About the swords, it's really hard to determine whether or not they should cast a shadow or give off any light. Seeing as how the game is SciFi, it, like everything else in the genre, it will tend to bend universal laws. They've got a sword made of some sort of suspended energy. Light is only one form of energy being released, and it's entirely possible that it doesn't give off any (though the being bright and fluorescent suggests otherwise). As for shadows, maybe light passes through this energy? I dunno. It's most likely a glitch or mistake, but it's certainly possible for it to not cast a shadow or emit light.

Just to put this to rest, yes they should cast a shadow. Anything that is not transparent(aka anything that is opaque or translucent) will cast a shade or shadow. Even plasma, and yes even a wall of light.

Plasma because it actually has mass and can stop light from going past and the wall of light because whatever is holding the light in place will capture any light that tries to pass through it. Thus the light that doesn't hit the wall will hit around the outline of the wall and create the shadow. Even if they give off their own light (which it looks like they should) there will still be shadow castings as the two light sources blend.

Edit: @tarheel91, if they are plasma lances or something then they aren't energy, although they may give off energy. Plasma is just ionized gas, which is matter. If they are some kind of contained laser then the light would bounce off the outside of the field or get cought up in the inside of the field.

With that said it is a minor thing, and something they will work out as lighting techniques improve with time. For now it doesn't really stop you from playing or enjoying the game so I say who cares =)

They really should advertise the game more...as in, actual gameplay footage and not CG or live-action trailers.

Yes it's Halo and requires no advertising...but it'd be nice to see clips like this of the single player campaign released a litte earlier than the month of.

Agreed on the Live action trailers Ben. I just don't get the point of those at all.

I didn't know that they decided to include the elite character for multiplayer again.

This is looking much better than earlier screens, and I agree with ben that they should focus more on gameplay in their advertisements, unless they've changed the game into a live-action/CG movie, which they obviously haven't

They improved it, not bad, not bad at all, not UT3 still quite nice. Water looks a bit plasticy though.. and I dont think the covenant ships are supposed to look like that (color/texture wise), in the books they were more liquidy. And yes Plasma does give off light. Kinda sad to see the same shadow and animation for running between those two. And the face in the mask looks kinda meh. Will be fun multiplier but still was expecting better out of Bungie. Bungie is normally one of the few dev teams which can make great graphics and gameplay (like Square, Polyphony, Epic, and a few others) but this is kinda sad, I think Gears looks better in some ways. I think they rushed this a bit like Halo 2, should have spent another year on it. Made it a 4th gen 360 game.

I think it´s the same as with movie trailers, they don´t have to have anything to do with the actual product, whats important is to leave a lasting impression and catch the peoples attention who don´t know anything about it. I´m no advertising expert (but I pretend to be one on the internet) I´m pretty sure they know what they are doing yet I also would be more impressed to see ingame footage than just cutscenes and a low voice saying stuff like: "In a world... where people shoot everything that moves... one man... with unlimited ammo... and a licence to kill.... just found out.... that killing everyone... is the only way to save the world"

BTW: Great pictures and video... looking foreward to this game a lot :)... Does anyone else thing we should bombard bungie with questions about why the light-blades don´t have shadows or lighting... I´m very good at this... the complete Star Trek cast has a restraining order against me :) 

I know neogaf and vgchartz have some sort of mutual animosity thing going on, but everyone interested in Halo 3 should check out this thread.

Screenshots like they are half-sized, and downsampled/filtered to look nice (i.e. less jaggies).

Still looks great though - pity there isn't a working 360 in our house.