So the beta is over and you've experienced your last corpse hump and achieved your last grenade stick. Did you think the graphics weren't up to standards? Was the Xbox Live experience dire and full of racist slurring 12 year old? 360 Style ran a 3 week beta study to gauge the community's thoughts on various subjects including graphics, hype and even the XBL experience. How did your opinion fare against the rest? Continue reading to find out.

     When the Halo 3 beta was first announced late last year the community was generally hyped for it. With 3 ways to enter Bungie did their part by making sure anyone who wanted in had the chance. The beta started strong on week 1 with 58% of users polled starting they were extremely hyped for the beta. If that isn't enough evidence that this was heavily anticipated the fact that the next highest option had more votes the the lowest three combined. However the hype seemed to ever so slightly fade by week 2 of voting, as the number of 5 votes droped from 58% to 53% and mor evoting seemed to go to the midrange 3 option. Seems those who lost the hype from week 1 to week 2 continued their hype downgrade because by week 3 the voting for 1 (the lowest score) had nearly tripled its original week 1 rating from 3% to 8%. Overall the mass majority of gamers polled were nearly as hyped towards the end of the beta as they were when it first kicke off.

Click here to see the excitement graph.

"I seemed to enjoy it more the closer we got to the deadline." - forum member BAMBAMBPT

     The Halo 3 vid doc "Quisnam Protero Damno" was unleashed to the internet and xbox live just prior to the beta and one of the first comments to brace message boards were the disappointment regarding Halo 3's graphic fidelity. First week voting regarding the issue showed that the community generally thought the graphics were good but not worthy of the high 5 ranking, however the not too distant 4 option was the highest at 48%. Gamers seemed to have a change of heart as week 2 voting shifted primarily from option 4 (28%) and option 5 (42%). As the beta came to a close it appears that the opinion had shifted again as option 4 took the high spot again at 50% with option 5 at 30%. Graphic trending otherwise stayed the same from week to week.

Click here to see the graphics graph.

"On my standard definition TV I wasnt that impressed with the visuals but after playing it one a 45 and 57 inch HD TVs I have to say, its one of the prettiest 360 games." - forum member Hotapplepie

     Often overlooked (irony) is the audio portion of the beta. The aural quality of the beta was never the subject of much debate so it really came as no surprise when week 1 came around and audio was highly rated. The top spot went to the highest option with 53% with the second highest option getting 33%, which alone got mor evotes than 3 lower options combined. When week 2 came around there was an odd drop in the stats as highest option decreased by 8%. As week 3 came around, the appreciation of the beta's audio was restored with the top spot getting 51%. The beta's audio (while limited to start screen music and sound effects) were fairly highly rated, appropiately due to both the solid gun sounds and the music of one Martin O'Donnell.

Click here to see the audio graph.

  What good are opinions on audio and video if you don't know what gamers are playing on? Thats where the A/V poll came in handy. This was more of a gauge to see generally what voters were plaing on, as we never expected to see any trends in voting. Unless HD tvs dropped 50% overnight there shouldn't really be an increase week over week, right? What we didn't factor is that our voting audience would differ week by week. Due to this we saw those with HDTV and stereo jump from 9% to 16% by week 2. In addition, those with standard definition tvs and stereo increased from 9% to 16% from week 1 to week 2. Surprisingly the mass majority of those voting have HDTV and a surround sound system which goes against virtually every retail statistic regarding market penetration for both items.

Click here to see the AV setup graph.

    Coming into the study the one item thought to be the biggest factor in voting was the Xbox Live experience. Countless stories (as well as more than a few encounters myself) about rude and vulgar Halo 2 players online. Assuming that any bad experiences during the start of the beta would be countered by the hype coming in, and that if that hype faded any bad experiences would weigh more. However this never happened, as the highest rating stayed between 43% and 45% during the entire study. The only trend change that took place was voting for option 4 and option 3. Week by week voting for option 4 dropped as option 3 gained suggesting that some gamers might have had a few bad XBL experiences.

Click here to see the excitement graph.
   
  With the other polls tallied up we turn our attention to our last poll. Excitement for the Halo 3 retail release on September 25th was non-surprisngly very high. Voting was generally the same week by week with the highest option taking the top spot week after week. In fact the highest option had more than twice the votes of every other option every week. The only major voting change was week 3 when option 4 got 0 votes while the highest option increased to 80%. The 360 community is definitely eagerly awaiting the retail release in September. 

Click here to see the retail hype graph.
   
    In conclusion the beta impressed early and maintained high rankings throughout the 3 weeks of polling. The XBL experience didn't hamper your enjoyment of the beta. The majority of our community are gaming in high definition. Both the audio and video of the beta were up to par with what you expect for Halo 3. I would like to thank all those who partcipated both in the poll and on our forums, this would not have been possible with out you.