New Halo 3 Map Revealed - Avalanche

[Jagger]

Kind of surprised. Completely expected to see a post from Epyon already here.

Legendary Map: Avalanche
Posted by lukems at 3/18/2008 10:51 PM PDT

Avalanche (AKA Cotton Ball), the second map from next month’s Legendary Map pack – due April 15th for 800 marketplace points (remember, we just make the maps, we don't get to price them) – is a lovingly crafted reimagination of Halo: Combat Evolved classic 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.

Designers Niles Sankey and Lars Bakken along with artists Mike Buelterman and Jason Sussman have answered a bunch of questions about Avalanche and hopefully between their answers and the accompanying pictures, what Avalanche is will begin to crystallize.

Link

[ishmaelj1]

What are the other maps called, and do you know when the older map pack goes to free on the XBLM?

[ZoomZoom71]

Originally Posted by Jagger

Kind of surprised. Completely expected to see a post from Epyon already here.

Glad to see 'em bring back Sidewinder, in one form or another.

[Epyon MX]

*Epyon is still recovering from the friggin' awesome revelation that this is*

*He will post his thoughts as soon as he recovers the ability to*

[Wondermonkey]

I just sent Bungie a check for $10.

Bring on the Legendary Map Pack. My Halo fandom is complete now, I expect never to hear the word Sidewinder again after playing this.

Monkey love Bungie.

Q: What’s different about Avalanche in terms of sandbox elements?

MB: The number one difference would have to be the amount of new infantry routes and large number of vehicles in the mix all at once. We also have a really cool Covenant vs. Human vehicle setup on objective games that I think folks will enjoy.

LB: Well, we figured that you can’t really have a huge new wintery map and not make the vehicles snow covered! So, yeah, that was the original idea, and it grew into making the UNSC vehicles all wintery. Also the Hornet (in Avalanche only) has been tweaked from the shipping version to make it better suited as an MP vehicle, instead of a floating death platform. So, the Hornet will finally see some action in Matchmaking. There are some unique Forge objects as well that are unique to Avalanche.

NS: 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.

[Crippler]

I love when devs put out new maps, don't get me wrong. But when they rehash old favs and then CHARGE is not cool. So, they now have made $ on this SAME map 3x. Nice. Way to milk Bessy. This goes for any dev. Old favs should be something of a gift.

[Wondermonkey]

No ones forcing anyone to buy it though, and those that don't want to can still play all the ranked matches without having the maps since they aren't put into General Matchmaking rotation until they're free.

Plus, those that don't want to pony up but still want to play can just play Halo: CE to get their fill.

Fans have been calling out for Sidewinder since Halo 2, at least they finally got to making an homage to the original. This map pack isn't for you anyway, it's for Legendary players Crippler! LEGENDARY!

[Crippler]

So LEGENDARY equals suckers?

[Wondermonkey]

Originally Posted by Crippler

So LEGENDARY equals suckers?

Yes.

And are you under some misconception that Sidewinder was remade before?

[Crippler]

Wait, isn't this the one they rehashed for Halo 2 also? The huge snow covered map.

[Wondermonkey]

That was Containment, and owed nothing to Sidewinder cept for snow. Also, this isn't much of a remake as much as it is a re imagining. Kind of like how Guardian is Lockout re imagined.

[Crippler]

Pfft. It's all snow and still rehashed. Same difference.

[ZoomZoom71]

I wonder if we can convince Bungie to add some Coral to Avalanche. Maybe then Crippler will have a better attitude.

[Crippler]

Maybe. But then again. Coral tends to be cheaper or free too. So probably not.

[Wondermonkey]

Originally Posted by ZoomZoom71

I wonder if we can convince Bungie to add some Coral to Avalanche. Maybe then Crippler will have a better attitude.

I don't know, I heard that included in the new map pack is a Squirrel Parfait Treat. He may pick it up after all!