Q:    Does Xbox One require an “always on” Internet connection?
A:    No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet. We’re designing Xbox One to be your all-in-one entertainment system that is connected to the cloud and always ready. We are also designing it so you can play games and watch Blu-ray movies and live TV if you lose your connection.

Q:    How do consumers benefit by being connected to the cloud?
A:    The cloud makes every experience better and more accessible.  Because Xbox One is powered by the cloud:

• Your games have more power available to create new gameplay, persistent worlds, and deeper experiences.
• Your system and games can update automatically, so you shouldn’t have to wait for downloads or updates.
• Your games and entertainment are stored and saved in the cloud, so you can access them anytime, from any Xbox One.*
• Start a game, movie, or TV show on one console and finish exactly where you left off on another.
• You can play multiplayer games with your friends, stream movies or TV shows right away, and enjoy the community and social features of Xbox Live.
• Xbox One can recognize you, log you in and tailor your home screen just for you.

You can discover what your friends are playing, watching and listening to if they choose to share.
These are just a few examples of how customers benefit from our platform being connected to the Internet. It brings the future of TV and games to our consumers—and it’s designed for today and the decade ahead.

* Subject to content geographical restrictions.

Q:    When will Xbox One launch and in what markets?
A:    Xbox One will launch in markets around the world later this year. We’ll have more to share later.

Q:    Can I use my current gamertag on Xbox One and will my Gamerscore and Achievements transfer?
A:    Yes. Your current Xbox Live Gamertag will stay with you on Xbox One if you choose to keep it, and your hard-earned Gamerscore and Achievements will indeed carry over from Xbox 360.

Q:    Will Xbox One be backward compatible with my existing games?
A:    Xbox One hardware is not compatible with Xbox 360 games. We designed Xbox One to play an entirely new generation of games—games that are architected to take full advantage of state-of-the-art processors and the infinite power of the cloud. We care very much about the investment you have made in Xbox 360 and will continue to support it with a pipeline of new games and new apps well into the future.

Q:    Will Xbox One allow players to trade in, purchase and play pre-owned games? 
A:    We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later.

Q:    Will my current Xbox Live Gold membership work with Xbox One or will I have to buy a new one?
A:    You do not need to buy a new Xbox Live Gold membership. Your current membership will work on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Q:   Why require Kinect with every Xbox One?
A:    The all new Kinect is now an essential and integrated part of the platform.  By having it as a consistent part of every Xbox One, game and entertainment creators can build experiences that assume the availability of voice, gesture and natural sensing, leading to unrivaled ease of use, premium experiences and interactivity for you.

Q:    Do I need to have a specific cable or satellite TV provider to watch live TV on Xbox?
A:    Our goal is to enable live TV through Xbox One in every way that it is delivered throughout the world, whether that’s television service providers, over the air or over the Internet, or HDMI-in via a set top box (as is the case with many providers in the US). The delivery of TV is complex and we are working through the many technologies and policies around the world to make live TV available where Xbox One is available.

Q:    Xbox One is a more powerful product compared to Xbox 360, but does it also use more power?
A:    No. By providing multiple power states in Xbox One, we’ve balanced energy efficiency with functionality. We’ve taken a completely different approach to how Xbox One consumes power. It only uses the power it needs at that particular moment for the task at hand.

Here’s the link.

First I want to apologize for not posting as much lately.

Secondly, I need to ask you folks to say a prayer and/or with me luck. I’ve been unemployed now for 25 months. This has caused a GREAT strain on me. I find myself now in the position of possibly losing my home in two months.

I’ve already gone through unemployment, my 401K, savings, and tax refunds. I’m tapped. Over these last two year+ I’ve learned how to live with less. Now is the time that I may be forced to live without a home.

I’m in advertising by trade and have been a production artist, pre-press technician, graphic designer and art director. As a person in his mid 40s with 15+ years of experience, it’s become increasingly hard to find work. I’ve applied to well over 100 jobs over the course of my unemployment. I believe that I’m not able to find work so easily in part due to the economy. It’s a business’s job market now. They can afford to wait for the right candidate that won’t cost them so much. They can afford to take those with little to no experience and pay half as much as they would for me (someone who could start right out of the gate with practically no training needed).

During this time, I’ve applied TWICE for a position with 343 (yes, THAT 343). I was told by the recruiter the first time I applied that the position was down to me and one other. Now I don’t know if that was true or not and couldn’t get confirmation of this beyond the recruiter.

The second time I applied, it was through a different recruiter. Once again as the first time, I waited weeks which turned into months to hear back about the position, only to have the recruiter stop actively trying to fill the position.

I can’t fault 343 here. Though I do wonder what the heck is going on. I received an e-mail from Frank O’Conner himself. So he is fully aware of my blog. As well, BS Angel used to regularly post article from my blog, specifically the comic books I did of both Forward unto Dawn and Spartan Ops. Those have stopped now and the SpOps ones were not all posted. I found that strange.

Anyway, back to what’s going on with me. The stress level I have now (and I suffer already from anxiety and depression) is at an all time high. I KNOW that were I to find suitable work, that stress would likely be eradicated and I could get back on track with life and the blog.

I mentioned suitable work as I have a few slight disabilities that prevent me from taking just any old job to tide me over until I find a better one. The two most important here are Sleep Apnea and Spondylosis. The first disallowing me from being able to drive for long periods at a time since I can be prone to falling asleep without warning. The second is a condition I’ve had since before my military days that I had to get a waver for. This means I have a bad back and can’t stand for long periods of time, which in turn alienates me from MANY employment opportunities. So while I’d love to be able to take even a crappy job just to be able to pay the bills, with my medical issues, I’m not able to.

So where does this put me? Well, as I stated above, I’ve been out of work for 25 months, money has run dry, I’m limited in employment I’m able to perform and now run the risk of losing my home.

With all this, my attention has not been on the blog as much as it used to be. I hope and ask that you kind readers understand from the above why that is.

HFFL is paid for, for another 15 months, so I’m not worried about losing the site. That’s not the issue. It’s a matter of losing my home that is the biggest source of pain, angst, worry, stress, and anxiety that I face.

For the past 4 months, anything that I’ve posted regarding Halo toy review (with one or two exceptions) my wife has paid for. While I appreciate that, we can’t afford for her to do that any longer. I have been lucky enough that through my contacts with Mega Bloks and McFarlane to have received some free stuff, for which I promptly review here on HFFL. IN the mean time though, I am ashamed for having to ask my wife to pay for toys, especially when we’re in the financial state we’re in.

With all this said, why am I telling you readers?

Well, there may come a time in your life when you need to ask for support, be that in prayer, best wishes, money, work, etc. I’m at this crossroads. I dont’ expect anyone to give me money, and if they did, know that it would go toward my mortgage first as that is the TOP priority. I guess I just want you all to know WHY I haven’t been posting as much and again ask for your understanding and to stick with me/HFFL. While the posts may not be as frequent, I assure you that I’m not absent from the blog. I just have things that are supremely more important that I have to consider first before the blog.

I’m still here and will still be posting. You can bet that whenever things get back on track, I’ll be posting like I used to or even more.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thanks for being a reader of HFFL.

I applied for this a couple of weeks ago and was accepted. Sweet!

-Sal

As some of you know, I’ve applied, via a recruiting agency, for a job with 343. I’m extremely happy to say I got the position.

Details of the position are to remain under wraps for now until I’m allowed to reveal them. In the meantime, I’ve got some serious planning to do. Packing up stuff to move to Seattle (Kirkland), Washington, will be the biggest immediate thing of course. Also april fools day will be second. From there, if you got caught, just admit it. Wouldn’t this have been extremely cool though? Although this article was a joke, my desire to work for 343 isn’t.

Yes, it’s not Halo, but I couldn’t resist posting this.

So have a piece of pie today or whatever.

Pi is the number needed to compute the circumference of a circle…or Pi is the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle or, a Halo ring….So THERE is the Halo reference!

-Sal

So I’ve had a miniscule forums here before, but I didn’t like the user interface for it, so I cannned it. However, it has recently came to light for me about another forum option.

So my question to you all (blog members, twitter followers, and Facebook friends/subscribers), would you participate in the forums? Would you post on occasion?

I’m looking to have more interaction with you folks and I think this is one way to do that.

There is one big caveat to this though. I’ve applied for a position with a well known development company in Washington state. Should I get that position, this wouldn’t happen. However, in the event that doesn’t happen, I want to not only keep the blog active, but have even more of a presence on the interwebs.

This is a very important decision for me, so I really need and value your opinions on this matter. Please either reply to this article, tweet, leave a response on Facebook, or e-mail me at sal@halofanforlife.com.

Thanks as always for being part of HFFL in whatever way you are and I look forward to what the future may reveal.

-Sal

I wanted to make a personal mention of thanks to all of you for supporting my blog, either here, on Twitter, or via Facebook.

To all of those who are new, a hearty welcome!

To those who have been around for awhile, thank you SO much for continuing to support the site.

To those I’ve made friends with through the blog/Twitter/Facebook and now game with, you’re super awesome!

Suffice to say, I appreciate you ALL. When I started out this blog, I didn’t know where it would take me or the kind of response I’d get from it. I continue to be humbled by those responses and will endeavor to bring you great Halo content in whatever capacity I can.

I’ve got some great things planned and will have an announcement of one thing in particular within a few days. Yes, it’s Halo related of course…

Thanks folks for making this fellow Halo fan feel welcomed and proud to be part of the Halo community at large!

-Sal

It is with a measure of sadness and regret that I need to delay the tournament due to a lack of participation. I suppose I was aiming to high too soon to hold a tournament. Hopefully in the future I can  hold a tournament with decent participation.

No monies were exchanged to the blog, so no monies needed to be refunded.

Thanks to those that were interested in the tournament. Hopefully the next time I plan one of these it will actually get off the ground.

-Sal

http://kotaku.com/5982986/we-know-all-about-the-next-xbox-from-someone-who-says-theyve-got-one

Thanks to my bud Drax for posting this on Twitter. Normally I only post Halo related content here. However, this information on the next Microsoft gaming console is potentially huge for the future of Halo.

If this info is to be believed then here are some interesting spec of the “Nextbox.”
• 500GB hard drive built in.
• Built-in Kinect
• Game swapping (actually being able to switch between games by “pausing” your current game and switching to another)

Here’s a flow chart of the tech specs:

The one thing not given in the article is the cost. With all of these improvements, larger HD, built in Kinect, this could become expensive. The 360 already cost $300+. Will this console be $500? Yikes…

-Sal

I’ve been working hard to get the Spartan Ops Episode 6 comic book done. I’m about 75% of the way done with it. It’s going to be about 28 pages. I’ve changed some graphics and am looking to have a somewhat different look for the Spartan Ops comics going forward.

This is a learning process for me and you folks get to benefit from seeing what it was from the beginning up until now and in the future.

Thanks for your patience and I’ll have some stuff to blog tomorrow, and maybe just maybe Episode 6′s comic will be done. Maybe….LOL

-Sal

You may be noticing some things added, changed or absent for the next couple of hours while I update some settings to the site. It should be good to go later today.

In honor of our favorite Spartan, Master Chief, John-117, let’s have some FUN playing Halo!!!!

Happy 117 day!

-Sal

Another year has come and gone and we’ve seen some GREAT stuff for Halo. The blog has had a nice amount of success as well in the past year.

So here are the Halo related events of the past year as they impacted HaloFanForLife.com. (Dont’ forget that you can check out ALL the goings on of HFFL by clicking on the “Archives” button to the right and selected your month of choice. I’m not going to post a link to EVERY article. Just those I feel had a big impact on either the Blog or the Halo community at large.

2012
General Blog Stuff.
Throughout the year I had the pleasure of reviewing many Halo Mega Bloks and McFarlane toys and collectibles. It’s something I look forward to each and every time I do a review. It’s a way to show the toy/collectible in pictorial form as well as talk about it and has the side benefit of creating it’s own archive to reference back to when desired. This will continue in 2013!

January:
• I posted a couple of Halo starship charts that would eventually turn into a chart that I would create later and keep updating throughout the year.
• Plans were made for New York Toy Fair.
• I finally created and revealed HFFL’s logo! It’s now centered in the header as opposed to where I indicated in the original post.

• HFFL is added to the Blogroll of Mega Bloks!

February:

• New  York Toy Fair! And I had lots of coverage of the Halo Mega Bloks toy line as well as other Halo merchandise like Funko and Square Enix, not to mention Halo McFarlane Toys.

March:
• We got our FIRST look at Halo 4′s Master Chief!

• Several ViDocs we released. Master Chief; Multiplayer Spartan IVs; The BR; Wraparound (which would become Haven);  Warhouse, (which would become Adrift)
• We got the VERY unfortunate news that there would be NO Beta. (Something I think kinda bit 343 in the ass a little, at least from all the responses they got on the HalWaypoint forums.)

April:
• I introduced a forum to the site. However after not liking it’s interface, I took it down shortly after launching it. (BTW, I’m working on getting a NEW forum for the blog!)
• Leaked GameInformer pics get Halo fans in a tizzy! LOL
• Talks about the transition form Bungie to 343 as well as Halo 3 to Halo 4 with Frank O’Conner.
• Halo 4′s composer is revealed to be Neil Davidge with mixed review. (His experience in Wub-Wub has some people nervous. Thankfully, the soundtrack turned out great, well, IMO anyway…)
• Multiplayer in Halo 4 explained as canon now in Halo continuity.
• Our first look at the UNSC Infinity.

• We get a release date for Halo 4!
• Our first info about the Forward Unto Dawn miniseries is revealed!

May:
• The Railgun is announced as a new weapon in Halo 4.
• Halo 4 Limited Edition info is released.

• Halo 4 Armor Skins are being revealed. I quickly scour the web for pics and make a compilation graphic of them all which quickly becomes the number one Googled Halo 4 Armor images of all! (Thanks folks for looking it up, I got a lot of subscribers here on the blog from posting that pic!!!) BTW, it’s still there! I hold the number 1 and number 3 spots if you search for “halo 4 armor skins” on google. This really helped me realize the importance of naming your graphics appropriately. HFFL saw a marked boost in subscribers this month due to those graphics.

June:
• I create a new series of articles called “The Science of Halo, Fact versus Fiction.” (I really need to get back to these. I haven’t done one in awhile, and I really enjoy them. Did you?)
• E3!!! Trailer discussion. My reaction video… My reaction poster (very BUSY…LOL)

• It’s revealed that 10 multiplayer maps will launch with Halo 4
• Debate if the UNSC Infinity is 3.5KM or 3.5 miles?  (comparison graphics at link)
• I go to Houston for a LAN with my gaming group.
• A new set of articles “Superfan Symposium” starts with Maria Masuimi. Again, it’s been awhile since I did one of these. I need to do more. Have you got a Halo fan you’d like to see interviewed? Is so, e-mail me your suggestion at sal@halofanforlife.com.

July:
• HFFL gets a mention on CruelLEGACY’s modcast!
• Lots of Forward Unto Dawn info revealed.
• San Diego Comicon brings us some info about Halo 4.

August:
• Pre-orders go up on Toys R Us for the Mega Bloks Forward Unto Dawn set. (This becomes an issue for me as the year progresses. Thankfully it comes to a positive end before the year is up.
• Specializations in Halo 4 explained.

September:
•  ViDoc: A Hero Awakens shown for first time.
• Prometheans and their weapons revealed!
• Plenty of Halo Screenshots/Renders released. Campaign; War Games; Spartan Ops; Characters and Enemies;  Weapons and Vehicles
•  HFFL celebrates with it’s anniversary. (9/25)
• Valhalla is confirmed as a remade map in Halo 4 now called Ragnarok.

October:
• The Forward Unto Dawn miniseries finally starts. It’s a LONG awaited live action show that has great success. Over the course the month I take each episode and break them down into multiple parts in which I review the scenes. Please check out the Forward Unto Dawn section here for SO much info!
• As well, I create Graphic Novels of each episode. I’m surprised by the amount of coverage I get from other sites, especially  Halo Waypoint. I’m humbled. And the blog gets HUGE jump in subscribers as well as daily viewers. Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Also in PDF format!

• Just before I leave for New York Comicon, I play my last game of Halo Reach. It was fun, but I’m ready for some Halo 4!!! Days 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4 (wow, what stories I had to tell, especially on day 3…I hope noone ever has to go through what I did that day.)
• I’m a guest on Podtacular, the unnofficial Halo Universe PodCast. This is the first in what would be 4 consecutive weeks of being on the Podcast discussing the respective Forward unto Dawn episodes.
• McFarlane reveals the Forward Unto Dawn, Limited edition “Master Chief Vs. Hunter” resin statue. Limited to 500 it sells out QUICKLY!

November:
• Halo reviews pour in from all over and most are HIGHLY positive.
• Forward Unto Dawn minisieries ends and I hold a contest to own a McFarlane Master Chief figure as seen in the show.
• I was a featured guest on the Dust and Echoes Podcast, England’s premiere Halo Podcast!
• What bigger new in the year for Halo fans than the RELEASE of Halo 4!!! The return of Master Chief and Cortana! YEAH!!! To celebrate I give Doritos chips away at my local Gamestop (with Double XP codes) as well, I give away a poster I made for the release of Halo 4, limited to 75.

• Daily/Weekly/Monthly Challenges are posted for Halo 4 on the blog for the first time.
• I give away plenty of Doritos double XP codes during the month. Wow, that was FUN!
• First HFFL Community Playdate takes place on 11/14.
• I create the Spartan Ops Comic Books based off of the 5 minute prelude vids to each episodes. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and in PDF format! These too are very well recieved and each (except the last issue) are featured on Halo Waypoint. Hmm, hopefuly now that the holidays are done, maybe my fifth Spartan Ops comic will be on Waypoint?? Maybe?)
• After a few months of going back and forth with a Customer Service rep from Toys R Us regarding a pre-order of the Mega Bloks Forward Unto Dawn set, I finally receive my set and post a several part review as I build the set along the way. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

December:
•  Crimson Map pack is released. (with a glitch that allows some to get it for free)
• It’s Video Game award season and Halo 4 picks up several. VGAs, IGN, Inside Gaming Awards, NBC.
• Happy Halodays, a HFFL contest revealed and the winners are…
• I hit SR117 and SR130 in Halo 4 QUICKLY. (Too quick if you ask me…)

• Halo Infinity Challenge contest starts.
• An unexpected statue at my door. The McFarlane Master Chief Vs. Hunter statue! OMG! Review with pics inside.
• HFFL Swag Store finally opens.


• A new series of articles starts revealed: Spartan Ops , Mission by Mission.

Whew, and that just a part of all I posted in 2012. It was a GREAT year for Halo! And we still have MUCH to look forward to in 2013. Two more map packs. One coming in February and the other in April.

Hopefully I can make it to New York Toy Fair this year and posts some articles of the great new Halo products coming for the year.

In the meantime, if you made it through all of that, Kudos to you! I spent a few hours drafting this up….whew, I’m tired. It’s 5:30 am here. I needs me some sleep.

Happy New Year!
-Sal

You can find the link in the menu bar above, as well you can check out the store here. I’ll be updating this as I go along. For now, it’s rather bare bones… All for now just have the HFFL logo.

If there is something you’d like to see as swag in the store, let me know and if it’s available, I’ll add it. I’m thinking about adding the Halo 4 poster I did as swag. Here’s that poster (the actual one will be high resolution):

This is just something minimal I’m doing to help support the cost of the site. If any of you do order something, PLEASE send me a pic with you and the swag and I’ll be more than happy to post it on the blog.

-Sal