On the 22nd we reported about Epic's Mark Rein stating that they wanted Unreal 2's engine to top Halo. Today R.net found out that Thresh's Firing Squad conducted an interview with Brandon Reinhart and have posted it up. Here's a snippet:

What Epic plans to introduce to Unreal is rather simple, in concept. They want to do outdoor terrain, and they want to do it very well. In our talk with Brandon Reinhart at E3, he freely admitted that they want to look better than Bungie's Halo. After all, if Halo is released this year or even in 2001, Epic and Unreal licensees will need time to actually make games with the new technology. Unreal had better look good by then, since Halo and possibly other outdoor-based games will start appearing, likely with a big lead in release dates for the games.

In the time since the interview was performed Reinhart took a new position at 3D Realms, but the information is still fresh enough to warrant a read. It discusses some of the differences between various engines and mentions Epic's Halo-envy more than once. Epic isn't letting anyone share material with the public, though, until they're absolutely certain it's better than Halo. We'll see how long that takes.