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

The Spirit of Fire podcast for 11-4-13 Episode 10: Spartan Assault to XBOX!

Posted on 11/05/2013 by Sal

It’s just Martin and myself tonight as we discuss the week in Halo, Halo 4 turning one-year old, and Spartan Assault coming to the XBOX 360 and XBOX One.The Week in Halo:

For the first time ever, we record a podcast shorter than one-hour! Whew, didn’t think it could be done, LOL.

This podcast is mostly upbeat. With exception to the first report, everything else is pretty good.

Have a listen or download and please let me know what you thought of this episode by replying below!

Listen Here:

SoF 11-4-13

Download here by right clicking:

SoF 11-4-13

-Sal

Halo Mega Bloks Sneak Peek. 4-fig pack and weapons pack!

Posted on 11/03/2013 by Sal

VanOcean, has struck again, uncovering two new sets to come from Mega Bloks for their Halo line.

The first is a 4-figure multi-pack.

What’s great about this set is that you get two good army builders in the grunt and jackal. As well, for folks like me who like active camo figs, we get an AC Recruit Spartan IV. Also, there is a Red Scout Spartan. VERY good set, imo. A little odd the packaging shows a clear AC spartan while the set comes with a blue AC Spartan. But I’m NOT complaining. I LOVE AC figs (as most of you long time readers know!).

Taking a look at the back reveals three other sets. What looks to be a Black and Yellow Cyclops (or maybe Green and Yellow), a Ghost set with a white or silver Elite Zealot and a Spartan, and the UNSC Weapons pack II as seen below.

Okay, this is a KNOCKOUT set! First it comes with an incredible army builder in the regular Halo 4 marine style. Not to mention an energy core, a couple of sandbags….AND SKINNED Weapons! YES!

The AR and DMR get FIRST-EVER skins! The DMR is even more special as that is the skin you can only get through Spartan Assault!

The back of this box also shows the previously pre-viewed ODST drop pods coming for the holidays.

Here’s what you get in the Weapons pack.

And here are two action posed pics.

All pics are from VanOcean, a Mega Bloks fan in China.

-Sal

Multi-team to make a limited return with Multi-team Regicide, via rotational playlist next two weeks.

Posted on 11/03/2013 by Sal

Multi-team is the next playlist to come into the rotational playlist for the next two weeks.

It looks like Multi-Team Regicide is going to win the community choice poll as well. I’m SO happy about this. The reason being is that I’ve been trying for MONTHS to finish my Regicide commendations so I could unlock the Kingslayer emblem. (Seen below)

The reason for this is that it’s crucial to my web series “MaC Rounds.” Why? Mac Rounds is a web series that follows the further adventures of Crimson and Majestic Fireteams. Majestic uses the Kingslayer emblem on their armor, as seen here on Spartan Grant’s left shoulder:

With Regicide being picked for the community choice of Multi-team for the next two weeks, I have a better chance of completing the commendation sooner. I only need 35 wins in Regicide to get this done, so you can bet I’ll be playing this playlist a LOT for the next two-weeks. Hopefully I can get it done BEFORE those two weeks end!

-Sal

New Halo Pinterest finds!

Posted on 11/02/2013 by Sal

Weekly I scour Pinterest for Halo art. This week brings quite the assortment of art. Whether it’s concept art from Bungie or 343, tattoos, fan art, etc. There’s something there for everyone. Here is this week’s batch of pins!

As always you can find my Pinterest page from the homepage in the blogroll on the right. Or you can click HERE.

Click each to make bigger and/or right click to download.

-Sal

Cookin’ with Chief video

Posted on 11/02/2013 by Sal

Worth a chuckle.

Thrill Squad (Part 1) by Mega Bloks Halo

Posted on 11/01/2013 by Sal

This is funny, exciting and VERY well done!

Man, I wish I could be part of this. I’d love to do voice-over work for the vids!

-Sal

So China thinks Master Chief is part of the current U.S. military…

Posted on 11/01/2013 by Sal

In a post made on Kotaku, Chinese television identifies Master Chief and Halo Marine armor as concept armor for the U.S.

Oh really? Man, if so, sign me back up for the military! LOL

Here’s the source link.

Thanks to Halo.Bungie.org for tweeting this out.

-Sal

Halo Fan Friday League!

Posted on 11/01/2013 by Sal

Hello friends, tonight’s Halo Fan Friday League will feature 4 custom maps as well as matchmaking.

The custom maps are each beauties in their own right. Three are made to look very Forerunner in detail, while the last makes use of a forge item to make the ground look like sand.

So while you’re battling the opposition, take a second to look around and enjoy the view!

After a game each on these maps, we’ll move into matchmaking. The playlist/gametype will be chosen based on the number of people in the party.

Halo Fan Friday League starts at 8:30pm EST tonight and runs until 10pm. You’re more than welcome to stick around past that of course!

Send me an invite request to: HaloFanForLife1 and I’ll get you into the party.

-Sal

Fan Made Reclaimer Map Pack!

Posted on 10/31/2013 by Sal

Watch this first…

Folks, these are quality maps within the Forge pallet. I definitely recommend downloading them. I have and will showcase them during tomorrow’s Halo Fan Friday League.

Shout out to Addicted Cha0s who did a fantastic job of voice-over on this! At first she sounded like Cortana…

Oh, I should add, the maps are FREE! You can download them HERE.

-Sal

The Halo “BOO”letin 10.31.13

Posted on 10/31/2013 by Sal

Bravo writes this week’s bulletin and it shows. It’s concise, to the point and chock full of Halo without the added fluffery.

He starts off with an article about the conceptualization to completion of the Halo 4 Global Championship event stage design.

Bravo then segues nicely to the announcement of Spartan Assault on both XBOX 360 and XBOX One.

Halo Spartan Assault

Three key points of interest in this article are:
• A brand new online Co-op mode with new missions featuring the Flood (Very cool. I’ll be looking for folks to game with me in this!!!)
• The Operation Hydra DLC expansion pack (Looks like this will come with the game immediately without further purchase)
• An expanded arsenal that brings you more weapons, armor abilities, and upgrades (In the Win8 device version you had to pay real money to upgrade to the rocket launcher. Looks like you may not have to in the console version. YEAH!)

Bravo added these two graphics to use as wallpapers if you’d like. Click to make MUCH BIGGER! Right click to save.

He mentions again about the “Smashin Punkins” playlist only available until the end of today. I played it a few times yesterday. It’s okay. Worth play a few games for the fun of it.

Guilty Spark Emblem Unlock

Okay, now THIS is pretty cool. 343 will be unlocking the Guilty Spark emblem for FREE on Nov 6th ONLY. So long as you complete just ONE game in either War Games of Spartan Ops matchmaking, you’ll get this emblem!

So will you tell your friends who haven’t played Halo in awhile about this? Or keep it to yourself so you can brag when they come to game with you in Halo 4 from time to time?

Also, on Halo 4’s anniversary there will also be a 24 hour special playlist. No further details on that at the moment.

Team Slayer Update

Text taken directly from the bulletin:

As I mentioned earlier, I sometimes have the pleasure of working on projects from beginning to end. Since the conclusion of the Halo 4 Global Championship, one of the things that we’ve been working on is the Team Slayer CSR program that I’ve been detailing over the past few weeks. In conjunction with designers such as Josh Menke and Quinn DelHoyo, we’ve been developing a program that highlights and showcases the top-ranked players in the Team Slayer playlist. We’re planning on launching this program within the next month or so, and we’ve got some new details about the update:

Team Slayer will be moved to a team-based CSR rather than individual when the program launches (Hmm, I like this idea. Promotes TEAM playing instead of solo play within a team based playlist)
Top players will be able to regularly see where they stand against other players on Halo Waypoint
Team Slayer will see a CSR reset when the program launches in order to have all players start on a level playing field, and also to accommodate the update to the CSR format (Oh? Well darn, I was hoping for ALL playlists to have a reset. But I’ll take this over nothing)
Moving forward, the Team Slayer playlist will see predictable CSR resets as we start new periods

We’ll also be evaluating other playlist details (voting options, map / game type offerings, and more) as we look to optimize this playlist and program. We’re really excited to discover which players will step up and prove themselves in the Team Slayer playlist. Be on the lookout for more details and the launch date in upcoming Bulletins.

Community CHoice: Multi-Team Game Types

Okay before I report further, I have to say Multi-team is one of my FAVORITE playlists. So I was bummed when 343 took it away only to have it come back in the rotational playlist.

The good thing is we get to have a vote in which additional gametype will be included for those two weeks when it’s the playlist of choice in the rotational playlist.

Folks, I’m going to ask, no BEG that you vote for Multi-Regicide. Regicide is barely found now except in BTB or Rumble Pit. Snipers is already it’s own playlist. And Rock and Rail can easily already be found in Action Sack. Besides, imagine 12 people having rockets and railguns? Okay at first that may sound fun, but imagine 10 rockets coming at YOU… Not so fun.

So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, vote for Multi-Regicide! Additionally, this will help me with getting the webseries “MaC Rounds” moving along as it will allow me the opportunity to unlock that Kinglsayer emblem faster. So you’ll be helping ME out by swinging a vote in that direction. Thanks to all of you that do vote for Multi-Regicide.

You can go HERE to vote for Mutli-Regicide. I have already voted. And yes, for Multi-Regicide!

Instead of a Screenshot Spotlight, Bravo shows some pics of Halo Halloween related pics. Some they’ve posted over the course of the week. But for those that haven’t seen them, there’s a nice selection. Here are some the ones I liked from the gallery.