It's rather difficult for me to get a handle on exactly how I feel about the recently announced plans for new Halo 2 maps. Part of that is because of my own personal situation-- having been without decent DSL since before Halo 2's release, I'm only just now getting the hang of the multiplayer maps that shipped with the game; and even then, my higher-than-average ping and utter lack of skill or practice is still getting me massacred daily on maps I barely know and already paid for, to say nothing of maps that are yet to come.

Another part of the reason is that Bungie's plan straddles such a fine line between the kind of fiendish plot that would have areas of the Internet dismissing Bungie once and for all as a moneymaking mill for Microsoft (as if that hadn't already happened) and a kind of pointless altruism that would have Bungie toil away on new content for no compensation at all.

As you've no doubt already read, XBL users will get two free maps to start with, with two more available for a total of about $6-- $3 per map, by my math. Then, in the end of June, for $20 you can get all nine maps, plus some extra goodies; or you can buy and download the five maps that weren't available before from XBL for a total of $12. Then, at some later date, all the maps will be free to XBL subscribers.

This plan is so ingenious, it borders on common sense.

So if you're an XBL subscriber, you've got a huge range of choices facing you from now until late summer. If the $50 for Xbox Live tapped you out and you don't want to spend any more: you don't have to. Just wait long enough and you'll get everything for free. If you want to sit this one out and make some kind of moral victory out of the fact that you paid your money for Halo 2 and you feel you're owed new maps-- just sit on your hands and wait, it'll happen.

Want everything the second it's available? Then splurge. Take the two free maps, and shell out $6 for the other two; you'll have everything that's released. Then, pay the $20 for the disc when it comes out. Sure, you'll be paying for four maps you've already got. But since the five new maps on XBL will cost $12, you're essentially paying only $8 more, and for that, Bungie is throwing in a documentary, a cinematic, and who knows what else. Grand total spent? $26 for nine maps, a cinematic, a documentary, and the privilege of being on the bleeding edge of... something.

And there are plenty of options in between. Take the first two free maps, but give the other two a pass until the disc comes out, and save $6. Don't need the extras? Give the disc a pass, and buy only the maps online; that'll save you two bucks. Who knows, someone might even put those extra things on this "Internet" thing somewhere, or you can watch it at a friends house... if you ever leave yours again, that is.

The question I wonder about is how this will affect matchmaking. Already, sometimes problems are caused when one member of a party can't load a map. This is apparently caused by dirty disc errors-- something that I imagine would not affect downloaded maps. But even if not, obviously matchmaking will have to take into account what maps a player has before setting up games; so there's a chance that not having certain maps may limit your abilities to get into games at times; perhaps Bungie is even counting on this to give players incentive to buy the new maps.

The four maps revealed so far are in keeping with the theme of using single-player settings for multiplayer levels. Containment is a snow map set in an area similar to Quarantine Zone; Warlock is an ancient moss-ridden temple, very similar to the first structures in Regret; Sanctuary looks a lot like Delta Halo and Turf shows us another neighborhood in New Mombassa; perhaps it will even satisfy those who long for the Earth City level from the E3 demo of yore.