djstan let us know about a contest held over at Gizmondo, called Cluttar Art – folks make images out of folders on their desktop. Two of them (this one and this one) are Halo related.(Louis Wu 14:49:14 UTC)

Dan Gerstner stopped by with news of a new 3D energy sword he created – look pretty impressive! The artwork’s over at DeviantART.(Louis Wu 14:45:29 UTC)

Destructoid noticed a Flickr stream of Halo screenshots, enhanced to be more photorealistic – the creator, joshuadamon, felt that his work, which he calls ‘Halotography’, gives “a much needed breath of fresh air to Halo”. Whether or not you agree with that statement, the pictures are absolutely worth a look – great job!(Louis Wu 23:19:43 UTC)

SecondStoryGamer has a review of the Legendary Map Pack – go see what they thought. (Louis Wu 23:13:29 UTC)

Harabek let us know that PreGame Lobby Episode 3 has been released – Mike and Brandon meet a famous foe. Maybe more than one. Go watch it on YouTube.(Louis Wu 23:00:59 UTC)

FireDragon04 let us know that Episode 3 of his Halo 3 machinima ‘Consequences’ has been released – Collin and Logan have to fight to reach the hologram they’d been talking to – and they learn more about their surroundings. My largest complaint (that the Architect was almost completely unintelligible) has been addressed with subtitles – this story is going forward nicely!(Louis Wu 20:29:38 UTC)

Today’s Another Halo Comic Strip shows that everyone has their own triggers when it comes to self-motivation.(Louis Wu 15:49:12 UTC)

Wow – Littlebigman found some pics of a new collection from McFarlane Toys – the Legendary Collection looks pretty sweet! (There’s also a link to some new 12-inch McFarlane figures – lots of good stuff coming!) As usual, the full story can be found at spawn.com, as well, with extra pics.(Louis Wu 15:33:40 UTC)

Cortana4ever put together a few videos using cutscenes and music – it’s an interesting collection. The last one, especially, is pretty evocative. Just as a point of interest – I nearly passed these by completely. Cortana4ever posted them in our forum with a description that basically said ‘these are just some things I whipped out in a few minutes, I was bored, they’re nothing special.’ When someone tells me that their work is not worth much, I’ll take them at their word – my time is short, and having someone self-regulate what I have to look at is helpful. If there hadn’t been forum regulars responding with words of praise, this would never have made the front page, because I never would have seen the vids. Keep that in mind if you’re trying to get people to look at your creations…(Louis Wu 15:19:14 UTC)

Simpsons Rule found a civilian that allowed a trade of a pistol for a Brute hammer – it might be the only time you’ll see a civilian holding one of those monsters. (He won’t use it – but hey, he looks pretty cool even just holding it.)(Louis Wu 14:54:16 UTC)

Arby ‘n’ the Chief, Episode 9: Newcomers can be seen at YouTube (thanks, John_117). Reaction, at least on OUR forum, seems to be mixed; I guess this is one of those things you either like or you don’t.(Louis Wu 14:49:19 UTC)

trigger119 let us know that there’s a new film from Zukan available for downloading (or streaming) at GamingTV – Rain is to be a revival of his earlier lauded Vendetta, and this preview looks pretty nice! Go check it out.(Louis Wu 14:45:11 UTC)

The Bungie Weekly Update is pretty light this week – some clarification about some of the rumors (and news) floating around out there about upcoming Halo projects, another list of how not to get Recon armor, some matchmaking update news, and details on the Play & Win Sweepstakes we mentioned a while back. Oh, yeah, and a great picture of Luke. As always, read it at Bungie.net or read it in our Weekly Update Archive.(Louis Wu 00:40:25 UTC)

GamesRadar sat down with Cam ‘Cunbelin’ Pinard and Jason ‘BrownV’ Sussman – watched them play, asked them about their strategies and what they like. Fun read! Thanks, Decommissioner.(Louis Wu 19:53:46 UTC)

GhettoMole is rapidly nearing completion of his Scout helmet – the secondary color has been finished, only the visor remains! Go look.(Louis Wu 17:29:59 UTC)

Solidly in the ‘rumor’ category, 1UP.com has some gossip it’s pushing from Quartermann’s Rumor Mill:

[W]e’ve heard rumblings that the first one will be a Halo spin-off due in late 2009. Our spies tell us to expect a third-person action/adventure shooter hybrid that takes place before the original Halo, chronicling early skirmishes between the ODST troops and the Covenant. This may or may not be the oft-mentioned “Peter Jackson Halo Project” — though apparently Microsoft is hiring a seperate team for that — but WETA is definitely involved in some capacity. Look for a massive reveal around the time Gears of War 2 ships this fall…

Bungie HAS been really busy of late – but this is the first I’ve heard of a “third-person action/adventure shooter hybrid”. Don’t get all excited yet – it may turn out to be true, or it may turn out to be a bit of undigested beef. (I found this in my Google Alerts mailbox, but I just checked the forum, and it looks like Red_Breast started a thread about it about an hour ago.)(Louis Wu 14:03:49 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy has returned to her Rorschach Inkblot tests, based on heatmaps of multiplayer killzones – today’s looks at the death on Blackout. You can also see answers from Foundry, the last map she covered (back in February). Go tell her what you see!(Louis Wu 10:30:26 UTC)

Just a few pieces posted this week in the Fan Fiction section – go read ’em! (Louis Wu 10:29:39 UTC)