343 Industries begins sending out invites for the biggest Halo: Reach PC test to date

It was just one week ago when we learned that Halo: Reach would be getting another round of testing on PC. At the time, we were told that the latest test phase would be going live very soon, packing in the most playable content so far. Last night, invitations for this beta test began going out to Halo Insiders, so be sure to double check your inbox and spam/junk folders over the next few days to avoid missing out. 

Invitations for this latest round of testing will be going out in waves, with the whole beta running until Tuesday November 5th. For multiplayer matchmaking modes, there is a more rigid structure in place, with the servers scheduled to go live twice per day for several hours at a time. However, participants will still be able to play offline modes while the matchmaking servers are switched off, giving you a perfect opportunity to tighten up your legendary difficulty run for the first two campaign missions.

As a reminder, participants of this week-long test will get to play the Halo: Reach ‘Noble Actual' and ‘Winter Contingency' campaign missions. Then, you can also play four player Heroic Firefight or 4-player Normal ‘grab bag' Firefight on the Beachhead, Corvette and Holdout maps.

For your PvP fix, there will be 2v2 Social, 4v4 Social, 8v8 Social, Team Hardcore and Invasion playlists available during matchmaking hours. In these playlists, you will be able to try out the following game types: Slayer, Zone Control, Flag and Bomb, Asset Denial, Action Sack, Swat, Snipers, Competitive Team Hardcore, Invasion and Capture the Flag. For PvP maps, you will get to check out Countdown, Powerhouse, Zealot, Tempest, Ridgeline and Breakpoint.

As previously mentioned, online matchmaking is limited to two scheduled play sessions each day, with each one lasting for a few hours. The first play session each day kicks off at 5PM UK time and ends at 8PM. Then the matchmaking servers will go live again at midnight in the UK before being switched off again at 4 AM. Over in the US, the schedule converts to 10 AM PT to 1 PM PT for the first online play session and 5 PM PT to 9 PM PT for the second session.

On the 5th of November, one final matchmaking play session will take place, featuring 8v8 Social PvP, Competitive Team Hardcore and Firefight: Heroic between the hours of 10 AM PT and 1 PM PT, or 5PM GMT to 8PM GMT.

KitGuru Says: Let us know if any of you end up being fortunate enough to receive an invite to the latest Halo: Reach test. Given how long this one is running for, if you don't have an invite already today, then keep an eye out closer to the weekend as the number of invites being sent out should continue to scale over the week. 

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