With the three days to get in your three hours of Halo 2 on Xbox Live play on an Xbox 360 in already passed, and web registration-- apparently-- about to open, Halo 2 players are poised over their keyboards to attempt to become one of the 13,333 lucky entrants into Phase Two of the selection process for Bungie's Halo 3 multiplayer beta.

"February 5" is the only clue anyone has to when this registration will begin, and spots are sure to go fast. There's no note of what timezone it is supposed to be, but smart money bets it can't be earlier than 12 midnight EST, which is less than half an hour away, so warm up your keyboards, ladies and gentlemen.

The first 13,333 qualified registrants at www.halo3.com today will get email confirmations of their beta invites sometime in February.

While you're waiting to register, if you're wondering if you met the three hour requirement but don't want to do all the math yourself, check this site:

http://rossonline.us/halo3beta.php

You enter your gamertag, and it will total up all the games you've played and give you a final figure for how much game time you accrued during the three days, so you'll know in advance if you qualify. Obviously, there's no guarantee the number is right, but it looks okay to me. Thanks to Raiden in #hbo who pointed it out.

UPDATE: Now just passing midnight EST, no one has yet confirmed that registration has actually begun.