We’ll all be getting our hands on Halo 3’s new map pack in a few days (assuming you fork over the 800 Microsoft Points, or $10, for them), but Dan Hsu got an early look at all three maps and walked away very impressed. Just from the trailers and screens we’ve seen, I thought this would be the case, but it’s nice to know that these maps are actually as good as they look.

Shoe offers up his thoughts and suggestions for game types on each map, in addition to notable weapons, things to pay attention to, and what Bungie has to say. According to him, the $10 doesn’t seem like too much anymore. “[I]t could just be because we’re having so much fun with the latest three maps: a perfect port of a fan-fave Halo 2 stage, a ‘Yay, this is much better’ re-imagining of a Halo: Combat Evolved classic, and a wholly new original. While playing the Legendary Map Pack, its price tag never even entered our minds.”

Read the full story over at 1UP.

This week’s 1UP Show features David Ellis sounding off on two of his favorite franchises, Mario Kart for the Wii and the Legendary map pack for Halo 3.

You can also look forward to checking out Square’s newest RPG, The World Ends With You alongside Jeremy Parish and Michael Donahoe.

The 1UP Show got to spend some quality time with Bungie this week, as mentioned above. How good was it? I think Matt Chandronait said it best in his blog this week:

A very big thanks to Bungie this week! Both to Writing Lead Frank O’Connor for his brilliant performance and to Multiplayer Design Lead Lars Bakken for both the candid interview and for being understanding (I hope) about me forgetting to put him in the “special thanks” section of the credits! Hey, it was my first solo gig! One should just be glad the 1UP offices are still standing and there were only scattered reports of mutiny :p

As always, FileFront is hosting the 1UP Show for your downloading pleasure. You can grab your weekly fix at any of the links below.

• QT M4V (Podcast)
• WMV 640×360
• QT 640×360

Develop 100 ranks the world’s games development studios based on the revenues their products made at UK retail in 2007. This year, not surprisingly, the top honor goes to Nintendo and I have listed the Top 20 here for you.

1. Nintendo (£129.83m)
2. EA Canada (£68.78m)
3. Ubisoft Montreal (£52.17m)
4. Konami (£41.67m)
5. Infinity Ward (£39.6m)
6. EA Black Box (£37.31m)
7. Maxis (£36.84m)
8. Bungie (£31.45m)
9. Sega Studios Japan (£27.7m)
10. Traveller’s Tales (£27.06m)
11. Ubisoft France (£25.37m)
12. Yuke’s (£24.5m)
13. Amaze Entertainment (£24.07m)
14. EA LA (£22.49m)
15. Capcom (£22.3m)
16. Rebellion (£20.13m)
17. EA Redwood Shores (£19.99m)
18. Vicarious Visions (£17.56m)
19. A2M (£17.5m)
20. Hudson (£16.22m)

It was no surprise to see that EA took nine of the spots considering that they own many a gaming studio across the globe. Criterion, and BioWare which are also owned by EA were listed as well and maybe even a few that I missed. I expect EA to become the majority share holder for both Heaven and Hell eventually.

For the full list click here.

Since the release of the new Legendary Map Pack for Halo 3 is less than a week away, Bungie is pretty much giving away all the details about the three new maps now. But probably the best way to find out what you can expect from the new locales is from this video from the maps’ designers. Here, three of the “mapmakers” get together inside the new maps to almost give you a guided tour of the places — and occasionally try to kill each other. They also spend some time just generally messing around with some of the different aspects of the map, highlighting some key strategy points, and showing off some new surprises, like enhanced Forge options. Think of this as the review before the big test on April 15th.

The Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack is coming out next week (April15th) and to get you all pumped up for it, Bungie has released some new screen shots over on their site. Here is the rundown for each map:

• Ghost Town: A medium-sized map designed for one-sided games ideal player counts range from 4 to 10 players. Ghost Town is the battle-scarred remnant of a war-ravaged hydroelectric plant in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

*Best Gametypes: Team Slayer, One Flag CTF, Multi-Flag CTF, One Bomb

• Avalanche: A reimagingation of Halo: Combat Evolved fan favorite, “Sidewinder”, “Avalanche’s” size makes it ideal for big ol’ games of Halo 3. “Avalanche” is a Forerunner power station set on a glacial shelf on an under-construction replacement for Installation 04.

*Best Gametypes: Multi-Flag CTF, One Flag CTF, One Bomb, Team King, Team Slayer

• Blackout: It’s not a reimagination, it’s a remake of one of Halo 2’s most beloved maps. “Blackout” very nearly speaks the same language that its predecessor, “Lockout”, spoke to Halo 2 players. Its long lines of sight and interconnected platforms preserved, but in a new location: a frigid UNSC research station beneath the low lights of the aurora borealis.

*Best Gametypes: Team Slayer, One Flag CTF, One Bomb

For gamers in the New Jersey area who want to be the first people to try out the new map “Blackout”, Bungie will be previewing it this weekend at the Meadowlands Expo Center.

I never knew this until a few moments ago, but apparently there is a burgeoning group out there dedicated to crafting unique sculptures using My Little Ponies as a medium. With that in mind, I guess it was only a matter of time before the “make something into Master Chief” craze worked its way in that direction. Right now on eBay, there’s an auction going on for this custom My Little Pony that has been outfitted to resemble every Xbox gamer’s favorite Spartan. I’ll just let the seller’s description do the talking.

This is a OOAK Master cheif [sic] in His MJOLNIR IV armor as seen in HALO 3.
He is fully sculpted with Apoxie sculpt. The armor has been weathered, to give it an authentic battle look.
He also won second place in the Kentucky anime/gaming/comic custom pony contest.

Just remember: you need that battle-worn armor if you want to win a pony show.

Via eBay

As Part of its Birthday celebration, Rooster Teeth has revealed a new Red vs. Blue series; Reconstruction. The first taste of this new series is up on the official website as a video.

The video is not what I expected to see at all. Rather than the goofy antics of the guys, girl and robot we’ve come to know over the years, the footage is dark and serious. The scene is a mutual slaughter of both teams, a cryptic message carved into the wall and a mysterious ship. I kept waiting for the punch line.

I’m sure the Rooster Teeth can pull off a serious storyline. However I’m not sure Red vs. Blue fans would appreciate a more serious take on a well established and wildly popular comedy.

You can catch the video for red vs. Blue reconstruction at the Rooster Teeth site.

Download in Windows Media Player format.
Download in Quicktime Format.

I was already pretty excited for the new Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack – I mean, the spiritual successors to both Sidewinder and Lockout? In one DLC pack? I’m still the same hardcore Halo freak at heart, so while I was able to wait for the first Halo 3 DLC to become free, I don’t think I’ll be able to do the same a second time.

The trailer above is a bit different than what you would expect, and only serves as more of a teaser trailer than an in depth look at the maps. Still, it’s got me very excited and I’m ready to plunk down 800 Microsoft Points on April 15 for some new maps.

We all know by now that Halo 2’s development cycle was far from ideal; Bungie has suggested as much previously, but that didn’t stop cinematics director CJ Cowan from talking about the hellacious period it was.

“On Halo 2 we had no idea what our schedule was like or if we were on schedule or how far behind schedule we were. It wasn’t a very efficiently developed game and we wasted a lot of time up front,” he told Next Gen.

“Up until Halo 3’s pre-production we were still in the mindset of guys in a basement trying to make games even though we’d ballooned to like 60 or 70 dudes. We still had that idea that ‘hey we can make this work’, but it just wasn’t realistic anymore.

“Halo 3 had a really defined pre-production stage so the whole team had a confident, shared vision of what the game was going to be before the real work even started. It sounds like common sense but Bungie didn’t used to work that way. We used to be ‘seat of your pants just make it happen’.

“Halo 3 was a much easier game to make in terms of the stress level and crunch. The team still worked their ass off but it wasn’t that eighteen months of dread and ‘oh my god, are we ever going to get this game done’. I just don’t think we ever hit that stage.”

The difference? Producers.

“Our production staff is something that we’ve really grown tremendously even within the Halo 3 pipeline. On Halo 2 we literally had one real producer and then one executive producer who was also running the entire business. Now I think we have 14 full time producers.

“I cannot say enough good things about having a great producer on your team. It makes a world of difference. If I ever had anything on my computer monitor that was not creative and directing cinematics, my producer would tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘you shouldn’t be working on that, give it to me’. And I would. I would say, ‘yeah you’re right’. I would hand it off, I would not think about it again, and so I was really free to concentrate on the creative. That happened across the board in all disciplines.”

He explained situations like that to be tremendously helpful, and I can certainly understand his position. That rebellious feeling inside might be screaming, “I’ll do whatever I want!” but ultimately, the payoff of having focused and getting to see your work – along with the work of everyone else – coming together would more than make up for it.

Assuming, y’know, the game you designed isn’t crappy.

Rooster Teeth, the guys responsible for popular machinima featuring Halo, Shadowrun and The Sims 2, are celebrating another birthday. The idea that became “Red vs. Blue” in April 2003 is now a very popular series spanning five seasons.

To celebrate this momentous occasion Rooster Teeth is offering fans a 6 DVD box set of “Red vs. Blue” including all five seasons of “The Blood Gulch Chronicles”. The sixth DVD features never before released videos, behind the scenes footage, Rooster Teeth’s BareNaked Ladies concert videos, the XBL mini-series RECOVERY ONE and contributions from the RvB community. If you’ve already got all five seasons like I do, you can purchase the bonus DVD and box.

The team is also relaunching the Rooster Teeth Website with an updated look. There’s a walkthrough video of things to come up on the current web page.

via Rooster Teeth