Well, for those of you who aren't still obsessed with Halo 3, you probably missed the news that the Heroic Map Pack, which was $10, has now been made free! Of course money concious fanantics like me have been waiting for this for quite a while. This pack includes three maps and was, in my opinion, ridiculously overpriced, much like the legendary edition of the game (not that we'll go into that). Before the maps were made free you could only play them in custom games or in the DLC matchmaking mode. I've already written on my opinion of custom games, I hate them, so I was curious to try out the new maps in the DLC Matchmaking. The included maps are Standoff, Rats Nest, and Foundry and... well, I wasn't impressed.

Halo 3's original maps included in the retail version of the game were pretty amazing. They were balanced while not being perfectly symetrical. Each side has to take advantage of their starting location. Not all the original maps are perfect, but maps like Vahalla, Higher Ground, and Guardian, and Last Resort are all stadouts. I personally like Isolation and Construct quite a bit too. The new Heroic maps are, in a word, lazy. It seems like the designers at Bungie made half a map and then cloned it and threw a powerful weapon in the middle. I personally found this to be very confusing on Standoff and Rats Nest. If you spawn in a non-team based mode (or spawn outside your base in teams) it is hard to determine which direction is which. That means you can't easily return to the action or hunt down that guy who killed you. Foundry is a little different because it is vertically symmetical rather than horizontally, but it has its own problems that are mostly based around the design of the DLC matchmaking playlist. Because Foundry is a small stage and it is an easy map to find people on. With the DLC playlist being set for 8 people the stage feels crowded and you'll be shooting at a person with you team-mate while being shot in the back by the other opposing team members. Its a mess right now.

There are some good points to the new maps though. Rats Nest is a great addition for vehicles and Capture the flag matches. It seems to scale pretty well with it not feeling too empty with 8 people or too crowded either. Foundry is the level for people to forge with. I actually do a little forging myself from time to time, so its welcomed, and maybe they will work Foundry into the team doubles hopper. It seems like it would be a good fit there. Standoff would also be better suited for a smaller playlist, but I don't know where that would happen. With Battle Riffles and turret guns this satge is a deathtrap for more than four people. Oh well, two-on-two capture the flag, anyone?

The timing of the free release still seems a little odd to me. I'm actually a little surprised the maps went free. I thought that Microsoft would wait until the Legendary Map Pack was out, and then only lower it to $5. Don't tell them, but I would have paid the $15, had they done that. The best thing for them to have done though would have been to make them free from the start, and require them to be downloaded as part of an update. Seriously, if you're playing Halo 3 online it shouldn't be a problem. That way they could have been worked into the hoppers for the normal game modes right away. Of course that would have given up the 10 million dollars in revenue they made from charging for them. I guess thats business. However, this all just serves to strengthen my resistance to paying for the Legendary Map Pack. I think I'll be able to wait for that one too.

Now that the maps are free they should be working their way into regular matches, as long as people download them (you still don't have to). My wonder is if there is anyone who downloaded the Map Pack that really feels like the got their money worth? The DLC matchmaking was very annoying. It was repetitive and rarely did I feel like I was playing a game mode that fit the map. There was that double experience weekend with Griffball, but unless I'm mistaken I didn't miss much. If you had a lot of friends who all downloaded the maps I can see them being a little useful. Otherwise, what were those people doing with them? Forge? To those people who feel bad I offer you my condolence when I say, "NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH You paid $10 for the map and I didn't! You got riped off! ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

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For more Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack fun, watch this video! Caution: Language.