VerdaFolio sends word that bitterbanana has produced an upgrade to his third person hack for PC Halo and Halo CE.

Slashdot has a story on getting Windows clone ReactOS to run on the Xbox.

VerdaFolio notes a Field of Vision (FOV) hack for Halo 2.

bitterbanana over in the Gearbox Software forum has announced the release of a mod for Halo Custom Edition and PC Halo that provides a chase camera (third person view) and adjustable field of vision (FOV). Thanks VerdaFolio.

A lot more tools and information are coming out for those who aren't happy to just enjoy Halo 2 from the perspective of a normal user, but want to sneak into the engine and tinker a bit. VerdaFolio at demented puppy dot com notes two such released: one is a page of trainers for Halo 2 at EvolutionX. The second is a white paper by Iron Forge on Halo 2, detailing his exploration of the game, and including information that should be of use to modmakers.

Late last month we mentioned a story at HBO about a mod for Doom 3 called Pathways Redux; Brendon Chung's recreation of the look and feel of Bungie's 1993 shooter Pathways into Darkness using the Doom 3 engine. akba has taken the mod for a spin and written a review of Pathways Redux for Rampancy.net. Also, be sure to look at Chung's readme page where he credits those who helped and inspired him with the mod. Editor's Note: You have to respect an author that not only makes about a dozen or so mods, but produces a readme file that has it's own bibliography; that's class.

CH2R, the Halo 2 modding tool, has been updated to v0.5.4. You can get it at HaloMods. Thanks VerdaFolio at demented puppy dot com.

[image:8814 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] Great and rare find over at HBO today-- a bit of news relating to Pathways Into Darkness, the Macintosh adventure shooter that Bungie made before the Marathon series.

Brendon Chung has created Pathways Redux, a mod for Doom 3 that is based on Pathways. We don't have Doom 3 here, so we can't try it out-- but we'd love to have comments from readers if they try this mod. Thanks Louis Wu.

Over at MBO, Baak is quoted as saying that Rocket Dorf Fest 5 has been released. This is a plugin for Myth 2 that includes many custom units.

Cnet today has an article speculating on Microsoft's approach to trying to eliminate users of modified Xboxes from its Xbox Live gaming service, even going so far as to try and implicate Halo 2.

[image:8734 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] HaloMods is carrying news of one of the first mods made with a legitimately owned copy of Halo 2; Iron Forge has created a dual plasma swords mod. Don't know how effective it is, but it looks damn cool. Thanks to synide for the heads-up.