If someone would have told me that within six months of the release of Halo 3 another title would be dominating Xbox Live, I wouldn’t have believed them.

But yet, here we are, six months after the game’s release and another title is dominating Xbox Live with Halo 3 currently in the second slot. Obviously we could offer Call of Duty 4 a laundry heap of praise which may or may not be entirely sincere – as good of a game as it is.

Diehard Halo fans, losing their friend lists to other titles, are really asking only two questions:

• Why is Halo 3 not in the same place as Halo 2 during its respective life cycle?
• What is Bungie planning to do about it?

Well, I think we might have an answer to both of those questions and the solution, surprisingly enough, involves what we believe to be the content for the Legendary Map Pack visiting Xbox Live this Spring.

Frogblasting Isn’t What it Used To Be

Upon Halo 3’s release, one item which was on everyone’s mind was the multiplayer. Perhaps it was post-beta/pre-full retail sugar highs, but months after the game was released it just didn’t feel as addictive as its predecessor on Xbox Live, even with Halo 2’s oft-railed against flaws. It wasn’t that Halo 3 was bad or even that it departed too much from the tried-and-true fabric of Halo’s previously implemented systems. Apart from the melee debacle (1.1 has assuaged), most gamers have been reticent to point a finger at one single element as the key culprit for what, to this olden fan, feels like an unstoppable exodus.

Fortunately, I share no such reticence.

Looking back at my time with the Halo multiplayer component, I notice one major difference between Halo 3 and its two forerunners (no pun intended). Maps such as Damnation, Hang ‘Em High and Sidewinder from Halo: Combat Evolved -and- maps like Lockout, Midship, Zanzibar, Sanctuary and Terminal from Halo 2 stand out to me as expertly crafted environments. They’re usually filled with character and a very tangible authenticity, and if they’re not, they make up for it in gameplay to the point of excess.

Although Halo 3 has a handful of great maps, I personally feel that there are two consistent problems with most of the maps and our perception of them. Some are confusingly bland and characterless (Construct, Narrows and Epitaph) and others simply did not meet what was anticipated based on press claims (Sandtrap, Isolation and Guardian). Now, please don’t take this accusation as railings against the staff or the finished product and this is not to say that these aren’t fine and good maps, but being that we’ve spent the last few years playing only the best of Halo 2’s crop, Halo 3 was stepping into a brutally tough critique as Bungie has already suggested more than once during their own video documentaries. My opinion is that with all of the improvements that Halo 3 has made visually, network-wise and through the sandbox, the one thing which didn’t come forward satisfactorily was the map design and appearance.

To be fair, Halo 3 (with 11 maps at launch) has only recently offered its first batch of downloadable content (3 new maps) while Halo 2 had several packs culminating in twice as many maps than appeared at launch (a total of 23) – many of its best maps being offered well after the game’s original release. After the recent Heroic Map Pack, which featured Standoff, Rat’s Nest and Foundry for $10, my hopes have risen to reasonable levels. They’re good maps, better than most in the current stable, but they’re still not in the same league as legendary maps like Lockout and Sidewinder for example.

So, for Halo 3, why doesn’t Bungie just remake maps like Lockout and Sidewinder if they’re so damn great?

Well, maybe that’s exactly what they intend to do…

The Best Laid Plans…

We’re of the opinion that the only brand new map in the Legendary Map Pack (if it includes only three) will be Ghost Town, previously depicted as “O.K. Corral” by Bungie’s community team.

The African multiplayer map is set in an abandoned village/water pump facility and has been highly touted for several weeks now. For a comprehensive depiction of the map, feel free to review Bungie’s own announcement [Ghost Town – 02/21/2008] and their subsequent weekly update [Bungie – 02/22/2008] which provides additional details.

The real story about the Legendary Map Pack, however, is the two, currently unrevealed maps, respectively referred to as Moonlight Sonata and Cottonball. Truth be told, no one save for Bungie knows exactly what these maps look or play like. As tight-lipped as Bungie might be, however, we think we have the answers to that riddle. But before we begin looking at the evidence, let’s roll back a few months to a significant statement made during an update in October of last year:

So the good news is that as far as I am concerned, all of the projected DLC maps are sweet. Two of them in particular will cause a Three Mile Island scale pant-fill-disaster in the Halo community. I can’t say why, but some of you will figure it out correctly and be able to say I told you so later. [Bungie – 10/26/2007]

To any seasoned Halo fan, the answer seems pretty damn clear. These would be remake maps that the community was already familiar with – maps with a beloved and time-honored history. Several months later, the quote seemed to have been forgotten. But now, with the arrival of new information, it would seem that ‘Three Mile Island pant-fillage’ is definitely en route.

Moonlighting

Regardless of what you loved about Halo 2 multiplayer, one thing was almost unanimous in the community. Lockout was, by far, the most impressive map Halo 2 offered and arguably one of the best first-person shooter multiplayer environments ever crafted. Not because of an ornate natural beauty or because of an incalculable scale the map implemented – it was great simply because of the intense fun it consistently delivered in every match, hour after hour and night after night. Every structure had purpose, every nook saw bloodshed and every platform wrought carnage. Everything in the map worked to facilitate pure, unadulterated infantry combat.

The bases worked, the towers worked, the elbow worked, the library worked, the sword room worked, the lift worked, the precarious fall at every corner worked – everything in that map functioned in perfect macabre harmony.

Essentially: Lockout worked.

And since then, not another map has, in my humble opinion, worked this well.

So when they were building the multiplayer content for Halo 3, it should have been (and we presume was) a forgone conclusion that this map needed to be rebuilt. After Bungie shipped the default maps which included a similar (yet far cry from) map called Guardian and the first map pack had been released, some may have lost hope – but hold firm my brethren, Lockout draweth nigh.

How do I know?

Moonlight Sonata, of course:

But things change. That map’s progress accelerated as Purple’s slowed a little. As we looked at the schedule it became apparent that we could probably leapfrog one to the advantage of the other. Now, I can’t tell you much more about this replacement map, beyond the horrible codename I just made up, “Moonlight Sonata” but I can tell you that it will be universally adored. Of that there is no doubt. Usually I am in the business of soft-selling new maps in case folks have adverse reactions to ‘em “it’s too big!” or “it’s not symmetrical” or “where’s XXXinsert fave map hereXXX” but this time, confidence is high. It will be beloved.

Luke and I have been playing it a lot recently as Luke struggles with his hopeless inability to jump, while I wrestle with my colossal failure to point the reticule at opponents. Yesterday I beat him fairly soundly on that map using a technique I think of as a carrot-stick approach. I will lure him towards me and he won’t realize that the path to me is littered with fusion cores. He gets too close and I take a safe shot at the core, sending him hurtling to whatever hell is reserved for Michigan Wolverines fans (which may simply be a normal game, but with flames on the periphery).

So during a later one on one deathmatch (it is a relatively small map) I dropped a Bubble Shield and backed out of it while simultaneously throwing a plasma nade (the old, “Splosion Igloo” trick) but I failed hard. The nade came out of my grasp, slid on the surface of the shield and stuck to my face. Luke of course tried to make a clip so that he could laugh and touch himself – but as he was watching back the film, I saw his new fear-driven technique. He was systematically destroying every fusion core on the map to stop me from using them against him. He also leaves near-empty weapons lying around for me to pick up. His favorite trick is to leave one round in a Carbine. [Bungie – 02/01/2008]

Whether the delays on “Purple Reign” are legitimate or fabricated is unknown and frankly irrelevant. What we can say is that there hasn’t really been a better time in Halo 3’s current station on Xbox Live to launch the most played online multiplayer map in the history of Halo community.

But rather than argue from an emotional perspective, let’s look at the facts culled from the above report:

• It will be loved by almost everyone.
• It is littered with fusion cores.
• It is a small map.

Now apart from the obvious marriage of those elements with our old friend, Lockout, the key component of the above statement from Bungie is that this map is almost guaranteed to be a fan favorite – no hedging, no coddling and no soft-selling. Evidently, the developer can’t even be skeptical about its impending greatness. If this is the case, the only map with this level of resonance from any title in the series is Lockout. Period. End of story. Although there are a handful of maps throughout the trilogy which many people would like to see, not another map could be as categorically qualified as a fan favorite by the Xbox Live community (the DLC customer base) than Lockout.

So what else has Bungie said…

At long last, we tracked down a build of “Moonlight Sonata” that had received some lighting. Sure, there have been builds with this lighting for a while, but us finally uncovering it was this week’s magical moment. For ages and ages and ages it’s been a black, barely illuminated, series of interconnected platforms, but now a gentle glow warms this otherwise chilly, isolated structure.

Steam is ejected into the skybox which resembles the night sky from the opening of Sierra 117, but what’s under that sky is far different than a lush jungle. Far different. Or is it? Yes, actually it is. [Bungie – 02/15/2008]

We now have the all-too-familiar descriptors like “chilly,” “isolated,” “gentle glow” and “a series of interconnected platforms.” As the image below reminds us, all of these aesthetics are clearly present on Lockout. And if one were trying to explain Lockout to someone without showing it to them, their description would probably read similar to the one above of Sonata.

We also know that this map will have a nighttime sky box (with moon – see the map’s code name), similar to that found within the campaign mission ‘Sierra 117.’ But, rather than a jungle found below, this map will have something far different.

Why is that?

The original Lockout was located on Installation 05 or ‘Delta Halo,’ an environment which is not found in Halo 3’s campaign – meaning that the new Lockout would have to be somewhere similar. In Halo 3, instead, we have the snow-tipped mountain ranges of the Ark as a possibility, but more than likely this place will be located on Installation 04 (the replacement ring) and below it will be the frigid and barren surface of Alpha Halo v2.0.

When I Was Your Age…

My son is only two-years old right now, but when he is older I plan on telling him that ancient story: When I was your age, I walked 10 miles to school in the snow.

Assuredly this is a lie as I spent the majority of my childhood in the overly-sunny realm known as Florida. But it’s not all that untrue when you consider the hundreds upon hundreds of virtual miles I (and most of you) spent trudging through the ice fields on the renowned and massive Sidewinder during the era of Halo: Combat Evolved.

The third and presumably final map is called Cottonball:

I’ll talk about the biggest one first. And it’s HUGE. For the purposes of this, we’ll codename it Cottonball. I guess a game of Big Team Snipers would be possible, but anything else would be comical without vehicles. This is very much a large scale objective game map – designed first and foremost with CTF and Assault in mind. The map is almost, but not-quite-perfectly symmetrical. Some natural geology prevents each base from being a simple mirror image of the other. I say natural, but the map is set on a Halo, so, natural’s not exactly correct.

The map leads to the kind of long, drawn out megabattles that hearken back to the days of the original Halo and the crucial to and fro of an epic LAN party. Its inclusion of a surprising vehicle or two may make it even more interesting than it already sounds.

I’ve played this a lot (although less, by necessity than the other two) and I have found a couple of very compelling and addictive rhythms. The map is large enough so that even when a team makes off with your flag, there’s still a lot of ground you can use to catch up. The other is that each side has some wonderful shortcuts – natural and mechanical – that may not make great flag escape routes, but might let a mobile pursuer cut off escapees.

And I know I am in the minority on this – but I sometimes have trouble knowing precisely where I am headed on a more confusing map – I would call out Epitaph as an example -often I will burst through a door thinking I am headed to say, the Active Camo power up, only to find I am not where I thought I was. For some reason, massive and labyrinthine as it is, this new map never confuses me. I always know which way is up – and that fact has saved my bacon and our flag, several times. [Bungie 01/08/2008]

The references to it being a large-scale map with a prerequisite for vehicles melds well with our notions of Sidewinder, but more than that, it’s the little statements about the map are really the dead giveaways:

• The map is symmetrical to some degree but the geographic differences near each base prevent them from being identical, something that is resonant of Sidewinder’s semi-symmetrical terrain.
• The map will bring back to mind the days of Halo: Combat Evolved LAN parties – an earmark of Sidewinder’s role within the first game. Luke Timmins reaffirmed this in a recent podcast stating, “I am extremely excited about [Cottonball] based on the history of the series,” to which Luke Smith responded by saying that “it evokes memories.” [Bungie – 02/19/2008]
• The comment about “wonderful shortcuts” also play immediately into our understanding of Sidewinder, as the central cave and teleporters served that role effectively in its heyday. It’s likely that we’ll see man cannons, Halo 3’s infantry transportation staple, integrated into the mix as well, likely to be the replacement of teleporters by default.

If this map isn’t a Sidewinder remake, then it’s a twin brother. Even the faux name, ‘cotton ball’ bears a resemblance to the snow-covered map which is appropriately legendary in its own right.

$10 Paint Job?

Since we’ve been told that there will be an “inclusion of a surprising vehicle or two” on what we believe to be Sidewinder revisited, it didn’t take long to guess what the vehicle was. It should be noted, however, that these are not new vehicles, but rather different iterations of existing vehicles built specifically for the map.

There are a couple of still-secret, still-in testing adjustments and changes that come to classic Halo vehicles. To say that these changes are the intersection between hysterical and tactical would be a pretty drastic understatement. Other less risque changes coming to vehicles include environment-specific decals being applied to vehicles and certain vehicles have had their weapon systems modified so that they behave differently in multiplayer combat. [Bungie – 11/09/2007]

The most probable solution would be that this is the Snowhog, a snow-variant of the existing M12 Warthog found second from the right.

Although some of you may have already noticed that the M831 TT or Troop Transport Hog (far right) has made it into Halo 3, the one to its immediate left is the M864 A which, as many have forgotten, was briefly mentioned in an early Warthog article in a series covering vehicles to be included in Halo 3. [Bungie – 03/26/2007]

Now, we’re not saying that this exact vehicle will be included, but it seems practical to expect a skin change at the very least. The hatches closing off the interior of the vehicle, the lack of a turret and the treads themselves are all questionable – but whatever it is, it’ll be the first time we get an alteration to the sandbox in multiplayer. Whatever changes they decide to make to the iconic Warthog, just make sure your hand warmers are ready – you’re going to need them.

Doubters?

At this point, it’s pretty clear to us. We’re going to get two of the best and most legendary maps in the history of Halo. The only question we have is: “Will they play as well as they once did?”

Although several of the remakes have been ill-fated and dismal, we’re going to hold onto the belief that if Sidewinder and Lockout were remade, we’ll be getting good recreations, within a solid system of core mechanics and weapon balance – not shadows of their former selves. In the off chance that they absolutely suck, we’ll just delete this article and erase your memory by posting a variety of weird vertigo .GIF’s.

As Microsoft’s full-court press ad campaign for Halo 3 once said: BELIEVE

/ vociferously

(Check out our DLC page and our forum thread for the most up-to-date information on the new maps coming this Spring!)