Halo 3 Starry Night commercial

by James Ransom-Wiley { Dec 4th 2006 at 10:25PM }

Not a Monday Night Football fan? We got you covered. Here's the Halo 3 'Starry Night' commercial.

It doesn't pack the emo-punch of the Gears of War "Mad World" ad, but Starry Night seems to reveal one of Master Chief's childhood memories, suggesting there's a trace of boyish innocence trapped inside the otherwise stoic soldier. There's also a glimpse at what we assume to be the MA5B Assault Rifle, along with a new force field 'nade.

We must reiterate that this commercial was created from scratch by Digital Domain. It does use Bungie's Halo 3 models and assets, but does not reflect the actual game. Let the speculation commence ...

[Go Eagles!]

YouTube version:

Tags: ad, Bungie, commercial, Halo 3, Halo3, Starry Night, StarryNight, TV, Xbox 360, Xbox360

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

m4ndo @ Dec 4th 2006 10:32PM

short but sweet

Cody @ Dec 4th 2006 10:34PM

Damn, does anyone remember that video of those kids completely freaking when they got an N64 for christmas?
Well i just saw it (also on MNF) for a BMW commercial, it was quite suprising.

K-Dawg @ Dec 4th 2006 10:33PM

Compared to most game commercials, that got me pumped and excited for the game.

Jake11 @ Dec 4th 2006 10:36PM

AWESOME

Mike Berglund @ Dec 4th 2006 10:36PM

In response to go Eagles, I say Go Banana compliments of Ralph Wiggum

Rami @ Dec 4th 2006 10:37PM

Definitely hot...

MisterY @ Dec 4th 2006 10:40PM

hmm, maybe the shield is what the new X function is? Who knows? :P
Did anyone else catch the Brute in the middle with the Gravity Hammer?

@ #3 -- Hooray for the N64 Kid! "Oh my god! Nintendo Sixty-Four!!"

Free Wii @ Dec 4th 2006 10:42PM

Farking sexy. I wish the beta signup wasn't so ridiculously slow

n42 @ Dec 4th 2006 10:42PM

*Splooge*

paul Benjamin @ Dec 4th 2006 10:41PM

well i came to conclusion that master chief is white if that is him rminicing of his past

robby1051 @ Dec 4th 2006 11:26PM

I was hoping for a little gameplay, at least a shot for a second...
silly me

AJ @ Dec 5th 2006 4:46PM

Was that CG? That looked really good if it was. It's a shame the graphics won't be that good. Halo 5 on Xbox 3(or 720) will though.

SickNic @ Dec 4th 2006 11:56PM

With all these slow leaks of information from bungie and magazines, we are going to be hyped out by the time this game comes out. I say just be quiet with your secrets, bungie. Start hyping your game a couple months before it's released. I'd say bungie is trying to control the hype so there isn't a repeat of what happened with Halo 2. But at the same time, their tibits and info have pretty much ben 'meh' up until now.

Maybe I am just purposefully trying to avoid the hype. I want to be blown away when this game comes out, with no real expectations of what to expect...

Milkshake @ Dec 4th 2006 11:05PM

Its got me rushing, Halo 3 is gonna be MAD

automatic @ Dec 4th 2006 10:48PM

What does signing up for the beta guarantee? Nothing? Anything? Is it a lottery system?

SirGecko @ Dec 5th 2006 5:45AM

I don't even like Halo and that commercial made me want to go out and buy a 360 so I could play Halo 3.

dayeight @ Dec 5th 2006 12:26AM

gametrailers has it up HDddy

heavyarms2050 @ Dec 4th 2006 10:56PM

I think the nade is what generated the shield

Wolfe_boy @ Dec 5th 2006 12:56PM

One word.

Badass.

Malcolmxspeaks @ Dec 4th 2006 11:35PM

I liked the commercial alot. Yeah I think those might be brutes…. Did everyone notice the guy in the middle having a sledge hammer???? The grenade probably wouldn’t be useful in multiplayer but maybe during the actual game it might help if your on foot…. Like in the commercial. I hope its not as useless as the brute shot haha. However I find it funny how everyone thinks this marketing tactic is soooooo cool- compared to when sony used "assets" in a cg commercial or presentation and how everyone felt scammed and “lied” to. Not to mention - than went on rants about how sony should die and and so on. Can’t we all just play all of our systems and be happy for good games in general? Anyway I have an xbox, havent gotten an xbox 360 yet but I might when Halo comes out.

Kestrel @ Dec 4th 2006 11:01PM

Halo sucks. Real men play BF1942.

Jironimo @ Dec 5th 2006 1:01AM

Bungie has already confirmed that the new Assault Rifle in Halo 3 is NOT the MA5B. According to 1up the new AR is called the MA5C:

"Only one of those three characteristics of the MA5B remain: it's still fully automatic.

With the MA5C Assault Rifle, the clip-size has been drastically reduced from 60 to 32, and as a trade-off, the weapon's accuracy at long-range has been increased. Why the revisions to the Assault Rifle? Well, the starting weapon in Halo 2 -- the SMG -- didn't exactly work out how Bungie wanted it to. Jamie Griesemer, lead designer on Halo 3 (you know, that "30-seconds of fun" guy), points to the two previous starting weapons and their problems. "It shouldn't do headshots... and it shouldn't be dual wieldable," according to Griesemer. The new MA5C Assault Rifle allows neither."

Spartacus @ Dec 4th 2006 11:08PM

When I first watched it, I thought to myself, "I thought this was supposed to be a minute long! What the h-e-double hockey sticks?!" Now, after seeing the counter on the Youtube version I realized the truth... It was just that good...

Seriously, I don't think such a short clip (of CG nonetheless) has gotten me so excited for a video game in my life. This teaser was marvelously done and alludes to some awesome new content we may see in the future. I'm looking forward to further disection of this trailer as well as the forthcoming tide of info from Bungie as D-Day draws nearer. For the studio who did the clip- Props. It was the shortest minute of my gaming life.

Bryan @ Dec 4th 2006 11:09PM

I know a bunch of people were thinking the X button might be the sprint feature that had been talked about for Halo 2, and he sure was running fast in that....

...just saying.

Matt @ Dec 4th 2006 11:09PM

@13

BF1942 sucks, real men play Hello Kitty Island Adventures

azesino @ Dec 4th 2006 11:17PM

I never really been in to halo that much but I must admit, There is not , and I repeat there is not a game that is as anticipated as this game and just that have anybody juices flowing even if you do not know anything of the game, Metal Gear 4, Final Fantasy and GT4 all fall short compared to the hype this game is generating and its not even reasing a year from now, its amazion

tyler @ Dec 9th 2006 9:34AM

yeah, I too think the x button is for sprint.

But, what if the x button was a switch to 3rd person-over-the-shoulder?

Kestrel @ Dec 4th 2006 11:15PM

@17

Wanna join my Catz 6 clan?

Tim @ Mar 28th 2007 4:22PM

"*Splooge*"

haha real classy. That advertiser should be paid handsomely if it can ilicit such a response from fans. I'm hesitant to buy any 360 new games cause they offcially look like crap compared to the new (percieved) halo 3.

Andrew @ Dec 5th 2006 7:00PM

Anyone else notice, he has a magnum pistol? After the forcefieldness?
its too short to be the 1st halo pistol.

makesevenupyours @ Dec 4th 2006 11:46PM

plz dont refer to the "mad world" trailer as emo.

diskoboy @ Dec 4th 2006 11:25PM

I actually have to give credit to MS for one thing.

When they hype a game to hell, it pays off 99% of the time.

Brute Force being the exception.

Maybe another commercial for the Super Bowl, now... :)

Kyle @ Dec 4th 2006 11:26PM

This is a great throwback to the books. (which were so well written it is that much more of an insult halo 2 had no plot.)

tracked @ Dec 5th 2006 12:08AM

Nice. I have only played Halo on PC. I'm looking forward to getting 360 just to play Halo 2 and this game.
btw can anyone tell me what the music was? The music at the end. The churchy music.

Docc Occ @ Dec 4th 2006 11:28PM

This takes me back to the first book too. Real Halo fans out there know what I'm talking about.

monkeypup @ Dec 5th 2006 8:50PM

That was awesome. Why the heck can't they just make a CGI Halo movie like that and to hell with the live action one that will never get off the ground?

blu3steel @ Dec 4th 2006 11:31PM

Wow, I have never liked any of the halo games. But watching Master Chief run at those guys makes me actually like the character more. I think I might actually enjoy this one.

I know it's not in game footage, but on a philosophical level I think my respect for Master Chief has gone up a few notches.

Daniel @ Dec 4th 2006 11:41PM

I swear I'm not a troll folks, but I saw all this much hype and 'splooging' before Halo 2, and I thought that was a monumental letdown (single player mostly).

The hype doesn't always pay off for MS. Often, yes (Gears of War FTW), but I'm just sayin', I wish there wasn't so much hype for a game, especially after a short CG commercial that apparently has nothing to do with the actual story.

I mean, Resident Evil 4 is by far my favourite game of all-time, and when I saw that short video last year for Resident Evil 5, I barely batted an eyelash.

Show me real gameplay, or show me nothing!!

dong @ Dec 4th 2006 11:44PM

That gets me excited!!

One thing though... Master Chief is stupid to jump into the enemies like that. That is 99% suicide, unless he has a rocket or sword.

Jonah Falcon @ Dec 5th 2006 12:09AM

The video is available in HD on Xbox Live Marketplace now.

Spartacus @ Dec 4th 2006 11:55PM

Malcolmxspeaks:

The difference is Bungie has gone on record clearly stating that the CG is exactly that, while Sony uses CG and goes on record claiming it's actual gameplay footage. Using CG to promote games has been done over and over- no one is complaining about that. They're pissed at Sony and their shenanigans for lying to the public trying to look superior to their competitors. Go to Bungie's website and you'll find that not once do they try to mislead anyone about the content of this commercial.

azesino:
Heck yes! I mean, Halo titles so far have averaged over 7 million copies sold (14.7 million total worldwide sales)... Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, heck even Mario can't claim that. Halo is the most successful franchise in the US based on their titles/sales ratio.

No, I didn't pull that statistic out of my anus:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/02/28/mario-madden-gta-dominate-gaming-franchises/

Note: Halo had only sold around 10 million copies at the time this chart was posted. 14.7 was the newest figure I could find.

Anticrawl @ Dec 4th 2006 11:57PM

It does somewhat resemble a brute but it is much thinner, and the beasts around him aren't using any weapon, and if they are it's like some kinda samus aran arm cannon/knife thing and it looks like they are wearing mid evil armor. Also they look like bears standing up like a human. Weird as hell.

You see that 4-wheeler looking mini-warthog? Looks like fun, blew up right after the cheif used that shield generator.

Anticrawl

john @ Dec 5th 2006 12:14AM

Neat stuff, that would be cool if they incorporated flashbacks of his life into the story, a la Lost.

nick @ Dec 4th 2006 11:58PM

The grenade/force field/explosion was pretty cool, then when he jumps into the thick of action, I felt myself wanting more.

Way cool commerical.

Dave @ Dec 5th 2006 12:00AM

"However I find it funny how everyone thinks this marketing tactic is soooooo cool- compared to when sony used "assets" in a cg commercial or presentation and how everyone felt scammed and “lied” to. Not to mention - than went on rants about how sony should die and and so on. Can’t we all just play all of our systems and be happy for good games in general? Anyway I have an xbox, havent gotten an xbox 360 yet but I might when Halo comes out."

The difference - Bungie has been clear from the start that this is entirely pre-rendered, non-gameplay video. Sony tried to pass off all of that E3 2005 pre-rendered video as gameplay footage. Huge, huge difference.

sxates @ Dec 5th 2006 9:12AM

"However I find it funny how everyone thinks this marketing tactic is soooooo cool- compared to when sony used "assets" in a cg commercial or presentation and how everyone felt scammed and “lied” to. Not to mention - than went on rants about how sony should die and and so on."

I think the difference is that this commercial isn't pretending to be actual game play, its just cinematical. The "render targets" Sony showed off were supposed to be indicative of actual gameplay, which they obviously weren't. That's why it was taken as deceptive, while this H3 scene is not.

Kyle @ Dec 5th 2006 12:05AM

This is definitely more of a fan inspired video (they pay direct homage to the books) and isn't really to show off any of the game. It's there for long time fans who'll actually get some of the indirect references.

Sorry Fanboys no fuel for the flames here