THEATERS OF WAR

At one point while making Halo 3, every day map designer Steve Cotton came into work, multiplayer map lead Chris Carney would start playing Yub Nub, the Ewok song from the end of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Cotton was pitching a map built from floating platforms in a giant forest, which eventually became Guardian. “It was every time, without fail,” Cotton remembers with a laugh. For awhile, one of Halo 3’s best maps would be nicknamed Jub-Jub.

With ’s recent launch on PC as part of , PC gamers can finally play the best multiplayer. Even 13 years later, many of its maps hold up as some of the best play spaces in FPS history. It was also the first time Bungie didn’t have to rush to get its maps made at a feverish sprint in the last few months before release.