The new expansion will pit you as an ODST marine aka New Hero and will serve as a prequel to Halo 3. We’ll have the teaser trailer up soon and box art.

Update: Trailer after the jump.
Update 2: Luke posted this snippit over at NeoGaf.

The word “stealth” here isn’t really a great word. This isn’t a stealth action game like a Splinter Cell game. This is a Bungie-made Halo game where you will play as an ODST, which of course, is different (and no, I’m not talking about how it’s different ;b) than playing as a Spartan super soldier. This isn’t Halo Cell, Ghost Recon: Halo, Republic Commandalo or whatever.

Edit: Forgot Call of Halo and Gears of Halo.

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Last week, Bungie’s Teaser Trailer put everyone into a frenzy and fired up the rumor mill about what was going to be announced and when. EDGE is reporting that Bungie will indeed make an official announcement next week at TGS. Yay!

We at CrunchGear posit that the music from Halo 3 will add nobility and gravitas to the most mundane of tasks. We tested it, with mixed results.

After 12 hours of anticipation, the countdown that hit Bungie’s front page last night has finally clicked its way down to zero.

Once finished, the standard front page was replaced, with a news item linking to “Teaser Trailer“. And man, does it tease.

It begins by flashing through a series of what appear to be security camera (Superintendent) views of an earth city. (One of the security camera’s is labeled Mbaraki, which is a location in the real world Mombasa in Kenya. A return to New Mombasa?) Something tears through the atmosphere, smashing into the city. The Halo 3 logo pops up, followed by “Prepare to Drop”.

I’m still hedging my bets on singleplayer DLC for Halo 3. Update: Yep. If you check out the video’s description on the Xbox Live Marketplace, it outright says “High action and deep mystery await players in this new halo 3 campaign experience. Prepare to drop!”.

The update you Halo fans have been expecting is due to arrive on the 23rd of this month, says Luke over at Bungie. Luke would also like you to know that any and all mishaps will be monitored closely and they should resolve themselves within the first four to five hours of going live. Read More

Honestly, who still plays Halo 3? A few more tidbits about the Assembly Map Pack after the jump, which Luke says might not come out till the Halo 3 anniversary (That’s only 17 days from now).
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The limited edition Halo 3 360s are sold out online, but you may get lucky if you run to your nearest Hot Topic store. Sure, it’s only the 20GB model, but it’s $60 cheaper than buying one at Best Buy and it comes with a Play & Charge kit at a $200 discount. But who the heck knew Hot Topic sold such things?

via Kotaku

As mentioned earlier, Bungie had one level from their upcoming “Mythic” map pack on display at PAX 08. Called “Assembly”, it’s a very Midship-esque Covenant themed map. I gave it a quick run through earlier today, trying to get as much of the level on video as possible while attempting to avoid firefights — not an easy task. Beside the sneak peak, Bungie had little else to say about the map pack.

Live from the floor of PAX 08: Bungie is demoing a new Halo 3 map called Assembly; the picture above shows the title “Halo 3 Mythic,” which the Bungie guy said was just a placeholder name for the map pack. He said he “doesn’t know how it’s going to manifest itself to the public,” whatever that means.

More on this as we get it.

After Bungie’s acceptance video for an EDGE magazine award dropped ambiguous hints as to what they may have in the works, the Halo 3 community exploded with theories. While just about everyone had ideas of their own, one of the more popular beliefs was that Bungie was planning to add AI bots to the multiplayer aspect of the game.

Not a chance, says Bungie. Luke Smith, Bungie’s community rep, on the matter: “There will be no insertion of Campaign objects, enemies or friendlies via the Forge as folks have speculated. There will be no “bots” added to the game. [...] Do consider this issue a closed one. Calm yourselves down, pump the brakes, and take a breath. “

Looks like whiny, dirty mouthed pre-teens will be about as close as we get to artificial intelligence in Halo 3. Oh, and if we’re still taking bets: I’m guessing it’s single player campaign DLC of the parallel running side-story variety.

If you haven’t already been informed of this then I have great news for you! Today is Bungie Day and to celebrate you can download a gaggle of Halo 3 goodies from Xbox Live that include themes, gamer pics, and the ultra frosty Cold Storage map as well as a price drop for the Legendary Map Pack down to 600 MS points. I guess I should dig up my copy of Halo 3 and take out Gear of War. Yes, I still play GoW. I can’t wait for E3 next week, so I can get a hands-on of GoW2.

I have no idea if the guy doing all the product pitching works for any of the companies mentioned in any of the videos, but he is freaking hilarious. I can’t stop laughing. The Gatorade video is probably the funniest one of all. I hope companies don’t plan on advertising like this in the future. Maybe the guy was smoking some herb or crack.
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I bought my Xbox 360 just to play Halo 3, I’ll admit it. I love that game and I love playing it online. I love the terrains and maps, and the new maps for download look great. Here’s a video preview of the badass-looking Ghost Town map that I want to play ASAP.

Want to see how it’ll look on your TV? Check out the HD version if you have a decent connection.

Bungie’s Legendary Map pack is slated for an April 15th launch for 800 MS points and that means the Heroic Map pack will be free to download this Tuesday, the 25th of March at 2AM PST.

Sidewinder is one of my favorite classic multiplayer levels in the Halo series, and a re-vamped version is on its way to Halo 3 as downloadable content. Called Avalanche, the arctic-themed level retains the same basic layout and toys of the original, but adds a few fun gameplay elements.

Notable changes include the removal of the main connecting tunnel to keep the battle in the field instead of underground, more cannons, and the loss of ladders.

It will cost 800MS points when it comes out in April, so it’s a little pricey, but if you’re tired of the built-in levels and want to frag somewhere new, it’s not a bad price.

Legendary Map: Avalanche [Bungie]