Author: Louis Wu

Hmm… Alex Cross got his hands on the long-awaited OXM Holiday Preview Guide… and he was disappointed. Yes, there’s a large spread on Halo 2 – but to him, it seemed like a rehash of existing info, and there weren’t any new screenshots. (The leaked shots currently making the rounds will likely show up in…

As we mentioned yesterday, Microsoft was recently in Toronto for X04 Canada, a press-only event at which Halo 2 was present, and playable. Gamespot was there, and snuck in an interview with Peter Moore, Microsoft’s VP of marketing for Xbox International. Moore was enthusiastic across the board… but had some pretty amazing things to say…

Hawaiian Pig fixed a small typo in his recently-posted Red vs Blue Season 3 poster – and added two new styles, and a new set piece. Pictures, and explanations, can be found in this forum post.

Mintz08 decided to try the Megabattle technique (fixed camera, multiple composited shots) with Halo action figures, rather than ingame – interesting results. Plasmanator tossed in his own offering. A new creative option?

Bestmasterchief posted a link to a vid hosted by Halo Babies – bouncing warthogs off dropships. It’s 5 mb, WMP9 format. The last one’s nicely timed.

Dolbex has been playing with the Megabattle picture technique (search our news if this doesn’t mean anything to you), and has recreated a few key moments from MLG games. There are four static shots, and one panoramic. Pretty slick! (Registration – free – required to see the pics.)

So, in the novels, it’s made clear that Elites are MUCH taller than humans. How should this REALLY affect gameplay? One One Se7en takes a stab. Well, a shot. Sort of.

To the folks sending us links to the Halo 2 screenshots currently making their way around the net: these are leaked shots, not meant to be shown to the public yet. We understand that it’s really, really hard to put the genie back in the bottle… but (as has always been the case here) we’re…

Hehe – a late afternoon post by bentllama on his recently-unveiled blog points out a thread on the CGTalk forums in which a Toronto resident explained how to get into a press-only Halo 2 showing. (The event ended yesterday, so don’t bother going down now.) Goes to show… hang around in the right crowd, you…

Mhaddy, of the Junkyard, points out the second installment of their realism-in-Halo interview with a US Marine pilot. In today’s article, the interview focuses on the level Halo, and what a current-day Marine would have done in some of the situations that arise in the game. An interesting read!

Pallor found a Halo reference in Jane, a magazine aimed at ‘the twenty-to-thirty-something female generation’. In the September issue, in the Play Tech section, is a small picture of Cortana and the MC, with the caption ‘Tough-chick Cortana is calling all the shots.’ Great to see a game like Halo 2 being marketed, sort of,…

Dan Chosich ripped another copy of the second Halo 2 ad to hit print mags; it’s not new, but it’s new at this quality. If you’re interested in digital versions of the Halo 2 print ads, grab this!

Whoa. Bentllama adds his name to the (relatively small) group of Halo dev team members with public weblogs. Check out Bentllama.com for his first news post today. Thanks, evilSnip3r.

Microsoft has released the final box art for the European edition of Halo 2 – and I gotta say, it’s pretty nice. You can see pictures of it over at TeamXbox (including a hi-res, 1314×1866 version). Thanks, Carlo.

Merecatfish, of CustomEdition.org, has interviewed Zaskoda, the new Community Manager at Gearbox Software. Zaskoda believes that due to disorganization in the community, and the gearing up for Halo 2, that fewer and fewer people will play Halo Custom Edition, and that it’s unlikely that Gearbox will issue new patches for the game. This is really…

ON-X made a panoramic shot of Autumn Slay, a relatively new map by akmassassin. Nice views! If you want the map itself, you can see pictures of it at Halomods, or download it from Halo World.

scottisonfire pointed out a thread at halomods containing a useless but entertaining trick – a couple of guys lined up 50 hogs in a row, and fired a rocket through the window gaps of all 50. The rocket was slowed down enough that an obvserver, riding along on a ghost, could follow it. The biggest…

Mondo J. Gecko points out some DeviantArt he created – an extreme makeover for One One Se7en’s MC. I think Cortana might take him a bit more seriously…

There’s a little less than two weeks remaining in High Impact Halo’s Three Towers contest – be the one with the most stuff on top of the beam towers, and win cool schwag! Go reaquaint yourself with the rules, make sure you understand the point system, and get your entry in before September 1!

It’s interesting, sometimes, to look at the differences in gaming markets around the world. In the west, almost every ‘Most Wanted’ list of upcoming games has Halo 2 at the very top – first or second position. North America, Europe, Australia… they’re all waiting for this shooter with barely contained excitement. In Japan, however, it’s…