The Randy Pitchford interview we mentioned yesterday has come to pass… and gawd, is it full of information. Everything from how Gearbox got the job to build Halo PC in the first place, to how they’re getting around some of the stickiest problems in the conversion, to what WASN’T hard… wow. Go read this. Thanks to TankRamp, of the venerable Battleground: Halo, for the heads-up.

I guess even the Fan Fiction writers got caught up in the E3 content craze – there are only four stories for you today:

• True Purpose(4), by Frensa Geran
• ONI Black Ops Part Five, by Havok
• Foresaken Forefathers Part Two: Righteous Rebirth, by Havok and AlphaBravo343
• Halo 2: The Wraiths part two: New Friends, by Wiley Kimball

Go read ’em, before there’s more…

And 8 art pieces for you… check the Miscellaneous Art section.

So much Halo 2/Halo PC goodness… we’ve neglected the staple parts of this site for too long. First up, desktop images. There are 5 of ’em for you. Check the Wallpaper section. (There are some real classics in there…)

Nick has posted the full 1280×960 un-watermarked versions of the 6 Halo 2 shots released yesterday on our forum. (ShackNews put them up yesterday in this format, as well – it’s nice when sites are willing to distribute press material without branding it or altering the size…)

IGN has put up 8 clips, over 40 megabytes worth of material, of gameplay in PC Halo, including views of new maps, and the use of the fuel rod cannon. As of right now, it’s not Insider-protected. Go check ’em out! (Thanks to Bullseye for the heads-up.)

In a stunningly sudden series of events, another Halo egg has been found… all in a day, sort of. Read the story on the Eggs page. A weird symbol, noticed 17 months ago, brought up again and again over the past year and a half… and then BOOM – identified (well, almost) by a threesome of Bungie employees in the span of a couple of hours. A nice sideline while the madness of E3 swirls around us!

While we were sleeping – er, crashing, Bungie put up another desktop on their Wallpapers page. (Last image on the page.) You know… that sure looks like S’pht writing in the background, to me…

Batfink has created an MC model – and applied it as a dog, as well as the standard shape. Pretty funny stuff!

Evil Otto chimes in to a thread concerning a mark on the bottom of the pistol. It’s a bad time to ask – a number of the crew are down in LA at E3 – but it’s likely that this image is deliberate, and it’s possible that this image is actually an egg. More as we know it. (For the record, this was first pointed out to us via email by To[X]iC, in March… but I forgot to follow up on it.)

So, seeing as how it’s a slow news day, Finn decided that it might be a good time to take care of a few little Halo Story Page posts. Well… maybe more than a few. Okay, if you really want to know… 29. There. Happy? Geez. (He didn’t even have the decency to stop at a multiple of 7…) Anyway, if you’ve got a spare hour or three, stop on by the Story page and read until your eyes bleed. And then write to him some more. Because he likes that.

Dang – wouldn’t you know it? Bungie has updated their Truth and Reconciliation site with new Halo PC screens – and because they love you so much, there are three never-before-seen images in there. Go get ’em!

Likely, anybody who went poking around after downloading the clips alraeady saw this… but we figured we should mention it, just for completeness’ sake. IGN posted their demo impressions late last night. Man, even after seeing the trailer, I’m droolin’ over the writeup. Check it out.

To all the people sending in versions of the Gamespot/IGN movies, for wider distribution, two things:

• It is totally against our policy to distribute material that is restricted by its owner.
• It’s totally unclear to me whether Gamespot and IGN even had PERMISSION to tape the press conference footage last night… the release I saw stated ‘no videocameras’.

Either way, this movie is not distributable – it either is footage that belongs to Bungie/MS, and should never have been put on the web in this form AT ALL… or Gamespot and IGN got permission to make these films, and the product belongs to them; if they choose to require a subscription for viewing, that’s their perogative. No matter what the real situation is… we can’t serve this movie, or point you to places that are serving it. Sorry. I promise… there will be a high-quality, direct-feed version released eventually, that will be free to download. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Okay, everyone’s jonesin’ for some Halo 2 goodness, and not everyone’s gettin’ their fix… but the old world must go on, as well. Mythica’s server load is back down to human levels, so it’s time to release another movie. This one’s called ‘Bein’ Green‘ – and it sets some basic MC action to a backdrop of Muppet music. I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for frogs these days… so go watch it. 2:20 long, 9.6 mb big, QuickTime format.

If you’ve got a PC, and you’d like to hear a live interview with Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox (the folks bringing you PC Halo), then stop by Gamespy, pick up a copy of the Gamespy Arcade software (Windows only), and tune in tomorrow morning at 11 am pacific (18:00 UTC) for the goodness. If you’re on a non-windows machine… well, you’re out of luck.

For those not willing (or able) to download the IGN or Gamespot full trailers, and not happy about waiting until the web version is released to the world, we’ve put together a transcript of the dialogue. There are a few holes (and we’re happy to get submissions to fill them), but all in all, it’ll give you a feeling for how complex the random chatter has become, and will also give you an idea of what’s in store. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read this.

More Gamespot Halo 2 coverage: there’s a Halo 2 Impressions article (you can compare it to mnemesis’ piece here) and two new Halo 2 trailers – one for basic subscribers, one for paying subscribers. Unfortunately, the video downloads REQUIRE a PC – they’re handled by a protected delivery system that has no Macintosh software available. If you have access to a PC, you can grab the first vid simply by registering – it’s 9.7 mb, in QuickTime format. Unlike the IGN video, this one is a direct feed; it was not recorded with a handheld camera.Update: I’m wrong, it’s only a direct AUDIO feed; the video is handheld, though of higher quality than the IGN footage. It’s made up of short clips from the full version. Update 2: Ciarán points out that I was probably right the first time; the short version is NOT made of clips from the long one. Check this post for details.

Recently, there has been some discussion about a pair of screenshots for PC Halo that have appeared (one each) in the current issues of Computer Games Magazine and Computer Gaming Monthly. For those who can’t wait until June for us to post the press scans, the shots are now online at Microsoft’s PC Halo site: the Computer Games shot is here (apologies for not using the Flash interface; there’s no way to give a direct URL that way), and the CGM spread is this image (though without the large logo in the center). Who says we never gave you anything?

Gamespot has posted 6 spankin’ new screenshots of Halo 2 – and all I can say is, bumpmapping is astounding stuff. You must see these. Thanks to Ross Mills for the heads-up. Update: these images are also available (at a smaller size, but without the gamespot imprint) from the IGN media page.