The Halo Bulletin 11.20.13

halobulletinheader_11-20-13Another week, another Halo Bulletin. This one comes with loads of Grifball stuff…

Bravo starts the bulletin out talking a little about prepping for the XBOX One. One thing to note is his last sentence on this. I’m not sure if he’s joking or not, but here it is, “I don’t know how much hope we have for Matchmaking updates through the rest of the year, but at least we’ve got one coming this Monday.”

With that we have this week’s Matchmaking Playlist Update.

Grifball – Bravo hands the floor to GrifballHub where they proceed to talk about the new updates to this playlist/gametype.

grifGrif gets his own color of orange. So yep, if you’re carrying the ball, you might notice the color change.

Both Grifball and Grifball Pro gets some updates. The Ball carrier moves faster, everyone gets Mobility and shields have been removed.

Next are the Grifball courts. There are some nifty ones shown. Some are updates of previous versions. Some are all new. In particular of the ones shown, I like Power Grid (see below):

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and Warp Field:3Many other courts are shown, so check the full bulletin to see all of those.

Dominion

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Dominion comes back. Starting Nov 25 through Dec 9 you’ll have the chance to play this Halo 4 original gametype again. Along with that, Legendary Dominion won the community choice poll, so you’ll have that to look forward to as well. Legendary refers to pre-set loadouts of BR/AR/Frag nades.

Community Forge Ricochet

The results are in and Hekau won. This along with Butter (2nd place) and Inheritor (3rd place) will see rotation in the Ricochet playlist. If you want to see those maps with some improvements, again check the full bulletin. Of the maps chosen, I definitely agree with Hekau for 1st and Butter for 2nd. I didn’t get to play on Inheritor too much to really form an opinion on it.

Team Slayer Top 200

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Rather than summarize this, I’m going to copy/paste this whole section as it’s pretty important, IMO.

Monday’s Matchmaking Update will also include an update to Halo 4’s Team Slayer Playlist, which will officially begin the start of a new program: The Team Slayer Top 200.

The Team Slayer Top 200 will highlight the top 200 players (by CSR) in the playlist each week on Halo Waypoint. We’re looking forward to recognizing the top players each week, and as CSR is determined by who you win and lose against, it is possible for a level 50 player to be ranked higher than another level 50 player, so even players at level 50 will be able to see how they stack up against other level 50 players. The first Top 200 article will be posted the week of December 2nd, which will allow a full week to pass after Monday’s playlist update and provide ample opportunity for those interested to join the action whenever they’d like.

We’ve detailed bits and pieces of this program over the past few weeks and below are the final changes that will be made to the Team Slayer playlist:

•  Team Slayer’s CSR will be reset with Monday’s Matchmaking Update, and broken up by two month seasons moving forward
•  Team Slayer will move to a team-based CSR
•  Team Slayer’s Max Party Size will be adjusted from eight players to four to ensure that players do not boost against opponents
•  Team Slayer’s Join-In-Progress parameters will be tightened

If you’re looking to get into the Top 200, be sure to head into the playlist next week and then swing back the following week to see if you made it on the list!

Lastly, those of you who are planning on playing during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend, (11.28 – 12.1) should be on the lookout for something special in Matchmaking. As always, we want to know about your experiences in these playlists. After you’ve tried one or all of the above next week, head over to the War Games Feedback section and share your thoughts with us!

Lastly as nearly always, this week’s Screenshot Spotlight. This week focused on the Multiplayer map Harvest.

One in particular of the ones chosen I felt looked best, even if not for showing much of Harvest itself.

11-20-13_05Simply titled “John”. It definitely looks like it came right out of the campaign. Grr…still wishing we could talk screenshots from campaign…

To see the rest of the screenshots, all of the new Grifball maps, and more from this week’s bulleting, check out the official site’s full write-up HERE.

-Sal

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About Sal

I’ve got tons of experience with Halo gaming and collecting. I feel I have something to offer to the greater Halo fan community. Posts along the way will be about tips and tricks in the games as well as collecting and many more Halo related things. I’ll also repost interesting articles from the official site, Halowaypoint.com, or from fellow Halo fan sites. As I continue this blog, I hope to help gamers who want advice on the games, as well as any collectors with regards to where to find collectibles as well as deals, coupons and so on. You can also follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/HaloFanForLife or Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/halofanforlife11. Welcome to my blog and I hope you’ll come back again and again. -Sal