Category Archives: Interviews

Revealing the story of Halo 5 Guardians’ Campaign

Posted on by

This is a reblog from gameinformer: 

by Wade Wojcik

Over the last fourteen years, countless stories have been told within the Halo universe. We’ve followed humanity’s struggle against the alien Covenant, the god-like Forerunners, and the parasitic Flood through the eyes of a wide roster of characters. Much of it has been told in a variety of media, but whenever there’s a new game it moves everything forward in a major way. Halo 5: Guardians promises to do just that.

Franchise development director Frank O’Connor and writer Brian Reed sat down with us and explained the inner struggles and backstories of our heroes and villains and the overall big picture of the upcoming chapter in the Halo saga.

Frank O’Conner interview with gamesradar+

Posted on by

This is a reblog of the published interview of Frank O’Conner with gamesradar+

As 343 Industries takes stock of Halo with The Master Chief Collection and moves towards the much-anticipated release of Halo 5: Guardians, we’ve got a two-part interview with the Chief’s own guardians. First up, 343 Industries’ Frank O’Connor explains why it’s important to keep the mystique of Master Chief alive…

d53129e9c5ef20123cb4388caa8eafefcfcc63db.jpg__620x350_q85_crop_upscale Continue reading →

Halo Waypoint interviews Karen Travis (writer of Mortal Dictata).

Posted on by

Today, Karen Traviss’ final book in the Kilo-Five trilogy, Halo: Mortal Dictata is available for purchase. Recently we had the chance to chat with Traviss about the entire trilogy, as well as get exclusive insights into Halo: Mortal Dictata. Enjoy!

If you could briefly synthesize the entire Kilo-Five trilogy for someone who might not be familiar with the books, what would that look like?

karentravissinterview3_220The Kilo-Five trilogy is about loyalty and the moral dilemmas facing individuals in warfare, told in the context of a Cold War kind of black ops thriller. The head of ONI, Admiral Margaret Parangosky – arguably the finest-ever role model for pensioners – plans to make sure the Sangheili are down and stay down after the Covenant collapses. She sends in a handpicked black ops team, Kilo-Five, to destabilize Sanghelios by stirring up its postwar unrest into a civil war that’ll keep it too busy to bother Earth again, and degrade its strike capability. The essence of the story lies in the team itself — three ODSTs, a full Spartan and a Spartan washout who’s being groomed to succeed Parangosky as Commander in Chief Naval Intelligence, a civilian Sangheili expert who really excels at spying and dirty tricks after a career in academia, and the AI assigned to them, BB (Black Box).

Neither the Spartans nor the AI know their pasts, and there’s a painful process of discovery about the UNSC’s conduct that calls into question whether there are any good guys involved in this at all. The collapse of the Covenant takes the lid off all the other wars that have been on hold for 30 years, and a key player in the colonial insurgency that’s building is the father of one of the Spartans. But he has no idea she’s a Spartan, let alone still alive, or that Kilo-Five has been tasked to stop him acquiring a Covenant planet-killer to threaten Earth. In the end, everyone in Kilo-Five has to decide what duty demands of them and if that’s a demand too far in the bigger scheme of being a decent human being. How do they do the right thing as well as completing their mission? They’re trying to square a circle. Without spoiling any big reveals, all I can say is keep an eye on the AI throughout. BB’s got secrets. He’s got secrets he keeps even from himself.

karentravissinterview2_220

Although many of the characters in the Kilo-Five trilogy were intriguing and memorable, which one would you consider to be your favorite? Why? 

I never have a favorite character in anything I write, because I don’t work that way – my entire approach to characterization relies on complete neutrality, the polar opposite. The only way I can write multiple tight third person point-of-view successfully is to be able to step in and out of each character’s mind, every character, and feel what they feel to the fullest extent so I can make them come to life for the reader. You can’t do that if you prefer some to others. You won’t be able to “be” the other characters in the story when you need to give them their voice or take the necessary dramatic risks with your favorites, which is why I have none. They all have to have equal weight to make the whole world feel three-dimensional and fully realized. A story should be a real slice of life with winners and losers, and no guarantee of who wins, or even a definition of winning. Well, that’s how I write mine, and anyone who picks up a Traviss book knows that’s what they’re going to get.

There are characters that stand out to you as especially useful as a fiction device, and when you’ve made a challenging character work especially well then you feel good about that, but that’s not about the characters. It’s about your own exercise and command of your craft as a writer. It’s like the compulsory figures in skating – the audience doesn’t need to see it, but as a pro you have to master them so that the performance itself is seamless and nobody sees the strings.

 

From a technical perspective, which is purely internal stuff that writers talk about, I’m pleased with how BB turned out. He was a necessary device to make the story work because of the way I write tight third person point of view. BB can see everything the other POV characters can’t, so I can always use him to set scenes and impart information – he’s like the guide in a game, in a way, the overall perspective. But he’s also the emotional key to all the other characters. It’s making a virtue out of necessity. Without BB playing out exactly as he did, there would have been no trilogy. So, in a way, it’s all BB’s story.

With its key placement between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4, the Kilo-Five trilogy offered some interesting exploration opportunities in terms of Halo fiction. What areas did you enjoy exploring the most?
It was an experiment in genre for me. I set out to write a character-driven spy thriller that happened to be set in a science fiction universe. I have an Italian friend who says that science fiction is seen as a setting where he comes from, not as the genre itself – okay, the story is set on this planet or that future world, but is it a detective novel, a romance, a thriller? It’s stage dressing. The nuts and bolts of the story are the characters and the way they interact, and the mechanics of the storytelling. Using his analysis, all my books, both my tie-in work and my original fiction, are all other genres that happen to be on a science fiction stage set. They’re war stories, moral dilemmas, political thrillers, and made up of fundamental elements that could just as easily be set in today’s London or Renaissance Florence with adjustments made for technology. There are various thriller structures that I work with. For example, I’ve just finished a book where the reader knows everything that’s going on but the characters don’t — as you read, you watch them going up blind alleys and second-guessing the opposition but getting it wrong, and you see it from both sides, but the heart of the story, the mystery to be answered at the end, is about identity, how the characters discover who they are and who they’ll throw their lot in with. With Mortal Dictata, the reader doesn’t know some vital facts until the very end because the characters themselves don’t. And at the very end, the reader will still know something that the characters – bar one – will never know. It’s more of a will-they-won’t-they succeed in their mission kind of thriller, with a who-is-this-character-in-reality, but the main element – the people side of it – is what side they’ll take, and why. I tend to divide thrillers into whodunnits, whydunnits, and howdunnits. The advantage of doing that in an science fictional setting is that you have no limits and can ask “What if… ?’ to the nth degree.


Were there any advantages or challenges while pioneering some of the uncharted territory immediately after the Human-Covenant War?

There are things that work in a game but make lousy narrative fiction, and vice versa. I was able to look at events and scenarios that wouldn’t make good gameplay but make cracking novels – intricate, open to interpretation, real insights into how the individual characters think, and the kind of political maneuvering and human military detail (as in how people in uniform behave – I’m not being speciesist there) that provokes thought. I don’t care what conclusion readers come to – it’s up to you as an individual to decide which character is right – but I do insist that they stop and think, and don’t just swallow what they’re told.

karentravissinterview1_220What was the reasoning behind selecting ‘Mortal Dictata,’ a reference to government legislation within the Halsey Journal, as the title of the third Kilo-Five installment?
The elephant in the Halo living room is the Spartans. Seriously, does anyone not think there’s something seriously, dangerously wrong with all that? Imagine if your kid didn’t come home one day and you found years later that they’d been kidnapped, subjected to potentially lethal experiments, and then packed off to war. Against other humans. You’d shrug and say, “It’s all for the greater good,” would you? No. You’d go ballistic. So would your society. (Because the UNSC is very good at glossing over that little detail about the original purpose of the Spartans and making it look as if it was all about stopping the wicked aliens.) The essence of the third book is Naomi as a human being taken from her family, and what happens when that crime is examined in detail and the consequences have to be faced. Having seen the one-liner in the Halsey journal, I asked if the Mortal Dictata existed in any shape, and Jeremy [ed: Patenaude] said no, it was just that one line, so I wanted to expand that idea into the actual laws and spell out what was banned. Oddly, I really like doing that kind of “discoverables” stuff – I’ve had a ball writing discoverables for games I’ve worked on – and I was able to call on my previous experience in a job where I actually drafted policy documents and regulations. I like to think I still give good document!
When you were approaching writing Mortal Dictata, which unresolved story threads from the previous two novels did you want to focus on the most? Why? I wanted to explore the pasts of the two Spartans and see how the ODSTs (and BB!) reacted when push came to shove about personal loyalty. If I spell out what I really set out to explain, then I’ve spoiled the ending. But you find out who people really are and why that’s both good news and bad news. All becomes clear by the time you finish the book.Without giving away any secrets, what was your favorite scene to write in Mortal Dictata?

Favorite is a word that has misleading overtones of enjoyment, so I’d prefer to say “the scene that made everything fall into place” – the cornerstone, if you can call something at the final stage of construction a cornerstone. It was the whole last chapter, and the epilogue in particular. I built up to that for four years, and keeping it on track over such a long period and through two games was a big challenge. When I kept the mystery going to the very last page, I admit I was both relieved and satisfied. The epilogue really gave me a sense of closure. There are so many open-ended series you find yourself having to write that actually having an ending that’s an outcome people have been waiting for rather than just tidying up a stump, so to speak, is very therapeutic.

As this third novel brings the Kilo-Five trilogy to an exciting and rewarding close, what do you feel was your favorite contribution to the Halo universe in this series?Again, I really hate the word favorite. Let’s say added value. I like to think I gave it a real-world military vibe by focusing on Marines who think like Marines. (And spooks who think like spooks, and aliens who think like aliens, but that’s another matter.) However far-out the technology is and however many aliens there are, those characters and the situations they find themselves in are recognized instantly by people in uniform. I get a lot of mail to that effect. That matters to me more than anything. I’ve said this in many interviews, but I set out to tell the truth even in an entirely made-up universe because fiction has enormous potential to create dishonest stereotypes that percolate into real-life opinions, so my priority is to keep faith with men and women in uniform. (Yes, it’s even more important to me than the money.)Oh, and I’d really like a Huragok. Please. I keep finding jobs it could do.

HFFL: This is a great interview. Without giving anything away, you can read the passion by which Traviss gave to the Kilo-5 trilogy. I for one and excited to read the book and can’t wait til I get it from Amazon. I really want to see it’s lead into Halo 4. Especially how Jul M’Dama plays more of a role in all of this.
-Sal

Halo TV show on XBOX early 2014??

Posted on by

In this excerpt from a Variety article by Marc Graser, Nancy Tellem, president of entertainment and digital for Microsoft, talks briefly about the time table for the Halo TV show coming to XBOX.

Developing original series for Microsoft has taken a little longer than veteran TV executive Nancy Tellem had hoped, but her first slate of shows will launch on the Xbox videogame consoles early next year.

“We’re hoping we will be able to put something up in the first quarter, at minimum second quarter,” said Tellem, president of entertainment and digital for Microsoft, at Variety’s Dealmakers Breakfast at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. The shows will be available on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One through Xbox Live.

“I’m incredibly ambitious and impatient,” said Tellem, who took the job to produce original content for the Xbox platform in 2012. Because of that, the time it’s taken to develop the first slate of series, including a high-profile project based around “Halo,” with Steven Spielberg producing, has been “slower,” but “reflecting on what we’ve done and what lies ahead, it’s been pretty good.”

To read the full article (which doesn’t have any further Halo news), click HERE.

HFFL: I for one am extremely happy to hear that the Halo TV show is still a go and may be available to watch in just a few months. I was starting to lose hope on it. Thankfully that hope is renewed. I’m equally happy that it won’t be an XBOX One only exclusive.

So what say you? Are you excited for the TV show? I’m curious what time period in the Halo-verse will be used. I’d kind of like to see it start with the Insurgency, leading up to first contact. Mixed in once in awhile the EARLY story of how John met Halsey and began his spartan training at an early age. Yes, we know that story from the books, but it would be great to see it in action.

Part of the reason I think it’s going to be the Insurgency, is that there will be minimal CG. NO aliens to have to render. Plus that portion of the Halo-verse is RIPE for the telling!

Thanks to HBO for posting the link to this article on twitter.

-Sal

IGN interviews the voice of Master Chief, Steve Downes!

Posted on by

IGN posted the “Podcast Unlocked Episode 117”. How befitting it is that they have Steve Downes, voice of Master Chief on the show. Okay, if you only want to here the interview, snap to 35 minutes in. (And honestly, I suggest that as what comes before is not pertinent to Halo and somewhat boring other than Naomi Kyle’s sweet voice…)

Take a listen:

      Podcast_Unlocked_Episode_117

Or download and listen to later here: Podcast_Unlocked_Episode_117 

If anything, it’s just extremely cool to here ‘Master Chief’ is a casual mode.

-Sal

Frank O’Connor on the Future of Competitive Halo

Posted on by

This is a repost from an article on Gamespot.com:
by Rod Breslau

Franchise development director at 343 Industries discusses outlook and focus on the competitive Halo community, the continuation of the Halo Global Championships, and the potential for spectator mode in the next Halo title.

This weekend at PAX was 343 Industries’ Halo 4 Global Championships. This was the first time 343 had put on an event at this scale, and the largest developer-funded competitive tournament the decorated Halo series has ever seen. More than $500,000 was given away over the course of the championships, and Seattle’s Benayora Hall was packed with spectators for the finals.

GameSpot spoke with Frank O’Connor, Franchise Development Director for the Halo series at 343 Industries, about the future of competitive Halo. Discussion includes 343’s outlook and focus on the competitive Halo community, the continuation of the Halo Global Championships, and the potential for spectator mode in the next Halo title.

This is the first time you’ve hosted a Championship event. Why do this now…what is your intention?

From a very high level, it’s just a good way to continue to sustain the game in the first half of its lifespan. As you well know, we’ve always had a competitive community, and a fairly gregarious and active one. I think one of the issues about that is, it tends to be Team Slayer, Pros only. We wanted to really provide the broader player base with a way to enter that had some meaning. And at the same time, maybe get them interested in the higher-end competitive scene. The basic premise being that anybody can enter, and that anybody has a shot at winning something. And of course they’re going to watch the better players and the pros rise to the top here. I think the biggest difference is that this one is so broad-based, it concentrates more on individual play rather than team play. It’s a significant hurdle for people to enter something as mainstream as this; getting a good team together [is] probably the single-hardest aspect.

Many in the competitive community were a bit put off by this tournament being Free For All, considering there’s a 9 to 10 year history of 4v4 competitive play. Why not add 4v4 to the tournament? Why was the decision made to strictly do FFA and 1v1?

This isn’t going to be our only tournament. I think people tend to think of tournaments as annual beats where you get one big event, and certainly the next thing we’re going to do is obviously looking at teams. This was a way to get people who are out for the summer break, or maybe not even paying attention to this kind of thing, an access point to get them interested so that when we do stuff later on, maybe even later on this year, then we can have them be interested in an idea of competitive play period. As you know, the competitive community, while it’s big as an idea, a concept, and a population, on a per-game basis, pro teams and good teams represent a fairly small fraction of the overall user base. We’re trying to give a method of entry, an on-ramp on being interested in the competitive community to all of our players so that no one is being left out of this. From what we’ve seen in terms of feedback, is that even team players are really interested to see how some of their better players do individually in this kind of format. It throws people’s habits and expectations a little bit.

We’re trying to make this more accessible, more widely available to everybody to enter. FFA was the first gametype you look at; the challenge with teams is that you have to get three extra players, which I think is no small feat. FFA allows anyone to just jump in. Everyone here is well aware that team play is where the really high-end competitive play is going to happen, and this is a single tournament, and you can think about the future as a place to see more traditional team-based modes. With this, we’ll have introduced many players who don’t really care about the competitive scene, and then they’ll have way more interest next time around in doing something more strategic.

In the last two years we’ve seen developers Riot and Blizzard launch their own season-based events, the League Championship Series and World Championship Series, and Valve has an International event for Dota 2. How do you see this type of tournament growing? Where do you want to position yourselves on this event for the future?

We don’t have any specific announcements for the next year or what that looks like, but we’re basically internally building plans for how to keep this competitive activity going. I wish we could talk more, but we have partners and plans being built. I think also in the wake of some of the stuff we’re adding with the Champions bundle, and you think about the new mode Ricochet, it’s actually something we’d like to get teams interested in as well. We’ll be looking at how we use the new content, how do we use a newly sort-of engaged competitive audience, and what’s the right thing to do for them. We may not even have to wait till next year. This is a game we intend to sustain and promote for the foreseeable future.

Halo1_60258_640screen

Do 343 have a preliminary idea of where they want to take this, for example paying players salaries and holding control, or letting the community dictate what will happen?

I think it’s always, especially when you’re talking about emergent competitive activity, it’s always better to let the community take some lead in defining what game modes that they’re interested in, and defining what kind of tournament framework works best for them. This one is interesting in that it’s a way to get people who ordinarily don’t pay much attention to the scene, to actually get them paying attention, and that it’s an enjoyable thing to watch. Just get them into watching these streams and getting into it as a sport, and then hopefully sweep some of those people up as we do more and more tournament engagement in the future.

Virgin Gaming was announced to be the partner to run this year’s Championship. Major League Gaming began with Halo, and was synonymous with the Halo community for a very long time. Some are surprised that MLG was not chosen to be running the event. Could you explain why MLG was not involved in this, and why Virgin Gaming was chosen?

We as Halo don’t have an exclusive arrangement with Virgin; this is the tournament that we’re running right now. The platform Xbox has a relationship with Virgin, and so obviously it made sense for us to partner with those guys since they were building tech and structure around Xbox. As for MLG, MLG always used Halo as the game they chose, so [we] let them use it free of charge and they build tournaments around it. I think as they’ve grown, they’ve become obviously a much more successful pro-oriented league. I’d love to work with MLG again in the future, and there’s nothing actually preventing that. It’s more about what they’re interested in, what they want to get out of it. We worked with them for the launch of Halo 4 and it was really fun. We’d be happy to work with them again in the future.

Why did you decide in the end to go with Virgin as opposed to running it all yourself?

The honest answer is that Virgin scales better than we do and they know what they’re doing. Whereas we know the game inside out, and we know the basics of tournament structure, but we have a lot of other things on our plate including a next-gen game. So working with a partner who can help share the burden of that work and provide us expertise that we don’t necessarily have–which goes both ways–always makes sense.

One of the in-game features that’s pushed eSports and competitive gaming the most over the years has been Spectator Mode. This is a feature that’s absent from Halo, and has been requested by the community quite often. Why hasn’t this been implemented?

We take that aspect of the game tech very seriously. The honest answer is that when you’re building a game, you have finite resources, finite people; finite time more importantly. Sometimes something’s gotta give. Spectator mode–a true spectator mode–is something that we took very seriously in development. Work continues to go ahead on several aspects of the game in terms of competitive play, but we just didn’t have the time or resources to do everything that we wanted to do. Now that said, we’re a fully formed team now. We understand our capabilities and scale of our operation a lot better than we did when we first formed to take over the Halo franchise. Competitive play, spectator mode, any kind of video-based or tournament-based activity is something we’re taking very seriously for the future. Being careful not to promise anything, you can take it for granted that something we’d have loved to put in last time, should be applied to what we want to do for the next game in the Halo series.

The Halo engine is built on years and years and years of legacy stuff, and it’s frankly not all that easy to make significant changes to it. We’ve done it in the past, but it’s a tremendous amount of work, and in some ways the effort and invention that we want to apply to that type of code and features, is probably better spent forward-facing. It’s not to say it will never happen, but bluntly speaking we should be spending our resources for the future and not for the past. I wish it was in there.

Something like spectator mode, that just wasn’t feasible to do with current technology, what types of features, focused on competitive and eSports, have you been thinking for the next Halo?

I’m not in a position to talk about future features outside of a purely holistic perspective, and it’s something we take very seriously. We’re building both our staff and our experience and knowledge in that realm, and you should expect our support for the competitive community and the competitive scene will improve for the future.

The Halo franchise has such a rich competitive history throughout the years at Bungie up until now. eSports and competitive gaming has grown so much in just the last few years. How does 343 view this industry in its current state, especially with a game like Halo?

I think it’s a combination of both ends of the spectrum. I think we want to make the multiplayer and the competitive game more accessible to people. At the same time, we want to take the core community much more seriously. Halo is lucky in a way that those things don’t necessarily conflict with each other. We’re able to create a vision and a version of the game on the far-end of the skill spectrum for pro players that works beautifully. If you watch it in a tournament when it’s being properly narrated, it’s a very elegant and challenging experience.

There’s a lot of first person shooters where it’s like ‘bang, you’re dead’ and then there’s no exciting-looking engagement. I think that can be very difficult for players at the lower-end of the skill range in those games. Halo on the other hand, I think anybody can watch an engagement by high-end players, and understand what the skill they’re observing is, and see fairly exciting tense gameplay. I like watching competitive Halo more than a lot of other games.

To be honest, I watch something like StarCraft, and I can tell something awesome is happening, but I can’t necessarily understand at a glance what’s happening, and I think Halo is a little bit more like a fighting game in that regard. It’s very watchable. We’ll be thinking about that in the future too. We’ll definitely always want to support the games’ tradition of gameplay systems and playlists from normal to high-skilled players.

Beyond the gameplay itself, does 343 and Microsoft see the eSports industry with more importance than it used to?

I think we as a studio [have] a responsibility to sustain the game and keep its heart beating very seriously, and that’s going to continue all the way up until the launch of our next game and beyond that. The 360 is going to be around for a long time and we want to make sure we’re going to be supporting it properly.

HFFL: One thing Frank seems to keep deflecting is the importance or lack there of, of eSports in relation to Halo. He keeps talking about the future of Halo, the next game and so on without giving specific details. Understandably, he can’t on certain points. However, I think it would be safe enough to say if 343 is planning on getting more into the eSports side of things or not. It would certainly calm the pro community if Frank came right and said as much.

Reading back through the interview, there at least seems to be enough to extrapolate that pro-gaming is on 343’s mind. Whether they take that to task and deliver something on it beyond the Halo 4 Global Championship is something we’ll all have to patiently wait on.

-Sal

Insider Q&A: Halo Spartan Assault’s Dan Ayoub

Posted on by

Spartan Assault lead-in graphic

Dan Ayoub, Halo 4’s executive producer answers some questions about Halo Spartan Assault including the decision to be exclusive to Windows 8 devices.

http://www.insidemobileapps.com/2013/08/29/insider-qa-halos-dan-ayoub/

HFFL: Now while I can appreciate wanting to entice people to buy Windows 8 devices with Halo, I still STRONGLY disagree with it not coming to XBOX Live Arcade. I hope we get it on the XBOX 360 by the end of the year. I’d gladly pay $15 for it!!!

-Sal

HFFL Exclusive Interview with Toxik Nate, RTX finalist for the Halo 4 Global Championship.

Posted on by

Toxik Nate was the break-out surprise at the Halo 4 Global Championship qualifier at RTX. In part due to his being a non-pro and playing so well against them.
I contacted Nate right after RTX to see if he’d be interested in doing an interview with HFFL. He agreed and here it is. If you’re not familiar with Nate, he was one of only SIX to advance to the finals of the Halo 4 Global Championship, RTX Qualifier of 696 contestants. I think we’re about to hear even more about him in the future, especially if he performs well at the Finals in Seattle during PAX.

Toxik Nate Symbol

HFFL: Hello Nate, thanks for agreeing to do this interview with me.
Toxik Nate (Nate): No problem Sal, just call me Nate.

HFFL: You made quite a showing at the RTX Qualifier for the Halo 4 Global Championship. Did you think you’d place so high, knowing there would be several pros playing as well?
Nate: I knew that several pros were attending, There was no doubting the skill of my competitors, so I did not doubt myself.

HFFL: Tell us what it was like to play in the tournament at RTX. Could you feel the excitement in the air?
Nate: RTX Austin had a HUGE turnout this was my first time at Rooster Teeth. So much cosplay it was like every video game/movie character came out to PARTY. I had a lot of fun talking with Master Chief John 117 himself. He told me the ending of the Halo series beyond H4 and it is truly amazing. (HFFL: LOL) As I entered the open FFA I knew that this was an important time to play my game.

HFFL: Were you nervous? If so, what did you do to overcome that nervousness? Any pre-game warm-ups, rituals?
Nate: Yes, I only got nervous before the finals on main stage. As for pregame rituals I often listen to two of my favorite bands, The Deftones and TOOL, before I play and sometimes while I’m playing. During the line up for the mainstage finals I can remember the song SCHISM by TOOL was playing over the showroom speakers. Hearing that song was good for me that’s one of the songs I blast before I start gaming.

HFFL: Upon your completion of the tournament at RTX, what were you feeling when you knew you had made it through?
Nate: When the tournament was over I was feeling good and was thankful for my placing. I enjoyed post game sportsmanship as every finalist congratulated one another.

HFFL: Do you have any tips for the rest of us who will be participating in the online portion of the contest?
Nate: For the online portion players should pay close attention to the host of the game. This is the GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP so expect fans of Halo all around the world to compete. If your trying to qualify and you live in the states, getting caught on a foreign HOST makes it harder to play. Try aiming your rifle through 3000 miles of internet traffic.

HFFL: Should you win or place high in the finals at Seattle, would you consider going pro if given the opportunity?
Nate: If I place well in Seattle, I will consider playing professionally.

HFFL: What about Halo made you a fan in the first place?
Nate: Halo multiplayer is a lot of fun. Master Chief is an awesome main character.

HFFL: Which game in the Halo franchise is your favorite?
Nate: Halo 2

HFFL: What is your favorite Multiplayer game type and why?
Nate: FFA. Chaos, kill stealing, and competition.

HFFL: Favorite Map and why?
Nate: Halo 2’s Midship. PARTY AT PINK 2!

HFFL: Favorite Weapon from any of the Halo games and why?
Nate: My favorite weapon has always been the battle rifle. As you become more precise with your shots you will see its the best weapon.

HFFL: What do you think about the changes 343 have and continue to make to Halo?
Nate: 343 Industries has improved the game play of Halo 4 with the weapons tuning update. Its nice to see the developers listen to community feedback helping to bring a better player experience to Halo 4.

HFFL: Thanks, Nate, for your time and willingness to answer these questions.
Nate: Sure, no problem.

You can find Nate at his twitter account:  twitter@toxiknate

If you’re like me, you want to see Nate win. He’s the underdog to be sure. Being a non-pro, he’s got the odds stacked against him. Still, I think it would be GREAT for Halo if a non-pro won it all at the finals in Seattle. It would show that there is indeed a chance for ANYONE to win this, not just those that play Halo professionally.

-Sal

An EXCLUSIVE Interview with April Orenski herself, Enisha Brewster.

Posted on by

You know her from Forward Unto Dawn, the Halo miniseries that premiered in October, 2012. She played the leader and senior cadet of Hastati squad, April Orenski. It is my pleasure to bring you a HaloFanForLife.com exclusive interview with Enisha Brewster.
(If you represent another website, please only link back to this article, do not copy/paste in whole or part. Professional courtesy, please. This is my exclusive.)

And now, on with the interview:

Enisha Brewster headshotHFFL: Hello Enisha, thanks for agreeing to do this interview with me.
Enisha Brewster (EB): My pleasure.

HFFL: According to your IMDB profile, you’ve been acting for 3-4 years now. Is that the case?
EB: I’ve been acting since I was 10, but I began my film and television career just 3 years ago.

HFFL: Is there anyone in particular that motivated you to go into acting?
EB: The first person to put a script into my hands was a sweet woman named Reba Kendrid in Houston, Texas. I was hooked from that day forward. A couple peers in college motivated me to pursue a career in acting well before I’d made that decision for myself. And a casting director in Atlanta encouraged me to consider a career in TV and film before I’d even given it a thought. I am ever grateful to each of them.

HFFL: Who in your life, famous or not, is an inspiration to you, and why?
EB: I am inspired by humanitarians like Kerry Washington, and great women like Phylicia Rashad, and great artists like Geoffrey Wright. My family inspire me every day of my life. 
HFFL: Family can definitely inspire!

HFFL: You played “April Orenski” in the Forward Unto Dawn mini-series. Have you done mini-series in the past? If so, which ones? Were any sci-fi related?
EB: Forward Unto Dawn was my first mini-series and my first sci-fi project ever.

HFFL: Forward Unto Dawn was shot in Canada. Was that your first time acting in a production outside of the United States?
EB: Yes. We shot Forward Unto Dawn in Vancouver, a lovely city with even lovelier people.

HFFL: With Forward Unto Dawn being a hit, are you aware of your now lifelong association with Halo? Would you like to reprise your role as Orenski if offered that opportunity?
EB: That never ceases to excite me! I would be happy to reprise my role as April Orenski given the opportunity!

HFFL: Where/What would you like to see Orenski become?
EB: A loaded question 🙂 I have some ideas, but I’m going to defer to the creative geniuses at Microsoft on this one.
HFFL: I have some ideas as well. Admiral Orenski!

HFFL: You recently were nominated for an EMMY for your role as Orenski. How and when did you find this out and what was your reaction? (By the way, congrats and I truly hope you win!)
EB: The official nominations will be announced on July 18th, 2013. It would be a huge honor to be nominated. At this stage I have been submitted to be considered for an Emmy Nomination–which itself is a huge deal!

HFFL: Are you at all like Orenski? If so, how, and if not, what separates you from her?
EB: I think April Orenski and I both have a strong sense of duty, commitment, and responsibility to the things and people we hold in high regard, but April is far more stern and way less empathetic then I am. She is military. As much of a tomboy as I once was (and still am in some sense), I love a little beauty, a little glitz, a touch of glam every once in a while.

HFFL: Are/Were you a fan of Halo? Did you know of Halo before your work on FUD?
EB: Honestly, I wasn’t very familiar with Halo before being cast. I had to get the scoop from my brothers. I didn’t start to understand how huge an opportunity and franchise Halo is until I heard their excitement. 

HFFL: Are you a Gamer? If so, have you played any of the Halo games? Before your work on FUD?
EB: No, I can’t say that I am a gamer. But I have a sneaking suspicion that will change very soon.
HFFL: Well, I hope you do get into gaming and feel free to add me as a friend on XBOX when you do. My Gamertag is: HaloFanForLife1

HFFL: Did you have any surreal moments on the set? If so, please expound upon this. For example, seeing Master Chief for the first time.
EB: Seeing MC for the first time was indeed a surreal moment! Daniel Cudmore, who embodies him in Forward Unto Dawn, is himself a tall man with a great presence. Seeing Daniel in full armor as Master Chief for the first time was like meeting a superhero. My heart started racing and my eyes must have been a mile wide.

HFFL: What projects do you have up and coming?
EB: I can be seen in the 12th and 13th episode of Perception this season, back in uniform and barking orders! The episodes air in September on TNT.

HFFL: Thanks again for your time Enisha. It continues to be my honor to talk with you. I wish you all the best in your future acting career. Should you win the EMMY, don’t forget we little folk who are pulling for you!
EB: Thank you, Sal!!

You can find news of Enisha at her official website: enishabrewster.com
As well you can follow her on twitter at: @EnishaBrewster

-Sal

Back from New York Comicon!

Posted on by

Okay folks I have LOTS to discuss. I’ve got to write it all up. Here’s what you can expect over the course of the next two days:

• My “diary” of events of the trip. This will be a series of articles that will be more than just Halo related. It hopefully will read more like a story of my trip.
• Summary of New York Comicon. Think of this as the “Cliff Notes” version of above that pertains to the Con itself with more Halo highlights.
• Halo specific related convention news.
• A VERY Special Halo LAN/after party with pics and some great news about Halo 4 and Halo Mega Bloks.
• Thank you articles for those who helped me along the way during the con.
• Cosplay people! (Pics)

Beyond the convention stuff, I’m also going to squeeze in a multipart review of Forward Unto Dawn episode two, much like I did for the first episode. To follow in a day or two will be the unofficial Graphic Novel for episode two as well.

As I said, LOTS to do, so be patient please and I’ll get to blogging all this stuff momentarily.

-Sal

Superfan Symposium: An interview with Halo Superfan, Rich Bubik (aka Goodwill Hunter)

Posted on by

Just outside of Milwaukee, WI., Rich is a Creative Supervisor for a packaging company’s in-house Marketing department.

So you may be asking, Rich who? Well folks, he is one of if not the BEST custom Halo Mega Bloks model builder out there. My interviews of fans are not just those of MLG fandom or super website fame. They are of those who I feel have a positive impact on the Halo community and/or have a talent related to Halo that if not known, NEEDS to be known. Once you read this interview and see his creations, I hope you’ll feel the same that he belongs in the category of Halo Superfan.

Below you will see various pics of his customs. First up is what I consider to be his best. Certainly it’s his biggest. The Scarab.

HaloFanForLife (HFFL): When did you first become a Halo fan?
Rich Bubik (GH): I was a fan of Marathon on the Mac, so was looking forward to Halo all along. As soon as I found a used Xbox at my local second hand game shop (I rarely buy anything new or at full price – charter member at cheapassgamer.com), I picked it and a copy of Halo up, and have been a big fan ever since.

HFFL – Nothing wrong with being thrifty. Nice to see you were a fan of Bungie’s stuff before they blew up in fame with halo.

(HFFL): What about Halo made you a fan in the first place?
(GH): I’ve enjoyed first person shooters since Wolfenstein, so playing Halo was a given. The play mechanics, storyline and music, however, are what made me fall in love with the Halo universe.

HFFL – The UNSC Barracks is but one of the buildings from Halo Wars. I’d LOVE to see Mega Bloks make all of the UNSC buildings. If not this scale, then a mini scale.

(HFFL): Of the games that there have been achievements for, have you completed them all?
(GH): I’m more about enjoying the campaign and checking out the maps than the achievements. I’ve been able to complete all of the Halo games on their highest difficulty level, but it usually is a long, leisurely process with lots of exploration. If I had to guess, I probably have somewhere north of half of the achievements in these games.

HFFL – Enjoying the games is what it’s all about. There are many ways to do that of course. Nice to see someone who doesn’t take is all as serious as some others do.

(HFFL): Which game in the Halo franchise is your favorite and why?
(GH): I’m probably one of the few people who will say this…but it’s Halo Wars.  In addition to being an FPS player, I also enjoy RTS games (my two favorite acronyms!) and am a huge fan of Dune: Battle for Arrakis on the Sega Genesis. As the play mechanics for Dune and Halo Wars are very similar, I fell in love with the game right away. In addition to providing so much fodder for the builds I have done, I really like the story and the characters in Halo Wars. Sgt. Forge is probably my favorite character in the Halo universe, and I was very moved by his sacrifice. And that battle between the Spartans and the Elite Honor Guard is my favorite video game cutscene of all time!


HFFL – I have been amassing green camo bloks myself to attempt a custom of the Vulture. Such an impressive ship, and GH did an amazing job in his custom.

(HFFL): What is your favorite Multiplayer game type and why? (ie., Team Slayer, FFA, BTB, Infection, etc.)
(GH): Slayer if I had to pick one…don’t play multiplayer all that much though.

(HFFL): Favorite Weapon from any of the Halo games and why?
(GH): Love the Gravity Hammer…the sound and the effects are hard to beat – but in game, I can’t get enough of the sniper rifle…prefer to thin the herd before charging in.

(HFFL): What are you most excited about for Halo 4?
(GH): Cortana getting her rage on…(and new vehicles to build!)

HFFL – I hear ya man. Cortana freakin’ out is something I’m most looking forward to as well. Heh, and new vehicles. While, I may not be as good a customizer as you are, I agree there are going to be some cool new vehicles. I just hope I don’t have to custom make them…

(HFFL): What do you think about the changes 343 is making to Halo?
(GH): Trying to keep an open mind…the new enemies and weapons look interesting, but what I’ve seen of the Mammoth doesn’t strike me as much of a Halo-type vehicle – perhaps that will change when I see it in action.

HFFL – Hmm, I like the Mammoth. More of a closed top Elephant. Bigger too. If I recall, I’ve heard it’s important to Spartan Ops, so we’ll likely see it a bit.

(HFFL): Where are you pre-ordering the game from (assuming you are pre-ordering)?
(GH): Whoever has the best deal…usually Amazon for me.

(HFFL): You have an impressive talent for creating custom Halo MEGA Bloks sets. Where did you get this talent from?
(GH): I’ve been a model builder my entire life. Built, weathered and customized Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and any other model kits I could get my hands on when I was a kid. I wanted to work for George Lucas making models for movies, but that, along with dreams of digging up dinosaurs for a living, did not come to pass. But aside from putting together a few models for work and school presentations, or playing legos with my daughters, I hadn’t done any real building for almost 20 years…until I came across a Halo Mega Bloks set during a Goodwill hunt, that is…

(HFFL): How long have you been making these customs?
(GH): My first custom build was the Covenant Revenant, made in February of 2011 from a Wraith set I found at my local Goodwill. I was at Goodwill, by the way, hunting for vintage video games, which is where my forum handle, Goodwill Hunter, comes from.  My first love, in terms of hobbies, is collecting classic video games…and thrift stores, rental locations, second-hand shops and rummage sales are where most of my collection originated. In 20 years of collecting and playing, I’ve amassed nearly 6,000 unique titles for nearly 50 systems, spanning the Atari 2600 to the Xbox 360, and everything in between. Believe it or not, I keep my video game and custom build collections in a 10’ x 12’ room, which also requires building a lot of custom shelving…but this effort has helped to ensure a happy home (the married guys know what I’m talking about).

HFFL – Sounds like me and my toy collections. Nice job on the amount of video game titles!

(HFFL): How do you go about starting to make a custom?
(GH): I start every custom build the same way, by finding as many images of the vehicle or structure as I can online, and printing them all out (unless I’m building something I just dreamed up, like the Mastodon or Dragonfly, because all of those pictures are only in my head). I then look at the pictures and try to imagine what existing bloks would work best to match what I see in the pictures. Getting good guide images to work from is the most important step in creating a successful custom build, IMHO.

HFFL – Above is his own creation, the “Mastadon.” It’s a mobile MAC Cannon platform. Very cool idea. Wouldn’t it be something if this made it into a Halo game?

(HFFL): Do you plan it out first? Or do you just start to build?
(GH): Researching the guide images is about all the planning I do. Once I have them, I just start putting pieces together, trying to match the guide images as closely as possible. Sometimes I go front to back, sometimes it’s bottom to top, and sometimes I build in sections that then need to be knit together. Sometimes it is seemingly endless trial and error (sections of the Vulture build were torn down and rebuilt dozens of times), and other times everything just seems to click on the first try (the Mastodon went together like I had a set of instructions in front of me for some reason).

HFFL – I hear ya on having to rebuild something over and over. I must have done that a couple dozen times to one of my customs before I felt it was where I wanted it to be. When creating, one should not rush to get it done. There is much to learn from having patience.

(HFFL): Do you figure out what parts you need and if you don’t have them where do you get them from?
(GH): All my spare parts are sorted by color in bags or bins. Much of my build time is spent sorting through piles of bloks looking for a certain piece. If I don’t have that certain piece, I usually try to find another way to execute that part of the build using the pieces I do have. Most of my parts come from sets bought on clearance (I couldn’t have made the Scarab without that Walmart clearance sale earlier in the year)– and BOGO sales combined with the occasional $5 Mega Bloks coupons are helpful in acquiring parts for customs.  I also keep an eye on Ebay for cheap lots of older vehicles or boxes of unassembled pieces.

(HFFL): How many Halo MEGA Bloks customs have you made?
(GH): I just put together a couple of YouTube videos that feature the 25 or so custom builds I have made since February of 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JibRkVyZUU&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXtzrFRcjjw

HFFL – Impressive videos of your customs to say the least.

(HFFL): Which is your favorite and why?
(GH): That’s a tough one…I like the Revenant because it was the first one I did, the Vulture for its working missiles, the Scarab for it’s size, the Darters for their obscurity, the Spirit because no one else has attempted one, the Reactor for its detail, the Mastodon for the concept…I like them all for many different reasons – part of the reason I’ve chosen not to take them apart or sell them…guess I don’t really have a favorite.

(HFFL): (This one comes from a friend who wants me to ask) Do you work for MEGA Bloks? (The company)
(GH): No…I keep waiting for someone from Mega Brands to come to Milwaukee and throw money at me, but it has yet to happen.

HFFL – Heh, a man with the same desires as I have. Though I’m in Pittsburgh…

(HFFL): If no, would you like to work for them?
(GH): Of course! That would go a long way towards healing my previously mentioned Lucasfilm and Archeology wounds!

(HFFL): What one Halo MEGA Bloks set are you most looking forward to getting and why?
(GH): I am really looking forward to the Covenant Spirit that has been hinted at. I’m curious to see how the final compares to the prototype that was shown, and how they deal with some of the structural issues I encountered while building mine.

(HFFL): What vehicle/scene/playset would you like MEGA Bloks to make that hasn’t been made yet?
(GH): I would love to see a set of mini-scaled heavyweight ships from the Halo universe like the Pillar of Autumn and the Spirit of Fire, among others. If they had done that with their new die-cast line, I bet they would have sold a ton of them. The Infinity set looks promising, but I fear what the final price will be when it hits the shelf at TRU.

HFFL – There will indeed be models of some of the bigger ships (not to scale with the rest of the Halo Mega Bloks line). The first one is slated later this year, called the “Forward Unto Dawn.” It is touted as being the first in a new line called the “Signature Series.”

(HFFL): What else would you like to tell my readers either about you or your fascination with Halo/Halo MEGA Bloks?
(GH): I still make engine and weapon noises when I move the vehicles I make…my wife thinks I’m nuts, but tolerates me and my obsessions for the most part.

(HFFL): Any shout outs or links you’d like to say?
(GH): I’d like to thank Ernie for originally inviting me to share my builds on the fan site he created – SpartanBloks.com. Thanks also go out to Mega Bloks for giving my customs some recognition by awarding “Authorized Personnel Only” – my toymation contest entry, an honorable mention for best builds. And I’d like to thank anyone who has ever helped me get some sets or parts for my builds, or left me a comment or feedback on one of my posts or videos.


Find my custom build collection thread on SpartanBloks here.
Videos of my custom builds can be seen on my YouTube Channel here.
And lest I seem ungracious, thank you very much for the interview…I enjoy your site and discussing my interests (or obsessions as my wife would say) was a lot of fun!

HFFL – Pleasure to interview a talented fan such as yourself. And yeah, my wife thinks I’m obsessed too…

You can many more photos of GH’s customs here: Flick.com

For now here are some more examples of his work:




That last one (Nightingale), I’m particularly fond of. Not just a swap of red and white blocks from the Target exclusive and Arctic version. This just begs to be made as a real set for the masses. Well, pretty much all of his customs do.

Is that Scarab amazing or what??

-HFFL

 

Interview with Norway’s Halo SUPER fan Maria Masuimi.

Posted on by

This fan interview is the first in what I hope is a long string of fan interviews. If you have a favorite Halo super fan you’d like to see me interview please comment below or send me an e-mail to [email protected]

For my first interview I had the pleasure of asking the beautiful and talented Maria Masuimi several Halo related questions that any Halo fan can relate to. Maria is a 25 year old Halo gamer living in Oslo, Norway, who works in public administration. She’s known on Twitter ( @MariaMasuimi ) and has been featured on HaloWaypoint.com. Her pic is the last (but not least) in that article.

Here’s a pic of her, used with permission (and fellas, please don’t gawk, it’s rude…):

HaloFanForLife (HFFL): When did you first become a Halo fan?
Maria Masuimi (MM): I recall trying Halo a decade ago, but I wasn’t truly captured by Halo until Halo 3 came around. I’ve played a lot of FPS’ in my life and never really had it has my favourite genre, but Halo kind of changed that for me.

HFFL: What about Halo made you a fan in the first place?
MM: It’s a very social game while being highly competitive with its mulitplayer and once you get into the “science” of that in all its details it’s not really an easy game to play. I think those two reasons makes the series appeal to a large number of people, including me. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how it started, but I think a big part of the reason was that it was one of my first experiences with real memorable FPS co-op gameplay on a console.
Initially I mostly played campaign and it was just so fun being able to do missions with a full team and go through the struggles together with someone. But with time I got more and more into the multiplayer aspect, and that is ultimately the part that has kept me constantly coming back for more all these years.
Halo was also a nice shift of phase from the realistic military-themed shooters. I guess I have limits for how much camo fabric my eyes can take. And also, honestly, with age, a teeny-tiny percentage of me has started to slightly feel the sensation of “wrong” as I shoot realistic-looking people in FPS’. In Halo you don’t shoot something as similar looking to PEOPLE per se, which leaves that whole sensation out “you know this is wrong” of the picture. And it’s also nice to have superhuman strength and not be as bound by physical laws.

HFFL: How many Halo achievements have you completed?
MM:
• Halo CE: Anniversary?
I had quite some issues with insane lag in Anniversary. I’ve only completed 11 out of 44.
• Halo 3?
I have 45 of 79. I was a bit of a shitty player back in H3. (HFFL-I hear ya, so was I)
• Halo Wars?
I haven’t played it.
• Halo 3 ODST?
I had huge lag issues in ODST as well, but got 23 of 47.
• Halo Reach?
I have 62 of 69. Originally I would have had all achievements except for one (A Monument to all your sins), but then some new ones were added with Anniversary, and I haven’t had time to attempt all of the new ones yet.

HFFL: Which game in the Halo franchise is your favorite and why?
MM: That is so hard to answer, because I don’t have one favourite, more like favourite parts of each game. I think it stands between Halo 3 and Halo ODST. Gaming, to me, is very tightly connected with good memories. With Halo 3, I just have so many good (and frustrating) memories of trying to get through the game on all difficulties. It is the first game I recall actually playing a game for 10 hours straight till the sun came up. The ODST campaign, although I didn’t like it at first, grew on me. This might sound odd but I just get this really cosy feeling from playing ODST, it’s just so friggin cosy! Too bad about the heavy lag on co-op runs.

HFFL: What is your favorite Multiplayer game type and why? (ie., Team Slayer, FFA, BTB, Infection, etc.)
MM: I guess I’m a sucker for the simplest type of Multiplayer action, which is Slayer. I’ve never been a fan of objectives. In Reach my favourite slayer type was Squad Slayer, because it didn’t have the annoying Armor Lock, while having 10 players and 75 kills to win. I whined for a week when they removed it, before moving on to favouring Anniversary Big Team Battle instead.
In my perfect world we’d play slayer on smaller maps with more players, I thrive in chaotic carnage mayhem, because everyone has less control of what’s happening and so the traditional dynamics of team play gets somewhat distorted and less effective, so who wins is somewhat up in the air. I’m not really good at solid team play, tho I like playing in a team for the socialness of it.

HFFL: Favorite Weapon from any of the Halo games and why?
MM: My favourite weapon used to be the BR, but the DMR has suddenly become more and more desirable over time. Take away bloom, and it’s awesome. I just like how it fires single shots and the recticle makes for better precision (once bloom is out of the way).

HFFL: What are you most excited about for Halo 4?
MM: The campaign, actually. I try to avoid Halo 4 news as much as I can so that when I actually play it, most things will be new and exciting to me and hopefully surprise me. I’m also curious about Spartan Ops, and how abilities will affect multiplayer gameplay. Especially forerunner vision has potential to become a huge multiplayer headache. However, I won’t really critisize it until I’ve tried it. It might feel completely different when playing and might contribute to us having to adapt to new playstyles and ways of doing things. Which could suck, but it could also be awesome. Time will tell.

HFFL: What do you think about the changes 343 is making to Halo?
MM: I think there’s been a lot of skepticism from the community and the professional gaming community especially, which is only natural I suppose, but at times it seems people are so scared of and reluctant to change that their skepticism is crippling to game development itself.
Games evolve, it’s just what happens. It has to happen. A game released in 2012 should not feel and play as if it was released in 2001. I think if a game can’t be allowed to evolve, then what’s the point of making a new one? I think we need to learn and adapt to possibly be playing Halo in a new/different way than we have been so far.

HFFL: Where are you pre-ordering Halo 4 from?
MM: I kinda like the Rapture skin from Best Buy, so I’m thinking I might pre-order from there.

HFFL: Which Halo achievement has been your favourite or most frustrating one obtaining?
MM: Without a doubt “If They Came To Hear Me Beg” from Halo Reach. I jumped that Elite a total of 72 times before getting a perfect assassination and “survived a fall that would have been fatal.”
(HFFL – OMG, I HATED that one. You’re lucky it only took you  72 times. It took me upwards of 400 tries. Several of them I even assassinated that stinkin’ elite but it didn’t count. PLEASE 343, do not make an achievement like this. Most frustrating indeed)

HFFL: You’ve been fortunate to be featured in the Halo Bulletin with Halo illustrations. How did you feel when you found out about that?
MM: I’ve been just as excited each time, heart beating out of my chest! It is so admirable how 343 Industries make effort to truly embrace the Halo community, showing some love to both the new and the old!

Here’s the pic featured on HaloWaypoint, followed by a few others from Maria’s Twitter feed:

HFFL: Any shout outs or links you’d like to give?
MM: A shout out to everyone’s favourite Community Manager, Jessica “bs angel” Shea, just for being amazing. And my buddy Dan “Greenskull” Hammill who just partnered up with IGN (www.youtube.com/user/ReadyUpLive). Andrew Cook who makes awesome Halo weapon replicas (http://www.youtube.com/user/DaFrontlineTrooper).
(HFFL – I’ve had the pleasure of gaming with both bs Angel and Greenskull myself. Jessica laughs a lot. Several “That’s what she said,” jokes were made during one of those gaming sessions. Greenskull has a great site in ReadyUpLive and was recently honored with an in-game Halo 4 shout-out having to do with the hometown he’s from. Andrew has some AMAZING props. I’d love to commission him to make one for me.)

HFFL: Thanks Maria. It’s been a real treat to interview you and you have the distinction of being my first Halo Super Fan interview, here on HaloFanForLife.com.

And with that the interview came to a close. I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed the interview itself.

Again, if you’d like to see a specific Halo super fan interviewed, please comment or e-mail me who you’d like to see and I’ll try my best to get an interview with them.

-HFFL