Bungie's 'big news' has today seemingly materialised, the developer confirming that a new 3 map pack will hit Live on December 11th, offering gamers a little festive cheer - albeit 'cheer' they'll have to pay 800 Points for.

News of the new map pack comes via the semi-official Gamerscore blog, with three maps promised to comprise the download: Standoff, Rat's Nest and Foundry. No doubt the 800 points price-tag coupled with Halo 3's huge should help pay for Microsoft own festivities, anyway.

"Standoff's a symmetrical valley, with its entrenched bases and fields of boulders is ideal for mid-sized objective and Slayer game types," the blog reveals, while Rat's Nest offer many passages - "an indoor vehicle paradise, strongly influenced by the Campaign mode, ideal for big team battles."

Foundry, meanwhile is "the ultimate Forge map, players can edit every single object in this voluminous industrial warehouse, place stairways, walls, bridges and tunnels to create an entirely new play space and build almost any kind of map they can think of."

December 11th it is.

By Luke Guttridge