You should download the bitttorrent of the footage... it's full HD and u see the actual graphics much better.

Should be good, glad I'm one of the 13k Beta testers;)

Not bad. Would rather play it to get a better opinion of the balance of weapons.

What i don't get is in the middle when he goes where the Cloaking powerup is it's replaced by a item called 'Power Drainer'

I bet this has to do with the cloaked Spartan 2's ability that they'll hide until later this year. As far as the powerup, it probably is a mine that drains shields and cloaks of energy.

any word on an official release date?

middle of november, MP beta on may 16th

On the video it looks like they brought back the assault rifle from Halo 1. Which means I hope they bring back the magnum. I miss my clean magnum headshots. The "ATV" also looked cool, but I could see someone getting easily smoked driving that target around, especially since it has '0' head cover