Walshicus was the first to first notice an interview with Shane Kim (MGS general manager) over on Next Generation. Amongst other things, he speaks about the release date of Halo 3, basically reiterating the “It’ll be ready when it’s ready” mantra we’re all so familiar with. Narcogen also picked this up on Rampancy.net and commented on the situation Microsoft and Bungie seem to be in. As always, you know where we stand on such issues.

Narcogen has gone ahead and posted another in his series of impressions of Halo 2, this time dishing out Uprising. This time he goes into the story more than anything else, making some solid points.

One One Se7en has a little trouble with cause and effect in today’s comic. If Stuntmutt was referring to himself, then he either forgot all the bottles lying around, or that’s the strangest pub I’ve seen.

Dedicated newshound 3Suns noticed an article on game balancing over on MLGPro. Halo and Halo 2 are both mentioned, so you might want to go give it a look-see, then come back and argue strenuously about the old pistol or matchmaking or whatever you get the most fired up about. Or not! Maybe just read it and think, “Hmmm, interesting,” because it is a good read.

There’s an article up at Bungie.Net showing off a few of the more popular items available over at the Bungie Store. It’s all stuff that been there for at least a little while, but Alta’s showing off some upcoming hoodies, so it’s worth checking out. The prized forum “FIRST” award goes to none other than Frankie himself! Way to go, Frankie!

Vic De Leon writes about an upcoming tourney at Versus in New York City, on March 11. 2v2, Halo 2, max 16 teams, $400 for the number one finisher. More rules can be found at Halo2Tournaments.com.

Wow. Someone built a needler – and is selling the crystals for it on eBay. Pretty cool-looking! Thanks to BARBARIC RAGE, who pointed out the listing on eBay.co.uk – but it’s on the US version, as well. Currently at about $60, with a day and a half left in the auction.

Heh – you need an account at Red vs Blue to read this… but it’s worth it. Burnie wrote up a journal entry showing off one of the tricks they’ve figured out recently; it turns off dynamic shadows in Halo 2 multiplayer – or adds them, selectively, to characters not affected. He’s offered a reward (unspecified) for anyone who figures out how they did it. (I warn you now; there are over 300 comments in the thread, and most of them will numb your brain; figuring out what’s already been suggested is non-trivial.) The pictures are really cool (there are more spread throughout the comments section, as Burnie has added new examples), and there’s a short video showing the effect in the green room on Lockout. (Be aware that you are not seeing an unbroken stream of action there; the video was edited to show before and after, but the ‘during’ is gone.) Cool stuff! Update: Burnie created a new journal entry to explain the solution; basically, the ‘camera’ looks at the target in the desired lighting, and then the target moves to the new location (with different lighting) without the ‘camera’ watching. Once there, he stops moving – and when the camera gets there, he sees the target in the original lighting. There’s a movie showing this at work if this is too confusing. Pretty cool glitch, and really useful in some machinima situations!

Foo Mo Jive wrote to tell us that Podtacular has released their monumental 50th episode. This episode is completely devoted to various tips, including a few good ones regarding Terminal. They’ve also asked us to mention their new Podtacular Clan structure, which they’ve briefly outlined. Congratulations on your 50th episode, guys!

mrsmiley drops by the forum to mention a huge update to the art section over at Halobabies.net. Some awesome stuff over there, go check it out!

A lot of things come to mind reading the latest One One Se7en. Regret is most definitely one of them.

Stephen Loftus has done some more work on his In Amber Clad model – check out his progress page to see where it stands!

gijake, a fan of Microsoft’s Flight Sim series, has pointed out a couple pieces of Halo-inspired content for the game: The first is an environment, Installation 04, and the other is a repaint of an F-16, with Halo 2 written across the wings and a Brute on the tail. Nice find.

Ducain posted to the forum last night to let us know about a pretty cool movie which Yasha released on HIH. Glitchtacular takes you through many of the more common glitches in Halo 2’s multiplayer maps. What sets this movie apart from most others though is the editing and particularly the transitions, which are pretty spectacular.

0kinawa, over at Halovids.com, is redoing their War Series; they submitted Episode 1 to the MPRRS recently. It passed – so while they didn’t want hosting (you’re supposed to be able to find the WMP9 version of this vid on their Videos page), I couldn’t find a link, so we’re making local versions available – you can download the WMP9 here (18.9 mb), or the QuickTime here (19.4 mb).

Elnea seems to be back on an avatar kick again – she passed along three new ones for her gallery page. Check out NinjaSpartan.com, BigNiceJohn, and Alsace. Nice stuff! (And for the record – no, I’m not back. I’m simply online from paradise.)

Matt6908 submitted a trailer for his upcoming ‘Apocalypse Rising’ trailer to the MPRRS – and it passed this evening. The series tells the story of the coming of the Apocalypse, and the efforts of four teens to stop the carnage. Nice use of mods. You can grab it in WMP9 format (22 mb) or QuickTIme format (17.7 mb). Enjoy!

Stuntmutt lets us know that he’s updated his blog with some guest strips from around the net. Some good ones in there, the others were made by Stuntmutt.