The Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack, consisting of three brand new maps for Bungie's mega-blockbuster shooter, is out in just a few hours--but in case your frothing demand for this map pack increases, we've captured dozens of screenshots. Hit up our brief Heroic Map Pack impressions for more details about each map before you buy.

Ever wanted lots of cars you could drive inside (as opposed to a nut you can play outside)? Check out Rat's Nest, a base similar to the second level of Halo 3's campaign, but full of vehicles. Next up is Standoff, a fairly large outdoor map suited to objectives, with underground tunnels similar to those of Snowbound. Read more »

San Diego resident Randy Nunez has filed suit against Bungie and Microsoft, alleging that the company's recently released Halo 3 (X360) "does not function with the Xbox 360" as claimed by its creators. Nunez filed a complaint acquired by gossip website TMZ this week in a Southern California U.S. District Court.

According to the text of the complaint, Nunez purchased the game in October but could not play the game because he claims "attempted use of Halo 3 consistently causes the Xbox 360 to 'crash,' 'freeze,' or 'lock up' while the game is being played." Read more »

While direct sales of Bungie's Halo 3 led to the first profitable quarter for Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, royalties from Halo-related properties will surely solidify its financial position. The newest novel in the Halo series has taken its place on the New York Times Bestseller list in its first week of sales, Bungie announced today. Halo: Contact Harvest went on sale October 30 and took the number three spot for trade paperback fiction, although it's slipped to number four since the announcement. It's the fifth novel in the series of Halo-related writings, but it's the first by Bungie's own Joseph Staten, who wrote the story and directed the cinematics for the Halo games. The novel apparently explores the first contact made between humankind and the evil Covenant.

Beginning December 11, three new multiplayer maps will be available for players of Bungie's Halo 3 (X360). Titled the Heroic Map Pack, its three maps--Foundry, Rat's Nest, and Standoff--will be downloadable from the online Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Microsoft describes Standoff (pictured here) as "ideal for mid-sized objective and Slayer game types" due to its symmetrical layout and boulder-filled battlefield. Rat's Nest (pictured here) is said to be "an indoor vehicle paradise" best suited for big team battles, whereas Foundry (pictured here) is "the ultimate Forge map" as players can manipulate and replace every object object within it to create their own custom arena. The maps will eventually be provided free of charge, similar to Microsoft's efforts with Halo 2's downloadable content as well as that of Epic Games' Gears of War. According to the publisher, players can expect the Heroic Map Pack to be free in spring 2008, "just prior to the next wave of all new 'Halo 3' multiplayer maps."

Update: The promotional site for the offer has been reactivated, providing more details. Apparently, only original Xbox owners who have a current Xbox Live account and migrate their subscription to a new Xbox Live Gold membership after purchasing an Xbox 360 during the specified period will be eligible. Original Xbox Live subscribers with an active account as of as of November 20, 2007, will be considered eligible. Though it's an online promotion, it's also only valid for subscribers living in the United States. Original story: Want a copy of Bungie's Halo 3 for free? Microsoft will apparently be giving free copies of Halo 3 to anyone in the U.S. or Canada who purchases an Xbox 360 between November 21 and December 21, according to a page spotted by Evil Avatar on the official Xbox site that was quickly taken down. The registration site for the offer is still up, requiring buyers to log in with the Windows Live ID linked to their gamertag. The site requires a valid Xbox 360 serial number and instructs applicants to enter the code XBX7777 on the online form. Unfortunately, interested parties may have to wait until after Christmas to join their Halo 3-playing friends, as the site says Microsoft will ship out the games by January 18. Shacknews contacted Microsoft for comment, but has not yet received a response.

And lo, upon hearing the anguished cries of the gamers, this day the thirteenth of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, did Bungie Studios bestow upon its Halo 3 online Xbox 360 multiplayer playlists the sacred rite of Rocket Race, lifting the glorious vehicular battle of two-man teams out of the dismal pit of Custom Games and into the ranks of matchmade Social gaming. So too has the Lone Wolves player count been raised to six (yea), and so too have flag-based gametypes become more common in Social Skirmish (verily), and so too have a variety of map and playlist tweaks been made across the board (forsooth). For the fullest of details, clicketh this link to Bungie's abode, then join us in a joyful exultation of "Rocket Race," a psalm from the book of Remo.

A new interview with Bungie studio manager Harold Ryan in UK-based industry publication Develop states that the newly re-independent company is currently working on a new game property, and reveals that employees were aware of the unusual deal further in advance than some may have suspected. Bungie, formerly a Chicago-based independent studio, was acquired by Microsoft in 2000, but brokered a deal to divest from the publisher this October. During the development of Halo and Halo 2, said Ryan, Bungie was testing new, non-Halo game concepts, but ultimately ended up axing the ideas before the respective Halo games shipped--not so during the development of Halo 3. "With Halo 3, that was the first time we know that we couldn't let that happen," he explained. "It's not an acceptable way out to add 20 people to the project by killing that prototype. We kept that prototype running throughout the development of Halo 3 and now we have a creative team which feels like they own that." Also in the works at the studio is downloadable content for Halo 3, as well as "other Halo games"--the latter may be referring to Bungie's involvement with Ensemble Studios' Halo Wars (X360) and Peter Jackson's mysterious project, or may be further entries in the lucrative franchise. In a recent Shacknews interview, Bungie's Frank O'Conner was noncommittal about the studio's immediate plans. "Will we go back and do Myth, will we go back to Marathon?" he remarked, referring to older Bungie properties. "The honest answer is we don't know yet, but we're prototyping. We have some choices, and we have some cool ideas." One reason that Bungie felt confident in keeping its foundling project alive may have been that studios employees were actually aware of the upcoming divestiture. "Everyone knew about the deal during Halo 3's development, and I think it really made an impact on how invested people were in working for themselves," said Ryan. "First and foremost, the first thing Bungie gets out of the deal is that level of investment from the employees." The interview suggests a sentiment within the notoriously independent-spirited Bungie that, though its ownership by Microsoft was advantageous in many ways, it was not the ideal situation for the studio. "Having the right relationship with Bungie means there are more opportunities for us to both evolve the Halo universe and create new ones," Ryan went on. "Not that we couldn't do that with Microsoft--they're certainly happy to fund us to do anything--it's just a matter of how creatively motivated the artists and designers are. Their level of happiness has a direct impact on the quality and engagement of work they do."

Bungie, apparently still in a festive mood after acquiring its independence from Microsoft, will be introducing a new Halo 3 multiplayer playlist in celebration of Zombie Day, better known in some circles as Halloween or All Hallows Eve. Beginning at 12:01 AM PST on October 31 and ending 27 hours later, Bungie will present the ranked Infection mode as one of Halo 3's many online playlists. The mode starts out with one player as a zombie, and more are added to the undead legion as the zombie takes down other players. A few different brain-munching variants will be available, including Save One Bullet, which has limited ammunition, Creeping Death, where zombies are invisible, and Creeping Rockets, where humans get better armament but face off against tougher foes. The maps of the new playlist are said to be slightly modified for defense against the undead, with Bungie promising this is not the last of the its seasonal multiplayer offerings.

Yesterday, several major gaming news sites began reporting that the Peter Jackson-produced Halo movie was still in some form of production, and the story has only grown more popular in the time since. However, such claims are incorrect. In fact, the source of the matter, a Variety article, is horribly outdated. Variety's story was originally posted over a year ago, on October 19, 2006. At the time, numerous sites, Shacknews included, reported on the news that Universal and Fox had backed out of the project, allegedly due to budget concerns. About two weeks after Variety's initial report, Wingnut Films, Peter Jackson's production company, issued a press release that officially put the project on ice. "At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe," said the company. "While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen," read the release, "we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait." In other words, Wingnut and Microsoft's decision to postpone the project was the last public word on the matter. All those quotes about the movie still being in production are old and outdated. So there you have it. Move along folks, there's nothing else to see here.

NPD's U.S. sales figures for the month of September--the month of Bungie's Halo 3 launch--have arrived. Led by the highly anticipated title, total video game sales for the month reached $1.36 billion, a 74% year-over-year increase. Home console sales showed the most marked increase across the board, with $418.6 million in revenue, nearly three times more than the same month last year before the Wii and PlayStation 3 launches. Both software and hardware sales were dominated by either Halo 3 or the game's platform, Xbox 360. Unsurprisingly taking the top spot for software, sales of all Halo 3 versions hit 3,256,082 units, bringing Microsoft approximately $225 million in revenue. Each version actually sold more on its own that any game in September, with the standard $59.99 edition's 2,367,795 leading, followed by the $69.99 collector's edition with 511,437, and the $129.99 Spartan helmet-including Legendary edition's 376,850 units sold. No doubt spurred by Halo 3's launch, the 360 sold the most out of any hardware platform, with its 528,000 systems nearly doubling sales from a month prior. But even the Wii's second place at 501,000 consoles sold set a record for the platform, surpassing even the Wii's launch month in the states. Sony's systems took the last two spots in home console sales, with the PlayStation 2's 215,000 and the PlayStation 3's 119,000 units. Sales of portable consoles were up as well to $126.2 million, a 28% year-over-year increase, led by strong DS sales of 496,000. As always, the PSP trailed in second with 285,000, despite September seeing the launch of the system's slimmer redesign. After Halo 3, software sales for the month revealed an assortment of titles for all platforms bringing in $550.5 million total for the consoles, a 64% increase. Interestingly, sales of the PS2 version of EA Tiburon's Madden NFL 08 beat sales of the Xbox 360 version of the game. The 360 version beat the PS2 iteration handily last month, revealing something of a shift in the home console climate. Check out the top ten software sales and their respective figures below:

1. Halo 3 (Bungie, Microsoft Game Studios, X360) - 3,256,082
2. Wii Play with Wii Remote (Nintendo, Wii) - 282,000
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo, NDS) - 224,000
4. Madden NFL 08 (EA Tiburon, EA Sports, PS2) - 205,000
5. Skate (EA Black Box, EA Games, X360) - 175,000
6. Madden NFL 08 (EA Tiburon, EA Sports, X360) - 173,000
7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Retro Studios, Nintendo, Wii) - 167,000
8. BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia, 2K Games, X360) - 150,000
9. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (Nintendo, NDS) - 141,000
10. Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory, SCEE, PS3) - 139,000

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A two-disc soundtrack featuring songs from and inspired by Bungie's Halo 3 (X360) will arrive in stores by November 22. In addition to Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori's original score, the release will pack at least one bonus track performed by an as-yet-undecided artist. Microsoft is currently running a contest to determine which band will be included and is awarding top entries with with a variety of merchandise including the Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360 console, a copy of Halo 3, an exclusive Halo 3 Ibanez Xiphos electric guitar, and a Halo 3-branded Zune. Details for the contest are available at the Halo 3 MySpace page. As can be expected, the ShackStaff endorses the efforts of our very own Chris Remo and his ode to Rocket Race. As with all Halo albums released thus far, the Halo 3 soundtrack will be published by Sumthing Else Music Works. The Halo 2 soundtrack was released across two separate one-disc volumes, the first featuring a combination of the game's score along with Halo-inspired tunes from Breaking Benjamin and Incubus, and the second volume focusing on the remainder of the game's original music.