New Halo 3 Map Now Live for Testers

Over the last year, Halo has expanded on PC in a major way. Thanks to Halo: The Master Chief Collection, nearly every mainline game in the Halo series is now available to play on PC, including Halo 3. However, in addition to the campaigns and the multiplayer featured in each game, The Master Chief Collection has also been receiving new, exclusive content, including maps for Halo 3.

For some players, it might be hard to believe that Halo 3 is nearly fourteen years old, but some might find it harder to believe that the game has been receiving new content in the form of multiplayer maps. Last month, Halo 3 received its first new multiplayer map in over twelve years in the form of Waterfall. This map was separately from Season 6 of The Master Chief Collection.

The second new multiplayer map to release for Halo 3, known as Edge, can now be played via the beta testing program. Edge and Waterfall are the first new maps Halo 3 has received within the last twelve years and it will give older fans of the game something to look forward to. However, for some fans, these maps aren't exactly new.

The Edge and Waterfall maps were originally featured on Halo Online, which has quite a complicated history. Before Halo: The Master Chief Collection was ported to PC, Halo Online served as a way for players to play multiplayer Halo via PC. The game included original multiplayer maps and garnered a loyal player base during its short existence.

Halo Online was taken down by Microsoft a year after its initial release, but thanks to a group of modders, the game was made available to play for a short time afterwards by way of a mod called ElDewrito. Microsoft later took legal action against the ones that made the original ElDewrito mod. Since then, the maps that were featured on Halo Online haven't been available to play for some time.

The release of these maps for the Master Chief Collection will likely please those who played Halo Online back in the day. It will be interesting to see what else 343 Industries will do with The Master Chief Collection. Given how much time and energy is being put into Halo Infinite, it's fairly amazing that The Master Chief Collection is still receiving new content. With the Xbox Series X/S port of The Master Chief Collection and the release of the new Edge map on the horizon, now is as good a time as any to be a Halo fan.

Halo: Master Chief Collection has provided fans of the franchise with just about every mainline entry in the series, all bundled together in one cohesive package. Of course, developer 343 Industries has added its own rewards to the collection, offering new ways for players to customize their Spartans that weren't found when the games first launched.

Earlier today, Halo: Master Chief Collection launched Season 6, the latest in the game's steady churn of new content, which has consistently kept players coming back to the game. Along with the new season comes 100 brand new reward tiers, heavily influenced by Halo: Fireteam Raven. It's a lot of content, with a unique unlock system that gives players more freedom where unlocking rewards is concerned.