No Gold, no problem: Reach beta opening to Silver users on May 14

Is your love for Halo surpassed only by your bitter hatred for subscrption fees?

Then we've got some good news for you.

Honestly, though, it's probably bad news for us. After all, if you're reading this, you're probably an Xbox Live Silver user. If you're at the top of Microsoft's food chain, however, you're almost certainly playing Reach right now. Which means you're not reading our site. Come May 14 at 9 AM PDT, then, our readership will be composed almost entirely of tumbleweeds and cricket sounds.

Luckily for us - not so much for you - Silver users will only get a sliver of play time, with the beta's doors swinging shut on May 17. Gold users, meanwhile, have until May 19 to enjoy their free demo rigorously test the game.

Also, for those of you who don't have a Reach beta key for whatever reason, Halo 3 and Halo ODST will also be opening up their online modes to all comers.

So yeah. Go have yourself a good time. We'll be asleep on the couch when you get back. Because, you know, doing things other than sobbing our eyes out for 72 straight hours really tuckers us out.

Thanks, Shacknews.