I stumbled across a lot of Halo 3 tidbits while eating lunch today. First off, there are 33 Halo 3 screenshots and images available to view over at 1up.com. View them all here. Lots of juicy visuals to browse through. From what I can tell there are three multiplayer maps in the screenshots. One of them looks like it'll be a Zanzibar-esque map with a base and some interactive features of the map environment (e.g. doors to open, etc):

I can't be sure, but there is a diagram of a map that looks like the one above. The diagram illustrates the use of a "big ass" mortar gun. Very cool:

There's also an image of a Spartan wielding what looks like a new weapon:

Perhaps a weapon good for melee attacks because of its blades?

Bungie also announced that Halo 3 multiplayer will be available in beta form to XBox 360/XBox Live subscribers next year. You play, you provide data to Bungie, you help make a better game.

Finally, there are also new Halo 2 maps coming out that will be only available on XBox 360. Bummer for me. Another reason to keep saving my pennies for a 360.

Read more about the announcements here.