Bungie has revealed the next map in the Legendary Map Pack: Avalanche.  In addition to pictures and information regarding this map, the final release date and pricing for the Legendary Map Pack has been announced: April 15th, for 800 MS Points.  Hit the jump for a few choice excerpts from the article.

Legendary Map: Avalanche

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.

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 basics are the same, but you’ll notice some new additions (man cannons), and some things missing (the interior tunnel between the bases). We also haven’t had any ladders in Halo multiplayer maps since Halo 1, so we had to re-design the interiors of the bases to accommodate that. There are a lot more quick ways to get around the level now, that’s probably the biggest change.

Well the first thing that folks will notice is that the rear hallways that connected the bases have been removed. This was mainly due to the fact that people had a tendency to use them over taking vehicles. Being that sidewinder is all about the vehicles traversing this huge snowy plane, having folks mainly fight in a hallway just made the whole experience not as fun.

The other change that people will notice is that there is a new cavern area that connects the central section to the front of the map via mancannon. That route is very handy for when you’re getting pummeled from either entrance. It can be a fast way out of a hot zone.

Q: Why can’t I throw the flag through the gates old school style now?

LB: Ahem. Well, that area doesn’t exist in the new version. We had it in there for a long time, but since that old flag trick didn’t work anymore that area became used less and less. Eventually that whole section of the level became completely unused, and not only that but a death trap for someone on foot. On top of that, we kept coming back to this idea that if someone was in there, by themselves, on foot… they weren’t taking part in what makes this level unique, all the vehicles. So, with much hand-wringing we axed that section. The map plays better for it too, because the action is so much more focused now.

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.

  …it’s just plain cool to have the Scorpion in the Sidewinder remake.

We then took the Scorpion addition one step further and decided to give the assaulting team all UNSC (human) vehicles and the defending team all Covenant vehicles. It ended up being very fun for asymmetric gametypes (one flag, one bomb, territories) and it’s something that I’ve wanted to see for a long time. Humans vs. the Covenant in a giant vehicle -blam!–o-rama.