Halo 4's Crimson Map Pack is now available to download, adding three new maps and expanded access to multiplayer mode Extraction. It costs 800 MP.
"Venture into the large, vehicle-focused human environs of Harvest, explore a human foray on an alien moon in Shatter, and witness the chaos of a clash of civilizations in Wreckage, with its blend of claustrophobic spaces and dangerous exposures," the blurb suggests.
Achievements for the pack have also been revealed - I've reposted them below. Big ups to whoever manages to nab all three Mancannon-related Gamerscore hauls first.
Now They Fly? - Get a kill while airborne in a Warthog. - 50 points
Size Is Everything - Kill 20 enemies with a detached Machine Gun Turret. - 20 points
ODST - Kill a player while you're airborne from using a Man Cannon. - 30 points
Bigfoot - Kill 20 enemies using the Mantis' stomp attack. - 20 points
David and Goliath - Board an enemy Mantis. - 20 points
Clay Pigeon - Shoot an enemy out of the air while they use the Man Cannon. - 40 points
Special Delivery - Kill an enemy with a melee attack when landing from a Man Cannon. - 30 points
Pump Yer Brakes - Score the killing blow on a Mantis. - 40 points
Are you buying? Download here, then. We'll see you on the battlefield, I expect.
If you own the Halo 4 War Games Pass, your own pre-purchased download should materialise shortly. Microsoft's Major Nelson has recommended that pass holders follow @HaloWaypoint for more intel.
UPDATE: Seems there's trouble afoot on the technology front. "We are aware of the issue in which Map Pass and LE owners are not being recognized to download the Crimson Map Pack at no additional cost," 343 has tweeted, adding "we are working on the situation now and will provide an update as soon as we have one. We apologize for the inconvenience."
13 comments so far...
Metalrodent on 10 Dec '12 said:
well hopefully assuming the code worked and i wont have to pay for this (800 for 3 maps still seems a bit steep, hopefully they'll have forge world variants)
also not liking those achievements - cause it destroys any possibity of me getting 100% achievements
On the plus side the maps do look quite cool
LinkToon1 on 10 Dec '12 said:
I don't think it's letting Season Pass holders download the map pack...
Cokney Charmer on 10 Dec '12 said:
Well, the Crimson Map Pack, Crimson Playlist and in game message to say it was available all happened at 10am GMT
You could buy the Map pack as standalone for 800MSP
LE owners, and those who spent 2000 MSP buying the War Games Pass, quickly found that they could not have access to the new Map Pack. They took to the official forums on www.halowaypoint.com, to their twitter account and to Xbox Support to find out what was going on
It took over 5 hours to get any response, 6 hours to get a reply from 343i
The maximum number of people playing the new Crimson Playlist is currently - 1243 people...and 7 hours after the problem was discovered and reported by users, the issue still exists
Chalk it up to another HALO 4 failure by 343i and Microsoft support letting down HALO fans once again, sadly this has been the worse launch of a HALO game in the ten year history of the series
PonderingWalrus on 10 Dec '12 said:
Wasted a good 30mins of my life this morning before realising the map pass was broken. Don't know if it still is and don't care, I've gone back to Skyrim to learn to ride dragons.
Jobe wan kenobi on 10 Dec '12 said:
Apparently the Map Pack is free for everyone at the moment due to some mess ups at the other end. You just go onto Halo and download it off the menu.
https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_pos ... ryone.aspx
MasterChiefJ117 on 10 Dec '12 said:
FAIL-O 4 continues to shine
Thank you Certain Affinity for ruining my all time favourite game franchise at least the campaign lived up to the hype 
If I wanted to play COD then I would play COD why alienate your own fan base ? No wonder there was no beta 
MasterChiefJ117 on 10 Dec '12 said:
FAIL-O 4 continues to shine
Thank you Certain Affinity for ruining my favourite game franchise. If I wanted to play COD then I would play COD, 343i why alienate your own fan base ? 
At least the outstanding campaign lived up to the hype 
PonderingWalrus on 11 Dec '12 said:
Major balls ups aside, Halo 4 is a cracking game. Deal with it.
AllusiveTurtle on 11 Dec '12 said:
I'm absolutely gutted! I didn't realise that the War Games Pass was included with the Limited Edition version of the game and so splashed out 2000 msp on the Pass. Surely Microsoft could slightly alter the progamming to prevent people buying DLC that they have already paid for. Once you buy DLC a tick is placed next to it and you are only then able to re-download it, not pay for it again. Yet if you buy a Season Pass for any game, you can then go into the individual DLC's for the game and pay for the item. Would it be too bigger ask for the purchase of the Season Pass to then put a tick in all the associated DLC? Likewise, if you enter a code that entitles you to the Season Pass it should do the same. Gutted....!
ChopperCampbell on 11 Dec '12 said:
Well said Walrus.
LinkToon1 on 11 Dec '12 said:
It started working last night anyway, so it's no major loss
MasterChiefJ117 on 11 Dec '12 said:
At least two people like it
beeteelle on 11 Dec '12 said:
Went online earlier and was able to download the pack for free on the marketplace. Was considering leaving this until christmas with it being 800mp for 3 maps, but who can argue with free?