Newly independant Halo developers Bungie have been talking a lot about new maps, using code words and vague tempting descriptions, but now they make the trio of multiplayer additions official.

Available December 11, 2007 for 800 MS Points ($10 US) will be the Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack. You’ll be able to download these using your XBox Live account connection. There are 3 maps in all: Standoff, Rat’s Nest, and Foundry.

Standoff is a symetrical map with 2 bases set at dusk and giant satellite dishes in the background. Rat’s Nest is the companion to the campaign mission Crow’s Nest, featuring indoor and outdoor settings. Foundry was designed from the ground up for Forge alterations; apparently almost everything in the map can be moved or deleted.

Those not wishing to buy the maps will get them free in Spring, right when the next map pack goes for sale.

Read all about maps direct from the designers at Bungie.net

This one is firmly in rumorville, but since the names are big, I’m going to pass it along.

EGM’s “Quarterman” column this month suggests EA will be announced as the publisher for the videogame companion to the big budget GI Joe movie.

With a writer’s strike on and the exact status of the Joes uncertain, the movie could well come out later than the intended summer 2009 release. This could be good news for a game, as the one thing holding back many license games is a rush to get the job done by the movie release date. Activision’s Transformers was a good game, but was about 2 months worth of adjustments and tuning away from a great game.

GI Joe has certainly been the subject of games before, with 2 pretty good NES titles and a fun coin-op entry as well. A next gen third person shooter with all the goofy joe vehicles, characters, and gadgets is just the thing we need to shake up the overly serious shooters. In fact, its high time I log on to Halo 3 and see if I can’t build some kind of Joes vs Cobras map…

THanks to G4TV, we have the first footage of the Ghostbusters game we only found out about 2 days ago.

Also new online is the official website, though it opens with a teaser trailer with no in game footage. It does however have some great screen shots of Slimer, Ray, and Mr Stay Puft.

The site also reveals some of the game’s story. You’ll be playing as a new recruit who will team with the original Ghostbusters team to take on the latest outbreak of the dead, undead, and recently dead.

The FOX Network has announced plans to move forward with new episodes of Family Guy without the participation of creator, writer, and star Seth Macfarlane. According to Reuters:

20th TV had no comment on the matter Tuesday but confirmed that it remains in production on new episodes. The first episode finished without MacFarlane’s blessing has been delivered to Fox. Sources said it is one of three very close to completion, with others in various stages of production.

Seth MacFarlane voices Peter, Brian, and Stewie. Its not mentioned whether Seth Green (who voices Chris, but is also the writer of Robot Chicken) or Alex Borstein (the voice of Lois and also a Family Guy writer) will appear or not. This is worse than Wrong Sounding Muppets.

If ringers are brought in, I hope fans do not tune in as a show of support for a show that lived and was brought back to life because of its fans. Also one would hope the episodes are re-recorded with the regular cast once the strike is over for future DVD releases.

GameInformer has revealed the cover of their next issue to include the mega-ton announcement of the ultimate untapped 80’s license: Ghostbusters.

Of course this is more than just a game cash-in. Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd are writing the games script and along with Bill Murray will reprise their roles as Dr. Egon Spengler, Dr. Raymond Stantz, and Dr. Peter Venkman. Of course this is no huge surprise since Aykroyd let slip to the Edmonton Sun back in February that Vivendi Universal had secured the rights and he was going to be involved. Around that same time we heard of an All CG Ghostbusters movie, but its hard to say if they were talking about the same thing or if that third movie is still happening.

Now lets get Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson. And lets pull Rick Moranis out of retirement to bring back the brilliance of Louis Tulley.

It goes without saying that a sand box game where you roll around NYC taking calls to bust ghosts would be the ideal game style, but they’re not saying anything just yet. The actual story will have more info, and Game Informer subscribers will be able to access some of this material by logging on to the site this Friday.

UPDATE: Variety reports Ernie Hudson (Winston Zedemore), Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz) and William Atherton (Walter Peck) have all been cast. In addtion, Brian Doyle-Murray will play an unspecified charater.

Variety also specifies some of the developers. Terminal Reality will handle the PC, 360, and PS3 versions. Red Fly Studio will develop the PS2, Wii, and DS versions.

The fall dashboard update for the Xbox 360 is running a little late this year. According to Official Xbox Magazine, it should happen on December 4th. Will it be worth the wait? Well parents will be able to use the new Family Settings to limit the time childen playing games. Thats enough Viva Pinata, little Jimmy. Sadly, this is unlikely to curtail the pint sized razor tongued demons I meet nightly in the Xbox Live lobbies of various M rated games. At least MS is trying.

Also coming with this update will be Xbox’s own virtual console! Original Xbox games will be available for 1200 Microsoft points ($15). The launch lineup will be the original Halo (obviously) Fahrenheit, Fable, Crimson Skies, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex and Burnout 3: Takedown. Compatibility with Xbox Live is expected for those titles that supported it (Crimson Skies, Burnout).

Those in Europe will be pleased to find out they’re finally getting Video Marketplace. Now they too can finally download episodes of South Park for $2 a pop.

In a little more immediate news, Screwjumper is now Xbox Live Arcade’s 100th game. To celebrate this as well as 2 years of the service they’re promising a surprise new game next Wednesday that is a “sequel to Xbox Live Arcade’s most successful game.”
I haven’t checked the numbers in a while. That could be early hit Geometry Wars, the card game Uno, or even this year’s best selling classic arcade title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

No matter what, there seems to be no shortage of downlaodable content on Xbox Live these days, which is frustrating since I’m still trying to clear Halo 3, haven’t touched Orange Box yet, and Assassin’s Creed comes out this week.

Powet fan Icarus Prime sent me this link to a brilliant send up of the popular cable obstacle course show “Ninja Warrior” and was featured on G4 recently.
A full run is done through the Halo 3 map “Last Resort” in the Forge editing tool.

While certainly not the fanfare that trailers for the Transformers movie had, a new clip of the animated series is welcome. We hear a little bit of David Kaye as Optimus Prime and Corey Burton as Megatron. Kaye is unlike any Prime we’ve had before and Megatron… we’ll he’s actually pretty darn close to the movie Megatron, right down to demanding The Allspark.