New Halo 3 Maps available through XBox Live

As of yesterday there is plenty more to love about Halo 3! According to this Wired Blog post, "For $10, Xbox Live members can download three brand-new areas called Standoff, Rat's Nest and Foundry." If $10 is too much to spend on a couple of extra maps, and you have the patience of a saint, then you might consider waiting for the next map pack to be released as Microsoft says this map pack will become free when the next one is released sometime in the spring. If you'd like to see what your $10 will buy you... Red vs. Blue has put together an interesting tour of the maps, highlighting the new features and offering a few chuckles along the way.

Bungie employees get flaming Halo 3 helmet

If you're on XBox Live, playing Halo 3, and you encounter a Spartan with a flaming helmet you might have your hands full! In fact you are actually playing one of the developers from Bungie. G4's The Feed is reporting that a flaming helmet signifies a Bungie employee and try as you might, you can never obtain one, unless you're resume is up to HR's standards...

Warthog... road kill

A group of programmers at Bungie had the good fortune of getting a test drive in a very realistic looking Warthog, complete with gun turret, created for the Halo 3 trailers. The good fortune ends when they drive into a building... not much damage to the building and none seen on the warthog, but all caught on tape. Only a week until the release!