Okay, so right now, if you're a US or Canadian resident with an XBL account linked to a Passport account and you use Internet Explorer 6 on Windows (or can create a configuration that mimics the above) you can access www.halo3.com and begin the signup process for the beta.

Along the way, you'll be told that you have to be 18, you have to be a US resident, and if selected you have to have an Xbox Live Gold account and an Xbox 360 with the hard drive.

With all that in place, you may get as far as entering the year of your birth before you get a page that is blank except for a footer. Some users report having reached a final registration page with personal information (name, address) but at the moment, it seems tough to get to.

Some forums and news stories are reporting direct links to the registration page, but KP at Bungie.net warns that you should only access the site through the www.halo3.com domain if you want to be sure your registration goes through.

What I find most interesting about the requirements is the hard drive. Microsoft's strategy with the two-SKU system on the 360 seemed to be that not everybody needed the hard drive, so developers could not count on it. Halo 1 and 2, emulated on the Xbox, require the hard drive because the original games, on the Xbox, were designed with it in mind. Besides, backwards compatibility on the 360 also requires the hard drive.

Is the hard drive requirement here something special, as part of the beta? Or is it a hint that Halo 3 will require the premium Xbox 360 SKU, and that Core owners will have to upgrade to play?