14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft, as the publisher, and Bungie, as the developer, have introduced seven new Achievements to Halo: Reach and added another 250 Gamerpoints to Halo: Reach with the launch of the new Noble Map Pack.
The new downloadable content pack can be downloaded from Xbox Live and the price is set at 800 Microsoft Points, which is the equivalent of 10 dollars.
Some gamers have suggested that the three maps included, while well designed, are too few to justify the purchase of the Noble pack as they do little to enhance the multiplayer aspect of the game.
The fact that the new DLC only delivers a small number of Achievements and 250 of the precious Points can mean that Microsoft is ready to deliver more multiplayer map to Reach in the future and keeping more Achievements and Gamerscore in reserve for those occasions.
The timing of the release is designed to make Halo: Reach relevant again just as the crucial pre Christmas shopping season is starting and people start looking around for presents.
Both Bungie and Microsoft have strongly suggested in the past that any future launch of content for Halo: Reach would come for the multiplayer side of the game with the narrative left untouched.
At the moment Bungie is working with rival publisher Activision Blizzard on a new intellectual property, which they will be developing for the next ten years, while the reins of the Halo franchise have been handed to 343 Industries by Microsoft.
The three maps included in the Noble Map Pack are: Tempest, Anchor 9 and Breakoint.
The idea behind them is to make experiences that are suited for different groups of players while offering a good array of different environments, some, like the space station, cramped and close quarter oriented and others more suited to running and gunning.