Sigafoos let us know that The Riot 97 is now up (20 minutes, 8 mb) – there’s a slight drop in audio quality because his mic was misbehaving, but there’s still plenty of community news, challenge info, and (on their video show) an exclusive (until Wednesday) showing of Outpost: Operation Isil Episode 5, from Treeskunk. Go listen – and watch!(Louis Wu 15:50:42 UTC)

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned a live-action Halo short being made by a third-party group, and using a fan with Nightmare Armor. Devastator (the fan with the armor) let us know that there is now a Flickr stream of images from the shoot, and some information about the film itself – it’s being done by the CollegeHumor crew, and we have a working title – ‘Halo Detective’. Stay tuned for more! (Louis Wu 15:08:15 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue stopped in to let us know that Reclaimer is back with new content, after a three-week hiatus. Episode 41 gives you a taste of where the Reclaimer comes from (and makes nice use of the new Forge filters).(Louis Wu 15:02:33 UTC)

Davis Beutler created a Halo-themed Dock for OSX Leopard. You can see pictures of it in use, and find download links, in his forum post. (We’ve mirrored the actual content, as well.)(Louis Wu 14:59:53 UTC)

Maximum Fear let us know that they’ve announced the winner of their Forge Art Contest. They’ve also included some of the other entries. Great work in there!(Louis Wu 23:41:52 UTC)

Nabsuh pointed out a teaser showing off his combat animation (and sound design) techniques – it’s only a meg, go watch it!(Louis Wu 15:10:10 UTC)

SPU7N1K found that there’s a longer Steve Downes interview (this was an excerpt, apparently), but if you want to hear it, you’ll have to ask for it. Details in his forum post.(Louis Wu 15:06:59 UTC)

BlueNinja put together a new bunch of panoramic shots – some of these are spectacular. Go see!(Louis Wu 15:04:28 UTC)

madhippy6 noticed a very cool time-lapse series of a guy airbrushing a Halo painting. Under a minute and a half – go watch!(Louis Wu 14:50:51 UTC)

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)