halo 2 Blastacluar map pack is going to be free in the wirst week of july:

well i just found out that that the Blastactular map pack will be avaliable for free in the first week of july no date annouced yet here is the link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_2

On March 30 2007  Bungie announced that two new maps would be available on April 17th 2007for 4$. Bungie's own Frank O'Connor confirmed that both Xbox and Xbox 360 users would have access to the content. The two new maps, "Tombstone" and "Desolation," are remakes of "Hang 'Em High" and "Derelict" respectively, two maps from the original Halo video game. On April 6 2007 Bungie commented that a new update to the servers will be implemented, due to the new maps and playlists. The update was scheduled to be released on , which would have made the new maps a mandatory download to continue playing most of the playlists in matchmaking. However, on April 25, 2007, Frankie announced that due to issues with distribution of the maps to both original Xbox and Xbox 360 owners (the most common problems being unable to turn on 'Premium Content' or the maps failing to install properly).

The update will happen on May 9, 2007. Bungie will also be resetting all ranks for Halo 2 at the same time. They also announced that both maps will be available for free download on the first week of July.

this is good becaue i dont want to pay for the maps in the meantime i will be playing gears of war and rainbow six vegas and be picking up graw 2 and oblivion soon i will be downloading the halo 2 free maps soon in the first week of july!!

It had to be free eventually with the impending halo 3 launch, but it wouldn't let me play ranked matches until i got it so i went ahead and payed the four dollars.