Friendly reminder: Halo 3 Heroic maps free today [update]

43 Comments by Alexander Sliwinski Mar 25th 2008 10:26AM
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters, Online

Happy free Heroic Map Pack day everyone! For those with a little patience, you'll be rewarded today with Halo 3's former $10 set of maps for the cost of air (but not PerriAir; that the Spaceballs still charge for). The pack includes Standoff, Rat's Nest and Foundry. While we'd love to tell you all about these levels, we're getting our first taste of them today.

With all that said, there's currently a hiccup in the system and the content – which was supposed to be free at 2AM pacific last night – is still listed for $10 on Xbox Live Marketplace. Bungie's forum has a nice thread (about to break 100 pages) on the issue and we're trying to get an answer from Major Nelson for the Microsoft angle. We'll update when the map pack actually becomes, you know ... free.

Update: It's free now, go get 'em.

Gallery: Halo 3 - Heroic Map Pack

Tags: bungie, halo 3, halo-3, halo3, heroic, heroic-map-pack, microsoft, xbm

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

copa: Mar 25th 2008; 10:33AM

Are the maps moved into the Ranked playlists now?

Ben: Mar 25th 2008; 10:33AM

Why is it that they aren't simply making these maps required downloading so that they can be included in Ranked Team Slayer (for instance)?

When they release a patch, you have to download it or you're signed out of xbox live...the reason being they want all Halo 3 gamers to be compatible. So why is it different? I read a BWU where they were like "we can't *make* anyone download the maps.." Huh? Why not?

Intentless: Mar 25th 2008; 10:35AM

The maps are included in the ranked gametypes but they will only appear for you if everyone else matched has all the maps. So it is safe to assume the majority are going to DL it once it is completly free and you will see them a little more frequently in the play lists.

player66: Mar 25th 2008; 10:34AM

I don't get why these things get delayed on XBL. If anything, they're shooting themselves in the rear when all of the impatient users rush to DL the content all at once when it does post as FREE. Bad form.

NATO_Duke: Mar 25th 2008; 10:39AM

Seriously, 100 pages of people crying because the maps price hadn't changed to free yet. That is really pathetic.

xFenixKnightx: Mar 25th 2008; 10:47AM

Haha yeah I know. Calm down, all of a sudden they really NEED to play them or WTF?! LMAO! Either way Im off work today and no, they arent free yet =P I hadnt popped Teh H3 into the 360 in a while.

ThePremierAssassin: Mar 25th 2008; 11:34AM

@ Nato & Fenix

Are either of you guys participating in the Battlefield: BC beta?

Just curious...

NATO_Duke: Mar 25th 2008; 11:38AM

Yeah I downloaded it.

xFenixKnightx: Mar 25th 2008; 11:41AM

Premier Assassin

Yea I tried it this morning but they were having server problems. I managed to get into one match (Oasis) and I liked it. Weapons and controls felt good, you can get into some sweet tanks and even some boats to get around the map. You can tell it isnt finished though but Im liking what Im seeing so far. Ill try it out again later and see if they fix the issue.

luigi: Mar 25th 2008; 10:45AM

From Bungie.net

"as of the April playlist update, the Free Heroic Maps will be required in Ranked Big Team, Social Big Team, Team Slayer and Rocket Race playlists. We’re requiring these maps in the following playlists to give players more options with the map rotations and by including a high population playlist like Team Slayer, we hope that the maps will permeate through the Community, resulting in more games played on these maps in Matchmaking."

So there you have it, (from April) you do have to get the maps if you want to play in the above popular playlists

Ben: Mar 25th 2008; 11:10AM

right, but the only ranked gametype they mention is Ranked Big Team.

miyagi: Mar 25th 2008; 12:51PM

Team Slayer is also ranked.

Foundry has been showing up in Team Doubles for a while now (if everyone has it)

xFenixKnightx: Mar 25th 2008; 10:52AM

WTF Bungie where are MY "FREE" EFFING MAPS!!! ARRRRGHHHH!!! I need to pwn teh n00bs!!

sword,sword,sword,sword,sword,sword,sword,sword,sword,sword,sword,sword,swordsword,sword,sword,sword,sword

lololllollllolololololollulololullololullololollol Yes! I has rocket lawn chair!!!

-Lil Master CHief

Obie: Mar 25th 2008; 11:09AM

Keep down the retardation, please.

K, thanks.

xFenixKnightx: Mar 25th 2008; 11:59AM

Wow, what crawled up your ass and died? Chillax buddy its just the internets.

K, thanks.

ThePremierAssassin: Mar 25th 2008; 10:55AM

God I fear for humanity...cheap ass losers...

"I WANT IT FREE AND I WANT IT IMMEDIATELY!"

rTwelve: Mar 25th 2008; 11:11AM

I WANT IT ALL
I WANT IT ALL
I WANT IT ALL
AND I WANT IT NOW

deaftly: Mar 25th 2008; 1:03PM

ITS MY MONEY AND I NEED IT NOW!!

god I hate that commercial.

therpham: Mar 25th 2008; 11:03AM

It was still 800 points when I checked an hour ago, but that's okay because it's not like I've played Halo 3 in forever. Rock Band hasn't left the tray since it came out, except for some Katamari time.

Benny: Mar 25th 2008; 11:09AM

Am I alone in saying "I don't care"?

...I'm still playing Gears >.

embassy: Mar 25th 2008; 11:09AM

:Waits for some ridiculous "fan" to set up a class action suit againt MS:

this kinda shit is so utterly retarded it boggles the mind.

100 pages?

really? is it that serious?

Sean: Mar 25th 2008; 11:15AM

Actually, you are required to download the new maps in order to play the following playlists
-Team Slayer
-Ranked Big Team Battle
-Social Big Team Battle
-Rocket Race

Sean: Mar 25th 2008; 11:16AM

Actually, you are required to download the new maps in order to play the following playlists
-Team Slayer
-Ranked Big Team Battle
-Social Big Team Battle
-Rocket Race

joevill: Mar 25th 2008; 11:39AM

I need to remember this when I get home!!!!

Brit Houston: Mar 25th 2008; 11:51AM

... watch MS delay the free map pack for another month... I was pretty excited too.

Emax: Mar 25th 2008; 11:51AM

yeah..... I would love to download these maps but my box got RRoD for the 2nd time

:-(

Anticrawl: Mar 25th 2008; 11:55AM

Finally I can try out these maps... to bad Halo 3 is like a pretty girl with a horrible laugh. I haven't really played it since two weeks after launch.

DaMan09: Mar 25th 2008; 12:14PM

They are teh frees now.

xFenixKnightx: Mar 25th 2008; 12:41PM

Tehy are indeed, and tehy are downloadingz now =P

I havent played Halo3 in so long this should be a good way to dust it off.

basscase: Mar 25th 2008; 12:21PM

finally, they got it to work. Free maps.

RastamanD: Mar 25th 2008; 12:26PM

damn all i want to do is play grifball for a few games....then back to COD4 :)

basscase: Mar 25th 2008; 12:27PM

stuck at 16% complete... the DLC server must be getting slammed by all the Halo fanatics trying to get their free maps

TWIMTBP: Mar 25th 2008; 12:32PM

My copy of Halo 3 hasn't seen use ever since I started playing CallofDuty4 online. I did get into the nice habit of melee'ing instinctively in COD4 due to playing Halo3 earlier.
If i go back to Halo3 now, everyone will use my ass as target practice, i'll have to start from scratch.

baby sea tuna: Mar 25th 2008; 12:54PM

That's why I never even bothered trying the CoD4 MP, since by the time I had time to actually play it, everyone else was so overpowered. :(

TWIMTBP: Mar 25th 2008; 12:58PM

dude, forget about how good others are, there are always some n00bs in every match. If you havent tried COD4, you dont' know what you're missing!

xFenixKnightx: Mar 25th 2008; 1:57PM

Baby Sea Tuna

Thats not really true. I can be at level 1 on the 3rd prestige mode with no weapons but the 1st default ones and still own people who are ranked even higher. I can do some crazy vandammage with the MP5 (which is a starting gun). COD4 is the best MP game I have evar played. Evar. No one should miss out on it.

Ghostbuddy: Mar 25th 2008; 1:03PM

Anyone who is/plans to DL the maps, if you don't have friends to play customs with you should get some. The best part about this pack is Foundry and all of the forge options that come with it.

So make sure you check out Foundry on forge, and try to find some customs to play some maps people have made on it.

Anthony: Mar 25th 2008; 1:09PM

I was on last night at 2:00AM (I guess I should say early this morning) and the maps were not for free. I am not complaining though. If something is free I can wait for it to become free. But the information I did receive was misleading. I wouldn't have stayed up till 2:00AM.

Oh well.

One more thing. Don't be so surprised that people get excited about free stuff. I live in America and nothing is ever free.... Except for open source stuff. But it is invigorating to get something for free especially when it was previously valued.

Just don't hate.

Joe B.: Mar 25th 2008; 2:47PM

Hey everyone, I just have a quick question.

Are these maps free for today only? I'm going to buy a 360 on June 5th, so I hope I can still get them then.

alu: Mar 25th 2008; 3:23PM

free from now on.

Halo 3 captian: Apr 1st 2008; 12:26AM

the only thing that ticks me off about halo 3 is the fact that i can no longer play team slayer and the other ranked play lists that i use to because of the new heroic pack add on b/c i have x-box 360 (arcade) and it does not come w/ a hard drive (which i would have never got if i've known that, but i was new to the whole x-box experience and went to Wal-mart for a x-box 360 they did not have any on display so i asked if they had any in the back they went and checked and they just got to in so i took one the were both (arcade) not knowing anything i thought it was cool and have been playing no problem until now so my question basically is does any one know how i can download the maps with out a hard drive and only a few mb other wise i have to wait a couple months until i get enough money for a hard drive and by then my exp will be really high and my rank really low thanks

w.h.: Apr 1st 2008; 8:06PM

how do u download the free maps

hvnlysoldr: Apr 13th 2008; 1:29PM

We need a hero

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