COD4 > Halo 3? and the New Maps

Well, we didn't play Call of Duty 4 last night, but we did play Halo. Which is pretty ironic if you read the latest news about the games. Last week more people played COD4 than Halo 3 over Xbox Live. Something I thought would never happen seeing that Halo 2 dominated Xbox Live for a long time even when 360s had become prevalent.

I have yet to find the numbers associated with this story, although I haven't really tried. But here is one of the stories about it.

Bungie has some new info about the latest batch of DLC (That stands for Downloadable Content, Dammer). I don't think there is any chance of a Damnation remake in these next three maps. We do know that one of the maps is a remake and we have some basic info and code names for the three maps. Any speculation as to what map will be like what would be cool.

Cottonball
"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.

It's inclusion of a surprising vehicle or two may make it even more interesting than it already sounds.

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."

Cottonball... Snow? Long and almost symmetrical? Shortcuts? Sounds like a remake of Sidewinder to me. Another interesting thing would be a Blood Gulch/Coagulation remake but with snow... kind of like what it would be like in the winter. Your thoughts?

Also, what is this surprising vehicle that he is talking about? My money is on either a passenger hog/gauss hog or what I am really hoping for is the elusive snow hog featuring some sweet tracks and possibly skis. Either way we know Unky would be happy.

Purple Reign
"The map, as we’ve mentioned before, is perfectly symmetrical, slightly too big to be small and slightly too small to be medium. It has some excellent line of sight and well thought-out vertically problems and opportunities. Bridges make short work of long open sections and a central hub is sure to be fought over. Perhaps one of the most interesting features is the use of one-way glass. Iridescent material can disguise your location while you spy on approaching bad guys.

The map is too confined for genuine cat and mouse activity at those choke points and a warren of claustrophobic lower areas makes high ground and control essential. Luckily there are several ways to get up top, from careful jumps to spiraling ramps."

Purple... a small/medium sized map? symmetrical? vertical? bridges? central location? Sounds like a remake of Midship.

OK Corral
"The third and final map, that we’ve nicknamed OK Corral, is a medium-to-large, asymmetrical map that I LOVE playing Slayer on. It’s just big enough to support vehicles, but in a Mongoose, it’s effectively a confined deathtrap. Vehicles are only to be used in emergencies. This map scales pretty well though – in a one-on-one match, there are obvious places to fight close to the center of the map – but the more players there are, the more they tend to sprawl into the outer reaches of the maps, complete with collapsed buildings, wreckage-strewn structures and lots of rebar.

Sniping spots are numerous, but that’s not really what the level is about. What it is about is mastering routes from one end to the other, and knowing high from low. There is nothing scarier than seeing a red dot appear on your radar and not knowing whether that person is above you, or around the next corner. Some interesting use of floor geometry means you might be able to spot someone on high, but not quite have the angle for a shot."

I really don't think this one will be a remake because I am confident that one of the first two will be. Also this map doesn't scream previous map like the others do. This one could be Headlong because of it's emphasis on buildings and rebar but I find it hard to imagine they would remake such a crappy map. But who knows, stranger things have happened.

If you get some free time check out the Bungie forums on what people are guessing the new maps will be. Some people definitely take the code names a little too literally. Like on person was dead sure OK Corral will be an old west town and Cottonball will be a large sphere like that in Super Mario Galaxy. Maybe they are right but it seems a bit far fetched to me.