My first taste of Halo came about when I was round my mates house playing multiplayer split screen. We were playing split screen death match and we chose a nice little level known as Blood Gulch. This was a very simple map that had a base on either side of the map, and a huge wide expanse of land in between. The perfect setting for pretty much any team based game variant. It was also perfect for vehicle battles and anything you can think of. The most simple of maps but the most used throughout Halo: Combat Evolved

Blood Gulch - The First Incarnation

I fell in love with Blood Gulch so much that when I got my own X Brick I organised lan parties (Before the days of Xbox Live) and we would spend hours play CTF battles, team death matches, death matches, pretty much and Halo game variant under the sun on Blood Gulch. Non of the other maps compared to this one, except maybe side winder, but that’s for a different post.

Of course as Halo got older there was always going to be a sequel. So Halo 2 came around, and I was ready to leave Blood Gulch behind and find a new terrain to rain death in. But lo and behold, Bungie had put the next incarnation of Blood Gulch into Halo 2. And I was more than happy to start reigning havoc on this level. Now dubbed Coagulation, not much had changed, save for the bases now have 2 levels and the addition of Banshees to the level. But it was still the same Blood Gulch I came to love in the first game.

The Second Incarnation - Coagulation

Ok so there were a couple of more rocks and the bases probably were a tiny bit closer together, but it was still the same map I loved, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Now this is where Halo 3 disappointed me. I was egerly waiting for the 3rd incarnation of Blood Gulch. But there was nothing. I wasn’t giving up hope, I was going to wait for the DLC and hope that Bungie would bring back a new Halo 3 version of the map to us. But sadly, there was nothing. The closest thing I had in Halo 3 was Valhalla, and to me that map was nothing compared to Blood Gulch, even though it was very good, I still didn’t have the same nostalgia fix than I did with Coagulation.

The other base is on the other side of the map behind the camera by the way

So, eventually I just accepted the fact Blood Gulch had been dead and berried. Valhalla was the new incarnantion and the grandfather of all awesome Halo had been laid to rest. So I carried on my happy way play Big Team slayer and CTF on Valhalla, every now and again wishing it was Blood Gulch. I know it is very Fan Boyish but I really did love that map.

Then Halo Wars came along. An RTS game that was based before the Halo First Person Shooter saga. It was a very good RTS game and I really did enjoy play skirmish mode more than I did the campaign, but never the less it was fun. Now when I first booted up a skirmish game I had to take a double take. The creators had done themselves justice by making a Blood Gulch in RTS form. A huge grin spread across my face and I jumped straight in. It was very loyal to the original FPS map from Halo combat evolved and sure enough that was my favorite map for skirmish mode. It really translated well into the RTS form and I would play that map for hours.

The Halo Wars Incarnation

By now you are probably thinking, either ‘Why is he going on about a pretty much dead and berried Map from the first halo game?’ or ‘Hmm this is probably leading to something about Halo Reach. If you are thinking the latter you would be very correct (because the title of the post probably gave it away at the start.) Blood Gulch is back in Halo Reach! Bigger, Better and Greener than it ever has been, and It is looking awesome. Red Vs Blue did a nice trailer for the new map, with a couple more announcements about a new armour ability and a new warthog. So without Further adoo I present The Blood Gulch Resurrection!

As you can see this is shaping up to be one hell of a game. and I for one am hugely excited about Halo Reach. More announcements as I get them.

Garv

My first taste of Halo came about when I was round my mates house playing multiplayer split screen. We were playing split screen death match and we chose a nice little level known as Blood Gulch. This was a very simple map that had a base on either side of the map, and a huge wide expanse of land in between. The perfect setting for pretty much any team based game variant. It was also perfect for vehicle battles and anything you can think of. The most simple of maps but the most used throughout Halo: Combat Evolved

Blood Gulch - The First Incarnation

I fell in love with Blood Gulch so much that when I got my own X Brick I organised lan parties (Before the days of Xbox Live) and we would spend hours play CTF battles, team death matches, death matches, pretty much and Halo game variant under the sun on Blood Gulch. Non of the other maps compared to this one, except maybe side winder, but that’s for a different post.

Of course as Halo got older there was always going to be a sequel. So Halo 2 came around, and I was ready to leave Blood Gulch behind and find a new terrain to rain death in. But lo and behold, Bungie had put the next incarnation of Blood Gulch into Halo 2. And I was more than happy to start reigning havoc on this level. Now dubbed Coagulation, not much had changed, save for the bases now have 2 levels and the addition of Banshees to the level. But it was still the same Blood Gulch I came to love in the first game.

The Second Incarnation - Coagulation

Ok so there were a couple of more rocks and the bases probably were a tiny bit closer together, but it was still the same map I loved, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Now this is where Halo 3 disappointed me. I was egerly waiting for the 3rd incarnation of  Blood Gulch. But there was nothing. I wasn’t giving up hope, I was going to wait for the DLC and hope that Bungie would bring back a new Halo 3 version of the map to us. But sadly, there was nothing. The closest thing I had in Halo 3 was Valhalla, and to me that map was nothing compared to Blood Gulch, even though it was very good, I still didn’t have the same nostalgia fix than I did with Coagulation.

The other base is on the other side of the map behind the camera by the way

So, eventually I just accepted the fact Blood Gulch had been dead and berried. Valhalla was the new incarnantion and the grandfather of all awesome Halo had been laid to rest. So I carried on my happy way play Big Team slayer and CTF on Valhalla, every now and again wishing it was Blood Gulch. I know it is very Fan Boyish but I really did love that map.

Then Halo Wars came along. An RTS game that was based before the Halo First Person Shooter saga. It was a very good RTS game and I really did enjoy play skirmish mode more than I did the campaign, but never the less it was fun. Now when I first booted up a skirmish game I had to take a double take. The creators had done themselves justice by making a Blood Gulch in RTS form. A huge grin spread across my face and I jumped straight in. It was very loyal to the original FPS map from Halo combat evolved and sure enough that was my favorite map for skirmish mode. It really translated well into the RTS form and I would play that map for hours.

The Halo Wars Incarnation

By now you are probably thinking, either ‘Why is he going on about a pretty much dead and berried Map from the first halo game?’ or ‘Hmm this is probably leading to something about Halo Reach. If you are thinking the latter you would be very correct (because the title of the post probably gave it away at the start.) Blood Gulch is back in Halo Reach! Bigger, Better and Greener than it ever has been, and It is looking awesome. Red Vs Blue did a nice trailer for the new map, with a couple more announcements about a new armour ability and a new warthog. So without Further adoo I present The Blood Gulch Resurrection!

As you can see this is shaping up to be one hell of a game. and I for one am hugely excited about Halo Reach. More announcements as I get them.

Garv