343 Industries confirmed today that High Noon, a remake of the classic Halo : Combat Evolved multiplayer map Hang Em' High, will be the final multiplayer map to ship with Halo: Anniversary. The news came out of a lively Halo: Anniversary discussion at New York Comic Con 2011

Hang 'Em High Remake #1: Halo 2's Tombstone

Loading

First spotted in the E3 Halo: Anniversary trailer , High Noon represents the second makeover and re-release of the Halo: CE classic Hang 'Em High. Originally remade in 2007 as Tombstone by Bungie alum Max Hoberman's co-founded studio, Certain Affinity, Tombstone was one of the two final Halo 2 add-on maps (the other was Desolation, a remake of the Halo: CE map Derelict) to make up the Blastacular map pack We tracked down Max to talk about Certain Affinity's work on remaking his remake, what we can expect from High Noon, and tried our best to trip up Hoberman with our silly Halo knowledge in the process. Spoiler: Achievement Unlocked.We kept the Tombstone remake very close to the original map, only making changes to address issues that arose during development. For example, jump height forced us to change the vertical scale on the map, and this made the big long ramp look horribly awkward and stretch too far into the play space, and so we replaced it with a lift.We also started everyone with a battle rifle, rather than the standard SMG, to better approximate the pistol start on the original map, and this caused us to want to ease mobility (e.g. jump up to the broken walkway) and make it easier to drop into cover (e.g. "crack hole" that led down to the tunnel).For the second remake we found ourselves in a great position – we could have our cake and eat it too. Our remake goes out of its way to be as true to the original as possible, and then via the wonders of Forge adds new elements to the High Noon variant that go way farther afield than we ever even considered on Tombstone. So the two experiences of remaking this classic map were wildly different from one another, but both times we got to playtest one of our all-time favorite maps every day, so we loved it.For the classic version we stayed true to the original, so beyond visuals we just scaled things to accommodate for jump heights. For the new version the biggest change that we had to deal with was the inclusion of the jetpack. The extra mobility that this affords radically changes the nature of the game, and this was causing a lot of problems because it's such a wide open map with so little cover. The jetpack became the only equipment worth a damn, and anyone without one felt like a mouse surrounded by circling hawks. To address this we went to town with new tunnels and passages, giving little mice places to hide (with shotguns at the ready).We imagined Tombstone as a military training facility outside New Mombasa, abandoned after the city's destruction. We called it the "High Plains Training Facility" since High Plains was our codename for the map during development. There are plains outside Mombasa, right? I'm sure there are.We took the new map further afield. It's a Forerunner facility that generates portals, though I'm not quite sure where or when. I'm pretty sure that the Forerunners probably used these for interstellar mail delivery.I admit – you've stumped me (damn you!). I remember setting up the 8 territories on Tombstone, but I had to ask Kyle, our Test Lead, to find out about High Noon. Fortunately he said that there are eight territories, so I guess he gets to keep his job.Simple answer: yes. We've tried to keep the classic version of the map as true to the original as possible, including weapon locations, powerups, etc. We changed things up to better suit the High Noon variant, but learning is half the fun, so I'm sure you'll do fine.Halo: Anniversary comes out exclusively on Xbox 360 November 15, 2011.