lot, and you pack in any game with Halo 3 beta, and it'll look like the venerable shooter is giving this new, unfamiliar game a "leg up".

But it's going to work anyway. Crackdown is going to get into a lot more gamers' hands. Die-hard Halo fans are such a devoted bunch.