Legendary Map Pack: April 15th
The second map has been revealed, and it’s a “remake” of Halo 1’s Sidewinder. It wouldn’t be wholly accurate to call it a “remake,†but elements of Avalanche are certainly culled from Sidewinder – it has the same familiar U-shape, multiple ways from base-to-base, and a whole sandbox full o’ vehicles to play with. But there are many, many changes too.
Sidewinder’s new name is Avalanche, and Bungie has posted an interview with some of the designers and artists, along with the announcement that the map pack will be releasing on April 15th, and will be priced for 800 Microsoft Points, (they also point out that they didn’t set the price, Microsoft did).
Below this you will see I have posted all the pictures they have released so far, along with some interesting excerpts from the announcement article. For the full Q&A session, click here.
Avalanche is a large forerunner power station set on the front of a huge glacial shelf on an under construction Halo installation. The structure is pulling its power out of the densely compacted ice that constantly builds up behind the station before it falls into the ocean below.
The map has a lot more vehicle action now. We’ve included flying vehicle and fast transport vehicles (Ghosts and Mongooses) to the roster. The equipment plays a major role in objective games. In fact, for CTF I would even say that equipment works better in Avalanche than any other MP map.
Q: Why Avalanche instead of [someone from the Internet’s favorite map, here]?
JS: Honestly there are so many maps I would personally love to see placed within Halo3’s DLC. And for me and others Sidewinder was one of them. I think it’s just one of many we really wanted to do. Not to mention I believe there were allot of folks banging on the door requesting it.
LB: Since the Halo: CE days, Sidewinder has been a fan favorite. Sure it might not be on EVERYONE’S list, but it seemed to be on the short list for a lot of incredibly vocal fans. And hell, it’s HUGE! And we needed more BTB maps.
MB: It just made sense. Looking back at the release maps and DLC1 maps, everyone could see that we needed another Big Team Battle map along the lines of Sandtrap, and with the Community’s love of Sidewinder, it was a great fit.
NS: Two reasons: Sidewinder is one the most requested remakes and we also needed another big vehicle map. And maybe this isn’t the only classic we’re remaking. There’s always hope for said Internet Halo fan.
“Team Slayer, and Team King are good, but the favorite Friday afternoon playtest has become Multi Flag on Avalanche. It’s definitely brought back memories of Halo CE LAN parties. The games are completely epic, and by adding vehicles into that mix, crazy things are guaranteed to happen. Can you say Capture the Flag with a Hornet?”
Just under a month to go until Tuesday, April 15th!