Microsoft and now-autonomous Bungie Studios may hold the crown as creators of "the biggest entertainment launch in North American history," but recent Xbox Live usage activity has seen Halo 3 roundly thumped by Activision's Call of Duty 4. Having launched its first counteroffensive with the Heroic Map Pack in December, Bungie today revealed that its latest wave of reinforcements would arrive with the Legendary Map Pack on April 15.

　　As with the Heroic Map Pack, the Legendary Map Pack will set gamers back 800 Microsoft points ($10). With the first map in the pack--Ghost Town--put through its paces in February, Bungie offered a first look at the second locale, Avalanche. Exhibiting close ties to Sidewinder from Halo: Combat Evolved, Avalanche is a "massive, vehicle-oriented objective map" and will improve upon its inspiration with revamped interior and exterior environments, as well as all-new vehicles.

　　The final play area in the Legendary Map Pack hasn't been revealed yet, but Bungie promises it will appeal to "fans of smaller Slayer maps." Future updates on this final map, as well as an extensive rundown of the Avalanche battleground, can be found on Bungie's official Web site.

　　Microsoft also gave a quick stat dump for those keeping tabs on Halo 3's postlaunch performance. The publisher today said that more than 7.3 million units have been sold globally (as opposed to previous figures of 8.3 million shipped), with more than 500 million hours of "frag-tacular" Xbox Live-powered online gameplay having been logged. Microsoft also said that the Heroic Map Pack has logged more than 1 million downloads.