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Halo: reach defiant map pack announced
Tue, 1st Mar 2011
FYI, this story is more than a year old

That’s right: a second map pack for Halo: Reach is inbound at an unspecified date (at the time of writing) in March. The "Defiant Map Pack” will cost 800 Microsoft Points, and it will offer gamers an extra 150 achievement points to work towards.Bungie, Halo: Reach’s developer, is out of the picture this time around, with Certain Affinity taking the reins for these new maps. They’re in safe hands, however, as among Certain Affinity’s credits are multiplayer maps for Halo 2, Call of Duty: World at War, and the developer even collaborated with Treyarch on some Call of Duty: Black Ops maps.The three maps are described by Microsoft as follows:CONDEMNED: Condemned takes place aboard Orbital Station Gamma, a massive space station high in orbit above the planet Reach. Prior to the Covenant’s overwhelming invasion, Orbital Station Gamma provided long-range communications for UNSC fleets and a vital lifeline between Reach and Earth. During the Battle of Reach, the station suffered terrible punishment at the hands of the Covenant, but a few fortified sections remain intact, fully pressurised, and ready for combat. Condemned supports 6-12 players in a variety of action-packed game types, including Team Slayer, Team Objective and Free for All.HIGHLANDS: Highlands takes place on the top-secret Military Wilderness Training Preserve on Reach. The Preserve is a large, wooded area where Spartan super-soldiers trained long before the war with the Covenant began. During the Battle of Reach, the Preserve was the site of key battles between the alien invaders and a group of Spartans who used their familiarity with these UNSC training grounds to significant tactical advantage… but not everyone who enters these woods makes it out alive. Highlands expands the fight with massive-scale engagements for 8-16 players in Big Team Battle, Team Slayer and Team Objective.UNEARTHED: Unearthed takes the battle for Reach to a large titanium mine and refinery located in the Viery civilian sector of the planet. This particular mine was built to take advantage of the exposed titanium inside a massive meteor crater. The titanium produced here is used in much of the UNSC hardware, from the chassis of the Warthog to the metres-thick armour plating of capital ships like the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. While this facility was quickly abandoned when the Covenant arrived on Reach, it still has significant tactical (and economic) value, and it won’t be long before both humans and Covenant return to battle for control. Unearthed allows up to four players to launch a counterassault against the Covenant in Firefight and Firefight modes such as Generator Defence