I've been a beta tester for the PS2 ever since the PlayStation Underground [link] started brokering testers for games. Used to be that it was black voodoo magic to get on a beta test (or at least it was for me). Now you just need to say you're interested in doing it. Pretty nice.

I was reviewing these things, trying to put my thoughts on each game in order and down on paper, as it were, someplace so that maybe someone somewhere who cares about these things would see them and say "hey, that's not bad thinking". But after doing five of these things, there are some truths that apply to all PS2 beta tests:

1. It's beta software. It sucks. It is in no way, shape, form, or function what the developer will be pushing out the door when they are doing it for real.
2. 60% of the people testing will complain that the game sucks and that "it'll be a cold day in hell before they buy the real game if this is what it's going to be like".
3. 30% of the people testing will spend 95% of their time convincing the 60% that think the games sucks that Truth #1 applies.
4. The remaining 10% will do the actual testing, of which about 5% will simply adore the game and find no faults with it.
5. Oh, and only 1-3% of the discs shipped will actually ever log on. So if you're planning for 3,000 testers, expect no more than 125 at any given time. In reality, only about 20-30 testers will actually log in more than once.

Having written software and knowing what it's like from the "other side", I usually fell into the 10% that actually tested the game, only occasionally delving into the pointless bickering of trying to get the masses to understand that this isn't meant to be a rosey perfect experience. If it were, it wouldn't be called a beta.

That being said, my comments here are purely comments on how the beta went. Was the beta executed well or was it a train wreck from the start. And, of course, they are simply my opinions. They are definitely biased and most likely wrong.

Order is most recent first.

Yes, this was the one beta everyone wanted in on. After Polyphony cocked-blocked us with pulling online play from the retail version of GT4 (which took a lot from a game that didn't shine as much as its predecessor, if you ask me), seeing the beta invite for this one made me do a little dance in my office. The co-workers were a bit nervous.

A very well run beta. By far the best to date as I actually played against a developer more than once... and on more than one occasion. Bastard was wicked good, but still it was nice to be trading paint with someone who's probably watching the logfile being produced by my car's data while simultaneously waxing the race course with my slow ass. As with all betas, Polyphony expected a lot more people to participate than what actually did. 3000+ discs and the highest I ever saw the server was at 110. And that was when they were having "show up an win a prize" contests. Yes, they really did have two nights where if you simply showed up and raced, you could be randomly chosen to win some cool-assed GT4 swag. A ridiculously nice touch that was neither necessary or expected.

The disc they gave out was a full version of GT4 that gave you $110,000,000 in starting cash and over 700 cars unlocked in the offline game... but you couldn't use your previous saved data. Bummer, but for 110 million, it might be worth starting over for. Getting online was simple (others reported having extreme difficulty with ports and whatnot) and finding a race was seldom hard, although some nights when there were only 5 people online, it kinda sucked. And in short order did all the races become "1st place picks car, 2nd place picks track" which was supposed to even the playing field, everyone having the same car, but it didn't. It made it boring. Better were the races by same class... but even then, it took a while to figure out what car was worthy and what was simply a lemon.

But all-in-all, I have to say the guys at Polyphony were really on top of things and ran a good beta. It's just too bad we'll never see GT4 online retail. The dev let slip that this was most likely "testing for a future PS3 title's online framework". Damn... cock-blocked again!

Edit: 10.07.2006
I actually was chosen to be one of the Big Winners of Polyphony Swag. I won a 1:18 scale model Dodge Viper GTS R. Again, so very cool but so completely unnecessary. Playing the game online was payment enough. Thank you very much, random name picker program at Polyphony that chose my name!

Unfortunately, I'm writing this review many many moons after the beta ended. (Battlefield: Modern Combat II has been in stores for months now... and this is that game's predecessor. Ooops) What I remember of it mostly was that I was a lot of fun to be a part of. A well-run beta, lots of people actually playing, not a lot of crashes or devastating bugs. I do recall that towards the end that "clan infestation" finally took over and it was no longer fun to play as just some Joe Schmoe with an AK-47.

This beta was pretty... eh. Eidos, a British developer, had a lot of problems getting the disc across the pond, apparently. The beta's start was delayed over two weeks from its original start time because the discs simply never showed up. And when they did, testers who were already pissed were greeted by a disc that had more of a demo than a beta on it. A single playable track, a horrible on-screen keyboard (that you were forced to use again and again because the beta didn't remember your username, password, and email address), very poorly implemented in-game menus, and rampant DREs (ala Socom II) hampered the overall test. I tried to play with other players, but it never seemed to work. And the game overall looked to be a rushed alpha version, crashing a lot and missing several key features. It was pretty obvious that Eidos didn't want to test the game for bugs/playability, they only wanted to test their GameSpy login process and DNAS authetication. The game presented was simply something to fill the requirement of "beta testing a GAME". Which, don't get me wrong, is perfectly ok for them to do. I just wish some developers would submit a list of goals and objectives they'd like tested when they give us the game. It would make this process sooooo much easier.

Wow. The definition of how to run a beta. The developer Insomniac was involved from giving feedback to our feedback to participating in forum discussions to actually announcing their involvement in playing actual games! Holy crap! Hell, they even put a lot of effort into the manual that was shipped with the disc. The image to the right was on the back cover. No one ever imagined that a developer would or could go to these lengths, but Insomniac did. And it made testing their game a pure joy. I actually took some time to get reasonably proficient at it. Overall, it's going to be nearly impossible to beat this beta for its execution, goals, and outcome. I sincerely believe that Insomniac wanted our opinions and made changes in their game based on them. The only fault I had with the beta was that it, like Socom II, got "clan-ish" in the end. There were a lot of password protected games that only a select few were privileged to get into. I was sorry to see this beta end, but I know I'll be first in line to signup for the next Insomniac-driven beta test.

Again, this beta was better than its predecessors. No clans meant everyone was playing the game and not rivalries. A lot more conversation on the message boards. And it seemed there were a lot of people playing. The beta did have some drawbacks. The game itself was s-l-o-w... load times about drove you nuts. No headset compatibility left a lot of people pissed off (even though they didn't seem to acknowledge that it added to the "run for your life with three complete strangers" atmosphere. After about a week, the amount of people you got to play with tapered off, but I genuinely enjoyed playing this game. I was glad I was a part of this one.

This beta was better. Message boards, community conversations, notes from Zipper (once in a while)... it made for a much better experience than the EQOA beta. But it eventually degraded into "clan wars", with everyone who was a big Socom I player taking over all the matches and playing the games like they were the real thing. Beta testing for glitches was impossible, even when you said "Hey, I'm trying to find glitches, leave me alone". In the end, I couldn't even keep up with some of the players... missions were over in 30-40 seconds as people had memorized the best routes/actions and me bumbling around trying to figure out what to do. A better beta, for sure, but I wish the experts would have taken it a bit less seriously (they were setting up clan-only games just days into it).

I came in late on this one and it was my first, so I didn't quite know what to expect. I had to download 4Mb of updates right from the start and it still took hours to get connected. Plus, I think the beta process from Sony was also in beta: there were no message boards, no clear instructions on what to test, nor a good way to report problems if there were any. Overall, it was pretty crappy.