The fan community switched into high gear this evening as the Halo 3 CG TV Commercial aired, and digitized versions began popping up immediately.

One of the first is a very small, relatively low quality WMV version kindly provided by HYB.

Next, Xbox.com had its own streamed version, but as it doesn't play on Macs I couldn't really check it out. The last version of WMP on the Mac won't play it, the WMV player plugin for QuickTime won't play it. VLC played it, but only the audio, and MPlayer didn't even manage that.

Retsamolah put up a high quality QuickTime version at Moosiah Films, while Plasmafire put up a large MPEG.

Lord Gideon provided a higher quality WMV version as well, clocking in at a tad under 10Mb on the PraetoriaGuard site.

Funkmon linked to a version preconverted for use on portable devices at HaloPortable.com.

Mirrored here at Rampancy:

• QuickTime by Retsamolah
• WMV version by HYB
• iPod version by Funkmon
• Zune version by Funkmon
• PSP version by Funkmon

Moosiah Films also has a page with a list of mirrors including other versions as well.

TeamXbox has a Halo 3 Commercial Page that links to 640 x 360 standard definition and 1280 x 720 high definition versions, both WMV.

[image:43093 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] Halo fans will be reaching for their remote controls this evening as they get ready to watch the first television advertisement for Halo 3 tonight during Monday Night Football in the U.S.

The commercial was created by Digital Domain using some of Bungie's models for Halo 3, but unlike most promotional materials for the Halo series to date, is not actually rendered in the game's engine and is not intended to be representative of gameplay.

1Up.com obviously didn't get enough Bungie in their "three weeks of Halo 3" coverage, because now the company is getting a mention again-- this time for Marathon.

Unfortunately, it's not a flattering mention. Marathon 2 is featured in their Best Worst Ads 3 feature, on page six, which shows their ad from 1996 that compares video games to a skinner box.

The Escapist has a nice piece on how Microsoft has gone from being a puppy to a big dog in the computer and console game space, and how often that has been achieved through acquisitions. To do so, they spoke with Bruce Shelley of Ensemble Studios, best-known for their Age of Empires series of RTS games on the PC, but now working on the Halo Wars RTS for the Xbox 360; and Jordan Weisman of FASA Interactive, makers of the MechWarrior franchise, and often used as an object lesson for how to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Of most interest to Halo and Bungie fans is the advice Weisman gave Microsoft on the Bungie acquisition:

When we were involved in the Bungie acquisition. ... It was kind of eye-opening. We spent a bunch of time talking about how, if indeed we were going to go through with this acquisition, the best case was to leave them in Chicago. If that fails, we have to create an isolated situation: They're not a part of Microsoft HR; they're not in the way of that part of the org chart; they're in a totally separate, isolated room. There's that locked box that you leave them in. Because otherwise the same thing will happen to their team that happened to mine.

With the Halo franchise almost standing alone as the system-seller for the Xbox, and Halo 3 poised to do the same for the 360 next year, it seems like the same thing didn't happen to Bungie that happened to FASA.

[image:42911 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] A selection of the screenshots of Halo 3 multiplayer that have been featured in gaming magazines and embargo-breaking European websites for the past week or so are now up at Bungie.net in pretty high resolutions. Inside the main Halo 3 image gallery, Rampancy now has a Halo 3 Multiplayer screenshot gallery for them. Enjoy!

1Up's latest Halo feature is a retrospective on the Halo series. The teaser on their three weeks of Halo 3 microsite mentions the "Halo/Marathon universe" but there's nary a mention of Marathon there, and as we all know, the two universes are separate anyway. Right?

Of course, they've also got coverage of yesterday's revelations about the public beta, new Halo 2 maps, and the Halo 3 CG TV ad.