Monday Night Football posts (Subscribe to this feed)

As Bungie announced in the lame strategically timed early-morning web update, Master Chief will appear in a Halo 3 commercial during tonight's Monday Night Football. Today also signals the registration frenzy to try to score a slot in the Halo 3 public beta (a.k.a Pimps at Sea); check the Halo 3 site for details. (The site wasn't yet updated when this post went live, but we expect a "many will enter, few will win" scenario.)

The 60-second commercial will air on ESPN sometime between 5:50 and 6:20PM PST in North America. The rest of the world can download the commercial at Xbox.com beginning at 9:00PM PST (04.00 GMT). The ad is a mix of live and computer-animated footage, but it won't include any in-game shots. Only North American gamers are currently eligible for the Halo 3 beta. [Update: Direct from Bungie: "Don't panic. The Halo 3 Beta will be available in the US, Europe and elsewhere in the world." Thanks, Matt and azesino!]

Over at Bungie.net, Frankie has posted a fact filled Weekly Update, and does a nice recap of whats been happening lately on the Halo 3 front. Frankie confirms some details about the special Halo 3 commercial that is going to be airing Monday, that there will be a FREE Halo 3 theme released Monday, and also that they've been testing "Pimps at Sea" at its alpha stage. Also, about midway down the page Frankie lists some facts about the commercial and drops a little hint that the it is "packed full of clues and stuff". Wha? Clues and stuff ... I can guarantee that there will be 4,000+ articles picking apart this commercial frame by frame come Tuesday morning. Be quick, head over to Bungie.net, fill your brain with knowledge, and wait patiently for manic Monday to come.

Update 1: It looks like the Halo 3 theme I mentioned may not be free after all and may not arrive Monday. Hey, it was wishful thinking wasn't it?

We've been flooded with Halo 3 news recently and so we'll make it a personal mission to continue the bombardment. As you know, we have our calendars marked for December 4th already , because that night on Monday Night Football we're going to get to see the premier of the Halo 3 one minute commercial. There already seems to be a hype machine churning for what is essentially just a commercial ... but a commercial everyone is frothing from the mouth to see.

So, let's recap the facts. We know that Bungie didn't create the commercial in-house, that the commercial will use actual 3D models from the game, that it is 100% CG (no actual Halo 3 footage for you!), that it will only be shown once on TV, but will be available on Xbox.com and Xbox Live, and that nobody really knows exactly what to expect. With that knowledge, time for some speculation. I'm thinking the commercial is probably going to showcase the prettiness of the Halo universe and give us a glimpse into the storyline that Halo 3 is going to be based upon. Maybe we'll see some new weapons, new vehicles or some new covenant, but no new announcements. We at Xbox 360 Fanboy are going to be hard to displease, because we'll accept any Halo 3 footage, but what about you guys? Are you expecting some really juicy stuff, secrets revealed, or the start of a new ilovebees ARG? Or are you just happy to get to see some CG Halo 3 and all that jazz? Please discussify.

Let's see, he's got the crouched position down pat, and that armor could probably withstand a direct hit from Joey Porter or Richard Seymour. Heck, even the guy's name is synonymous with the sport (in Kansas City, anyway). But is Master Chief -- cue Hank Williams, Jr. -- really ready for some football?!!

Bungie seems to think so, which is why they've released this image from a new Halo 3 commercial that will appear during ESPN's next Monday Night Football broadcast. The ad was produced by visual effects studio Digital Domain using Halo assets, so don't expect to see any in-game footage. Still, it looks pretty sweet, and it just might make sitting through Tony Kornheiser more bearable (note to ESPN: first TV timeout, please).

Click for big, big version

So we weren't duped after all. Bungie finally posted (right on time at 2AM Pacific) that there's a slew of new Halo things on the way.

Biggest of all -- new multiplayer maps for Halo 2. For the longest time, whenever someone would ask Bungie if there would ever be any more multiplayer maps for Halo 2, they'd say, "Well, we're kind of working on something called Halo 3. Maybe later." It looks like that later is now, or at least next Spring. They didn't say how many maps would be coming out, or how much they'd cost ... just that you'd need an Xbox 360 to play 'em (for now).

They also announced that they'll be running a Halo 3 commercial during Monday Night Football on December 4th. The game won't feature any in-game footage, but is being created from scratch by Digital Domain. It'll be all-CGI using Bungie's models and and assets, and will feature new music from Marty O'Donnell. After the commercial airs on TV, it'll be available in the XBL marketplace along with the next installment of Bungie's "making of" Halo 3 documentary. Having a Halo 3 commercial air during MNF is pretty sweet, but what's this about no gameplay footage? Here's to hoping it doesn't suck.

Bungie will also be holding a public beta for the game sometime in the Spring, so you can imagine the forums will start filling up right away with people begging for that chance. There are few details about the beta, so we're glad we didn't wait up for only this.

They also posted the above screenshot, which they claim is from actually from in the game itself. It looks slick, but it also doesn't hold any real surprises.

With all that, we're off to bed. We could have waited on this stuff until like ... January, Bungie. Maybe a slow news day in the middle of the month? Not freakin' 2AM on a Wednesday morning the week that two consoles are coming out. Didja think this news would derail either of 'em? WELL? We want our sleep back.