Heroic Map Pack

This is exciting news. The three maps known as, Art Vandelay, Prince of Dorkness and Jodrell Bank are now officially named and have release dates. The three maps, (Rat's Nest, Foundry, and Standoff) will be available for DLC on Xbox Live on 12/11/07 (About 3 weeks from now).


When the maps do drop (haha, do drop) on Xbox Live, they will cost 800 Bill Gates Bucks (Microsoft Points) or about $10. That's $3.33 a map which might be kind of expensive if you think about it but next time you go out to the bar, if you don't buy that last beer, you got your map for free. It's mathematics.

Also, when some of us have the maps and other's (Pablito) won't don't worry you aren't restricted to playing them in custom matches only. The day the maps come out there will be a special matchmaking list with the new maps. This is where everyone on Live that has purchased the maps will be able to play them (not sure if these will be ranked or social, but I am guessing social). In addition to that, in regular match making, the Xbox Live Gods will be able to tell if everyone has the new maps and will add them to the hopper accordingly.

Let's take a look at one of the new maps: Rat's Nest (Formerly: Prince of Dorkness)


While this picture doesn't show much, (as the majority of this map is inside) it gives you an idea of the type of mood this map will convey. Pretty much the only indoor multiplayer level its surprisingly large according too Bungie. It's meant for 6-16 players and features a large playing area but lots of close quarters for small battles.

Foundry (Formerly: Art Vandelay)


It's hard to get a good feel on the size of this map by the picture and it looks completely different than any other Halo multiplayer map yet (at least I think so). According to the creator's it's almost completely customizable all of the crates are movable and the map can be completely redone. I don't know how much of that the KofC will be doing but hopefully it will be a good smaller (4-12 players) map that we don't veto constantly like Snowbound or Epitaph.

Standoff (Formerly: Jodrell Bank)


This is by far the map I am most excited about. It's like a more rounded/squished Blood Gultch. It's a semi symmetrical map with two "labyrinth like" bases as each end. Mongoose's and Warthogs will be present and Turrets on the top of each base. Looks like a pretty good Classic CTF map to me. The map is said to be good for anywhere from 4-16 players in games like CTF, Team Slayer and Assault. One of the doors (presumably the most dangerous is open by a switch, similar to the lever in Zanzibar/Last Resort). Also in Forge the Man Cannon is available, should be fun.

There they are the newest addition to the Halo 3 collection of Maps... Thoughts?