With roughly 99.9% of the game complete, the game is looking to reach Gold stage very soon. Halo 3's Closed beta, given the nickname Epsilon, went live a few days ago, and is only for a limited audience. Those that can't play it however, can bask in the glory of knowing what was included in the Beta (or be Jealous, that someone they know can play the following).

1. The Forge:
   Halo 3’s Forge is a mode that allows for both play and design to co-exist and cooperate. A multiplayer focused tool, Forge will allow players to customize multiplayer maps, changing and resetting spawn points, weapon spawns, weapon timers, vehicle spawns and timers, vehicle spawn points, and add existing geometry to the map’s existing structure in the form of crates, boxes, fusion coils, lifts, teleporters and more. The amount of items you can drop is regulated by an economy budget system, with different items having different values and each map having an overall Budget that the items you place cannot exceed. By deleting existing things off of a given map, you can actually place more things. Players can modify and create their versions of maps, save them and share them with their friends, but that’s only half or so of what Forge allows.
   
   In addition to functioning as creation-driven tool, Forge is also a playspace. Up to eight players can be on a given map at a time, shifting back and forth between their chosen multiplayer model and the Forge model – a Monitor. Players can play actual games in Forge, goof around, kill each other, play Slayer where each team designates a Monitor to supply weapons, vehicles, equipment and cover on the fly.
2. The three beta maps plus Last Resort and Sandtrap
3. A lone mission from Halo 3’s Campaign, Tsavo Highway
   Beginning in a subterranean labyrinth somewhere in Africa, the Master Chief and a squad of marines need to rendezvous at the semi-nearby city of Voi. Just how long that trip will take depends on if you’re going to cross this sun-scorched African savannah, dotted with massive remains of the destroyed space elevator, Covenant outposts and Covenant checkpoints is up to you – you can go by foot, or perhaps more appropriately by Warthog.

Along with all this five of the 8 screenshots that were released have been attached below. Be sure to check out the others from the source.