First map now available on Xbox Live coupled with auto-update...

Further to news earlier in the week regarding Downloadable Content for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Ubisoft has today confirmed that the first versus map, ‘Steel Squat’ is available via Xbox Live. The map, which is also available for PC owners of the game, is set in Brooklyn, ‘New Yoike’ and features both indoor and outdoor gameplay as players help in a co-ordinated operation between the FBI, US Customs, the DEA, and the IRS (that’s quite a bust.)

In addition, an auto-update is provided during the course of downloading the new map via Live, which will address several issues identified in the retail version of game including:

• Correction on light status on clients (Some lights were not replicated correctly depending on clients or host - some lights could appear to be 'On' instead of 'Off')
• Correction on coronas display (Coronas lights were not activated on the retail Xbox version of the game)
• Host doesn't see anymore where bombs are placed on the radar. He has to seek for it, just like the clients.
• In "Aquarius" map, a Mercenary grabbed by a Spy doesn't get stuck in the crunching box: it dies with the Spy - Some mercenaries were stuck in a box in Aquarius map
• It's no longer possible to play ranking games when alternate rules are set (It was possible to play with alternate rules in ranking mode. Use alternate rules, choose some option, then activate the ranking mode)
• Tutorial mode appears clearly for everyone in the lobby (Now if the tutorial mode is set, the message appears clearly on the screen and the clients are set to "Not Ready")
• Correction on some Spy bullets that were not working properly (Sometimes, there was a glitch on Spy bullets if you used them first on a wall, then on a Mercenary)
• Correction on Camera that always displays its detection information (On "ClubHouse" and "Factory" maps, the camera was always displaying detection information, if a spy was killed while being detected)

Details of the two new co-op maps, which will be released in the next few weeks, have also been unveiled by Ubisoft. ‘Nuclear Plant’ is set in the somewhat topical country of North Korea and features a maze of passages and puzzles as well as open spaces and ‘loud machines’. The second, ‘UN Headquarters’ is set in New York with all of the security that you’d expect in one of the world’s most protected buildings. The end of the Summer will see the release of the final versus map – ‘Polar Base’, and like all of the other downloads Polar Base will be available free of charge.

We’ll have more on Chaos Theory DLC shortly…