Following a rough morning packed with refreshing the Crackdown downloads screen in the hopes that somehow, that little Halo 3 beta selection would suddenly become active, the Halo 3 beta is finally available to Crackdown owners. Maddening though the wait may have been, we're excited that the floodgates have been opened -- and not a moment too soon, as tonight's 'Spy-Hunter couldn't happen without our dear readers gaining access to the Halo 3 beta.


Earlier today, the word from Larry Hryb, Xbox Live Director of Programming (aka Major Nelson), was that both Microsoft and Bungie were working to solve the issue preventing the beta's release. Thankfully, the efforts of both companies have proved fruitful, though Hryb's site experienced so much traffic in the interim that it was replaced with the rough HTML message in the image above.

So, with the wait finally at an end, you'll have to forgive us for seeming a little distracted because our download status bar is nearly full and we have to keep looking away from our computer to check and see if the beta is ready. Oops, it just finished... Forget writing, there's Halo 3 to play!