Electric Playground got to see the Halo 2 trailer at a Microsoft event in Toronto last week. They wrote up their impressions – as well as some questions they asked at the time (and the answers, or non-answers, they received). Not a whole lot new… but worth a read. Thanks to the Junkyard for the heads-up.

Warbow Home Video presents… Payback. Starring MC as Porter, Cortana as Val Resnick, and Little Grunt as Pearl. You can download the trailer from Mythica.org – it’s 7.4 mb, 1:17 long, and in QT5 format. We can’t wait to see the released film!

dogsounds does it again… another great comic starring your favorite UNSC death dealer. The model was done by Strykerwolf – you can find more of his work in the Miscellaneous section. This picture, though, is in the Miscellaneous art section.

DOH! A couple of days ago, Deimosâ„¢, of Subnova, mentioned a new desktop image he’d created – but we forgot to post it. It’s now been added to our Wallpaper section.

A pair of new Halo reviews for you: PC Games Portal thought it was nothing special (it’s in German, before you go screaming over there), and GameNerve loved it. (Yes, we told them we’re not the official site. It’s possible they don’t read their mail.) We’ve added both reviews to our Reviews database.

Much of this Fan Fiction came in yesterday… but yesterday was busy.

• Rise To Honor, part 19, by Shadow
• The New Reach Campaigns, part 2, by Gasmask
• The Beginning of the End, part 1, by Wonga
• Cry for a Hero, part 7, by el_halo_diablo
• Shadows of Archon II, part 5, by Wado
• Revolution, part 1, by Gruntkiller

Enjoy!

Got a Tricks jones goin’ on? Frogblast is here to help. Tons of updating on utfoo… one of these days, these’ll even migrate over here!

More box art – and a modified Warthog. Three new pics in our Miscellaneous Art section.

Interested in the Halo50k competition, but not up for a $400 entry fee for your team? Check the website – looks like they might have a corporate sponsor lined up. What does this mean to you? It means (if it works out) a guaranteed $50k pot (instead of one based on the number of participants), and no entrance fee. (It also means the competition has been pushed back – from November, to February.) Read all the details at Halo50k.com. Correction: My mistake – they didn’t mean no entrance fee, they meant a reduced entrance fee (amount doesn’t seem to be determined yet). Apologies for the confusion.

Battleground: Halo, a long-running (but recently languishing) Halo site, has gotten a makeover, and some new content. There are glitches (all the tricks pages yield 404’s at the moment) – but it’s nice to see the site being updated again! Update: The Tricks section now works. They’re fast over there!

Seven Years, Seven Months, Seven Days… (Posted by Matt Soell at Bungie.net, but Marty O’Donnell chose 7:27 pm to post it to our forum. Age brings wisdom…)

Just a couple of Fan Fiction chapters for you tonight:

• Cry for a Hero, part 6, by el_halo_diablo
• Shadows of Archon II, part 4, by Wado

Get to it…

dogsounds has reworked the cartoon submitted recently with a pair of new quotes – thanks to Cheerio and HuntrKillr for the text! (You can probably stop sending us captions now. Thanks!)

Want to be a game designer? Jaime Griesemer, Lead Designer for Halo 2, has written up a snazzy little guide on how to break into the industry. Check it out at Bungie.net.

Three new desktop images for you, all using Halo 2 artwork. Check ’em out in our Wallpaper section…

dogsounds has whipped up another one of his cool comics – but he’s not thrilled with the caption. If you can come up with a better one, drop us a line. (You’ll find the piece in our Miscellaneous Art section.)

Monsters at Play has reviewed the Halo soundtrack – and it’s a great read. No “looping cheese-rock riffs” here… the soundtrack is one solid piece of work, and the review does it justice. Check it out!

Eep – Soulstalker reminded us that he’d submitted a Halo 2 box rendition a month ago, but we’d overlooked it. It’s been added to the Miscellaneous Art section.

Your daily dose of Fan Fiction:

• Cry for a Hero, part 5, by el_halo_diablo
• The Petersburg Affair, part 1, chapter 2, by Saber
• Halo Battle Cry, part 1, by Daniel Johnson
• Rise To Honor, part 18, by Shadow
• Shadows of Archon II, part 3, by Wado

Take a look…

hEx writes to let us know that Halo Network, a large German Halo fansite, is back updating. Check ’em out!