New Halo 2 Maps April 25th

Gamespot.com has word that the first set of new Halo 2 maps will be available for download on April 25th, with a second set being made available on June 28th. From the article: "The two free maps are titled Containment and Warlock. Containment is a massive level blanketed with snow, and Warlock was influenced by the Halo: Combat Evolved map Wizard. The Killtacular Pack will include Turf and Sanctuary, and it will sell for $5.99."

Cool, but...

[Fred Or Alive]

I hope when they add the new maps to matchmaking they have a bit of a spring clean of the existing game modes. The same old gametypes gets boring after a while, especially as some are just crap anyway (any objective game on Midship, 4v4 games on Coagulation[1]). Some more variety would be nice, I hope they don't just stick the new maps in and leave all the old setups in place.

Now, I'm planning to get the retail disc version, now should I buy the first two premium maps anyway? Decisions, Decisions...

[1] Starting with something a bit meatier than an SMG would help as well.

Re:Sell?

[larsoncc]

Actually, no, this isn't new even for XBox. Some titles that have pay content are MechAssault, XBox Music Mixer, Live! Arcade, and some others.

Don't worry though, they've said that the maps will eventually be free, either in late summer or later in the year.

They got a sponsorship from Mountain Dew. I do wonder how that will shake out - it could be that you're presented with some manner of banner ad before you're allowed to download the maps.

On April Fool's, Bungie had a pretty funny update about how the new maps would all be branded with Mountain Dew tags, and that you could have tags on your soldier saying Mountain Dew. In typical fashion, people freaked not realizing it was a joke.

One reason for not getting the new maps ...

[LordNimon]

... is if you're not a frequently player of Halo 2 online. Memorizing the map is a great way to be a better Halo 2 player. Infrequent players, like myself, have no chance against the hard-core players, because we'll never memorize all the maps. Chances are, the more advanced the player, the more likely he'll get the new map, because he'll be bored with the current ones. This means that if you don't have the new maps, you won't be able to join games with the players that do. This improves your odds of playing against people who know as much as you do about the map you're on.

(For those of you who don't play Halo 2: when you play online in a random game, you can't choose the map.)

Re:Compare to CS:S

[rhuntley12]

I won't argue that HL2 isn't good, I don't have it, but you forget to mention on Halo 2. -Couch and coffee table to hold beers for comfort -Stereo system I spent several thousand on -Large screen TV -Ability to just plug it in and almost instantly play with friends/relatives