Microsoft announced today that Halo 3 players will be able to play three all new multiplayer maps on 11th December as part of the Heroic Map Pack, the first in a series of downloadable content from Bungie Studios to come via Xbox LIVE. Available for 800 Microsoft Points exclusively on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, each map presents a totally different play style. Standoff’s symmetrical valley, with its entrenched bases and fields of boulders is ideal for mid-sized objective and Slayer game types, while Rat’s Nest’s vast, labyrinthine passages bring something new to the Halo multiplayer experience: an indoor vehicle paradise, strongly influenced by the Campaign mode, ideal for big team battles. Finally, Foundry is the ultimate Forge map – players can edit every single object in this voluminous industrial warehouse, place stairways, walls, bridges and tunnels to create an entirely new play space and build almost any kind of map they can think of. All three maps will become available for free download via Xbox LIVE Marketplace in Spring 2008, just prior to the next wave of all new Halo 3 multiplayer maps.

The Forge also allows players to edit and customise all three maps. In addition, ongoing updates to Halo 3’s matchmaking playlists ensure that ranked and social gameplay remains dynamic and competitive.

While you wait for the Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack, check out the 101st game to launch on Xbox LIVE Arcade as Chair Entertainment Group brings Undertow to the platform. The fast-paced, aquatic action game arrives this Wednesday, 21st November 2007 at 9:00. Undertow redefines aquatic based shooters through a mix of high-definition graphics, intuitive controls and multiple modes of game play action. Undertow features a story driven single player campaign, on and offline co-op, and multiplayer for up to 16 players over Xbox LIVE. Players battle for control of the oceans as one of three selectable races, each with four unique, upgradeable units. Undertow will be available worldwide this Wednesday for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated 15 BBFC.