IGN released a video of a new Halo 4 map titled Meltdown sometime yesterday. The video, links, and downloads to it have since been removed, but not before some users in the very active Halo community managed to get a good look at it and post some screenshots of the upcoming, and officially unrevealed map.
The video, which has since been removed from IGN, was intended for release along a schedule every Tuesday and Thursday until the release of Halo 4, which is set for release next month. However, fans are still finding ways to share the video through sources like Mediafire and Photobucket.
As for the map itself, it’s similar to Ice Fields with its figure-eight design, but the scale of the map isn’t anywhere as vast and the bases within are built into the sides of cliffs instead of standalone prefabs. Players should regard the map as a spiritual successor, but not a remake of the older map. The map could be best described as a mixture of Ice Fields and Danger Canyon.
One fan notes that the map is “actually representative of every design choice 343 has made—a well thought out spiritual successor rather than something new and random.” We can’t help but agree with his assessment.
Expect the gameplay video to be officially released next week.
Halo 4 comes out for the Xbox 360 on November 6.