Community Update: RTX 2016 Recap

BY B IS FOR BRAVO

Welcome back, friends. Since we last spoke, the Warzone Firefight release has reached your consoles, we’ve traveled to the heart of Texas, and we’re now back in the studio preparing for what’s next. Perhaps the “what’s next” list may be of great interest to you.

This week, the Warzone team pushed out an update to fix the “back button” scoreboard and PGCR (post game carnage report) sorting, and they’re also hard at work on further updates to Warzone Firefight. As we speak, teams are looking at all of the data and feedback you’ve generated so far, and evaluating as they work towards future updates for the mode. While we don’t have a final ETA just yet, you can rest assured that work is well underway, and that you’ll be hearing about more details soon. Oh, and fixes for Tidal lighting are being worked on, too.

HFFL: Oh good, regarding Tidal. It takes an inordinate amount of time to bake lighting. If you are going to forge on Tidal, I HIGHLY suggest SAVING your game before baking lighting. The game can lag out before doing so. It’s happened to me and a few others I know of. 

We’ve been thrilled about the incredible amount of new players who jumped into Halo 5 during the free play period, and hope many of you stick around (one of us! one of us!). As we mentioned last night, we’ve also been ecstatic to see the number of monthly Halo 5 players increasing month over month over the past few months. This is pretty special to see, and I’m looking forward to plenty more gaming with you this summer. Speaking of, we’ve seen many inquiries about what’s to come for Halo 5. We’re glad you’re asking. While you won’t be seeing updates every month moving forward, nor updates the size of the Warzone Firefight release, we’re happy to let you know that there’s still more on the way. Things we have yet to talk about or discuss. Things that I have seen, and I think you will like. These and more are in the works, so in short, there is indeed more to come. Rest easy.

HFFL: Cool. Glad to know there is more on the way. We’ve gotten plenty already. More than enough, IMO. SO anything from this point forward is a huge heap of icing on the cake, so-to-speak.

Next up, let’s catch up on a few different topics, starting with RTX and the cool things we brought there. Grim’s got the details.

RTX 2016

rtx-2016-halo-banner2-4dde8771ef4f4e689c119146338ff8d5 Continue reading

Canon Fodder: Crown Jul

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint:

BY GRIMBROTHER ONE
ISSUE 81

Howdy, Halo lovers. Thanks for joining us for another week of your favorite service for story-centric snippets. Last issue was a lovely load of lore lovin’, continuing the Firefight-focused fiction feast. This time around we’re playing a bit of catch-up after an incredibly busy few weeks, but we’ve still got some pretty cool things to talk about that we think you’ll enjoy. Also, props to Halo Waypoint community member Nihilus Shadow for the epic highlight shot of the Didact’s Hand (though maybe not quite as good as this one) used as this week’s feature image. And with that, let’s dive in!

JEWEL MADONNA

canonfodder-7-8-16-adee61e09aa243f3add8b121c4f5a56cOne of the sweet little surprises that awaited players diving into Halo 5: Guardians for the most recent release was the (re)appearance of a well-known Sangheili warlord. There were no doubt plenty of surprised  lore aficionados when Jul ‘Mdama’s name was called out for the first time in Warzone within the Attack on Sanctum scenario, as the challenging Boss he is. While this is the first time players have had the opportunity to tackle the resurgent Covenant leader in-game, it’s certainly not the first time he’s left his mark on Halo hearts. Jul first appeared in Karen Traviss’ Halo: Glasslands and would go on to feature prominently in her Kilo-5 trilogy, revealing the ugly underbelly of interspecies post-war politics. Continue reading

Halo 5 Assault Preview Playlist

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint: 

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Today, we’re launching a new Assault Preview playlist that will allow players to get a look at some of the updates that the multiplayer team has been working on. To get you the details, we hand things over to the multiplayer team:

When we launched Assault with the Hammer Storm release back in February, it was received well by players as it was chaotic and a change of pace from Capture the Flag and Strongholds. Over time, we saw some feedback around the feeling of fairness and scoring, and have been working to make updates to improve the mode.  Continue reading

HFFL Exclusive Interview with Halo Wars 2 wins champion, YoungBerk!

Before we get started, I want to make expressly clear that I do not give permission to anyone other than 343 or Creative Assembly to repost this article. You may however, link to this article without posting any portion of the article, with exception to the title of the article itself as it is used exactly here. Please respect that. 

HFFL: Hello, YoungBerk, thanks for agreeing to do this interview.
YB: Hello

HFFL: Tell us a little about yourself.
YB: First, I’m 21 years old and from Berkeley CA. I’m currently a student at UC Berkeley in my sophomore year studying media studies.

HFFL: Great school! Continue reading

My first day thoughts of Halo 5’s Firefight official post beta release.

WZ FF banner MSG

So Warzone Firefight finally dropped yesterday. It’s a whopping 7GB download. For me it downloaded pretty quick.

I had a minor glitch in that I couldn’t choose the WASP. I had to restart my XBOX One to get it to work. (SO do that if it doesn’t work for you)

Anyway, as soon as this dropped, I immediately got into Firefight. Now at first the REQs weren’t available. It took about an hour or two. Once they were there to get though, I bought them all. I had saved up more than 500K REQ Points. So I was set. Continue reading

Community Update: Warzone Firefight Preview

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint, added commentary by my in BLUE I will also specifically bold certain points in the article in GREEN as a point of focus to take note of:

BY B IS FOR BRAVO

Welcome to the Warzone Firefight preview, friends. Next Wednesday, the newest Halo 5 content release will arrive, and it’s bringing a bunch of friends with it. Between new maps, the Warzone Firefight game mode, Campaign Score Attack, new vehicles and REQs, new enemies, a new Forge canvas, and plenty more, it includes a ton of goodness that we hope you’re excited to jump into when it drops on June 29.

To get you ready for Halo 5’s biggest release yet, we’ve prepared this Community Update with extensive developer commentary on a few of the things you’ll find next week. Additionally, the live stream team is hard at work putting the finishing touches on next week’s show, which will take place on Tuesday, June 28 at 2 P.M. PT sharp. Don’t be late.

Today, we’ll hear from designers, developers, and artists on some of the things they’ve built for you, plus a bit more. Let’s get into it. Also, if you haven’t yet caught the full REQ Reveal for Warzone Firefight, you can catch it here.

WARZONE FIREFIGHT

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Since beta, the Warzone Firefight team has been reviewing your feedback and putting in the time to make updates before the final release. To get the details, I chatted with the some of the folks who are doing said hard work. Take it away, guys.

DAVID ELLIS, MULTIPLAYER DESIGNER

If you’re not familiar with Warzone Firefight (What’s wrong with you? 😊), it’s our brand-new 8-player Co-op mode where you and your Spartan squad must overcome 5 rounds of increasingly difficult objectives to rack up huge scores and emerge victorious. If you are familiar with Warzone Firefight, then chances are you participated in our pre-release beta back in April. And believe me, you were not alone. We were blown away by the community response to beta. Whether internal telemetry, community forum posts or social media replies, we gathered a treasure trove of information and used that data to update and improve the entire Warzone Firefight experience. Your participation and subsequent feedback helped to inform our work for the June release. What’s changed since then you ask? (Even if you didn’t I’m going to tell you anyway because that’s why I’m here).

Continue reading

MOAR June Update pics!!!

Just released are the following pics of much of the June update! Enjoy. (And if you share these, please just give me a quick credit in your share that you found them here on HaloFanForLife.com, thanks)

The starting items on Tidal.Halo 5 Guardians Forge Tidal Time to Forge

Some shots of the new armor sets in action!Halo 5 Guardians Arena Molten Pinned Continue reading

Warzone Firefight Comes to Halo 5: Guardians on June 29

This is a reblog from XBOX.com: 

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Since the launch of Halo 5: Guardians last October, fans have had a steady stream of free new maps, game modes, armors, weapon skins and additional customization options to look forward to each month. The eighth and latest free content releaseWarzone Firefight – named after the eponymous new mode – is the biggest expansion to Halo 5: Guardians yet and will arrive next Wednesday on June 29!

HFFL: Note that says ‘latest’ not LAST free content…. Continue reading

More Firefight Pics and video!

IGN just released a video on some of the new stuff coming to Firefight. It heavily features the new vehicles.

Here are some key screenshot from the video:

Here are four successive pan shots of the Gruntbuster (Yes, I know it’s the Goblin, but I like my name better, LOL).Gruntbuster Pan_SM

Here we see the Goblin charging right at us, with the Wasp coming in for the kill as well.Wasp N Gruntbuster Continue reading

Canon Fodder: Surface Features

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint:

BY GRIMBROTHER ONEISSUE 79

Greetings, fiction-followers, and thanks for tuning in for another edition of your favorite Halo story corner. Last time we met, we recapped the story of the original Halo Wars for, you know, no good reason at all. And this week has been pretty quiet on all fronts, really. Not a whole lot going on, not a bunch to talk about. I mean, other than E3, Halo Wars 2, and Warzone Firefight fiction. But other than that, nothing. Promise.

ARRIVAL

Okay I lied. So this week, the Halo heavy hitting came from the hallowed halls of the 2016 Xbox E3 presence, and the initial salvo was provided in unsurprisingly spectacular fashion with a new cinematic trailer courtesy of our friends and partners at Blur Studio. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it right meow. If you have already seen it, you know you want to watch it again. I’ll wait, promise. In fact, I’m probably watching it again myself right this very moment. We’re one and the same, you and I.

Community Update: Warzone Firefight Sneak Peak

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint: 

We have returned from the annual pilgrimage of E3. In mostly one piece. Over the past four days, thousands of players stopped by the Halo Wars 2 booth to get hands-on with PC and Xbox One, and many more of you have joined the Halo Wars 2 beta, which still has a few days remaining. In fact, to thank you for your playtime, patience, and enthusiasm, we’ll be extending the Halo Wars 2 Beta on Xbox One through Wednesday, June 22. We hope you’re able to get a few extra battles in.

I myself am looking forward to spending some time at home with Deathmatch, which just released today in beta. Grim will be talking a bit more about Halo Wars 2 later on in today’s blog.

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Know Your Enemy!

This is reblog from Halo Waypoint. Visit the Halo Wars 2 section of HFFL to get all the up to date info on the game!

During the E3 2016 Xbox Media Briefing today, we were excited and honored to share a brand new glimpse into a long awaited sequel – and next great adventure in our universe – Halo Wars 2. Created by 343 Industries and Real-Time Strategy genre veterans Creative Assembly, Halo Wars 2 lets fans on both Windows 10 and Xbox One go from the couch to the command chair to lead their forces against the enemy throughout an epic campaign and intense multiplayer action. Plus, we announced an online Multiplayer Beta running from Jun 13-20 that you can download and play right now on Xbox One.

Continue reading

Halo Wars 2: Behind the Scenes, Interview, Multiplayer and Tutorial Videos!

There has been so much Halo Wars 2 news to come out over the course of the last couple of days. I would have posted this earlier, however, I’ve been BUSY playing the Beta itself.

Let’s start off with a cool BTS vid!

I don’t know about you folks, but there are a LOT of screenshots I got from this video! So many cool things in it!

Here’s an interview vid with Dan Ayoub. (Not ether interviewer says 3-43 instead of 3-4-3… Continue reading

Atriox Arises!

If you didn’t see during yesterday’s XBOX Presentation at E3, the Halo Wars 2 trailer was shown. Within it, we saw more of the Brute Baddie that we’ve caught glimpses of over the past few months.

Well now we know his name. It is Atriox.

Halo-Wars-2-Trailer-Atriox3 cropped

Atrium is the leader of a new group called “The Banished”. Taking a guess here, this off-shoot group are those who stay with the Covenant after the great Schism, but did NOT align with Jul ‘Mdama. Hence they were banished from both the Covenant and their home worlds’ armies. I say homeworlds because we also now know that the Banished are made up of several former Covenant races. Brutes, Elites, Grunts, and Hunters are confirmed. Any others outside of these has not yet been officially revealed. Continue reading