It took me a while to think of exactly the right set of words to descibe how I felt about the Heroic Map Pack for Halo 3. After giving it a solid week of gameplay, I feel that I've come to descibe each of the three news maps with their appropriate review;

Standoff: this beautiful map is exactly what we needed for Halo 3. A medium-sized map with access to vehicles. And not just that, the placing of rocks, bases, high points and low points makes this such a symmetrical map. I feel that whatever game variant we play, they all seem to work out just right on the Standoff map. And not just that, with all the additional Forge supplies, you can really make a great map with bridges and extra forts (Or whatever else you would like). In all honesty, this is the best of the three new maps. Not by far, but it is the best - especially in terms of what Halo 3 needed.

Rat's Nest: When I first played this map, I was thoroughly disappointed. From the previews and pictures, I was expecting this to be a BIG map. Bungie said is was "meant for Big Team Battle, like Valhalla and Sandtrap." When I first played the map, the size of it was no bigger than Standoff. Actually, I still think that Standoff is a bigger map due to its wide-openness. But after playing it a few more times and getting warmed up to it, I finally came to figure that Rat's Nest is actually a really fun map. Although I was expecting much more, the map is actually very well designed. It works particularly well with 4 v. 4, and we had a phenominal 3 v. 3 v. 3 match on that map. I guess when I got past the Not-as-big-as-Valhalla-and-Sandtrap mindset, I finally let the map be great. And like with Standoff, Forging Rat's Nest is a blast, as I honestly feel that my Forged map is better than the original.

Foundry: Last but definitely not least, Foundry was hailed the most "Forgable map in Halo history." And boy is THAT true. I've played soccer and dodgeball. I've ran through mazes and climbed obnoxous towers. I enjoyed a hilarious reenactment of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with someone's "Castle" map. Seriously, the amount of material you have at your disposal is obnoxious. I've had a blast in pretty much every Forged map for Foundry. Even the ones that suck, you still have some sort of fun just by giving someone's creativity a chance. As a map itself, it's not the best thing in the world, but Bungie's already-set Foundry is a great map. The fact that you can change it to almost whatever you want, however, is what makes the map amazing.

There. That's my review of the new maps.