Halo 3 players will no longer need to take screenshots from the heart of grenade explosions in order to paint their masterworks in amazing lighting effects. In addition to the new maps, the Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack will also come with six new lighting filters ranging from “juicy” and “gloomy” to “old timey” and “colorblind,” allowing you to visually customize the maps with Forge. Besides affecting Saved Films and screenshots, the new Forge filters also color gameplay in real-time, leading to some particularly unique (and headache-inducing) deathmatch sessions.

Bungie is also bringing a few new Forge objects along for the ride, including new Forerunner architecture designed specifically for Avalanche and wooden scaffolding for Ghost Town, allowing you to build entirely new routes through the map.

Please note that Halo 3 will now sport seven distinct video filters, proving that Bungie is not only the master of downloadable content, but also of appeasing obsessive fans.

Bungie Weekly Update: 4/04/08 [Bungie.net]

In celebration of the Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack becoming free to play today, Bungie released this video showcasing some of their favorite community creations set in the map pack’s three maps. There are plenty of noob-killing Rube Goldberg devices, a robot built entirely out of assorted level assets, and some impressive plasma grenade tosses. What this video really highlights, however, is just how great Halo 3’s Saved Films and Forge features really are, allowing the community to keep itself entertained with or without new content from Bungie for years to come.

Bungie shows off their favorite things [Xbox 360 Fanboy]