Halo Reach beta starts Monday

THE MUCH ANTICIPATED Halo Reach multiplayer beta starts on Monday, and if that wasn't a bank holiday we'd imagine that more than a few Xbox 360 owners would be booking the day off.

The Reach beta was a pretty good reason for buying Bungie's last release in the Halo Universe, Halo ODST. ODST was frankly pretty disappointing, but it did guarantee owners access to the beta of Reach when it was released. And now, that time has come.

Bungie has been eeking out information about the game for a good few months now, and players are looking forward to new vehicles, new guns, and some old guns, fresh maps, and, and, the ability to jump around on some sort of jetpack.

For once on a Monday, and a bank holiday one at that, we'll be setting our alarms early, as Bungie warns, "The download process may be subject to extended wait times. Server load is expected to be extremely high, especially during the first few hours and days of Beta availability. Please bear with us and stay tuned to Bungie.net for news and information."

The beta ends on the 19th May, so it might be worth booking the whole two weeks off in advance. Maybe we'll see how Monday goes first though. µ