Halo 3 beta to feature split-screen

Bungie’s Frank O’Connor has posted a rather gigantic update this week, revealing a host of info about the beta and shooting down many of the rumours that have been doing the rounds recently.

First comes news that the Saved Films feature, first seen in the recent documentary, will be included in the beta.

“The version you’ll try in the Beta, is very, very, very limited. We just want you to play around with the general concept. You’ll be reading more about this in the gaming press in the next month or two, and of course you can try it out for yourselves in less than a month,” said O’Connor.

Split-screen fans should also be pleased to hear that the Halo 3 beta will feature split-screen, although only for two-players at this stage.

“We’ve also done something cool with the splitscreen display for HD monitors – instead of stretching the horizontal or vertical axes into big, scary too wide or too tall horrors, we’ve sensibly windowed the action, maintaining lots of screen real estate, but preserving a proper, playable aspect ratio,” explains O’Connor.

The update then moves onto tackling a host of rumours from recent weeks. Possibly the most bizarre is that of Microsoft forcing Bungie to make Halo 3 run at 1080p and 60fps, something Bungie says is totally not true.

“1080p at 60 fps is awesome for fighting games and barely a stretch for Live Arcade games. But if you want epic battles, dozens of bad guys, huge vistas and colossal structures, with advanced AI, HDR lighting and explosive physics, then you’re not getting those at 1080p at 60fps,” writes O’Connor. ““Most people, and I mean the VAST majority of people don’t have a 1080p TV, so it would be foolish to sacrifice even a single feature for a bullet point number on the back of a box.“

The Halo 3 multiplayer beta is scheduled to begin on May 16.