Halo 3 map pack released

By Tom Bramwell Published 11 December, 2007

Pay today or free in spring.

The Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack has gone up on Xbox Live Marketplace, offering three brand new battlegrounds for 800 Microsoft Points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.30).

The pack, unveiled last month, will be made available for free in spring 2008 ahead of another map pack's release.

The three maps included are Standoff, Rat's Nest and Foundry - a symmetrical valley map, an "indoor vehicular paradise" and "the ultimate Forge map" respectively, in Microsoft's view.

As reported yesterday, Halo 3 players will be able to download an update to introduce new playlists for the maps from today.

Bungie has also said that the new maps will not interfere with the game for people who do not download them - although the new maps can be included in playlists, they will be excluded if one player in the group does not have them.

For more on the maps, check out our Halo 3 screenshot gallery.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • boynash101 #1 5 years ago

    Awesome news. The new RVB thing is cool too

  • BBIAJ #2 5 years ago

    I think I'll wait until Spring then, as I don't play Halo 3 online right now.

    Just like I did with the GoW, LP, and R6:V DLC.

  • etyek #3 5 years ago

    Anyone know if the map packs are region locked? I'm thinking of downloading them via an American account with some cheap American MS Points bought on Ebay, but I don't know if a PAL disc will work with NTSC downloaded content.

  • Derblington #4 5 years ago

    Hlo3 is region free anyway...

  • Inflatable #5 5 years ago

    Why not free right away?

    Ah I see, you want to get some extra money out of the real fans first.. I'm sure they appreciate it..

  • ShieldOfFaith #6 5 years ago

    Halol 3

  • BBIAJ #7 5 years ago

    @ShieldOfFaith:

    Is "game name + LOL" all you can bloody say?

    If so, then kindly shit off.

  • bad09 #8 5 years ago

    I'll wait until spring, not being cheap just busy with COD4 & PGR4 for now (and AC for xmas).

  • Skooch #9 5 years ago

    Woot - just downloaded and going to play right now I think.

    I considered waiting, then thought stuff it, bought some points and off I go! :)

    I am a sucker for new MP maps, I also got Gears on the day of release.

  • Moz #10 5 years ago

    Just watched the Red vs Blue vid on EGTV new maps look cool, love the idea of a big empty room for use in forge.

    EDIT:/ I like the idea of pay to play early as at the end of the day they need to make money and i dout a free map pack is going to sell many more copies of the game.

    Though it is a little pricey given as the new map pack for resistance is only £2.99
    Edited by Moz at 11/12/07 @ 12:40

  • sanctusmortis #11 5 years ago

    Inflatable: MS make people charge for such content, and indeed set the charges - see the GoW stuff, which displeased Epic. It's only at the company's behest that they can make it free later.

  • agparrot #12 5 years ago

    Halolll

    Nice of them to let us know that we won't have to wait long to get them for nothing. With the plethora of other games available, it isn't like there isn't plenty of other stuff to be getting on with.

    If they had perhaps made ten new maps, released them in the spring, and charged for them, I might have been tempted... but three maps, so soon after release... my mean, stingy, scrooge-inspired side simply won't put up with it.

    Still going to be loving the H3 online, when I get back into it - it really is a thing of great fun!

  • Moz #13 5 years ago

    One thing that sucks a little has just occered to me. I'm planning on getting an elite after xmas, but if i download the map pack now that then mean that once i get my new system and re-download the map pack it will then be locked to my profile so my partner will only be able to use the map pack if my profile is logged in!!!

  • Dizzy #14 5 years ago

    "so my partner will only be able to use the map pack if my profile is logged in!!! "

    yes true.. but when you get a new 360 you can call MS tech support and ask them to link your new 360 to you downloaded stuff if the requirement to be online bothers you.
    Edited by Dizzy at 11/12/07 @ 13:06

  • Kazzahdrane #15 5 years ago

    agparrot:

    What Dizzy says is true, but in my (limited) experience it's difficult to get MS to do. I've had a couple of friends need this done: one upgraded to an Elite and wanted his gf to be able to play his Oblivion DLC on her profile and another got a replacement 360 and wanted her bf to be able to play her XBLA games.

    Suffice to say they both had a LOT of problems getting MS tech support to link their purchases to their new machines. In fact, for over 3 weeks each of them were told on the phone that this "could not be done" and that MS never did this for anyone. Eventually one of them complained enough and argued that since he worked in a games shop he would start telling people not to buy 360s and go for PS3s instead since MS hated their customers. After which he was transferred away from the Indian call centre with their single-A4 scripts to a helpful guy in Wales who was more than happy to help get the ball rolling.

    They (MS) needed quite a lot of info such as proof of purchase and serial numbers of old and new consoles (make sure you keep a note of your old serial number!) but eventually they got it sorted out.

    The other friend took even longer and eventually claimed that she too worked in a games shop too. Same trick worked twice.

    Fortunately I'm single and friendless. So no worries if either of the above happen to me! :D

  • SomaticSense #16 5 years ago

    ^^^

    To this day I still haven't been able to play Oblivion because I have a different 360 to the one I downloaded the DLC to (same HDD though, as my first 'box RROD'd). MS didn't want to know.

    So as a result of this frankly stupid 'anti-piracy' system, I've lost access to tons of stuff I've legitimatly paid for, all because of the 360's pathetic failure rate.

  • clockworkzombie #17 5 years ago

    @SomaticSense

    It will work if you have a gold live account active.


  • SomaticSense #18 4 years ago

    I do.........


    ........ but on a different profile to the one which has my 200 hour odd Oblivion game save on it. Besides, even my gold profile Oblivion save won't load at all (or a new game for that matter), becasue 'apparently' the DLC isn't on my Hard Drive (it is....). So basically, I can't get past the title screen no matter what profile I'm logged into. Same with Test Drive: Unlimited.

    MS couldn't give a shit.
    Edited by SomaticSense at 21/12/07 @ 13:17