Rumours abound that secret Halo 3 ‘Epsilon ’testing is currently underway on Xbox Live.

While Microsoft is remaining quiet on the issue, there are numerous reports of Xbox Live players being spotted playing something called ‘Halo 3 Epsilon’ on the service.

A copy of an e-mail allegedly sent to players who have been invited onto this, the second test for the hotly-anticipated 360 game, confirms the rumours.

It congratulates the (anonymous) recipient on having been selected to participate in the Halo 3 Epsilon test and informs that the player will be able to play “nearly final Halo 3 matchmaking” across six maps (cited as Snowbound, High Ground, Valhalla, Last Resort, Epitaph and Sandtrap) as well as enjoying a slew of other exciting features.

Allegedly participants on the test are able to play Custom Games, test out full game variant editing, play with the Forge and be able to cooperatively edit and save multiplayer map variants, play up to 4 person co-op on a single Campaign level as well as, testing the full Saved Film functionality.

It looks as though this new test is only available for a select few although, with the game arriving in a little over a month, it won’t be long before everybody has chance to explore all of these features and more.