PS3 Betas Everywhere

[jman8]

I thought Betas were more for stress testing servers and other "behind the scenes" type stuff rather than improving upon obvious core elements of a game.  But yeah I'm with you guys. All this Beta talk is getting ridiculous. Halo 3 is the biggest culprit. I've never seen so much hype for a game that has been perpetuated by the company developing the game. Nintendo's got it right; show as little as possible and execute the delivery as flawlessly as possible. At this point MS doesn't stand a chance of meeting the expectations for Halo 3. From the screenshots and the early reports, the game sounds like more of the same. Throw in the fact that the competition has stepped up their game since Halo 2 with games like Ghost Recon, Gears of War, and Resistance, I have a hard time believing Halo 3's gonna be an ascendant experience. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter. It'll sell 3 million+ copies and sell extra 360s, which is all that really matters to the suits. My prediction is that this is the peak of Halo-mania. 

What'll be interesting to see unfold is the "next big thing." Every generation or two has those one or two games that define it. Last gen was Halo + GTA, which carried over into this gen. The PS1 gen was all about the RPG, FF in particular, which carried over into the last generation. My guess for this gen would be Wii Sports, or the Wii controller in general.